We have been stuck in the same spot for what seems like a year now. I started my ds out with How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons in 1st grade. He did great with the letters and sounds, but when it came to actually reading the words, he could not do it. I switched to RR, and he loves it. He can do all the Three-Sound Word Building lessons and all the Three-Sound Auditory Processing lessons without a mistake, but when I give him a three letter word to read in the Three-Sound Directed Reading, he goes “blank”. He cannot even think of the sounds sometimes. He tells me that his brain just won’t let him think of the sounds. I know he is trying so hard, and he just gets so frustrated with himself when he cannot do it. If he does manage to sound each letter out, when he goes to blend the sounds, the last sound always gets changed. For example, when he tries to blend ‘mop’ he says all the sounds correctly, but when he says the word, it comes out ‘mot’. He immediately realizes that the last sound came out wrong, and he tries it again. Again, it comes out ‘mot’. He gets so frustrated and hits his head and tells me that his brain just won’t let him say the sound right. Has anyone ever heard of this??
This is a child that is very bright…I know you’ve all heard the stories, but I can’t understand it….he learned his ABC’s on the computer when he was 2 yrs old. He got his own computer on his 3rd birthday and was turning it on, using the mouse, and loading his own CDs within a week. He has never had trouble learning things until we started reading.
One thing that I have to point out is that he has always had a problem with completing sentences. It is like he has trouble finding the words for what he is thinking, or he will mean to say one word, and he says another. For example, if he wants to say something is hot, he will say it is cold, or if he needs to tell me that something is in the refrigerator, he might say that it is in the dishwasher. He knew that he wanted to say refrigerator, but it came out dishwasher. After he hears it, he will correct himself. Does that make sense? It is so hard to explain it. Most of the time, he cannot even remember what something is called. It takes him a while to think of the name. I know that this is playing a part in affecting his reading, but I don’t know what to do about it.
Other interesting things…he never liked to color or draw when he was younger, and getting him to write anything is like pulling teeth. He gets ‘b’ and ‘d’ confused, and he tries to read from right to left sometimes. I can show him the word ‘on’ and he will read it as ‘no’. If I show him ‘no’, he will read it as ‘on’. He did reverse his letters and numbers when he would write in 1st grade, but this year, we started with Handwriting Without Tears, and he is doing great with it.
Where do I need to go for help? This board has been such an encouragement knowing that others have problems too, but I haven’t seen one quite like my son’s. Can anyone offer me some advise?
I would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks so much!
Sheila
Re: HELP!! My 8 y/o ds can't get past three letter words!! (
I recognize a lot of my son in your child. My son used to have trouble blending words too. The PG folks recommend a blend as you go strategy that I think is described in the book. If not, look under FAQ on their website. I honestly can’t say this strategy helped us—I do use it for multi-syllable words though but I think it is their recommendation.
I used to rewrite the word in another place. Don’t ask me why but that often seemed to help. I think it might have helped him get unstuck. Now my son has CAPD so my first suggestion would be to get a complete evaluation by an audiologist specializing in it.
The reversals are more likely to be a visual problem. They can be normal developmentally until maybe 7. My four year old writes his name perfectly—backwards. My now 11 year old—nonLD—did the same thing and it cleared up in first grade or at least by second, I think. Now my 8 year LD child still occasionally does this but far less than he used to. He had very weak visual-spatial skills also. These can be improved and my son is much better than he used to be. He beat me at a visual spatial game this week much to his delight. I would suggest you start with a complete evaluation by a developmental optometrist. We have done a number of therapies to address his visual issues.
The misnaming sounds like some variation of a word retrieval problem, which my son has also. He doesn’t call things by the wrong name though. He just doesn’t come up with a name or all or some general name for a specific thing. Word retrieval problems do affect reading also and are difficult to totally cure. We have made a lot of progress through Neuronet therapy which focuses on the vestibular system (http://www.neuroacoustics.com/). Lots of kids with problems in both visual and auditory channels, like my son, have sensory integration problems focusing on the vestibular or balance system.
My parent read of your post is that your child, like mine, may have problems in multiple sensory systems. This makes it hard to compenstate. Our strategy has been to focus on the sensory motor system—auditory, visual, and auditory-motor, visual-motor, auditory-visual, and vesitbular. We have found that this has helped provide the missing foundation for academic remediation.
My son is now 8 and in third grade. He is back in school fulltime (I had pulled him out part time last year). His reading is at a late second grade level. He is learning his multiplications tables and is functioning in a regular math class after being in resource room for 1st and second grade. In other words, he is doing quite well, especially compared to a year ago.
