Can a dyslexic love to read?

[jenn-]

One of my 9yo boys loves to read silently.  He has flown through the Warrior cat series (all of them) but when I have him read me a passage out, it is clear he is missing a lot of the words and is just getting the context of it from the rest of the words.  I don't know if this is a problem with read out loud (something I have always struggled with) or if there is something more going on.  His spelling is pretty atrocious and his handwriting isn't much better (although is improving with age).  He still reverses d and b on occasion but has started to recognize when he has done it.  Does this sound like it might be a dyslexia issue with a child that has self taught coping techniques, or still in the range of somewhat normal since he is reading on or above level?

[ElizabethB]

One of my 9yo boys loves to read silently. He has flown through the Warrior cat series (all of them) but when I have him read me a passage out, it is clear he is missing a lot of the words and is just getting the context of it from the rest of the words. I don't know if this is a problem with read out loud (something I have always struggled with) or if there is something more going on. His spelling is pretty atrocious and his handwriting isn't much better (although is improving with age). He still reverses d and b on occasion but has started to recognize when he has done it. Does this sound like it might be a dyslexia issue with a child that has self taught coping techniques, or still in the range of somewhat normal since he is reading on or above level?

It is not normal historically.

 

It is, unfortunately, normal with current teaching. The word skipping leads to future vocabulary development problems, an excerpt from my aliterate page:

 

When reading-disabled children encounter unknown low-frequency words, they may be able to guess their meanings, but the low-frequency words will lack a “sound†hook with which the children could have filed the word in their memories for future use, and with which hook they could have retrieved the word in the future. As a result, instead of accumulating their vocabulary through their reading, as healthy readers can do, reading disabled children cannot increase their vocabulary in a normal fashion, any more than badly taught deaf-mutes can.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/aliterate.html

 

Here is my dyslexia page, as well:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/dyslexia.html

[Pen]

One of my 9yo boys loves to read silently.  He has flown through the Warrior cat series (all of them) but when I have him read me a passage out, it is clear he is missing a lot of the words and is just getting the context of it from the rest of the words.  I don't know if this is a problem with read out loud (something I have always struggled with) or if there is something more going on.  His spelling is pretty atrocious and his handwriting isn't much better (although is improving with age).  He still reverses d and b on occasion but has started to recognize when he has done it.  Does this sound like it might be a dyslexia issue with a child that has self taught coping techniques,

 

yes might be

 

 

or still in the range of somewhat normal since he is reading on or above level? maybe. But sounds like you should work on it before it gets to be a problem with comprehension as texts get harder.

 

[Splash]

My daughter who is dyslexic and didn't read at grade level until she was 11 is my biggest reader. She loves to read and read all the time. Before she could read she listened to audiobooks all the time. So I'd say yes, she also loves to write and is getting to be a pretty good writer. She is almost 15 now and a 8th grader.

 

Oops read original question and answered it but not the rest. My dd was totally a non reader before dyslexia tutoring and didn't really even seem to notice words in her world. Never recognized signs, etc. sorry not much help.

[coffeegal]

One of my 9yo boys loves to read silently.  He has flown through the Warrior cat series (all of them) but when I have him read me a passage out, it is clear he is missing a lot of the words and is just getting the context of it from the rest of the words.  I don't know if this is a problem with read out loud (something I have always struggled with) or if there is something more going on.  His spelling is pretty atrocious and his handwriting isn't much better (although is improving with age).  He still reverses d and b on occasion but has started to recognize when he has done it.  Does this sound like it might be a dyslexia issue with a child that has self taught coping techniques, or still in the range of somewhat normal since he is reading on or above level?

 

Yes, I couldn't figure out why my child could read fiction but couldn't understand the science assignment for years... atrocious spelling, loved to read, struggled with 'i' versus 'l' and other symptoms. Once when asked to spell ing, spelled ngi. We ended up going back and re-teaching phonics using Dancing Bears and Apples & Pears spelling. I originally used a well-known phonics workbook system and the child could figure out the correct answer from context. :angry: It took years for me to put the pieces together. :banghead:

 

Hope you get to the bottom of the issue quickly! :001_smile:

 

[Plink]

Google stealth dyslexia. From your brief description, it may fit your ds.

[OneStepAtATime]

Google stealth dyslexia. From your brief description, it may fit your ds.

Yes to this.  It may very well fit.  

[jenn-]

Google stealth dyslexia. From your brief description, it may fit your ds.

 

This sounds very much like him.  He is wicked smart so I think he is able to compensate with the reading, but just cannot do the same thing with spelling.  He has a particularly hard time with reading unfamiliar names, even if they seem easy to me.  He stumbled over the name Charles for an entire book about Charles Darwin.  I wonder if he has a harder time with names because there is no definition he can get from context.

