I am new to this board and am looking for some advice. I have a 7 yo child w/PDD and LD’s. He is currently enrolled in a SPED 1st grade class. He is having difficulties w/word recognition, fluency and spelling the words correctly. We find that he is still sounding out the majority of words even the ones introduced in the begining of the school year (six months ago). When I say sounding out, I mean he breaks the phoentic parts of the word and sounds each part out 2 or three times on it’s own before blending. (Example: the word “deer” would sound like this ee-ee-dee-dee-deer. And that’s assuming he doesn’t confuse the “d” for a “b”. And yes, he starts in the middle of the word, works to the left and then blends to the right. This is the way this program teaches him to read.) He has about a 25-40% accuracy rate of spelling these words on his own. This includes many of the words from months ago. The majority of the time he can see the same word on the page many, many times and still be sounding it out by the end of the page. I am now at the point of questioning the effectiveness of the progam he is being taught with. Am I am expecting to much too soon?
using word imagery
I am a private tutor, and have had many students have the same problem. I took training from Melvin-Smith Learning Center in CA, and it taught a method of teaching word imagery that is almost foolproof. I have had a 10 year start reading the same day I taught him the technique. You can get a brief description on the technique from Dr. Joan Smith’s book - “You don’t have to be Dyslexic”. I know it is available in our library. In my book on page 115, it gives a simple strategy for imagery that anyone could do.
Re: Fluency/Word Recognition question
Given that (a) the program is clearly not succeeding, and (b) it is contrary to the normal left-to-right scanning progression, I would quit using this approach immediately. I know that *I* would be confused by the back-and-forthing, so how much more confusing it must be to a kid who cannot read *and* has multiple disabilities!
I would get him scanning and sounding out left to right, period. Once this is established, then it will be time to look at fluency (which is NOT the same as speed).
If you wnant my nitty gritty basic how-to-tutor notes, email me at [email protected]
Re: Fluency/Word Recognition question
I have to agree with victoria on this one. A program that is not teaching him to decode in order from left-to-right is creating a new problem for him.
My suggestion is to get the book “Reading Reflex” by McGuiness (check your library, or under $20 at bookstores) and read the first three chapters to get a good idea of what a reading program *should* be doing. If you like the methodology, either hire a private Phono-Graphix tutor or tutor him yourself using the book.
Whatever method is used, I think that scanning from left-to-right is of utmost importance to struggling beginning readers.
Nancy
Re: Fluency/Word Recognition question
Hi DS,
I think Reading Reflex is a good place to start. It’s something you or someone else can easily do with him. Another thing, I’d take a good look at the book Joan recommended. Your son may have difficulty “visualizing” letters and words. Although I’m not familiar with Dr. Smith’s book, it sounds like it may have exercises and ideas to help develop this.
My last suggestion is Lindamood-Bell’s Seeing Stars. It’s primarily designed to help with word recognition and this specific type of visual memory problem you’ve described. I brought my son to their clinic. It was an intense program, and extraordinarily expensive. But for my son, it was an effective program. Prior to LMB, my son had “hit a wall” with reading (specifically word recognition and fluency).
Thanks!
Thank you to everyone who responded! I got alot of great advice!! I have tried to post a response for DAYS now, and it wouldn’t post! :-( But I just wanted to express my appreciation!
http://www.resourceroom.net/readspell/index2.asp has a link to two articles that you’ll find interesting — start with “getting up to speed.” the other one on “automaticity and fluency” is also excellent. (Both from IDA Perspectives, worth joining for :)
If he’s successfully sounding out the words then it could be he’d still be doing that with any decoding program, though it could also be that starting in the middle throws him off. However, before deciding to ask for a different program, I’d try some of the suggestions in “getting up to speed” — and has anybody taught him that quick recognition is a separate process? It’s one of those things that most kids intuit… but some kids can do *if* they’re shown that they need to do something differnetly.