Sounds out every word

sounds like a poor blender to me, help him learn some blending techniques, what appears as a sight word to you, is not to him, sight words require perfect blending and your son does not have it,

help him learn blending or 2 and 3 syllable words will be very hard and when in 3rd grade, the school will then decide he now needs the reading specialist, and be scratching their heads as to what HIS problem is, when in reality, it was their problem that he cannot read in 3rd grade,

the RS will give him more sight words to memorize and he will continue to struggle as no one will identify what he needs and that is blending help.

you can look at a word such as boat and say boat very quickly, your son cannot do that, he has to first identify what sounds are represented by the code in boat and then he must blend them to hear the word,

he does just what you do, only he does it in slow motion,

*appreciate* the skill of blending and help him learn it, teach him to blend as he goes in the word, never use word families, as that puts your child at the end of th e word first, then he must turn around and find the beginning of th e word and try blending again, all these steps become a nightmare for the poor blender,

dave

I have several suggestions, all of which helped us.

First, get the book “Reading Reflex” ($16 at most bookstores). This is written specifically for parents to use at home with children.

Because of the need to use a marker to stay on the right line, I would arrange for a developmental vision evaluation. Developmental vision problems are not tested in a regular eye exam. You can find out more about vision at http://www.children-special-needs.org, and you can find a listing of certified developmental optometrists in your area at http://www.covd.org. (My own dd saw an opthalmologist for years. Unfortunately, they are not trained to assess developmental vision.)

Check into Audiblox, http://www.audiblox2000.com, which is a cognitive training program that develops things like short-term memory, pattern recognition, etc. Book, video, and starter kit of manipulatives are enough to get started.

Mary

Abby:

I was wondering how long your son has been reading? How long has he been sounding out every word? He may just need more time sounding out words. However, if it has been a long time, he may not realize he is supposed to blend the sounds together. Does he just say the sounds or does he then blend the sounds. If he does blend the sounds to form a word, then he can blend.

I am also Phono-Graphix trained and think that getting Reading Reflex is a great idea. Also, there is website where blending problems are discussed in their Frequently Asked Questions pages.

Here is the website address: http://www.readamerica.net/index.html

Good luck!

Margo

P.S. — At least your son isn’t guessing words! He’s well on his way!

Hi Abby,

From what you’re saying, your son is understanding instructional content, and is capable of blending (since he “sounds out” every word, but is having trouble with the actual reading process. His A in math and his carrying decent grades in spite of obvious reading difficulty also indicate that he’s at least an average student.

In my experience, such a child often has an undetected vision problem which is keeping him from applying what he already knows about the reading process to the actual act of reading. He understands what to do and knows how to do it, but he can’t perform adequately, because his eyes aren’t seeing what the rest of us do when we look at the printed page. This is not that uncommen and, in my opinion, runs in families, so consider that also.

A developmental optometrist should know what to look for. Make sure the optometrist has an associated vision therapy department because your son is likely to need it’s services. Spend some time investigating vision therapy before you go this route. Parents of past vision therapy clients are your best source.

Hope this helps….Rod

My son started reading in first grade, but it has always been word by word. Some of the larger words he goes through and says all the sounds and then says a different words. For example language, then he says luggage.

Abby, I posted this on “teaching students with LD” so it’s a repeat for some people but I thought that it was worth repeating…

“Dyslexia is a garden variety term for having problems with reading. There are lots and lots of reasons why that child or adult can not read.

I just found this today while doing a search. There are three types of dyslexia. 1. Dyseidetic: Usually having visual processing deficits with decreased visual memory and visualization. They have a limited sight word and they over rely on phonetic 2. Dysphonetic: They have a poor understanding and application of phonetic decoding rules. This is usually associated with magnocellular visual pathway deficits. 3. A mixure of both.”

Your son sounds ALOT like mine. My son started really having problems in 3rd grade because all of the school books really cut back on pictures. This forces the student to gleam the information from the text, which force the kids to depend on reading skills. My son did very well in school making all A’s and B’s until 3rd grade when the reading demands become higher.

I did PACE with my son along with Interactive metronome. We are now doing NeuroNet. PACE greatly improved reading skills. (From 3rd to 5th grade I had to sit by my son to help him read through his homework. He now does homework independently.) IM helped improve his focussing skills (which we did before we did PACE). We are doing NeuroNet, now, to improve processing issues.

As Mary in MN so nicely says. You have to know your child. You then have to find out what exact skills he lacks. Then, find that program to fit those areas emphasizing the foundation skills first. Each program addressed different areas. Finding that one that fits your sons area of weakness will generate the biggest gains.

Hope this helps.

Donna in MO

Thank you all for your help. I will read more about the ideas people have listed. What a great wealth of knowledge this board is!

The above advice is all sound. Here are a couple of simple things you can do as well:

Model and scaffold. This means giving your child a model of what you want him to learn so he can copy (It is amazing how many teachers ask a kid to learn a skill but don’t show him how!), and you support him as he learns, just as you would hold him up while he learns to swim. Get a nice book to read on his level, Grade 1-2 (used book stores often have old readers that are perfect for this purpose.) Read a sentence or a page (short) for him, showing him *how* to blend — say the sounds in each longer word separately, then put them together s-l-o-w-l-y, then put them together a bit faster, then finally at normal speech sound. Then re-read the sentence over at a very slow but understandable speech speed, pointing to each word as you go. After you do a (short) page like this, have him do the next page. If he stalls out on a word, sound it out with him (not for him, but step by step together.) Encourage him to skip the very slow first sounding-out stage as soon as he is reading comfortably. The more practice you do, as long as you are practicing something positive and not a mistake, the more fluent he will become. But let him take his time and don’t pressure for speed; that is counter-productive.

Do a lot of shared reading. Again, with a book on a level he is confident in, read a page out loud; use lots and lots of expression but slow your voice down to the slowest possible speech that is understandable. Point to each word as you go. The have him read the next page, pointing to each word. Let him go at whatever speed he can, without pressure. If he stalls, help *gradually*, first the beginning consonant, pointing to it, then beginning consonant and vowel, moving marker left to right, then first syllable, and so on. If he knows that he will get needed help he will be less afraid of making a mistake and will be more fluent.

Definitely, sounding out slowly is infinitely better than guessing wildly; you’re on a good track and just need to move forward.

Hi Abby,

Your son no doubt sounds out every word letter-by-letter because he has been taught to read that way. When children learn to read with “decodable phonics text” such as “Sam cat can scat,” some of them have great difficulty transfering to “real English text” such as “Would you please be my friend?”, which, of course can’t be sounded out letter-by-letter. The way out of this dilemma is to start him over again with “real English text” and show him how to read words by fitting them into a meaningful context based on left-to-right phonics clues. If you are interested in details on this, check out http://www.OnlineReadingTeacher.com.