Beth
Re: HELP!! My 8 y/o ds can't get past three letter words!! (
My child has some of these characteristics as well. She has been diagnosed with an Auditory Processing Disorder. My suggestion is to first go get a thorough speech/language evaluation. This wil also show if there are problems in auditory (or other) areas. From there you can determine if he needs APD testing, dyslexia testing, etc. But a good S/L evaluation is a good place to start.
Janis
Bring in the other senses...
There are some ideas at http://www.resourceroom.net/Sharestrats/sightwords.htm
SOmetimes some more connections to motor pathways by clapping things out or air-spelling them can help.
A good website with information
about auditory processing disorders, including a search engine for CAPD audiologists in your area, is http://pages.cthome.net/cbristol/
I would start with an evaluation by a good CAPD audiologist.
Mary
Re: A good website with information
Like MaryMN, I definitely suspect an auditory processing disorder. This child sounds so much like mine! What I will very strongly emphasize is that it is critical to get an APD eval by someone who specializes in APD. If you decide to go that route, I’d be happy to talk with you about my exploration into APD and save you a few steps. It’s worth it to travel to get good testing. You still might want to get the Speech/Language eval first as it may be helpful to the audiologist in understanding how the APD has effected the child’s language.
Because your child sounds like mine, I will tell you that my child has auditory integration problems. That’s why she has difficulties with making parts into a whole, especially when the word or sentence is longer.
Janis
practical and effective method:
Here is a tried and true approach that has been used for centuries, but which modern educators call *modelling and scaffolding*. The idea is that you do the skill with the child, demonstrating out loud each and every step over and over until you drop, and the child works along with you until you can slowly reduce the help and he can do it on his own. Admittedly it’s long and tedious but hey, after months of failing on other approaches, a couple of months on something that usually works isn’t that bad.
Some of the suggestions I’m about to make here are a lot like what is done in so-called “sight reading”. I’m not advocating that *at all*, but the memory training method that works even with inefficient sight memorization works even better when phonics is used to make sense of the system.
First get a set of developmental readers with very very extremely limited vocabulary. I swear by the Ladybird *Key Words* series 1a and 1b to 6a and 6b, recently reprinted by Penguin and available from amazon.uk (Do not go for other readers from the smae publisher — newer editors have lost the system)
Other people like to use “decodable” readers. These unfortunately lack the intense repetition and the natural language structures (high frequency words and real sentences) that make the LKW readers work.
“Dick and Jane” will work, if you can find a set and stnd the silliness.
Then get some file cards (I like lots of pretty colours, but plain will do), plain clean new notebooks, not garbage paper, and markers (for smooth writing without pressure and fatigue)
Sit the child down with you and start with page 1 “Peter”. Say the word. Point to each letter and (if you have taught letter names) say slowly the name of each letter. Have the child say the names with you (skip this step if you have only taught sounds). Go over the word again, point to each letter and say its sound “p p p p - eeeeeee - t t t t t - uh - rrrrrrr”. Have the child point to each letter and say the sound with you. Run your finger left to right across the word, saying each sound clearly and distinctly and very, very slowly blending the sounds. Have the child do this with you. The do it a little faster, and a little faster again, with the child running a pointer across and saying each sound with you each time. On about the third speed-up you’re at very slow speech speed.
Get a file card, and slowly print the word “Peter” on it, with the child watching the marker, saying each sound as you go. Have the child trace the letters with a finger or a pointer (a retracted pen is good), saying each sound as he goes. Watch oujt that he is forming letters with correct directionality — this is the time to prevent b-d confusion by forming then correctly (kinesthetically nothing alike). If it helps, put a small red dot and arrow on each letter to show the start point and direction. If he can’t trace even with that, gently guide his hand tracing the letters, ing the sounds as you go.
Then, if he can print independently, have him print the word in his notrebook, agai saying the sounds as he goes, and blending the sounds and saying the word after printing.
After spending ten or twenty minutes on one word, go to page 2 and do the same detailed process with “Jane”
The next day, go to page 3 and do the same detailed process with the new word, “and”. The read the phrase “Peter and Jane”. As you read, run your pointer along under the letters, matching as much as possible the letter pointed to the sounds you are saying. Have the student do the same. Have him make the phrase “Peter and Jane” and then “Jane and Peter” by ordering the file cards. Then if he can print, have him write the phrases in his notebook. (You may need to print in a light colour so he can trace over with a darker one.)
The next day, do the same intensly detailed process with the new phrase “Here is” and the sentence “Here is Peter and here is Jane”.
Each time you read together, he says what he knows, you say the new stuff, he copies the new stuff, you break down the new stuff into sounds, he repeats the breakdown into sounds, you blend it, and he blends it. This is both very intense and very much spoken.
