ADHD child w/reading problems

Knowing the alphabet and sounds and sounding out words is a *good* stage. Now, the problem is not to hurry him into guessing.
Most kiddie library books have far, far too high a vocabulary demand for a beginner. You want to get books with very limited vocabulary and teach him step by step. You can get old readers at used book stores and rummage sales and (my favourite) school clearance sales.
You want the kind that everybody makes fun of with tons and tons of repetition so he can feel successful and secure.
You can also look on Amazon.com.
Many people here will sugest a number of “decodable” series, and these can be OK, but they can also go too fast. The series I use for beginners is the *OLD* Ladybird Key Words, numbered 1a and 1b through 6a and 6b; this has recently been reprinted in England, and can be ordered through penguin.uk note the uk, not .com) Unfortunately the British postage is terribly expemnsive, but for a beginner who needs security, these are worth their weight in gold (if you can get the six workbooks, all the better)
I just saw something else in the bookstore this week; some of the Dick and Jane books have been reprinted, by Scott Foresman, in association with Pearson Publishing. A web search may find these too.
You get a very limited vocabulary book and you teach him the words one by one. NOT as memorization and flash cards, but by sounding them out and basing on the very good skills he already has. Have him write the words (Be careful about directionality as he writes — don’t learn bad habits.) Do the workbooks if you can get them (hard to get so save originals and write on photocopies). Make sure to keep moving left to right and decoding — explain irregular words and long vowel combinations to him, stress that this makes sense, no reason to jump and guess.
Slow but steady wins the race. If you do two words a day, and read one or two pages of the controlled-vocabulary books, by the end of the school year he will be at or above grade level, and next year when the memorizers have forgotten everything he will pull ahead.

He is young and may still be in the range of normal for reading skills, but there is a well-known correlation between ADHD and reading difficulties. Kids with ADHD who are not dyslexic still often have problems with learning to read and with comprehending what they read. Your child’s ADHD makes it difficult for him to keep working on things that are hard for him. It also makes him more easily frustrated. He probably is feeling that this reading thing is too hard and this sounding out thing is taking too long. Hence, he tries to guess, because he is anxious to have it over and finds it hard to keep trying. I don’t think that kids with ADHD are typically “angry” the way your doctor says, but they are typically very easily frustrated and often get more emotional about it, more so as school becomes more difficult. They often will describe things that are difficult as “boring.” Does your child say that about reading? Think about having him work with you ( or a tutor) in ways that make more of a game about it. My child responded very well at that age when taught in a game format and was better able to keep working when some element of fun was built into the experience. Of course, schoolwork always necessitates a certain amount of drudgery and plain hard work, but interjecting some fun can make it easier for little ones., especially those with ADHD. As for the “h”, the onlynon-medication thing that I’ve found is lots of physicall activity. Try having him jump on a small trampoline before working on reading, or even while you are working. My son used to jump and spell words — a lot more fun than sitting in a chair. Sometimes he would spell words by making letter shapes with his body (doesn’t work for all letters, though).

[quote=”victoria”]The series I use for beginners is the *OLD* Ladybird Key Words, numbered 1a and 1b through 6a and 6b; [/quote]

GREAT SUGGESTION!! This is exactly what we used when my, then 6 yr. old, got stuck in reading. She knew her letters, sounds, and was able to sound out - but reading was a struggle. Then a friend, retired teacher, lended us the entire *OLD* Ladybird series. We started with 1a and went slowly up. What is great about those books is that the font is large, text is on the left page with no graphics and pictures are on the right page, and there is a lot of repetition of the words. And the vocabulary repeats and slowly expands as a child progreses from series 1 to 2, to 3 … . Oh yes, and each page identifies new words. Really great books!

If you could get those books - pay for them what ever they cost. I was not able to find anything remotely similar to those books amog reading books that are produced these days.

Good luck!

Some children with ADHD (not all) and subtle reading difficulties do respond to the right ADHD medicine but that is topic to be discussed with the family doctor. Some very conservative doctors tend to wait until the child is older to try the ADHD meds (the central nervous system stimulants/alerting agents).

Occasionally the ADHD meds do help with the skill of reading.

Susan have you heard of Irlens’ Method it consists in colored glasses that makes reading easier; it reduces anxiety and head hurting desappear. Sorry for my English I am mexican mother with tree adhd kids with learning disabilities. I think taht can help your kid. you just have to llok for information in your city or use internet to look for Irlen’s Method. Bye if you want any other help my e-mail is: jeadellx hotmail.com[quote:6235f62334=”susan in KY”]I have a 6 yr. old that is having trouble reading. He knows his alphabet and the sounds they make. He does pretty good on flash cards but when he is in front of a book he gets frustrated and says his head hurts. He will sound the first word out and then try to guess the word. What are some good methods for helping him. He even does well on spelling test. He has alot of the hd And if there was a way to calm that down( no medication) I think his ad would be greatly improved> He is a very happy child everybody loves him, even his therepist says he is not like the typical angry adhd child . I would appreciate any help.[/quote]

ABeka has a great series of little books that teach the lower elementary reading skills. They’re short, colorful, sweet stories that children enjoy reading over and over again — which continues the reinforcement of the skills! ABeka is a publishing company out of Pensacola, FL. I used their curriculum when homeschooling. It is typically used by homeschoolers and Christian schools. Their reading and phonics program is VERY sound. I now teach elementary school…