need help with phonics for a kid who does not want to read.

[Noreen Claire]

DS6 is a very loud, extremely demanding, really cuddly, extremely active, funny kid who likely has some amount of sensory processing issues and ADHD.

He will happily do math and handwriting while he eats breakfast (that's what DS11 does, and he thinks it is cool). He loves logic, which we will orally. He will listen to history and literature books after lunch while playing, and has an enormous vocabulary (he's been tested, due to articulation issues for speech). He's great with narration and comprehension questions (WWE1 and FLL1), *if we can get to them*. It is phonics that we are really struggling with. HE DOES NOT WANT TO DO PHONICS. I just don't have the ability to fight with him to get it done. We are on lesson 62 of OPGTR. Each lesson takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r. His vision is fine. He knows all his letter sounds. He's starting to remember the digraphs and blends more automatically. He just does not want to sit and do the lessons.  He yawns. He wiggles. He turns his head so he can't see the page. He claims he needs a nap, no matter what time of day or what he was just doing. He sometimes just gets downright angry that he has to do phonics. It takes every trick I know (breaks, snacks, bribes, varied time of day, varied location, etc) to get him to finish his lesson. Some days I break one lesson into multiple parts through the day and some days I just skip it altogether. I feel terrible about it, but It happens...I'm only one mom with four needy kids at home all the time and I'm tired!

Does anyone have any been there, done that advice that can help? 

 

[domestic_engineer]

This is not BTDT advice per se, but what about a phonics program that is more efficient in teaching phonics?   I think ABeCeDarian or ElizabethB’s syllables program would progress faster than OPGTR. Then you’d get into reading bigger words sooner. Perhaps he’s bored with the small, CVC words since he knows big words are out there. 
 

With ABeCeDarian, I feel that I can modify the lessons to involve more physical activity.  But however OPGTR requires sit-still-beside-me-and-focus-your-eyes-On-this-book-we-are-sharing.   
 

but a few caveats.... (1). I used OPGTR with my first child, but I am now using ABeCeDarian with my younger kids. I don’t know how much my level of confidence colors my opinion. 

(2). It’s February so perhaps a curriculum change is a bad idea.
😛 
 

edited to add:  at some point, I had to jazz up OPGTR by writing the words on a whiteboard or on strips of paper that got pulled out of an envelope or even in a PowerPoint presentation, complete with words flying in.   This would be a cheaper solution than switching curriculum. 

Edited February 4, 2021 by domestic_engineer

[Susan in TX]

Maybe he would like Explode the Code? There are also other phonics programs out there that might be a better fit for a wiggly kid. Check out Happy Phonics or All About Reading. One of my sons did well with an online program called Click n Read Phonics. 

Susan in TX

[Lori D.]

I hesitate to suggest it... But perhaps set aside formal phonics for a few months? He certainly is giving every indication that he is NOT ready for it. And, you have done *everything* positive to make adjustments for his pace/attention span (big round of applause for YOU in this process!) 

What helped my delayed reader persevere was a desperate desire to know what Calvin and Hobbes were saying in the comic collections we had laying around the house. So, a *reason* to persevere through something he was not enjoying helped. He didn't click with reading until age 7, and it was really not until almost age 8 that it became somewhat fluid for him. In that gap of just having learned how to blend, but not yet fluent, we did a lot of books from the library together as buddy reading -- things that were high on humor, and only 1-3 sentences per page. The riddle book series by Katy Hall and/or Lisa Eisenberg for example.

BUT, you're not quite at that stage yet. Before DS#2 finally made the leap, we used a lot of computer games to keep him interested in reading -- he wasn't allowed computer games during the week, so he jumped at the chance to get "free/extra" turns, lol, even though they were educational video games.

I also used several of the game ideas from Happy Phonics to keep things light. . as well as the board game Python Path (blending the letter rolled on a die with the letters on the path on the board). 