After several days like this, review all the cards (NOT as flash cards and not for speed) and the notebook. The child will be extremely proud of the stack of wordseadily building and the amount he has written by himself.
OK, so the first week here has built up a five-word vocabulary of monosyllables. BUT — you have gone over ten of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, nearly half, both in pronunciation/phonics and printing; you have read one fifth of a real book; and you have developed the habit of tracking words and phrases in the right direction.
In four to five weeks, you can finish book 1a and have a seventeen-word vocabulary, then use 1b for review and reward (a book I can read all by myself); in eight to ten weeks you can do 2a and 2b and have a forty-two word vocabulary and have a habit of reading connected sentences; and in three or four months you can have level 3 and maybe 4 and have fundamental literacy.
You have already done phonics (good!); I parallel the above lessons (20 to 30 minutes each meeting) with 20 to 30 minutes of phonics. A good phonics workbook is a wise investment to back up the written forms of the letters kinesthetically while *saying* the sounds. Since the natural-language readers follow frequency and not phonics rules, you will meet lomng vowels and diphthongs in the reading before you have formally taught them in phonics. That’s OK; just model the pronunciation, telling him for example that ay makes the a say its long sound or name and the y is just there as a helper and doesn’t make a sound on its own. At first this will go over his head but after a couple of months of modelling it will stick. When a certain pattern such as ay comes up in the phonics book, this is the time to review all the words that have been met in reading that have that pattern, and then to build new words.
Good luck and do tell us how progress is going.
practical and effective method:
Here is a tried and true approach that has been used for centuries, but which modern educators call *modelling and scaffolding*. The idea is that you do the skill with the child, demonstrating out loud each and every step over and over until you drop, and the child works along with you until you can slowly reduce the help and he can do it on his own. Admittedly it’s long and tedious but hey, after months of failing on other approaches, a couple of months on something that usually works isn’t that bad.
Some of the suggestions I’m about to make here are a lot like what is done in so-called “sight reading”. I’m not advocating that *at all*, but the memory training method that works even with inefficient sight memorization works even better when phonics is used to make sense of the system.
First get a set of developmental readers with very very extremely limited vocabulary. I swear by the Ladybird *Key Words* series 1a and 1b to 6a and 6b, recently reprinted by Penguin and available from amazon.uk (Do not go for other readers from the smae publisher — newer editors have lost the system)
Other people like to use “decodable” readers. These unfortunately lack the intense repetition and the natural language structures (high frequency words and real sentences) that make the LKW readers work.
“Dick and Jane” will work, if you can find a set and stnd the silliness.
Then get some file cards (I like lots of pretty colours, but plain will do), plain clean new notebooks, not garbage paper, and markers (for smooth writing without pressure and fatigue)
Sit the child down with you and start with page 1 “Peter”. Say the word. Point to each letter and (if you have taught letter names) say slowly the name of each letter. Have the child say the names with you (skip this step if you have only taught sounds). Go over the word again, point to each letter and say its sound “p p p p - eeeeeee - t t t t t - uh - rrrrrrr”. Have the child point to each letter and say the sound with you. Run your finger left to right across the word, saying each sound clearly and distinctly and very, very slowly blending the sounds. Have the child do this with you. The do it a little faster, and a little faster again, with the child running a pointer across and saying each sound with you each time. On about the third speed-up you’re at very slow speech speed.
Get a file card, and slowly print the word “Peter” on it, with the child watching the marker, saying each sound as you go. Have the child trace the letters with a finger or a pointer (a retracted pen is good), saying each sound as he goes. Watch oujt that he is forming letters with correct directionality — this is the time to prevent b-d confusion by forming then correctly (kinesthetically nothing alike). If it helps, put a small red dot and arrow on each letter to show the start point and direction. If he can’t trace even with that, gently guide his hand tracing the letters, ing the sounds as you go.
Then, if he can print independently, have him print the word in his notrebook, agai saying the sounds as he goes, and blending the sounds and saying the word after printing.
After spending ten or twenty minutes on one word, go to page 2 and do the same detailed process with “Jane”
The next day, go to page 3 and do the same detailed process with the new word, “and”. The read the phrase “Peter and Jane”. As you read, run your pointer along under the letters, matching as much as possible the letter pointed to the sounds you are saying. Have the student do the same. Have him make the phrase “Peter and Jane” and then “Jane and Peter” by ordering the file cards. Then if he can print, have him write the phrases in his notebook. (You may need to print in a light colour so he can trace over with a darker one.)
The next day, do the same intensly detailed process with the new phrase “Here is” and the sentence “Here is Peter and here is Jane”.
