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skipping words when reading?


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My daughter is 5 (6 in May).  When she started kindergarten last summer, she knew letters and sounds and was just starting to sound out CVC words.  She has picked up reading very easily and is reading at least a year ahead of grade level by now.  She does well with easy readers and was even able to read words like "vegetation" and "delicious" in a story last week.  BUT she skips lots of little words (such as a, for, the, etc.) adds similar words when they're not there, skips or adds endings to words, basically makes lots of little mistakes.

 

For example, in tonight's book, a sentence was "A child reads a book today."

She read "A children read books today."

She didn't notice the errors until I pointed them out.

 

This occurs in most sentences, not just occasionally.  What I'm wondering is, Is it possible that she just progressed so quickly and simply needs lots more practice to improve her fluency?  Or should I be looking into a possibly reading issue?  Also, she's very wiggly and fidgety and has a short attention span.  Maybe just needs more time to mature?

TIA

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My daughter (also very wiggly) also skipped words on occasion a year or two ago, because she was trying to get to the meat of the story. But she always recognized that the sentence didn't make sense as read, so would go back and re-read correctly. How is your DD's comprehension as she's reading? Is she just spouting off words or is she paying attention to the stories?

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My son was like that.... he has dyslexia but I didn't realize it for a long time because he was reading. But he would miss a lot of little words.... a, the, not, can, - stuff like that. And suffixes... usually left off. So jumps would be jump. Jumping would be jump. Jumped would be jump. And occasionally the wrong word... so worm might become warm. Now he might see the word dominion and read it as domination. Sigh.

 

So, it might be nothing. Or it might be something. Sorry I don't have more help.

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

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My DD has the same problem. I started her on Raz Kids a couple of weeks ago and knocked her down a few reading levels and she seems to be doing better with her fluency. I'm still havin her read at a higher level then they have her pegged at school. I'm also working on shoring up some other skills with Explode the Code. DD is also wriggly and an early quick reader (officially kinder, but reads at about a 2nd grade level). Work on slower her down a little. Good luck!

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We had ocular motor issues going on here (checked by a COVD optometrist). He's also wiggly and inattentive, and he has auditory issues. Slowing down when I read to him seems to make it "okay" for him to slow down too, but working on the eye problems via vision therapy helped the most.

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She is in public school. I support at home by reading with her a lot, but I don't use anything formal.

They way they teach in the public schools causes this for many children. Work on nonsense words and word lists for a month, stopping reading of sentences and stories. Focus on sounding out every sound in every word from left to right.

 

(Sight words, guided reading, context guessing,etc. are all things that teach them to guess and skip.)

Edited by ElizabethB
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One of my daughters had this exact problem. We took her to an eye doctor and found out that she had a convergence disorder. Because her eyes were not aligning properly, she couldn't see the small words in the middle of a sentence.

A few of my students have also had an underlying vision problem, it is good to check for it, but the majority just had problems from balanced literacy methods and improved with nonsense words and word lists.

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A few of my students have also had an underlying vision problem, it is good to check for it, but the majority just had problems from balanced literacy methods and improved with nonsense words and word lists.

 

I guess one thing that would sort this out is whether the child is able to recognize the word in a list or at the beginning of the sentence.

 

My dd could read words (such as: and, of, the) if they were on a list, but she could not read them in a sentence unless it was the first word.  Her eyes skipped over words in the middle of a sentence.

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I guess one thing that would sort this out is whether the child is able to recognize the word in a list or at the beginning of the sentence.

 

My dd could read words (such as: and, of, the) if they were on a list, but she could not read them in a sentence unless it was the first word.  Her eyes skipped over words in the middle of a sentence.

 

There are several motor issues with eyes that could cause the skipping words--not just convergence. It really takes a good exam with a COVD to determine what's going on.

 

One simple test for convergence is watching a child's eyes as they track a pencil. You move the pencil toward their nose, and watch to see if their eyes turn in and such. It's not going to rule it out or rule it in unless it's pretty frank. You need an exam for that. One of my boys had a glaring problem with this, but the other did not. 

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Most of you all here on this board taught with good methods and found problems...I don't think people here realize the extent of problems that can mimic dyslexia and vision problems based on poor teaching.