NOTE: A lot of Happy Phonics is letter recognition activities, and not so many actual phonics/blending activities. Happy Phonics is NOT worth purchasing for $60, as your DS is past most of the activities, plus I personally feel that for $60, you should get things that are ready to go -- not a bunch of black & white photocopies on card stock that you have to cut out yourself. grrr.

Perhaps check out Sing-Spell-Read-Write, which uses games -- I know @8filltheheart used this with her children, as she had several dyslexics who didn't read until later. As I recall, one DS didn't read until 3rd grade.

Perhaps switch to some informal phonics support (computer gamesand videos) that does not involve you for a break for both of you, and that you just schedule into the daily school work. See if sometime this summer, or even next fall, if he is more ready for more formal instruction. And he'll have had the informal support rolling around in the back of his brain to help provide some scaffolding when you try again.

Resource Ideas:
- Reader Rabbit (computer)
- Bailey's Bookhouse (computer)
- Starfall games (free online) - word machine; short vowel pals; learn to read
- Leap Frog videos - Letter Factory; Talking Word Factory; Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory
- Read Between the Lions (old PBS show)

Board / Card game ideas (no personal experience):
- 10 Tabletop phonics games, downloadable pdf, such as Pirates vs. Monsters
- 4 Phonics Board games, downloadable, 3 of which are digraph-based
- Jax Sequence board game

Edited February 8, 2021 by Lori D.

[wendyroo]

Just my personal experience with my most needy, loud, challenging, ADHD+++ kiddo...

Elliot mastered phonemic awareness skills and blending skills right around the same age as my other kids, but then he just stalled. Phonemic awareness had been almost all oral, blending was done with big, individual words. As soon as we moved to smaller text, or more than one word strung together, he just couldn't do it. He could read "he" or "jumps" written on the white board, but he could not ready "he jumps" written in a book.

Unlike your kiddo, though, Elliot was equally resistant to everything, not just phonics. We pretty much rode out his kindergarten year just trying to survive.

At age 5.75, his ADHD was medicated. He had been reading individual, short vowel words for well over a year, but had not been able to progress beyond that. Within a couple months of being medicated, he was reading Charlotte's Web. Now, granted, it could have just been his time to bloom, but I think the meds played a pretty big factor. Before, he couldn't keep his body or his eyes still and controlled enough to track a line of text. The medication tamped down on the impulsiveness and gave him the attention span to stick with a story for 5 minutes. And once he could focus for short periods, his reading skills developed quickly which made it more and more enjoyable.

To this day, Elliot can't read well unmedicated. Medicated he LOVES reading, unmedicated it is too much of a hassle. Medicated he can read aloud fluently and with great expression, unmedicated his eyes dart around, he loses his place, he starts skipping words and sloppily misreading to the point that the sentences no longer make any sense.

Just our experience.

[Noreen Claire]

Thank you! I have a lot to think about.

[Drama Llama]

I haven't taught any of the specific curriculum mentioned here, other than using Explode the Code as a supplement, but I like to teach phonics with a lot of games, and relatively little writing.  I've followed many different Orton Gillingham based and other structured programs, but after a brief introduction, I usually pull out the sounds or words or concepts and make them into games.

For example, one of my favorite games is something I call "Martian or English".  I make 3 sets of cards.  The first set has onsets that the kid knows.  So it might just be initial consonants, or it might include Sh, Ch, Th, or it might include consonant digraphs and trigraphs.  I write those on one side of the card, and then on the back of each, I write the number 1 and put them in a pile.  In the middle pile, I put medial vowels and vowel digraphs, and on the back, I write 2.  The last pile has word endings -- including things like ck and ll or ff, and of course the number 3.

You can play the game 3 ways.  1) One person is "Team English" and the other is "Team Martian".  2) Both people are trying to find English words or 3) You are working together cooperatively to try and see whether English or Martian wins.

