Deteriorating fluency

based on my observations of my 8 year old who reads in a similar way. There are 2 parts to my theory about what is happening with him: anxiety, and the effort required for him to put it all together.

There are some interesting threads on this board about kids who have to work so hard to synthesize what they are doing that they become fatigued. I believe my son’s internal timing is off, and also reading isn’t automatic enough for him. He scores well on decoding, but can’t sustain a prolonged reading effort.

Second, the reality of reading for him has been difficult, and I think anxiety producing. I notice that he will sometimes do well until he makes an error, and then it falls apart.

There could be. I have read studies where it is “shown” that LD readers work 4-6 times as hard to read. So, if this is the case, it can be fatigue.

Of course it is always good to get decoding skills up to speed, closer to automatic, and the first statement you present is that her decoding skills are weak. This would be a good place to start, I think.

How long has the O-G tutoring gone on? To give you an idea of how slowly she might need to go to MASTER decoding skills to greater automaticity, I recently read a study begun on risk first grade readers that continued into 2nd grade. The most disabled needed about 2 years to learn what the least of the disabled group learned in 4 months!

It can take time and lots and lots of regular review and guided practice.

Is she reading out loud when she tires?

Anne

Bea, I agree that it sounds like a fatigue issue. That’s not unusual. The trouble, though, is that the fatigue could be the result of a variety of problems. One of the children I tutor turned out to have a constricted color vision field. Another had tunnel vision, several others have eye muscles that tense greatly because of the effort so they (the eyes) end up bouncing all over the page. It’ss o much work to track the letters that the kids tire out and start making lots of mistakes after a few minutes. We haven’t figured out why a couple of other kids are doing this. Know that it’s common.

I suggest an evaluation by a developmental optometrist if you haven’t done that already or if it was done more than a couple years ago. As kids grow, the eye muscles are being asked to do different things and sometimes an adjustment is needed. The D.O. I refer kids to says he wishes all kids would be screened in kindergarten for these issues and then again in about 3rd grade, and once more upon entering middle school.

I think students often tire easily. It is such hard work for them. After she becomes able to process decoding strategies with less effort, he will have more energy for the task. The coatings on the neurons become thicker and transport energy more quickly than new connections.

In the meantime, I like to step back to a comfortable reading grade-level, and do something like Great Leaps. It doesn’t take much time and parents can do it. Now, the passages aren’t really long so we’re not measuring sustained reading speed.

What book is she reading for pleasure? Is she reading it orally with you or tutor or silently to herself?

The problem you present is very perplexing and demands further diagnsosis. The vision line may be worth pursuing. If it were my child, I’d have a top knotch behavior analyst review the behavior over time - I don’t believe the probelm is behavioral, I just like the way they break down the world and offer advice. They also are unlikely to recommend a charlatan - (a dime a dozen in our field.)

As author of Great Leaps, she may be above my present work. I am hard at work on the next step - which could, if completed, give an interesting view of her comprehension.

When I hear she bores at 6 minutes….that’s about 3 to 4 pages into the materials. Hmmm. If there’s comprehension (and that needs to be measured) then I believe there’s a physical ailment. I suspect a fluency/comprehension problem.

I would like to hear her read outloud and see what she’s doing with sighte words.

Hope my “thinking” can help. Best of luck (with a short prayer), Ken Campbell

Thanks for all your thoughts. She’s been privately tutored now for 5 years with the past year spent exclusively on O-G. She recently finished the program and they are going back over and reviewing areas of difficulty now. They are also working in the THe Word Workshop to help with decoding multisylabic words. She is going in for a full evaluation at one of the major teaching hospitals in our area in Sept. I had the school administer the GORT at the end of the school year and her fluency rate was at the 2%,

My child is a lot like this, despite much tutoring also. For him, it is a general problem, which may be one place to start trying to figure out what is going on. Does she tire the same way when doing a page or two of math also? My son does. For my son, it seems to be related to visual-auditory integration and the extreme difficulties he has in achieving automaticity. He basically has issues with sustaining an integrated task in time (automatically), over time.

We have seen improvements with Neuronet therapy and Interactive Metronome but whether either of these would help your child would depend on what the core problem is. We have also done Great Leaps. It has helped with intitial fluency but not in the sustaining performance—but then it really isn’t designed to do so.

I don’t have any easy answers but one thing that helps in practice is to alternative pages when reading so she gets a break. Also, I have my son do some reading that is easy for him—he doesn’t have the same issues with tiring then–because it is just more automatic for him.

Beth

Joan,

I have seen exactly what you are talking about with my son and also a friend’s son with a problem even more severe than my son.

They both were prescribed glasses for eye muscle problems. My friends son reading ability and overall learning took off like a rocket. He is in first grade and reads at a 6th grade level.His mom now can’t stop him from reading. He continues with other problems like writing.
My son saw an improvement in his ability to read for longer periods but it was not as dramatic. (But his problem was also not as dramatic)

I don’t see the glasses as the long term solution. Ashley pointed out that they are not a cure and cause dependence. I am hoping to correct the problem with vision therapy if it doesn’t self correct. (His is mild and I have read that frequent reading can help this correct on it’s own)

We are also doing visual perception exercises that I found in a book. Everyone give an OH YEAH, for my son who has passed from kindergarten level visual perception to 1st grade.

What is a behavior analyst? Do they specialize in subjects (reading, math,etc.)If you wished the “very best one” in the nation for your child, who would you select?

Susan,
The inventor, Phillip Lawson out of Gainesville, Florida was one of the best. I also think the work of Patrick McGreevy (Orlando) and Vince Carbone (Jacksonville) are world class. Other Floridians I would recommend include Judy Presley (Ocala), Jack Scott (Boca Raton), Bob Ryan (Jacksonville) and Ray Peetz (Sarasota.) Another genius worth speaking with would be Henry Tenenbaum out of Sarasota.

In a brief sentence they analyze what drives a given action. If it is purely behavioral (not physiologic) they are among the first to see this. The great ones do oh so much more. Great Leaps is more than indebted to these and more.

Definitely, keep up on the decoding until it becomes automatic.

Meanwhile, 6 to 8 pages at a session is not that bad. She can stop, take a deep breath, look out the window, stretch, have a glass of water, and then go on to the next six-page batch — this is good for almost any reader.