Reading comprehension

My son has the exact same problem. I hope you get answers that I can use also. My son also is in fourth and has the same weakensses and strengths. Is your son classified, and what is it? If you do not mind saying.

Lisa
New Jersey

The Lindamood-Bell program called “Visualizing and Verbalizing” was developed to strengthen comprehension. If you can’t find someone qualified to use that program with your son, go to the Lindamood-Bell website and order the “Visualizing and Verbalizing” book. Read it through once and you’re ready to begin. For supplies, all you need is to barely color in a few of the pictures at the back of the book. There are also 12 “structure words” for you to cut out. They recommend that you buy their pack of felt squares but I went to a fabric store, bought a dozen for a couple dollars. Other people I know just use colored construction paper. You need about 8 different-colored 4 or 5 inch squares. That’s it. The program is easy to follow and, having worked with it for over 2 years, I’ve found that it’s enormously helpful in aiding comprehension for people who have difficulty.

The only time I’ve found it doesn’t work is when an individual has a problem with distractibility. I haven’t yet met with much success in children who are ADHD and unmedicated. There are some gains but they’re not significant. That doesn’t seem to be a problem from what you describe of your son.

Has he had an evaluation? There are learning disabilities that will effect comprehension, but not word reading. Sadly, low average intelligence also can create this profile: good decoder, good speller, neat as a pin, but lacks understanding. I cannot say what this is, but a thorough assessment may.

Like Anitya I’ve seen some kids who are very accurate readers, great with remembering details, and very organized but who really struggle with meaning especially when there are abstractions or figurative language. HOw is his vocabulary? Often starting with what words mean can start unlocking what longer passages mean, and tackling specific patterns in language can help too (such as practicing comprehending and using signal words like “but” and “therefore” and “despite.” )

Reasoning and reading byJoanne Carlisle is good for those kinds of things; V & V is good for kids who read and read… and then have no idea what they just read (I know, we’ve all done it sometimes ;)).

How about kids with higher comprehension then reading ability. How can they comprehend when they can not read? How do explain a child who can see the whole picture but misses the details. How can they answer difficult questions yet miss the most basic of question? Why is it that they can communicatte with adults on an intellectual level yet have difficulties with their peers. Draw an intricate picture but not form letters. Such a mixed message these kids send. The teachers reaction is he/she is just lazy and can do it if they try. But they do try and try and try to no avail.

common to dyslexics. They see the “big picture” and don’t notice details — which is actually a good thing if you are the CEO of a large company! Dyslexics often comprehend better than they can read because they use above-average IQ and receptive language skills to compensate for poor decoding skills. In other words, they become inspired guessers.

Dysgraphia is characterized by difficulties with writing, but no difficulties with drawing.

Dyslexia is usually the result of an underlying problem with auditory or visual processing — sometimes both. The best approach is to diagnose and reduce any deficits on this level, which makes academic learning easier.

Certain curriculum approaches work much better for the global learner. Unfortunately, elementary schools are set up for sequential learners — teach little bits, and work toward a big picture. To a global learner, the details have no meaning and therefore cannot be retained in memory before a “big picture” concept is in place.

Mary

Sorry I didn’t give more details. Actually he had a neuro psych evaluation at the age of 6 and was diagnosed with mild Aspergers syndrome and an attention deficit. He is not ADHD, no hyperactivity, just cannot stay focused. He does take adderall for that. I am having another neuro psych eval done in a couple of months at Kennedy Krieger Institute for specific LD’s. I see possible processing difficulties and he is the ultimate concrete thinker! I hope to get better answers with the new eval since it’s been 4 years and he has developed more.

He attended a special education school for two years. They used the Orton-Gillingham and Linda Mood Bell methods there. He is now back in a traditional school setting and struggling. The problem with the Sp. Ed. school is that they remediate the kids for one, two or three years, whatever it takes for each individual child and then send them back to a traditional school setting. I just see my son struggling now in this traditional setting and don’t want him to get to far behind.

I was excited reading your first paragraph. Wow! Then you talked about the ADHD. Well my son has an attention deficit, but not hyper. Do you think it is still worth a try? He takes adderall for the attention and it does help.

JoAnn, your son sounds just like my daughter two years ago.I taught her to read using phonographix and she could read grade level, but she couldn’t comprehend very well. I thought it would just fix itself over time - WRONG! We are now into our 2nd year using Audiblox and everything has improved. Her processing, her comprehension, her attention. She is no longer identified LD, but she does have a Speech/Language IEP in place and she does see a private SLP twice a month. This program is not a quick fix, so be prepared to spend two years doing the program. Now we are only working three days a week 20-30 minutes at a time. Last year it was only 4 days a week because of homework.