Turn up one card from each pile, to start. Sound out the word however you want, maybe you model, maybe you scaffold the kid, maybe with just one word the kid can do it.  Then talk about the word, and decide whether it's English or Martian.  If it's Martian, provide a silly definition, the sillier the better.  Then write it on a list of either Martian or English words.  You can have your kid write, or dictate it sound by sound to the kid, or model writing it while saying the sound, again, scaffold enough that it's not fun.  If you make it high energy enough, the kid will be paying attention.   If the word is phonetically a real word, but spelled unconventionally, (e.g. kid got "sl ea p") I fix it.  I often say something "Yep that's a word, I'm going to write it conventionally.  In English we use two e e's for that word.  Do you know why?" and when the kid says no, I say something like "Darn, I was hoping you know, I don't have a clue.   English is weird like that."  

Then the first player has a turn.  They can choose to turn up a card in any pile.  I usually linger over this stage.  I might repeat the word I have drawing my finger across it "/s/ /l/ /ee/ /p/. hmm I could change this part /sl/.  Maybe I'll get /k/ keep, or maybe I'll get /j/ jeep, or I could get /sw/ sweep.  Except those are all English words.  I don't want English words, I'm Team Martian.  Yeah, I'm not going to change that.  Oooh, what if I change the ending . . . "/sl/ /ee/  . . . /d/?"  Oooh that's definitely Martian. Or I could get "sleeg" or "sleef" or "sleem".  Ooooh so many Martian words!  I'm definitely changing the end.  Here goes.  Hmmm, /t/.   /S/ /l/ /ee/ /t/. Sleeeeeeeet.  Sleet. Snap, that's an English word isn't it . .  I guess you get the point. 

Anyway, basically the game is an excuse to practice lots of reading real and nonsense words, and talk a lot about sounds and their places in words, and to hit the skill of making substitutions.  I also usually play it up with so much  ridiculousness that the kids are hooked.  I get much better attention and retention than I do from a page in a workbook.

I also agree with @wendyroo that many kids need lots of practice with single words, in isolation, before working with them in a sentence or other context.  For those kids, often when it comes it comes fast.  I can't tell you how many kids I've put in connected text after a year of work on phonics, and they've jumped to chapter books in a matter of weeks, causing their parents to wonder why I didn't do that magic trick a year ago.  Well, because it wouldn't have worked a year ago, they didn't have the fluency, or the attention span, or the maturity a year ago. 

[4atHome]

Have you looked at LOE?  Lots of games with phonogram cards and tiles, and the Whistling Whales and Knitting Knights phonics books are excellent.  My 6 yr old can't wait to learn new phonograms so that we can read the next silly rhyme in the book.

[AnneGG]

Pinwheels by Rooted In Language. https://www.rootedinlanguage.com/instructional-materials/pinwheels

 

OG approach. Lots of games and very interactive approach. Unfortunately it is only digital download and a beast to print. 

[domestic_engineer]

Here’s another idea ... or two:

maybe the book’s size seems overwhelming to the kid and it seems (to the kid) that he’ll never be done with the book. What if you literally break up the book into smaller sections and have them spiral bound, so that he can have a better sense of progress and accomplishment and completion. I mean AAR uses, what, 3 books to get a student to the same destination as OPGTR?!?  That’s three certificates, three celebrations, three “you’re-halfway-done-woohoo” moments, three “oh-you’re-nearly-done-with-the-book-don’t-give-up-now” opportunities ... compared to the one completion date of OPGTR.   
 

if you can remember back to when Workboxes were the hot thing, it relied on the motivation that came from the visual reminder of the kid’s progress and how close they were to the end. Maybe your child would be more cooperative knowing he only had X lessons until he’s done with the “unit”

 

also - are you holding the book?  Maybe he needs to hold the book to feel a bit more ownership in the process. When I have to share a book with a kid, I’ll take a picture of the page on my phone and read from there while I give my kiddo the physical copy. 
 

is the sun in his eyes or a glare bothering him?  (The winter sun really hits our kitchen table differently than the summer sun.)

what about making his reading lesson first thing after breakfast so that he knows it’s coming and YOU will have the most patience. Then if phonics lessons drag on, you can skip the other subjects knowing that you at least got your phonics lesson in.  This is what I have to do.   (I assume you’ve already tried doing it after outdoor/active playtime.)