[LaughingCat]

I think pretty much every reading test I've ever heard of tests reading out loud.  Silent reading tests only seem to be for comprehension not  reading ability.  You seem to be judging his reading level based solely on books he is able to read, but what is his reading level via an actual reading test? Like the ones ElizabethB has on her site?

 

FWIW, my DD, who has never been an avid reader and has been struggling since 1st grade, has this same kind of reading.  Her misses often appear like 'brain to mouth’ glitches rather than reflecting her ability to read.  It has often seemed like her mouth was saying one thing when her brain 'knows' it was another.  And even when she is completely stumbling through reading a passage aloud (impossible to listen to and comprehend), her comprehension is fine.  But that glitchy stuff is happening whether or not she's reading out loud - it's just 'hidden' when she reads to herself (except speed wise - she is still slow when reading to herself).

 

As an example, when doing a reading test like the NRRF DD's independent reading level might be 2+ grades below her grade level and her instructional level a year above grade level.   Her reading does not slowly get worse in the middle – it is purely ‘glitchy’.   So she might read the 5th grade section better than the she reads the 3rd grade section.  The demarcation point between where she is having her 'brain glitch' and where she actually hits ‘frustration level’ is always very clear, no matter what test I’ve given her.   And her instructional level scores pretty much reflect her ability to read a passage to herself and comprehend it (able to pass a 'test' or answer questions about the material). 

 

It has always been very strange to me and not well explained by the "general" thinking of dyslexia as a phonics issue.

[FO4UR]

I agree about researching stealth dyslexia.

 

In my experience, it is very possible to even have a precocious reader who exhibits symptoms of dyslexia.  It's also possible for a child in a language rich home to be able to cope quite well so that the dyslexia isn't noticed until he's older.

 

My very dyslexic ds reads much better to himself than out loud.  He comprehends at an adult level via audiobooks.  It's important to make sure that his curriculum encompasses all 3 of those reading modes in order to keep him moving forward steadily.

[zoobie]

Google stealth dyslexia. From your brief description, it may fit your ds.

I have a stealth dyslexic. It makes them sound like ninjas. ;)

 

My DD was reading above grade level when diagnosed at the end of 2nd grade. As they get older and into more difficult material, the gap between performance and potential widens without intervention. She loves to read, much more now after 2 years of OG tutoring. Her spelling is still atrocious, but that is a different challenge.

[Julie of KY]

Yes, a dyslexic CAN love to read. My high schooler (stealth dyslexic and severely dysgraphic) reads a novel every 2-3 days. He is excellent at reading comprehension. However, it is very difficult for him to read aloud. It is extremely difficult for him for him to read math and science. He can comprehend math and science just fine, but needs it read aloud (not explained). He listens to a little bit of classical literature on audio such as Charles Dickens, but reads most of it himself. He recently started vision therapy and the doc thinks it will help both his reading and writing. We'll see.

 

My 10 year old dyslexic listens to books for hours a day either parent read or by Learning Ally. She started vision therapy recently and is reading her first books ever for fun in the past month. I suspect her reading will soar as her convergence insufficiency issues improve with vision therapy. She has all the classical dyslexic problems of phonemic awareness as well as slow processing speed (not just vision issues).

 

My 7 year old dyslexic struggles mightily with phonemic awareness at this point in his life, but hopefully will be a reader before too long. He loves to listen to books right now.

[SandyKC]

My first thought was "sounds like stealth dyslexia" so I'm glad to see others have already suggested that to you!! That said, you will want to address those foundational phonemic skills through a good program to give him the foundation he needs.  Once your DS has been taught the core phonemes and is able to read words well, then you will probably need to address ongoing spelling issues.  The research-proven method for spelling improvement is "Self-Correction," but that is used AFTER a child has learned the rules for spelling and decoding words.

Hope that helps!

[ElizabethB]

You can give my nonsense word test, the New Elizabethian test, to determine true phonics ability.

 

Also, my Quick Screen reading level test is a list of words that can give you an idea of true reading ability as well.

 

The MWIA is a diagnostic test that can further pinpoint problem areas. Most true dyslexic students will have trouble with both lists and miss an equal number words on both lists and read them at the same rate, generally less than 40 words per minute (WPM.) Someone who have problems from sight words or any teaching that encourages some guessing will generally read 60 - 100 WPM, will miss more words on the phonetic than the holistic portion, but will be able to sound out most of them correctly when asked to slow down and spell them before reading them.

 

I work on slowing down my remedial students and getting them to sound out everything accurately, using a lot of nonsense words and limiting their outside reading, reading which encourages guessing. Once they are able to sound out everything with 100% accuracy, their WPM rate starts to speed up and they usually end of reading even faster but with more accuracy. I don't push for speed, though. I work for accuracy and speed eventually comes for most of my students with accurate practice.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/readinggradeleve.html