I have read here often, but this is my first time posting. 🙂
I am a homeschooling mama to 3 wonderful children. My oldest has been a late reader. She turns 10 in November and decodes at age level, but her fluency is still around the Grade 1 level. Her comprehension is around grade 6 level. We have had her eyes tested and seen our GP and homeschool facilitator, both who feel there are no signs of learning disablilites.
To date we have done Sing Spell Read & Write K & 1 level, ETC (finishing Beyond the Code soon), and All About Spelling, starting level 4 this fall.
My question is…what now?? Do we just continue reading lots and lots of books, or do I start something like Dancing Bears or ? At present, we do read alouds (by me) daily, read alouds (by her) daily, repeated readings of the same material, and she does silently reading before bed each night for approx 30 minutes.
When you had her vision tested, was that from a regular optomitrist, or a developmental optomitrist? Did the test for Eye convergence, tracking, etc? (Those tests aren’t a part of the regular eye exam”…
So they don’t suspect dyslexia?
When she reads silently, does she comprehend what she reads (ie, is it just a reading out-loud problem?)
I feel like I’ve researched so many reading programs, and I still don’t know much… lol.
You’ve got me stumped. Are there any other specifics you can give us? Does she skip small words? Does she have any trouble copying sentences from the board (on a wall) to her paper? Is the fluency problem just with reading aloud?
Are you getting these grade level assessments from some kind of standardized test?
I agree with TailorMade. I have one later-learner and we just read, read, read. I read aloud and he reads to me (we do a lot of the “I Can Read Level” 3 books like Boston Coffee Party, Clipper Ship, The Drinking Gourd) 2 times a day–once is Bible at night and once is reading time. His fluency is gradually increasing.
We’ve seen the developmental optometrist and he was pleased and said there were no issues that he could find.
The people I have spoken to do not suspect dyslexia. I have not spoken to a family doctor though or had any type of assesments done.
Her comprehension is very high and she reads much quicker when she’s reading silently, although I don’t know if she’s skipping words or not. She’s able to tell me back what she read without any gaps.
I’ve asked her if there are colors on the page or if things blur or anything and she said no.
This is our first year writing standardized tests and we haven’t gotten the results back yet.
She doesn’t skip words, but she will occassionally modify a word. For example, we were reading a Little Critter book and she kept changing Little Sister to “Little Sis”. She will sometimes have to sound the same word out several times in the same book before it “sticks”, although this is improving.
If there are no developmental problems, her comprehension is good, and de-codes on grade level – and she enjoys reading – then I would think she has a reading aloud problem.
I have one particularly impetuous son, and he has no patience for reading aloud. He skips or modifies words, skips lines, etc…but it really is just that he gets impatient with the tedium of reading aloud. It is its own seperate skill.
I would do what the others have recommended and start her with twice daily practice on books that are a bit below her reading level. No more than 15 minutes at a time – but you will really have to read with her to gently correct errors as she goes and slow her down enough to avoid mistakes.
Is this sounding right, or are we missing something? Maybe we aren’t understanding the problem with ‘fluency’ – could you define it?
Agreeing with ServingwithJoy. I can read much faster silently than I can reading the words aloud, so I sometimes get messed up trying to keep up with my eyes! =) It is a separate skill that needs practice. My second grade teacher noticed that and told my mom to make me slow down and practice reading aloud.
Haha – just realized I vocalized my secret love of audio books for school! I don’t have to read out loud so much when I use them.
Her issue with fluency…lets see. She reads with inflection, although it doesn’t always sound natural. If that makes sense. There are pauses between words as she decodes. Sometimes she will guess at sounds she knows, but auto corrects.
I never really thought of reading aloud being a seperate skill, so thank you! It’s so true!
My gut says that she just needs time. I am just unsure if we should keep going with some type of phonics curriculum as a review or just read, read, read.
If she auto-corrects and knows the sounds, I think that I would seriously keep the phonics on the back burner with an occassional reminder, but I would practice the reading aloud in easy books as often as is practical in a day’s time.