[medawyn]

15 hours ago, wendyroo said:

Just my personal experience with my most needy, loud, challenging, ADHD+++ kiddo...

Elliot mastered phonemic awareness skills and blending skills right around the same age as my other kids, but then he just stalled. Phonemic awareness had been almost all oral, blending was done with big, individual words. As soon as we moved to smaller text, or more than one word strung together, he just couldn't do it. He could read "he" or "jumps" written on the white board, but he could not ready "he jumps" written in a book.

Unlike your kiddo, though, Elliot was equally resistant to everything, not just phonics. We pretty much rode out his kindergarten year just trying to survive.

At age 5.75, his ADHD was medicated. He had been reading individual, short vowel words for well over a year, but had not been able to progress beyond that. Within a couple months of being medicated, he was reading Charlotte's Web. Now, granted, it could have just been his time to bloom, but I think the meds played a pretty big factor. Before, he couldn't keep his body or his eyes still and controlled enough to track a line of text. The medication tamped down on the impulsiveness and gave him the attention span to stick with a story for 5 minutes. And once he could focus for short periods, his reading skills developed quickly which made it more and more enjoyable.

To this day, Elliot can't read well unmedicated. Medicated he LOVES reading, unmedicated it is too much of a hassle. Medicated he can read aloud fluently and with great expression, unmedicated his eyes dart around, he loses his place, he starts skipping words and sloppily misreading to the point that the sentences no longer make any sense.

Just our experience.

I had this experience with a student once.  She was in my 2nd grade classroom and could not move beyond cvc words.  Nothing worked.  Medication changed that child’s life.  We still had to put in extra time and effort during the second semester, but she left my classroom reading easy chapter books.  She cried the day she read her first book (I did too).

I had many, many kids pass through my classroom that were able to function without meds and with accommodations from me, but that little one always stands out as a reminder that meds can be life changing.

Edited February 5, 2021 by medawyn
autocorrect

[fairfarmhand]

It will be ok. My second child didn't learn to read fluently until she was in the third grade. It was a long slow slog, but she's fine now at age 19. Be thankful hes not in a classroom feeling like hes stupid beause it's not clicking right now.

For my dd, we kept pecking away at it slowly.

She liked drawing, so I'd make papers with a list of instructions to help her practice her reading. Draw a sun at the top of the paper. Make a hen in the grass. I also wrote tiny beginning readers for her with more interesting topics that she preferred. We read things written in sidewalk chalk. We wrote words on the back glass door with glass chalk. We made lettters and words with clay and popsicle sticks. We made words with the wooden alphabet blocks.

The point is that the child doesn't have to be sitting on a chair looking at a book to have learning time and word exposure. I say, look at the lesson in the book and find other ways to cover the same material that are  less tiresome to the child. And be patient,

[fairfarmhand]

Also, my last 2 kids learned to read with starfall.com.

I was too tired to teach them after #2 wore me down.

[bookbard]

Are you happy with online stuff?

Teach your monster to read is good. Reading eggs good (altho a bit slow). I used to do a bit of this, a bit of that. Lots of reading together - a great book is The Cat on the Mat is Flat (Andy Griffiths). And there was bribery - read this, then you can play your game.

I wouldn't put it off as some have suggested. Life in general is so much easier once they can read. 

[Noreen Claire]

I have used OPGTR before, with DS9, and it worked well. However, DS9 and DS11 were much more natural readers than DS6. 

Thank you for all your comments; I've looked at a lot of the options that were suggested. I would prefer not to use a screen to do any teaching with him yet, but I can add some learning apps to his tablet for when he has screen time on weekends. I do have some Bob books and other phonics readers borrowed from the library, as well a few AAR readers, some phonics flashcards, and several sets of letter-based games in the closet (my first bananagrams, etc). I think I might even have a couple of nearly-unused Explode the Code workbooks in a box somewhere. I may try to stick with the lessons of OPGTR, but present them in different manners for a couple of weeks. If that doesn't work, I'll come back to this thread and look seriously into another curriculum.

