We have a 9 1/2 year old dd that we homeschool…..I started her on phonics (Sing, Spell….) when she was about 5.5 which was too early, in hindsight. She has now been doing early phonics for almost three years and still cannot read beyond a late grade one/ early grade two (depending on the area.) She is still on level one or earliest reading, if you go by the books from the library. She still has trouble with “b” and “d” and sometimes mixes up “s” also. Over the years, I have taken MANY breaks from teaching her to read, because I felt that she just wasn’t ready to move on…when we pick it back up months later, she seems to have improved somewhat, but only until the next concept, or sound. Currently, we are working with Explode The Code, Book 4.
She seems to have trouble seeing and processing words properly. If she sees a word such as milk, she might first read it as kilm, but when I indicate it is wrong she often gets it right. She also has trouble remembering a word she just sounded out, even if it appears in the very next sentence. I’m wondering if I should have her tested for learning disabilities. My husband and I have wondered if she is dyslexic. ~ Although I’ve read some articles that have claimed that there is no such thing! She does know the alphabet very well, including all the sounds. She can decode well when she focuses, which may last only about 5 minutes at a time.
I have, up ‘till now had the attitude of giving it time and letting her develop at her own pace…but it is starting to interfere in her life as she realizes that her friends can read well and she cannot. Also, in group situations, like at Sunday school, people expect her to read and she is ashamed that she cannot read well.
Anyway, does this sound familiar to any of you? What have you done to overcome this? Do you think it would be easier for her if she was “labeled” with a learning disability or if she was not? Help!
Re: 9 1/2 y/o dd with reading difficulties
The first thing I would do is get a developmental vision evaluation. The symptoms you describe are very typical of developmental vision delays, which are *not* assessed in regular eye exams. A child can have 20/20 visual acuity and still have severe lags in visual efficiency skills.
I would also look at doing a cognitive skills training program. These programs work on directionality and sequencing skills, among others. Developmental vision problems often result in serious lags in direcitonality and sequencing skills (e.g., b/d confusion, reading “milk” as “kilm”).
For more information about commonly undiagnosed vision problems, see http://www.childrensvision.com .
You may also want to join the dyslexiasupport2 list at http://groups.yahoo.com . There are a lot of parents there with experience in this area, including reading difficulties caused by developmental vision delays (as well as other underlying problems). That group is a great source of information and feedback.
Nancy
Re: 9 1/2 y/o dd with reading difficulties
Has your daughter had any problems with her ears as an infant? Sounds like to me that she has some auditory processing issues that are preventing her from learning to read based on phonics. I recommend some cognitive retraining to improve all of her processing issues.
For myself, I don’t particularly care about labels, I just work with what I find. Your daughter definitely needs work with tracking and directionality, and then with vocabulary development and fluency. I work with this through a combination of reading and writing.
Many people here have also had positive results with vision therapy and you should talk to them and investigate this too.
If you would like copies of my teaching reading notes, just send a request to [email protected]