I have a 3rd grade son who is just learning to read. At school he receives direct 1 to 1 reading instruction with an emphasis on phonics. I don’t think he is using these skills though when reading. He is a very visual person and I think he is using these skills for reading. The reason I think this is he has an easier time with words you would think are more difficult. He can easily read grandfather but has difficulty distinguishing the, they, them, ect. The words he is having problems with you can not visualize as a picture. If he can associatte the word with something he say the word. I can I tell if he truly gets the phonics? He does try to sound out words but at times is not even close.
Re: Could he be using visual skills
I’m in complete agreement with Victoria. There’s a limit to visual memory, I forget how many words but it’s something like 3,000 by third grade. Someone step in here and tell me the exact amount. In any case, it isn’t a whole lot and these kids then hit the wall somewhere in third grade if they don’t get solid phonics training.
Having that visual memory is both a curse and a blessing sometimes.
Probably yes. Please do continue working on the phonics anyway — when he hits a limit on visual memory, he will need the skill to fall back on.