Thank again for your recommendations.

 

[domestic_engineer]

2 hours ago, Noreen Claire said:

I have used OPGTR before, with DS9, and it worked well. However, DS9 and DS11 were much more natural readers than DS6. 

Thank you for all your comments; I've looked at a lot of the options that were suggested. I would prefer not to use a screen to do any teaching with him yet,

 

You’re the OPGTR queen!!!!!

My natural reader did well with OPGTR, too. So I think you’re on to something there.  And I think you’re wise to hold off on the screens. 

I hope you find what works for you all and that next week goes well for you and your son!

[4atHome]

I just handed my 6 year old one of the I Can Read books to occupy him, and thought of this thread.  Have you seen these books?  Very simple.  I think book 1 is all short vowels.  Might help him feel successful and maybe grow more interest. 

[ElizabethB]

I would get the LOE game book, a ton of game ideas.

Some basic ideas I've done with my students:

Write out letters on 1/2 sheet of paper, jump from paper to paper while sounding out. 

Type words in large font, shoot each letter with nerf gun while sounding out.

Run toy car over word on paper, sound out each letter while driving across.

Use Don Potter's word cards, relay race to get cards and sound out, see how many can do in 3 or 5 minutes, whatever time works best.

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/blend_phonics_decoding_card.pdf

Reference document for words:

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/blend_phonics-card_numbers.pdf

I have a video about making phonics more fun, I think I already typed most of the ideas but it's been a while:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b2HyvcWaZA&t=12s

Spelfebet has a ton of games you can buy, she has some good bingo ones that are buried earlier after all the card deck games, but those are good too.

https://www.spelfabet.com.au/product-category/games/

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by ElizabethB

[goldenecho]

The free readers and short phonics lessons at ProgressivePhonics.com might work well for him because they are SHORT and color coded so you read some parts and he reads others, which helps with fatique.   You read the little lessons with him, and then there are color coded poems for readers.   Since they are very short, you could have him read one after each meal or something like that, breaking it up into bight sized bits he can handle.  Also, when kids are first learning to read, they may not be able to understand much of what they are reading themselves because initially it goes so slow and takes so much mental energy just to sound out words that it's hard for them to hold onto meaning.  It doesn't matter how fun a text is if they aren't actually understanding what they are reading...and taking turns gives them some of that understanding back until they can read well enough to understand as they read. 

My son has ADHD and this worked well for him.   I also added in practice with nonsense words because he had some issues with guessing (maybe something he picked up in  PS KG where they focused on sight words). 

Eventually, as his reading improved,  we were able to switch between these and Piggie and Elephant stories for practice (he loved those), but the method of sharing the reading was similar.   With the Piggie and Elephant books we each took a character's part to read.

[prairiewindmomma]

Based on my experience (used OPGTR with 4 kids—half with attention issues...):

1. Do motor work before the lesson. I had one kid bounce on the trampoline beforehand, and do wall presses.

2. Consider medication (I also have a kid who can’t read or do math without it)

3. If you are at lesson 62ish....how is he doing sequencing phenomes? Like can he do the skills outside of the book? Some of my kids needed a lot of time in that initial work. It got much easier later in the book.

4. Do the lesson in 5 minute chunks. If his attention span is 5 min, break it up. Do one review. Then, later in the day, do the new worlds. Read the paragraph later.  If he is your last of the line kid, consider cutting off the binding so he can see how little he needs to do.

5. Pick a rewarding thing to do afterwards. One of mine liked using a fly swatter to hit 10 words on index cards. He could choose the order to read them by hitting them with the fly swatter. I can’t believe that worked for a few weeks, but it did. Pinterest has a bazillion easy to set up phonics games. The idea is to build an immediate high reward high energy thing for after the lesson to look forward to.

6. But seriously, consider meds.