Good Luck

Where can I find out about the program you described. My son too has compreh issues

Lisa,

A child who can comprehend but can’t read, who gets the “big picture” but not the details, sounds like s/he learns best by using the right hemisphere of the brain. Individuals who read well but don’t get the “big picture” often have a stronger left hemisphere which basically means they get the discrete parts fine but have trouble with the gestalt. Both can be remediated to some degree but you’ll always have to teach to their strengths. It has absolutely nothing to do with laziness and everything to do with how the brain is structured. It would be nice, I suppose (at least for teachers’ sakes) if everyone were equally strong in both areas but it’s not the case. Some people have great differences between the two hemispheres of the brain.

My son is a strong right hemisphere learner. Reading came with great difficulty. He was barely reading in 5th grade. But he’s such a creative thinker! He had no trouble with math till high school when he struggled through algebra but the higher laws of physics came easily. As long as the work involved the visualization process, he could think it through more completely and more quickly than anyone else but as soon as it required all the little pieces of symbols that make up algebraic math, he floundered.

Read the book, “Teaching For The Two-Sided Mind” by Linda Verlee Williams. Better yet, ask your child’s teacher to read it. Another really good book written in simple language is called “Teaching With The Brain In Mind” by Eric Jensen.

I wish mightily that all teachers were educated about the brain and how all brains are not exactly alike. If they could just get an overview, they’d quickly realize that there are many different kinds of intelligences. Kids do the best they can; but when their confusion is met by disbelief and suspicion on the parts of their teachers, the students often develop coping strategies (class clown or indifference)to deal with the bad experience.

JoAnn,

Yes, by all means go ahead and try this program. It’s the distractibility factor that causes the problem. It sounds like you’ve solved the attention issue with Adderall.

In my experience, I see two different kinds of students: one group has poor visualization skills. They really don’t make very clear images in their brain and what this program does is to stimulate their brain by training them to make clear images.

Another group of individuals who benefit from this program are those who make so many pictures that they get bogged down in the details. They can’t find the “big picture”. Some of these kids seem like their mind is racing with all the images they’re making and they can’t make sense of them. Once medicated, these kids can pay attention but they often need remediation because they simply missed out on the experience in the years that they were so distractible. The V&V program offers them a system for learning how to concentrate.

I read somewhere that schools don’t really teach comprehension. Instead, they jump right in to the test part. You know, the child reads a passage, then has to answer questions about the passage. But if a child hasn’t been taught how to think about the passage, she or he may not know how to approach it. Distractible kids tend to read words but don’t actually concentrate on what the words are telling them. They need to break some bad habits and I think this V&V program does a decent job with that.

JoAnn, I answered you below before reading your post just above. Can you find out if they used the Lindamood-Bell V&V program with him? With an Asperger’s person, it’s a long process. The concrete thinking makes it harder to abstract but this type of person, more than anyone, needs to learn a system to follow. The V&V program should be good for him. I’d really push for getting him back into it or do it with him yourself (if he’ll let you) if you can’t find anyone who’s trained in it.

Joan,

You have been so informative. I really appreciate it and will look into the V&V program now. Thanks so much!

Yes, what you both say sounds right. My son is definitely a right brained child. He thinks in pictures, is very creative and imaginitive and reading and writing definitely elude him as does organization. His teachers say he is one of the most compassionatte and caring kids they know and I think this is what causes him trouble. They feel how can a kid who seems to “know more then his peers” (quote from his tutor) struggle so in school? I ask them what “you perfer he swings from chandeleers and cause you all sorts of trouble?” Their response is if he is capable of so much how can he have a disability? And I ask you are the teacher you tell me. I work with my son 1 and 1 and he has made such nice gains but this is only after many years of hard work. My worry now though is next year he will be in high school then what? He is such a quiete and undemanding child. He is one who does not ask for help when it is needed because he dont want to feel stupid. Any suggestions from those of you out there who have kiddos in high school already. My son is 13 and in the 8th grade. He currently has LD writing, math, and science and is mainstream for everything else. They plan to use the MAT 7 to determine next years placement this does not sound right, should I ask for a re-evaluation?

For phonographix go to readamerica.com for information

For Audiblox go to audiblox2000.com for more information

Good Luck!!!

I would DEFINTELY ask for reevaluation. Much can change over time.

My son has that same kind of personality that you describe. He’s in his 20s now and I have to say how very proud I am of him. He’s known for his compassionate, caring ways. I think that school, middle school in particular, are the very hardest times for any kid, but esp. for one with an LD or anything strikingly different from the others. Your son will probably do better in high school. There are lots of clubs and kids get to be known better through those clubs. Kids with common interests seem to find each other easier in high school through these clubs than they did in middle school.

After a really rocky childhood in school with headaches nearly every morning and tears many nights, my son found high school totally different. His headaches lasted the first two weeks of school and then disappeared forever. I thought high school would be worse but it was so much better. He was in a private high school and I think that made a big difference.

