Dyslexic child interrupting himself in the middle of sentences

[summerreading]

So DS 9 has been with an OG tutor for the whole school year. It's going well, he is almost out of short vowels and he knows a bunch of sight words. The reading passages are getting longer. For homework, he will very often will need to make a comment or a whole other story about what he's reading (yay, comprehension I guess) or tell me some random fact that he thinks is really cool or make the lego thing he's playing with do something fun.

 

I'm ok with this because I guess he needs to recharge his working memory or something, but is this an issue? I'm sure being able to focus for longer times is critical, but I'm not sure how far to push with it.  Right now, I'm just trying to get him to at least complete the sentence he is reading before going off on a tangent. We got through page 1 of 4 without doing this today, so I guess some progress. 

Edited May 11, 2016 by summerreading

[City Mouse]

My DS is like that, but I though it was more a sign of his ADHD than his reading problem. Anything will remind him of something else, and if he thinks it, it comes out his mouth. My DH and older child are like that too.

I just redirect him back to the task and tell him he can talk about that later. Then, after he is finished I do try to remind hm that he had wanted to tell me something.

[OneStepAtATime]

I agree.  I have a son that does this a lot but I strongly suspect ADHD/ADD and have assumed that was more the reason than the dyslexia.  DD has dyslexia and does not do this at all.  DH has dyslexia and does not do this at all.  Of course, that is entirely anecdotal but that was what I was basing my assumptions on.  Could he have ADHD/ADD type issues?

[Lecka]

My son did things like that while he was learning and then it stopped.

 

My take is he was working extremely hard and needed these teeny-tiny breaks.

 

As everything got easier for him (and more automatic), his stamina improved.

 

It seemed like it took a long time, and he spent a long time on fluency even after he was able to decode single words well. 

 

I do not think it mattered too much if he was reading interesting things or boring things, until he got to where he was actually reading things he was interested in fairly easily. 

 

Before that ---- there was just an element of "slog" in there and I think it even helped him to talk about something interesting to him for a moment. 

 

I don't think he has ADHD, though.  It was just very hard for him to remember everything and put it together in his reading! 

 

Edit:  Since he has a tutor, you can ask her opinion, too.  But this is something that didn't last for my son once he was actually able to read fluently, things he was interested in.  And then -- he can "just read" things that aren't super-interesting to him, too, b/c now it is really not hard for him, so he doesn't have to muster that super-effort to make it through things.  He can just sit and do it. 

 

So anyway -- for him they were like little mini-breaks to re-charge, and even though one page of a little reader may not seem like very much, it might be hard enough for him to need a break, just from mental effort.

 

But then when his reading process got so much more automatic and fluent, he just was not working as hard.

 

But I can believe he is working hard enough to need a little break, if his reading is very effortful. 

 

It is also a hard transition to have to pay attention to the content of a phrase/sentence/paragraph/page/chapter, and not just sounding out/reading individual words.  That was a hard thing for my son, too. 

 

So I did see him have an unexpected (to me) difficulty with his stamina for how much he could do reading single words vs. the same amount of words but in a sentence (etc) where he would need to pay attention to content. 

Edited May 11, 2016 by Lecka

[Lecka]

I am going to add..... Sometimes my son has seemed more like "can I distract mom with a tangent and get out of some reading?" and less like he was working hard.

 

So depending, I have needed to do things like say "let's get back to work" or pausing a timer and then re-starting it.

 

For a time, he could be legitimately fatigued with short amounts, and I scheduled for multiple short little bits. I would leave a practice paper in the kitchen, and just take a couple of minutes to practice when we were in the kitchen, and it would be short for him.

 

But then later he just did not need that, and I could just expect him to sit down (or lay across the gliding foot stool as he often did) and be pretty focused for a reasonable amount of time (though not super-long).

 

At that point, sometimes I think he would try to distract me and think "well mom has to go cook dinner in 5 minutes anyway."

 

That is more when I would have the responses like the timer, having him stay by me in the kitchen even if I was occupied and just near him, etc.

 

It is so easy to get impatient or look at beginning readers as being incredibly easy. I remind myself that younger kids get a LOT of time to go through these stages in reading and putting things together. They really do

 

Separately -- I think it helps to allocate time for things that are not hard but also interesting/pleasant.

 

There is a thing where there is an instructional level and an independent level.

