Misreading words

I would get a developmental vision eval. This includes about 20 tests of visual function over and above those in a regular eye exam. Most opthalmologists are not trained in developmental vision, so I would look for a certified developmental optometrist. There is a search engine that locates them by area at http://www.covd.org

If developmental vision checks out okay, what would probably help is a cognitive skills training program such as PACE (http://www.learninginfo.com).

Mary

I would suggest that Audiblox would be a really good program for this type of problem. Very inexpensive program which has helped my son immensely. My son had a lot of trouble with misreading words, but has stopped doing this since starting Audiblox 23 weeks ago.
www.audiblox2000.com
Wendy

MaryMN had a suggestion about this problem earlier this year. I used it with my son, and it worked really well. (He had gone through PACE and gotten much better at reading, but he still misread lots of little words and freqently did not read the correct endings of words.) I challenged him to read without making any of those misreading errors. (Decoding problems are something else.) We set it up like a contest. Can you do a whole page with 5 or fewer errors? Can you do a whole page with 3 or fewer errors? Can you do a chapter with less than 10 errors? Can you do a whole book with less than 20 errors? That sort of thing. For him, a lot of the misreading was just a bad habit that came from years of guessing when he couldn’t decode. Once he broke the habit, he stopped making those errors—unless he’s really tired. You can do the contests with either tangible rewards or just the good feeling of accomplishing something. I hope this helps—along with the other suggestions you got.

I am with this all the way-we had the same problem with my 9 year old son and he saw a developmental optometrist. I almost cried when I saw his Visagraph results-it is a laser that tracks eye movements while he was reading text. His eyes did not move from word one to word two, etc. but rather from one to two and then skipped an entire line. Obviously it is pretty hard to get the meaning when you are reading only parts. After only 5 sessions, his CAt score is Reading Comprehension went up from a 47 national percentile last year to an 81 this year. He has now completed 20 sessions and actually LIKES to read.

He had a problem with eye teaming and tracking.

Hi Nancy,

I have used Phono-Graphix for remediation with kids of diverse ages over the past three years. I have observed the “misreading” that you are describing in almost every case. In fact, as a shorthand, I now simply write “careless reader” on the chart to designate that behavior. It’s an accurate description, I believe, because in most cases the kids are quite capable of accurately reading every single word that they are missing (of, the, a, when, then, where, there, what, that, etc.,) but they just don’t “care to,” hence, they are careless readers.

Most of the time these kids are sight-word readers and are experiencing great difficulty with longer multisyllable words. If you pay close attention to the pattern of her carelessness, you will probably note that it’s worst just before a “big word” is coming along. I think that they are continually scanning for the “big word” that’s going to trip them up, embarrass them in front of the class, or make them “wrong” and that they just lose focus on the “little words” coming up first. In any case, what you’re observing is extremely typical of a child having decoding problems.

You say that there’s been a Woodcock Johnson testing done, but you don’t mention the Word Attack and Word ID subtest scores. If her word attack skill level is lower than her Word ID score, it’s quite possible that she isn’t yet decoding properly, particularly at the multisyllable level. Phono-Graphix can fix that problem, and do so quite quickly in most cases.

I agree with Mary that you should also be alert to the possibility of a visual issue, as a significant number of the kids I’ve worked with have experienced visual problems that interfered with the acquisition of their reading skills. I have seen kids that seem to have improved their reading significantly just by undergoing effective vision therapy, and I have seen kids improve just by undergoing Phono-Graphix, and I have seen kids that needed both. In addition, a few kids either need a lot more time with one or both programs, or there is yet something else that they need. This is what Mary is driving at when she mentions PACE, I believe.

My suggestion would be to investigate both Phono-Graphix and behavioral optometry and see which is the easiest to access in your area. If both are available, start with Phono-Graphix, particularly if her Word Attack scores are low, but be ready to try the vision route if she continues to experience frustration reading.

Hope this is of some help….Rod

We did Audiblox for 6mo, I would use caution on the reading exercise. We actually found my dd’s misreading problems got worse. The reading flash cards improved her sight word ‘vocabulary’ and her fluency, but her decoding skills went out the window. We had to stop completely and went back to Reading Reflex drills on sequential processing.

My dd is a visual-spatial kid. She tends to see words as a whole and struggles with decoding left to right. So her tendency to ‘guess’ increased as we drilled whole words into her. What has helped her the most is practicing decoding all the sounds in the word.

She still has a tendency to miss the easy words - it’s usually when she is tired and/or it’s a harder book she hasn’t read before.

Rod, you described my dd exactly. I find her misreading is careless - she’s tired and/or looking ahead at that hard word coming up.