I wonder how teachers can CALL themselves teachers if they don’t know understand about kids with learning differences. They ought to be able to recognize the kind of pattern you describe by now. Calling it lack of motivation says more to me about the teacher’s ignorance than it does about your child.

Thanks for the reply it is very helpful. It is nice to hear success stories. Hope you have a great week. Thanks to all the others who replied too, I feel so much better.

Jo Ann,
Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children the 1998, study by The National Research council edited by Catherine Snow says “There are three potential stumbling blocks that are known to throw children off course on the journey to skilled reading….The second obstacle is a failure to transfer the comprehension skills of spoken language to reading and to acquire new strategies that may be specifically needed for reading.”
My guess is that your son is a great decoder, but now one has taught him that the words on the page really mean something. This critical thinking reasoning step can be taught. Brain researchers such as Carla Hannaford in Smart Moves talks about the critical thinking skills being a whole new set of wiring in the brain.

Jo Ann,
Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children the 1998, study by The National Research council edited by Catherine Snow says “There are three potential stumbling blocks that are known to throw children off course on the journey to skilled reading….The second obstacle is a failure to transfer the comprehension skills of spoken language to reading and to acquire new strategies that may be specifically needed for reading.”
My guess is that your son is a great decoder, but now one has taught him that the words on the page really mean something. This critical thinking reasoning step can be taught. Brain researchers such as Carla Hannaford in Smart Moves talks about the critical thinking skills being a whole new set of wiring in the brain.
Gaining comprehension from text is fun when working with kids. It is almost like plucking meaning up of the page and building or constructing understanding a little at a time. Once the teacher and the child get the hang of the technique, success spirals each time the process is used. The key is that the child must build the meaning to the text himself with the teacher helping. The teacher can’t tell or dictate the meaning of the text. Comprehension is then the teacher’s not the child.
Try this with your child. Select a text passage that your son can read on a topic that he loves. Line by line have him tell you what he thinks the passage means. As you go talk, connect appropriate sections to his personal experiences. Help him fine tune his understanding idea by idea as you go. Keep rereding the section and then add another line and another line. Stop when it seems enough and you are both weary. Repeat the process again at another time and then at another time. Soon you will notice that he’s building meaning quicker as you go and he’s flipping ideas around and having more personal connections and creative ideas attatched to the text as you read and discuss. His ability to do this will grow.
Next, try this with a small science, social studies, or math text. Build meaning together.
I predict that you will start to see his comprehension abilities build.
Good Luck

One of the major problem with most reading instruction is that it does a great job of teaching decoding and vocabulary and a lousy job of teaching comprehension. Most reading series expect students to transfer listening comprehesion to reading comprehension automatically. Some children do this but many do not. Comprehension strategies can be taught. I teach a different strategy everyday in guidedreading. I model the strategy, we practice together. Then the students read to use the strategy. We come together and they share their results. It may be that the strategy is inference. i would read a portion of text and talk about how good readers read between the lines. I would model thisthinking out loud. Then, I would read a portion of text and I would ask the students to infer the authors meaning. We would discuss what they think is happening and look for the proof in the text. Then, they would read the text and write their inference on a post it note and their proof. then, we would share the results. This method helps to transfer comprehension from listening to reading.

Joann,

I am very interested in your input about right sided thinking. The psycologist who did my son’s initial evaluation at at 5 said he was a right sided thinker but he didn’t explain what he was referring to at that time. I was very angry because I thought there was no way he could know how my son’s brain functioned with a few tests.

I however, due to the psycologists reputation, insisted that he retest my son at 9. He again started with the right brain thing so I did lots of reading and when we met and I on the same wave length to know the correct questions his diagnosis made sense.

My son is great at math, directions while traveling he always knows where he is, does well on spelling tests up to 8 words, the kindest most compasionate kid you could ever meet, extremely intuative his kindergarten teacher even said he can look right into you, he is extremely coordinated and athletic. Reading his difficult for him and the longer the writing assisignment the more difficult.

right-brained thinkers function better in a left-brained world. A good home-based program is Audiblox (http://www.audiblox2000.com). PACE (Processing and Cognitive Enhancement, http://www.learninginfo.com) is even better, but requires a larger commitment of time and money.

Cognitive training programs are very effective at developing sequential processing skills, which are often weak in global learners (who tend to handle simultaneous processing tasks easily). Simultaneous processing is necessary for higher order thinking skills. Sequential processing is necessary for a task such as reading.

Of course, there can be other underlying difficulties that make learning to read difficult (phonological processing delays, developmental vision delays, auditory processing disorders). However, whenever these problems are present, you’re also likely to have delayed development of sequential processing skills and cognitive training programs can help.

Mary