 

Not everything needs to be at the instructional level. The independent level is where kids have a good experience and can build up stamina.

 

But at this stage -- he might not really have an independent level, bc his instructional level is lower.

 

But once he gets further along, he will actually have an independent level, and then that is where a lot of stamina happens.

 

But right now he is at his instructional level, so you do expect him to be working harder.

Edited May 11, 2016 by Lecka

[Ottakee]

When we had that here, it was mostly a symptom of ADD.  Once treated, she could read a whole paragraph and more without going on a tangent.

[summerreading]

Thank you all for the replies. I am just starting to get ADD on my radar. These comments help a lot. Maybe it is just normal for all the brain power he has to put into reading. We see his tutor twice a month, I will bring this up and see what she says, but he is a different animal with her. She gets 100% compliance and smiles :D

 

Lecka, he was getting really bad with trying to distract me. It is funny they can figure this out! But we try to aim for getting work done by noon and he gets a small food treat when he is done, so that zapped a little bit of that.

 

I wish I was easier to get a full eval. I feel like my whole family is this mystery I need a professional to figure out for me.

 

My son did things like that while he was learning and then it stopped.

 

My take is he was working extremely hard and needed these teeny-tiny breaks.

 

As everything got easier for him (and more automatic), his stamina improved.

 

It seemed like it took a long time, and he spent a long time on fluency even after he was able to decode single words well. 

 

I do not think it mattered too much if he was reading interesting things or boring things, until he got to where he was actually reading things he was interested in fairly easily. 

 

Before that ---- there was just an element of "slog" in there and I think it even helped him to talk about something interesting to him for a moment. 

 

I don't think he has ADHD, though.  It was just very hard for him to remember everything and put it together in his reading! 

 

Edit:  Since he has a tutor, you can ask her opinion, too.  But this is something that didn't last for my son once he was actually able to read fluently, things he was interested in.  And then -- he can "just read" things that aren't super-interesting to him, too, b/c now it is really not hard for him, so he doesn't have to muster that super-effort to make it through things.  He can just sit and do it. 

 

So anyway -- for him they were like little mini-breaks to re-charge, and even though one page of a little reader may not seem like very much, it might be hard enough for him to need a break, just from mental effort.

 

But then when his reading process got so much more automatic and fluent, he just was not working as hard.

 

But I can believe he is working hard enough to need a little break, if his reading is very effortful. 

 

It is also a hard transition to have to pay attention to the content of a phrase/sentence/paragraph/page/chapter, and not just sounding out/reading individual words.  That was a hard thing for my son, too. 

 

So I did see him have an unexpected (to me) difficulty with his stamina for how much he could do reading single words vs. the same amount of words but in a sentence (etc) where he would need to pay attention to content. 

 

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I have 2 views on it.

 

My teen is truly capable of insane multitasking. She can read, follow a conversation, sing along to a song, all at the same time. For her, stopping mid sentence to talk about a related thought is not a big deal. She can jump right back where she was and be good. She could actually talk about the related thought while reading silently. I have no damn idea how that's possible, but she does it. I can't even read and chew! Lol

 

For my 11 year old, it's an issue. It actually hindered his speech and language testing because he kept forgetting the point of the task. So he now has a pragmatic goal of staying on task, in talking and reading. Part of this goal is learning to hold his related thought to talk about at a more appropriate time, or learning how to build a bridge in a conversation.

 

Try timing him and possibly keeping notes. Maybe you'll see a pattern. If it's a timed pattern (starting to talk about related or off topic things every 10 minutes) you can work to increase the time. If it's a thing (can't think of any examples at the moment), you can work on "finish up to x, and we'll take a minute to talk about y." If you keep track, you can see if it's more frequent at a specific time of day; evenings and maybe he's just worn. Mornings, and maybe his brain is taking time to warm up. Could be interest related as well.  

[summerreading]

So the tutor says he tries to go off on tangents with her but she just gives him a look and taps the page, he sighs and moves on. I love that there is *someone* he is on track with, so I guess I will give him a little break.

 

I don't know why, but whenever I am at my wit's end with this one and I vent about it, the next day he seems to be making a jump forward. He was reading Ranger Rick Jr. to his brother and read his own bedtime story (Wacky Wednesday) out loud to us. I guess I need to remember both these things for next time.

[Lecka]

Oh, I have felt like that so many times!

 

Wacky Wednesday and Ranger Rick Jr. are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!