Her phonological Awareness has gone up significantly since Xmas (if I can trust the school’s latest testing?). Overall she had a standard score of 111%, 73 and age equivelent of 9-1 (she was 7.10 at time). She was high average in Rhyming, segmentation, blending, and Graphemes. She was average in decoding and substitution and below average in Deletion subtests.

Any thoughts on what I can do to work on Deletion type activites to increase this score?

She is really coming along - she is into chapter books now at end of 1st grade (i.e. magic treehouse, Cam Jansen levels). She is reading above grade level and can decode (although slowly and may take several attempts) most any word. But it’s frustrating because she does make more mistakes than she should.

Wendy, what I think one should be cautious about when doing the reading exercise is to flash the word cards at the prescribed speed, and not to add new word cards if your ds misreads any of the old word cards at that speed. I made the mistake of skimming over the word cards. After two months my ds was already reading the blue word cards. On reporting back to Audiblox I was told to go back and start all over; that I was building a house of cards that would eventually crumble and that reading 20 words at the prescribed speed is better than reading 500 at a slower pace.

Hi Dea,

You wrote: “I find her misreading is careless - she’s tired and/or looking ahead at that hard word coming up.”

It’s always possible that she has an undetected vision problem that is causing some of this behavior, particularly if she shows obvious fatigue after reading for a few minutes. Assuming all is well on that front, however, there are a couple of things you can do.

I view the “careless reading” as a bad habit which can really get in the way. Like all bad habits, we have to be convinced ourselves that we need to change them…no one can do it for us.

First, try catching her in a few situations where the “carelessness” really causes her to mess up the meaning of the sentence and point out the impact of misreading a simple word like “when” or even “the.”

Second, play a little game for a page or two where you give her a point for every sentence read without a careless error (decoding errors don’t count here) and where you get a point for every obviously careless error. You can even give her a bonus point if she self-corrects such an error before you point it out to her. Most kids, faced with this challenge, will buckle down and try to accumulate a lot of points the first time the game is played. They end up reading without many mistakes, at which point I simply point out that it’s a habit that they are quite capable of breaking. Once they are convinced that they can read without the carelessness I really try to drum into them the thought that their carelessness is holding them back, and that it’s something they need to work on themselves, but that I’m going to continue calling them on every single error so that they remain aware that they are making them.

I know that last comment must worry some who are concerned about comprehension, but remember, nearly every kid I work with is a careless reader. Also, for comprehension’s sake, I gradually start to correct the insignificant errors by summing up at the end of the page as in “Good, you only made two careless errors on that whole page.” However, I only do this once they are making significant progress on that front.

Dea, you also asked:

“Any thoughts on what I can do to work on Deletion type activites to increase this score?”

Write 1 2 3 4 on a piece of paper and point to each letter as you say the sounds in a word, say T R I P, for instance. Then cover the 1 as you say What’s “trip” without the /t/? (sound, not letter name here) Then cover the 2 and ask “What’s trip without the /r/? If she leaves off two sounds /t/r/ go back to the numbers and indicate that she left off both 1 and 2, but your finger is only covering 2, for instance. This is a Phono-Graphix technique, and adds a visual aspect to the problem that seems to connect with most kids.

Best of luck….Rod

We were very meticulous over the flash cards. I don’t agree - it did not help her decoding skills at all. It just made her memorize the whole words.

What I believe Audiblox is missing is auditory processing/phonological processing exercises.

Thanks Rod - I always appreciate your insight. I want you to know that you have helped me tons on this board and that alot of my dd’s success is because of your suggestions.

I don’t think we have a vision problem. I’ve had her checked by a DO. But I’ve always suspected something - mainly because her visual memory was so low- but not handicapped. It’s alot better now and I’m wondering if when she was younger she did have some visual issues and has started to outgrow them?

Does anyone know if it’s possible to outgrow visual perceptual(not sure that’s the right term) problems - are any of them developmental in nature?

Dea,

My son’s OD told me his vision problems were developmental in nature. The problem was his development was way behind the demands of school and was unlikely to catch up without intervention. So, yes, vision problems can be developmental. Your daughter’s vision probably developed on its own—just at a little later schedule than some other kids. The memory problems are also suggestive of that. Memory can’t develop well without the sensory foundation.

Beth

You mention Phono-Graphix in your message. I am new to this sight and searching for help for my 10 yr old daughter who has auditory processing disorder specifically with phonetic decoding. I would appreciate telling me what this program is, and whether I can purchase it. I live in the CT area. She presently attends a small Catholic school and has recently been tested by our town. They felt that since her school grades were so good (A - B) that although her testing indicated a problem with phonetic decoding, “she would be okay later on”. This is not good enough for me as she enters the 6th grade. I am willing to help her and pay for extra tutoring, but unsure where to go.

Therefore, any help would be appreciated. Again, if you can tell me where to get this Phono-Graphix (if you agree it would be helpful), I would very much appreciate it.

