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beginning reader – possible dyslexia
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About 9 months ago my now-5yo dd expressed interest in learning how to read. We still had the complete Hooked on Phonics program that we used successfully a couple of years ago with her older brother; therefore, we decided to use it with her as well. She struggled with knowing the letter names and so we took a long break from it. A few months later she expressed interest again and so we pulled out the yellow book and gave it another go. Still struggling with letter recognition, but better. Would easily confuse “W” and “M” and would even sometimes confuse “S” and “C”. We have three college logo stickers on the back of our car, each a large “W”. She mentioned to the guy carrying out our groceries that our car was the one with the three “M”s on the back. So, back it went on the shelf with us thinking her interest was there, but mentally she was just not ready.
Fast forward to this week. We began a new school year on Monday and the yellow book made it’s appearance again. She was very enthusiastic and the first day went rather well. Yesterday she read her first book (with lots of help)! Today, however, was a totally different story. Today I introduced “ag” words. Total frustration and almost read the words backwards, i.e. read “gas” for “sag”. She also tends to guess or put in extra sounds, i.e. “cat” for “can”, or “gap” for “bag”.
So, my concern is that she is perhaps dyslexic. I have no experience with dyslexia and am hoping that some of you might. Am I totally overreacting? Should I just switch methods and try another approach? Or is there some hint of something going on that we need to address?
Any advice would be most welcome!
TIA,
Aimee
Aimee,
I have LOADS of experience with a dyslexic child. We adopted my oldest from Haiti and it took me four years before anyone would actually diagnose him. With his last test, they told us his dyslexia is so severe, he might never be a proficient reader. (He’s almost 12) BUT that is man’s word and not God’s. I trust that God has a good plan for my son whether he ever reads well or not.
Having said all of that, here are a couple of ideas.
1) Don’t let her know that you think there may be a problem. One of my favorite things about CM is that you go at the child’s pace, not some arbitrary method. Especially at her age, don’t panic. You can still just enjoy sitting and having fun with her and letters.
2) You may want to back off the stage where you put the letters together until she has a mastery of her letters. If she’s mixing up her M’s and W’s, you could just spend an extra couple of weeks solidifying letters(games and such), then you could move on to the sounds they make. Only after she’s mastered that would I move on to sounding out words.
3) I think it’s perfectly natural for many children to mix up their letters. I wouldn’t get worried at this stage. My oldest birth child learned to read at three and I thought, “wow… that was easy.” Truth is, reading is actually a VERY complex process and some students achieve mastery early (my first birth child), some a little older (my second birth child) and some later (my first adopted child).
4) If she realizes she’s having difficulties, look for ways to point out what she does know. Most children with any kind of learning issues get frustrated with the learning process if they continually feel like they don’t measure up. So, look for things she does know and reinforce how smart she is. (Look at signs for the grocery store and ask her if she knows any of the letters… not what they say, but if she knows their names…that kind of thing).
The main thing I want to do is encourage you to enjoy your daughter right where she is. God has her on a specific path for a reason. I am constantly reminded that my children do not grow closer to Jesus or in their reflection of him through their strength, but through their weaknesses. I love it in James where God says we should ask Him for wisdom and he promises to grant it. Ask Him for eyes that see your daughter rightly and wisdom to help her in the best way possible for her particular bent. He is faithful. He is purposeful. And best of all… He is good.
God bless,
Jen
P.S. Because we’ve been on this road a long time, I have gathered quite the list of helpful games and ideas for learning letters and sounds. If you need anything, please let me know.
Aimee,
When our son was learning to read, he was having difficulty. I couldn’t understand what the problem was. He was 7 or 8 years old, and having a problem reading the level 3 readers that we’d try. We were both very frustrated (he wanted to read well). He could decode a word singly when on a page on its own, but when blended on a page, he’d skip words, or entire lines, and couldn’t read fluently. He was mixing up numbers in math as well, and when speaking, would often put throat stops in because he couldn’t seem to find the words he wanted to say. I knew it wasn’t a reading problem, but was something that was more of a vision learning problem. We took him to a behavioral optometrist that had been recommended, and had him evaluated. He was found to have a vision tracking problem, and a visual sequencing problem. There are many different vision learning problems, so having an evaluation to know what needs to be worked on is important, at least it was for him.
We did set up vision learning therapy for him, which was VERY expensive, and insurance didn’t cover it. It was also very intensive, either 6 months or a year (I don’t remember which), and included an hour per week of in office therapy with an occupational therapist (for he and I), and then he and I had to do therapy at home daily 5 days for about 20-30 minutes. We did take one day off (Sunday). We both worked VERY hard on this therapy, because we knew it’d help if we worked hard.
When Zachary was done, he had gone from not being able to read level 3 readers, to reading The Lord of the Rings series. It took him awhile to read those huge books, but he did it, and has been reading so well ever since! He still struggle sometimes, because we should be doing some maintenance, and I’ve neglected that, but plan to do that more again this year, and get him fine tuned again. 🙂 He has gained SO much self confidence because he now felt good about himself knowing he wasn’t having those problems anymore. It was so worth the money for us! We are blessed! Zach is now 16, and will begin his 11th grade year. In all of his standardized testing since then, READING is ALWAYS his highest score!!! Incredible!
I wouldn’t worry about doing this yet at 5 years old, because there can be some normal switching of letters, and numbers at the younger ages, and some kids do seem to correct themselves with gentle working with mom, and encouragement. Time will definitely tell, and give you the clues through your gut instinct whether or not you feel that you feel you need to seek professional help regarding any problems with your daughter. But I just wanted to share our story, and our experience, because it was such a blessing to our son when we did. 🙂
Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
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