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Need suggestions for son struggling to learn to read
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I have posted several times in the past about my son. It has been awhile and I have seen much improvement. About this time last year I was worried because he couldn’t write at all. I mean he couldn’t do dot to dots. I decided not to push, improved his diet and started him on Fish oil. I waited a couple of months and used a special pencil grip and it seemed to be a breeze. He has been doing Delightful Handwriting this school year and has very good handwriting now. However, I have not had any luck teaching him to read. My oldest was easy so I wasn’t prepared for all the difficulties. I have used Logic of English Essentials Foundations and went all the way through level A. Nothing sticks. I just recently bought Dianne Craft’s program. As soon as I started using the sight words cards, it clicked and he memorized those easily. However, if I show him the words in a book, he has no clue. He can read simple 3 letter, short vowel words but with sounding each one out. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times he sees the word “cat” for example, he still has to sound it out one letter at a time. He is a very intelligent child. He gets interested in random things like right now it is Mount Everest. I don’t know why. He gets obsessed and wants to talk about it all the time and find out everything there is to know. So when we are trying to read or do math or something, he just can’t focus because his mind is always somewhere else.
So, after doing a lot of reading, I really thing he may have dyslexia and ADD. I’m just not sure how to handle it and how is the best way to teach him. I would love some suggestions. I feel a tremendous amount of pressure knowing that I’m the one responsible for teaching him and I don’t know how is best at this point. Please, if anyone has suggestions, I really need to hear them.
If you took the time to read all this, thank you!
It does sound like it could be dyslexia…. but there are other possibilities – eye convergence issues come to mind too…
Obviously I’m not an expert.
I’m curious as to age too…. (I can’t keep track of people)
Reading Bears (from the UK) seems to work well for a fair number of dyslexics and is fairly inexpensive (what works for one dyslexic won’t work for another…)
Did you get the entire reading program from Dianna Craft, or just the sight word cards?
One thing I find helpful in a CM education is that it is ok to read to them – we make a lot of use of audiobooks and I do some of the reading. It allows my son to have a love for things like history, and to learn interesting things, instead of spending the entire day working on his weaknesses…
My dd has dyslexia and probably ADD. Reading was a struggle from the start. She is 10 now and the reading is finally picking up. After trying different phonics programs, including the Barton System, I can’t say that one thing worked better than another. We stopped Barton before we finished level 3. It is very costly and level three just got into a lot of spelling rules. I also realized that the controlled reading in Barton is not recommended by CM. When we stopped Barton and I started giving her other books to read again, she just took off. I think the first two levels were helpful though. Another program I used that I would recommend for someone with dyslexia is Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways. It’s inexpensive and I like the format. For reading practice, they use pyramids for eye tracking exercises. They also give other exercises to help in this way. HTH Just don’t give up:)
My nearly 8yo daughter does the same thing as the OP!
Well, she was when she was 5 and 6. I stopped pushing and went to 1/2 or less of a reading lesson a day; kept doing the sightword flashcards (just a couple each day), and noticed that she got better. I noticed that it seemed like if I gave her “off” school for a bit (a week or more) she’d seem improvd the next time we tried school.
Then, it seemed for a while that she had a desire to learn, and we’d do flashcards and a portion of a reading lesson in a day.
I really think it helped that I was stopping stressing about it; doing short, short, short lessons; and when we could, doing more than one lesson a day.
I think the key to my daughter is (she’s still not reading a fluently as I’d like, but she can finally read one “chapter” in one sitting of one of those “Easy REader” type books that has four or five “chapters” in it.) Anyway, I think the key to my daughter is the short lessons, the repetition, the low-stress, and time.
I still worry about her every getting “caught up” to grade level, but she is improving, and that’s what matters most right now. Hopefuly, with patience and persistence, it will all click.
I should mention that we did check her eyes, and my daughter does need glasses (which we gotten and now she doesn’t wear!!! I need to get her back to the dr., though, she’s complaining of headaches more than normal.). If we had a dr. close, I’d get her checked out for the other eye problems (convergence, teaming, etc.) that have been mentioned in other threads lately.
Thank you for the replies. I should have mentioned that he is 6 1/2. We do short lessons because I don’t want to overwhelm him and his attention span is pretty short. He always seems to be way off in left field. He loves to learn but reading just isn’t coming easily to him.
Since he is only 6, I would shelve the formal reading lessons for awhile. Boys, in particular, are not always ready to read at the “normal” age. It is not unusual for boys to not catch on to reading until they are 8 or 9 years old. That was the case for one of my boys. He did all the other school work just fine, but reading didn’t click until he was 8. I taught reading at his pace, never pushing or expecting him to read before he was ready. When he was ready, reading took off and he “caught” up to “normal” quickly.
I agree. At 6.5 (especially a boy) I wouldn’t go labelling him as dyslexic or anything yet….
There is a saying “which is the best reading program? the 3rd one!” – A lot of kids will just take more time and it isn’t worth worrying yet…
Take a break, then have another go at it. ‘Dancing Bears’ still might be a good choice to try…
My ds is 11 and has only been reading on his own since was 8 or so. He is just getting into chapter books at this point and he will be 12 in a couple months. My dd was reading at 4, so like you, I was concerned about him, but keep reading to him he will eventually want to try on his own.
As an aside, this is the FREE program I used to help my son begin reading. It is very effective and my ds enjoyed the lessons.
http://books.google.com/books/about/Word_mastery.html?id=nBcKAAAAMAAJ
Yes, stop for a while and let him pursue the things he enjoys. Read to him. My son was the same way as regards reading. He couldn’t move past 3 letter words and sight words were a nightmare. So I shleved everything. I waited about 3 months then tried again. Still nothing. So I shelved everything again. I repeated this until just after his 7 birthday when it just clicked for him and he started reading. Every child is different so when they are ready to read will vary. Don’t stress over it to much, he will get it when he is ready.
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