Nancy

Phono-Graphix is a reading technique that focuses on decoding. Reading Reflex is the name of the book that is for parents to use at home using the Phono-Graphix method. It only costs about $16 and is available through most bookstores or through the Read America website. www.readamerica.net. You can do the program by just using the book. There are also people certified to tutor using this method.
Do a search on this board and you will find many discussions about it.

Hi Dea,

Thanks for the generous comments.

By the way, I wrote the last posting too quickly and see that I confused a couple of things about the deletion exercise.

I wrote: “Write 1 2 3 4 on a piece of paper and point to each letter as you say the sounds in a word…”

I should have said….” HAVE HER point to each NUMBER as SHE says each of the sounds in a word (of your choosing).” Obviously you would use a four sound word with a blend at the beginning or the end such as trip, grip, slip, spin, desk, task, hand, sand, black, slack, etc. And think ahead about the answer you’re generating with the deletion so you don’t generate anything embarrassing. If the word is “trip” and she says “tr” and points to the 1, straighten out the segmenting problem before continuing.

Rod

Hi Nancy,

Libby gave you the about the same answer that I would have…thanks Libby.

By the way, if you try the book first and it doesn’t work out, it could be due to a combination of factors having nothing to do with the curriculum. If that happens, try to find a trained therapist in your area.

Rod

Hey I am really Libby and I did not make the above post about Reading Reflex and either someone posted pretending to be me or someone has the same name as me, which is highly unlikely as I have never run into another Libby in my entire life!

So whoever this other Libby is, please identify yourself with a last name initial, mine is Libby M, so what is yours? or do you have one, if your are an imposter shame on you, and I always post with all lowercase and you did not.

libby

okay, I spelled impostor wrong, and i also always use xx for email address and the other Libby did not, so I would love to meet this Libby. be in touch Libby, signed , libby at [email protected]

I just found this board. Is it open to only a few of you to post freely?

Libby,

No, don’t think that. I think what happens is over time people come to “know” those who post frequently and people feel attached to their online identities. There was similar discussion over “jj” on another board. It also was unusual that both Libbys seemed to know PG.

Welcome!!

Beth

yes Beth said it well and the chances of seeing another Libby is so remote, i was surprised and yes our names do become familar, use a last initial and I will as well, libby m.

I’m sorry if I created any confusion.

I am so happy to see someone with the name Libby as I never run into anyone with the name, are you a teacher, I am here in PA and I run a community outreach reading clinic and use PG methods to help kids learn to read, are you a tutor, at my clinic I go Miss Libby, although i am married but at the center all t he adults go by Miss or Mister followed by the first name, welcome to the board and look forward to your posts, libby m

You were a bit rough. If I had been Libby I’d have been wondering what crime I had committed for having the same name. OTOH I use extra letters if I see another BRenda on the board.

I really appreciate your point about “careless readers”.

I’ve also been fighting this for years. It’s a hard battle, since the kids can identify the words in isolation or in simpler sentences, but they’ve learned a habit of rushing and guessing.

It’s hard to break that habit until you remove the payoff for it, the school keeps giving a payoff for being fast rather than correct, and unfortunately by high school when the habit breaks down for good, it’s too ingrained and there’s no time for intensive remediation.

Keep up the good fight.

Hi Libby M,

Where are you in Pa? I am near Gettysburg and have a 9 yr. old sped child who still only reads at 1.5. I don’t think he is challenged enough I have started Reading Reflex and have been having him tutored twice a week (as much as schedules permit) this summer by a remedial reading teacher.

It is always good to find Pa people who know the ropes of the rules here since I obviously have alot to learn.

Anne

Hi Everyone, I would like to comment on the bad reading habits of our non-readers. I think that the error portion of PG is what makes the program work so well. After I am done with the MS portion of the program, I immediately start the student reading in their actual grade level literature book. They then, read aloud and I correct every error that they make. When they guess at a word, I make them go back and sound it out. Remember, most of them have been taught to skip over the words that they don’t know, read to the end of the sentence and go back and guess using the context cues. (whole language strategy) Well, if they have to skip over five out of eight words, this ‘strategy’ is useless. The more that you error correct, the better their reading becomes. I think that we don’t give the student enough time to really practice using the strategies that we have taught, (I can only refer to PG, because I never used any other reading method), before we jump to another program. Think of this as a sport, you are teaching skills, give them time to practice.

Three cheers! Error correcting seems so straightforward and natural to me, it seems amazing that it’s a new and radical idea. Of course we error correct — if a friend was reading directions to your house and said East instead of West (a typical guesser’s error) wouldn’t you correct them before they drove twenty miles out of their way?? Would you let them get lost in a bad neighbourhood because some misguided idea of “politeness” tells you not to correct people’s reading? Well, get kids to correct themselves before they get lost and lose their educations for it.