comprehension/iep

My son reads pretty well but his listening comprehension is far superior to his reading comprehension.

I am quite sure this related to his recently diagnosed ocular motor issue. The struggle to overcome his less than effecient ocular system zaps his mental capacity and prevents him from comprehending long passages. He can comprehend short essays. It is just too exhausting to concentrate while compensating for his inefficient ocular system.

He is undergoing vision therapy with a developmental optometrist. I’ll let you know if it works.

Hi Everyone

I am looking for some help on 2 issues. My son is currently in 3rd grade and not reading at grade level yet. Although we are getting close and his reading is improving. (with no real help from the school.) One thing really concerns me is that when he reads to himselp and sometimes out loud he is not comprehending what he is reading. Are there any techniques that I can use with him at home or that I could have written into his IEP to help him with comprehension????

It’s not uncommon when a child reads outloud that they do not comprehend what they are reading. I don’t comprehend well when I read outloud. We get distracted by the sound of our own voices. Why does he need to comprehend when he reads outloud? For the most part, we don’t do our reading outloud.

If you have a general comprehension worry about him, read outloud to him. Reading outloud to a child is the best way to increase their comprehension when they read to themselves. Read outloud for 15-20 minutes every day. Stop to ask him what he thinks might happen next from time to time.

My other question is does anyone have any suggestions or information for writing an IEP that will help a child with reading and not make him dependent on the IEP??

Have the teacher read outloud every day - but that’s not likely to happen unless a teacher is committed to it. Allow him to have silent, sustained reading in books at his reading level for 20 minutes a day.

Currently his reading tests are being read to him. (he is currently getting an A in reading but cant read at grade level) He does real well with this and is comprehending when things are read to him. Although, he does not seem to be able to read the question and understand what it is asking in order to answer the question correctly.

Reading books and reading tests are two different kinds of reading entirely. I wouldn’t push that. His ability to read tests will grow only as his other reading skills grow. The ability to read tests will slowly follow along as his reading skills improve. He could be given some specific instruction in the reading of tests and you might have that put into his IEP but… it sadly unlikely the school will follow through even if it’s in the IEP.

I would appreciate any help or suggestions anyone can offer
thanks
dawn

Dawn,

If your goal is to kep the IEP for accommodations and he has reading comprehension issues, then I might suggest a goal to improve vocabulary and the accommodation that can go along with that would be for your son to be given new vocabulary lists at the beginning of any new unit. Vocabulary is a key component of comprehension, so this could still justify an IEP and accommodations without giving direct service. I also suggest that you take a look at Visualizing and Verbalizing by Lindamood Bell if he really has comprehension issues.

Janis

Strangely, I have found the opposite is true with my dd when it comes to comprehension. If she reads quietly to herself, she doesn’t comprehend well. But if she read aloud, she does?

I think it may be an attention issue. She tends to want to read very fast and thus misses words. When she ‘brain-reads’ (that’s what she calls it) - I think she skips over too many words and they just don’t sink in. I now have her ‘mouthing’ the words when she reads silently to herself.

We have state testing coming up and I’m very worried about the results! I fear we may be in for some surprises.

Janis,

This is a wonderful idea. I think vocabulary and visualization are tied together. My son has a gifted vocabulary and is great at visualizing. He visualizes the meanings of words. When he learned the word fern recently he said, “Ok, I will make a picture of a plant for that one.”

He has a great memory for concepts too. I wonder if that is also related to his ability to visualize concepts.

He can’t visualize symbols and he can’t remember symbols. Just the other day he wrote the letter l. I told him it had to be capitalized. He said, “That is a capital l.”

He still just does not have those symbols. Strangest thing.

Have you thought about the fact that she may be a strong auditory learner and hearing the words out loud helps her comprehension. Someone was talking about this recently on learning styles show (not LD) and the thought had never occurred to me.