Reading struggles

[prissygirls]

My 9yr old dd has hit a road block in her reading. She has always not been the best reader but I am noticing some major issues. SHe will just omit words when reading like of, that, this, a, an, etc. She will just randomly replace words to another word that looks similar. Her comprehension for books she reads out loud is terrible. When she reads it is like a speed race, just get it done as fast as possible no matter if it makes sense or not. She never will try to sound words out on her own. She still confuses "b" and "d" in her writing and has terrible spelling.

So I am wondering if she may have a mild case of dyslexia. I have only done a little research but I am starting to think I should have her tested. What do you guys think? I have no experience with this sort of thing and really have no idea were to start.

[Mandamom]

Sounds like definite dyslexic tendencies. I see lots of kids who end up hitting a wall because they don't have the foundation. Yes, you can and should consider an evaluation.

 

Read the book Overcoming Dyslexia so that you can educate yourself as to what dyslexia is and what it isn't.

 

You should definitely back up to create a strong foundation with a good O/G based reading program. There are several O/G based programs that might be a good fit for you and your daughter.

 

Definitely start with phonological awareness (phonemic awareness) and make sure she can hear the sounds correctly.

[wapiti]

Skipping words, replacing words and reversals are also symptoms of vision issues. Consider ruling out such issues by seeing a COVD optometrist.

 

Note that it's also quite possible to have both vision issues and dyslexia.

[Beans27]

Sounds like my dd who is dyslexic. Definitely go for an evaluation.

[merry gardens]

I give yet another perspective. Right-brained learners also do this. The "little words" are usually the last words to come in, because right-brained readers translate all words to pictures, and those little words don't have pictures. They also do better as silent readers because they are naturally skim readers. In the early years of learning to read, they may skip a lot of words as they "catch the visual" enough to understand it. Over time, they start to fill in those gaps. So, she may be trying to skim read when she reads outloud, which doesn't work really well for her. Spelling is also common to come in later for right-brained children. Usually 1-2 years after reading fluency. That's because they use different skills to learn to spell....

Not all poor readers and spellers are the same, but I want to share about some of the programs and methods we've tried.

 

Little words can be visualized, (based on other words in the sentence) but teaching visualization for little words is a different skill from teaching de-coding. Some poor readers have problems with both visualizing words and de-coding. Earilier on our journey, we tried the Davis method for a while, (from the author of Gift of Dyslexia) that includes the visualization of (and actual construction of clay models) little words. Overall that method wasn't nearly enough for my ds, because both his phonological processing problems and his visual memory were poor, but if the only problem for a child is the visualization of little words, that could be worth a shot.

 

Lindamood-Bell programs cover a variety of the reasons why children have problems reading: phonological, visualizing, fluency. We turned to their LiPS program after my son failed to pass a screen for Barton, another highly effective program for dyslexia, (which is Orton-Gillingham based.) LiPS was a turning point for my son, and his reading has continued to improve with Barton.

 

Orton-Gillingham based methods are considered the "gold standard" for teaching children with dyslexia. We use Barton, but there are other programs too, like Wilson and more. I highly recommend Barton Reading and Spelling.

 

My son has dyslexia. I wish he didn't, and I hope the op's child doesn't. Yet, if a child has reading struggles, I strongly urge parents to look at approaches to teach de-coding and comprehension skills. If it doesn't seem to be coming "naturally" to a school aged child, they can be taught through explicit methods, often by utilizing strengths and various "hands-on" methods to remediate weaknesses.

Edited September 25, 2012 by merry gardens

[tomelay]

We are coming to some of the same realizations, although my daughter is only 8. My eldest taught himself to read with Starfall very early- by 4 he was fluent. I knew this was not the norm and didn't expect that of my second child, Kassi. We took it slow and didn't even work on it specifically until she was 6 or so and expressing a desire to learn. She has known all her phonics, etc for years, but reading has not progressed very much.

 

She discovered Dick & Jane and like them, memorizing words and becoming able to read whole books from memory, but still no progress with sounding out or acquiring new words.

 

When she looks at a page she gets rapidly upset and doesn't seem to see the beginning, will always start saying sounds that are not in the word or are not at the beginning of the word.

 

Her process is so different from my son's, so I have wanted to relax and let her unfold, but this year I am feeling like something is wrong. She will not even try to move forward from the words she knows by heart, and any pressure from me, however gentle, is met with tears.

 

Having her vision checked had not occurred to me. She is a gifted artist, embroiders, and dances. I had not seen other symptoms in these area of vision problems, but I don't know what to look for.

 

We homeschool through a public charter, so an evaluation is possible. It is always frightening to get those kinds of stones rolling.

 

I'd love to hear what others have gotten out of evaluation and methods related to dyslexia.

[Shellers]

Sounds like my dd who is dyslexic. Definitely go for an evaluation.

 

:iagree::iagree:

[prissygirls]

Thank you all for helping me. I have an appointment set up for an pycho education evaluation in two weeks. It will not hurt anything I figure. But the more research I do the more I see red flags for dyslexia. I am also wondering if I have a mild case of it myself (and my mother as well).