 

I have tutored hundreds of students, and almost all of them had problems like this that cleared up with a few months of nonsense words and word lists. With my students from public schools, less than 1% also had an underlying problem with vision, speech or language processing, or true dyslexia. My homeschool remedial students are more likely to have an underlying problem because most of them are taught with good methods.

 

Students with no underlying difficulties will remediate quickly with nonsense words and word lists, although it does take longer to modify habit patterns of older children. I warn my group classes that the younger siblings often will pass their older siblings because they have less years of sight word guessing habits to overcome.

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My daughter is 5 (6 in May).  When she started kindergarten last summer, she knew letters and sounds and was just starting to sound out CVC words.  She has picked up reading very easily and is reading at least a year ahead of grade level by now.  She does well with easy readers and was even able to read words like "vegetation" and "delicious" in a story last week.  BUT she skips lots of little words (such as a, for, the, etc.) adds similar words when they're not there, skips or adds endings to words, basically makes lots of little mistakes.

 

For example, in tonight's book, a sentence was "A child reads a book today."

She read "A children read books today."

She didn't notice the errors until I pointed them out.

 

This occurs in most sentences, not just occasionally.  What I'm wondering is, Is it possible that she just progressed so quickly and simply needs lots more practice to improve her fluency?  Or should I be looking into a possibly reading issue?  Also, she's very wiggly and fidgety and has a short attention span.  Maybe just needs more time to mature?

TIA

 

You may consider posting to the general education board, where responses will differ due to a drastically different sample. I think at six, it is reasonable to say that many, many children are not even at the level your daughter is at and those problems are extremely common.

 

However, that's not to say that there are no problems there. She's ahead of where my kids were. My kids do not have any eyesight problems or learning delays.

 

I read to them using phonics-based explanations with no formal instruction.

 

They learned to read at school with phonics and common-word instruction.

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Most of you all here on this board taught with good methods and found problems...I don't think people here realize the extent of problems that can mimic dyslexia and vision problems based on poor teaching.

 

I have tutored hundreds of students, and almost all of them had problems like this that cleared up with a few months of nonsense words and word lists. With my students from public schools, less than 1% also had an underlying problem with vision, speech or language processing, or true dyslexia. My homeschool remedial students are more likely to have an underlying problem because most of them are taught with good methods.

 

Students with no underlying difficulties will remediate quickly with nonsense words and word lists, although it does take longer to modify habit patterns of older children. I warn my group classes that the younger siblings often will pass their older siblings because they have less years of sight word guessing habits to overcome.

I am just curious do some of your students need more work then others? Do they just read lists. Do you add anything multi sensory to the lists? I think my youngest should maybe do LIPs but then I need to find something to supplement what the school does next year while she still has half day school.

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I am just curious do some of your students need more work then others? Do they just read lists. Do you add anything multi sensory to the lists? I think my youngest should maybe do LIPs but then I need to find something to supplement what the school does next year while she still has half day school.

Yes, some need more work than others. I use the app Sounds of Speech with a few of them, and some of them more written spelling as needed. The app, and free online website, show a Video of how the sounds are made, showing lip and tongue position from the side. I also work on expalained voiced and unvoiced pairs and how that relates to phonics and spelling. I work on word lists at first with Blend Phonics, We AllCan Read for those who need more nonsense words, Phonics Pathways for those who need more practice but not more nonsense words, then Webster's Speller. When they stop guessing, I add in sentences from Webster's Speller as well, but some of my students take longer than others to stop guessing. For those that need a lot of repetition, I have several other phonics books for review of basics.

 

The word lists work 5 to 10 times faster than mixing word lists and sentences and stories, I used to use sentences and stories until I found how much they delayed the remediation. Since I usually have them one once or twice a week and have moved dozens of times over the last 20 years, I need to be able to work as efficiently as possible.

 

I have read several OG manuals and have found that for most my students, there is no benefit in using these methods, it just slows their progress by delaying how long it takes to learn the basics of phonics to the point of automaticity. I have found that using charts like Phonovisual, however, does speed aquisition and automaticity of phonics for my students.

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