Each time you read together, he says what he knows, you say the new stuff, he copies the new stuff, you break down the new stuff into sounds, he repeats the breakdown into sounds, you blend it, and he blends it. This is both very intense and very much spoken.
After several days like this, review all the cards (NOT as flash cards and not for speed) and the notebook. The child will be extremely proud of the stack of wordseadily building and the amount he has written by himself.
OK, so the first week here has built up a five-word vocabulary of monosyllables. BUT — you have gone over ten of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, nearly half, both in pronunciation/phonics and printing; you have read one fifth of a real book; and you have developed the habit of tracking words and phrases in the right direction.
In four to five weeks, you can finish book 1a and have a seventeen-word vocabulary, then use 1b for review and reward (a book I can read all by myself); in eight to ten weeks you can do 2a and 2b and have a forty-two word vocabulary and have a habit of reading connected sentences; and in three or four months you can have level 3 and maybe 4 and have fundamental literacy.
You have already done phonics (good!); I parallel the above lessons (20 to 30 minutes each meeting) with 20 to 30 minutes of phonics. A good phonics workbook is a wise investment to back up the written forms of the letters kinesthetically while *saying* the sounds. Since the natural-language readers follow frequency and not phonics rules, you will meet lomng vowels and diphthongs in the reading before you have formally taught them in phonics. That’s OK; just model the pronunciation, telling him for example that ay makes the a say its long sound or name and the y is just there as a helper and doesn’t make a sound on its own. At first this will go over his head but after a couple of months of modelling it will stick. When a certain pattern such as ay comes up in the phonics book, this is the time to review all the words that have been met in reading that have that pattern, and then to build new words.
Good luck and do tell us how progress is going.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR RESPONSES...
I have been out of town for a four day weekend and now have two funerals to go to, so I apologize for not responding. I want to print all of your great responses and go over them all in more detail as soon as I can settle back down. I will keep you all posted.
Thanks again for taking the time to help us!
Sheila
Re: HELP!! My 8 y/o ds can't get past three letter words!!
Get the book The Gift of Dyslexia, by Ron Davis, and try the approach outlined there.
This may or may not work for you, but it is a very different approach that emphasizes visual recognition and comprehension skills, and also addresses and resolves the reverals very quickly. Sometimes dyslexic kids have real problems with phonetic decoding, and more effort and drill doesn’t help.
If you are stuck after a year, it can’t hurt to try a new approach. After you get the book, if you decide to follow the steps, you can get help and support at http://dyslexiatalk.com/
(There is a homeschooling mom there now who is posting a daily diary of her experiences working with her son).
Best wishes,
Abigail
Please do keep us posted :)
I always wonder when a person posts once, gets a zillion responses and disappears… and I wonder if they ever even read the answers or if they forgot they posted! (So I’m glad you came back :))
Re: HELP!! My 8 y/o ds can't get past three letter words!!
Having child sound the word out each time helps alot you might also get the workbook explode the code as it shows with pictures how words differ from the change of just one letter so the child can see if he or she sounds it out wrong it is another word not the one they wanted .You’ll need to go over the work book with them to show them ,it is a great book as my daughter is seeing how she really needs to pay attention to how she sounds it out to read words.
We also supplement with tutoring the Spalding Method but I really like the explode the code work book by Nancy Hall and Rena Price.
Re: HELP!! My 8 y/o ds can't get past three letter words!! (
My daughter is the same way with saying bagel for doughnut,pen for pencil,I tell you instead of ask you and also has the word retrieval issues.And yes she does revearse her letters when reading.I have her sound out her words and try to get her to notice what happens when she sounds out wrong.We are having her tutored in the Spalding Method and using the workbook “Explode the Code”.I would be very interested in your son and what your school is doing for him and what you are doing at home.It is very frustrating for my daughter to communicate sometimes and have had behavioral problems due to miscommunication just wondering how you are coping with the word retrieval issues.My daughter is in 3rd grade.
Re: HELP!! My 8 y/o ds can't get past three letter words!! (
I concur, I am a speech therapist and it sounds like you have a speech issue here among other things. Quite possibly dyslexia. Inquire around for a speech therapist who is familiar with dyslexia and/or learning disabilities, many, even in schools, are not.
Sheila,
This sounds a little bit like a processing disorder- if the brain isn’t processing the information fast enough, its gets muddled by the time you get to the end of a word or a sentence. You might search these boards for some of the posts on topics like Brain Builder or PACE. Those are both programs to improve cognitive processing speed, and there are others as well. I’m not too familiar with them, but there are others on these boards who are.
Jean