AAR for child who doesn’t “need it”

[blendergal]

I have an almost 8-year-old DS and an almost 6-year-old DS. The older one has high-functioning autism and ADHD, and reading has come slowly for him. He stalled out in PS last year but has made great gains using AAR this year. (We finished AAR2 and we’re about 1/3 through AAR3). He obviously needed an intensive, incremental program like this one.

I would like to start AAR2 with my 6-year-old this summer. He enjoyed reading the AAR1 readers as supplement to Hooked on Phonics this year. And I find I just love teaching with AAR! I only hesitate because reading comes so easily to him. Compared to his older brother, it’s like magic how he just “gets it.”

Questions: If you’ve used AAR with a sibling who didn’t really “need it,” how did it go? Was it overkill? How did you streamline it? I’m sure it wouldn’t take long to figure out once we jumped in, but I like to have a vision before I start.

[lexi]

I used it with my son who very much needed it. We did some levels twice. It was so good for him. 

I used it for my daughter too. Reading comes easily to her. We sometimes did a lesson in two days and I just moved her along when she was doing well. I’m still glad I used it because she is now a very confident reader. But I find it’s easy adjust the pace of AAR so I was able to use it with both kids. 

And some of the words in Level 4 are tough so I’m glad I used that level with my daughter. She learned lots of new words and is reading very fluently now. 

So I’m a huge fan of the program. It is finally what helped my son who was struggling. He would not be even close to reading without it. And it helped my daughter take off with reading. She does so well now. 

I’m using it with my next two girls now. One is moving at a good pace through Level 2. The next one will probably take longer because reading does not seem to come as easily to her. But I love that it’s working for 4 of my kids so far as long as I adjust the pace. 

[MerryAtHope]

I do find the vocabulary impressive (I'm teaching twins this year, and so many of the Level 1 words are ones they are not familiar with). It's great to have an opportunity to talk about them. For a student who catches on easily, you wouldn't need as much fluency review and could probably do lessons in just a day or two unless you hit a tricky concept. Here's a blog post about a young student who actually finished all 4 levels in a little over a year! Have fun!

[Jess4879]

My oldest and my youngest needed it, my middle child didn't.  She just moved through it more quickly.  She didn't enjoy the games, so we usually just read the words on the pieces and moved on.  She didn't need to repeat fluency pages or stories, as once through was enough for her.  We found it very easy to adapt to fit each child. 

[scholastica]

It’s worth it to do. As words get more complex, she will need the skills to work out pronunciation of unfamiliar words.

For example, because my ds figured out how to read the word “nation”, he pronounced “national” as “nay-tional”, until we corrected him. Adding prefixes and suffixes changes pronunciation, so formally teaching those skills is helpful. You can just do a lesson a day until she hits a block and then slow down. If she never does, you’ll be finished more quickly.

[ExcitedMama]

I love that AAR is easy to slow for speed up as needed. When DS started we went really slow, like agonizingly slow, because he didn’t get blending at all. Those fluency sheets were torture for him. Then as he picked it up we went faster, instead of a week per lesson it was two or three days. Then he started reading the TM over my shoulder so instead of doing the tiles he just read the bolded part out of the TM and he did a lesson a day. We usually did a lesson a day and alternated days of reading the book until he could do it all easily in one day. It really is easy customized to the child. I think it was worth it to give him a solid foundation. I still remind him of those steps when he is being lazy and not sounding out a word. 

[LynnS]

We did AAR longer than "needed" with my son because he just really enjoyed the activities and stories. He was a natural whole-word reader, but then was getting tripped up with longer words in more complex texts, because he didn't have any phonics rules for breaking them down. We sped through AAR1 very quickly just to get familiar with the program, skipped AAR2 based on the placement test, and did all of 3 and part of 4 before he got tired of it. By then, he was very fluent with a combo of whole-word and phonics-based reading. AAR4 does have some good vocabulary, word origin, suffixes, etc lessons that might be worth picking and choosing through. I'm really glad we used it as long as we did.  

[BusyMom5]

I' using 3 and 4 next year with a child who seems to read well.  She does not need all the instruction, but o think it will benefit her

[TheAttachedMama]

I don't think extra phonics instruction can EVER hurt.   :) :)   It will never be a waste of time IMHO.

However, I just wanted to say that another option for your 6-year-old might be to go ahead and starts AAS.    I only say that because you said the child is already reading well AND because you could use the letter tiles instead of writing out the words.  

[blendergal]

Thanks for the feedback, ladies. Thanks too for the reminder that AAR is so much more than just phonics. I’m really looking forward to teaching it again!