Hello- I would like some feedback about what I am doing to improve my 12 year old daughter’s reading speed. A little background first. I’ll try to be brief, but I am not sure how much of my info is relevant and don’t want to leave out anything important!
She was adopted about 20 months ago (at age 10.5) from Haiti, and came home speaking very basic English learned in her orphanage from her non-native English speaking teacher. She could not read in either Kreyol or English, unless you count a few memorized “sight” words in English. All academic areas were very low, between preschool and grade 2 level. She looked and acted like a 7 year old. The doctors felt she was definitely developmentally delayed.
I started teaching her to read using Reading Reflex (PG), which was successful as far as learning to decode, but she continued to read very slowly and would mix up words (of and for, were and where, was and saw, and and the, etc) After being in our family for 6 months, I had her tested by a psychologist who specializes in testing for LD’s because I was concerned with her slow rate of learning. He agreed that IQ scores would probably not be accurate due to ESL issues, but he felt that we could at least get an idea of any learning issues.
Scores came back quite low in all subtests on the WISC, (he also did some other tests) but the psych felt that due to some of the reasoning shown in her answers, she was not mentally retarded, but probably had low average intelligence with language based learning disabilites. Also, her scores on the performace section were very similar to scores on the verbal section, which probably shouldn’t have been the case due to English being her second language. I think this may have been another reason the psych didn’t think she was MR. It was all very confusing to me, and not terribly helpful to be honest. So, long story short, I either have an LD child or a slow learner, and who knows which one?
Anyway, I have continued to work with her (we homeschool) and she is making progress. We could not afford any private LD therapy, but I did meet with an NILD therapist to get some ideas, and also read and applied the Brain Integration therapy Manual. I have done as much research as I can to help her, but I have 5 other kids and limited time.
Anyway, her reading speed continues to be a problem. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Bob Book or Little House in the Big Woods, if she hasn’t read it before, her speed is very slow, slower than 60 words per minute. Comprehension is very good, however, which amazes me.
Right now, I have her doing repeated readings of short passages at a slightly challenging reading level(about 100-130 words or so) on a regular basis, keeping track of her speed improvement. I time her the first time she has ever read the passage, then we come back to it a couple times a week until she has read it a total of 8-10 times. Her speed usually doubles by the 4th reading, but still never gets much faster than 120 words per minute.
I also have her doing speed drills where she reads lists of high frequency words for speed. I put 5 or 6 words in each set and randomly repeat them. She does 36 words total in each set. I also keep track of her speed on these lists so she can see her improvement. The fastest she can read these sets of 36 words is about 35 seconds. Usually it takes her over a minute on the first attempt. This seems to have helped her to not mix up words as much as she did previously, but she still can’t zip thru the words very quickly.
I have just started having her read along silently while listening to a book on tape. I don’t know if this will help, but she does enjoy it!
I “buddy read” with her almost daily from a slightly challenging book. Right now we are doing Little House in the Big Woods. I use PG correction methods in all my reading instruction.
I use Sequential Spelling with her. This seems to have helped her spelling tremendously, but doesn’t do much for her reading speed!
Anyway, any ideas? Maybe I am expecting too much? After all, she has gone from a non-reader to about late 2nd, early 3rd grade level in 20 months. She has blossomed so beautifully in all areas except academics. I would so appreciate any feedback from those more experienced in teaching kids with learning issues. I’m sorry this post was so lengthy!
Joan
daughter's progress
I’m amazed at the progress your wonderful daughter has made in such a short time! She’s learned to read in a language very new to her - she doesn’t sound MR to me at all and with her history, testing and the results it offers are at best problematic.
I’m sure as she continues to come along so will her reading speed come along. That her comprehension is excellent is key.
Re: Improving fluency for my ESL daughter
I’d have to agree — unless the tester has a lot of experience with second language children, she’s probably much smarter than the test indicates. Sounds like you have a very good program going for her that’s enriching her experiences with language and letting her build skills at her own pace. About the only thing I *might* do — but not if it would make the day too long, since she should have some time to be a kid in my humble opinion, would be specific vocabulary building practice or language generation practice (“make a list of 25 things you’d find at the grocery store” “how many things can you name that you’d find underground?” and that sort of thing, to try & get her imagination going).
Thanks for the encouragement
Thank you all for your responses. I am happy to know that my daughter and I are on the right track. I will be patient and continue what we are doing.
Re: Improving fluency for my ESL daughter
As the parent of an internationally adopted child (and a special ed. teacher!), I will tell you that children adopted at that age with prior environmental deprivation, poor nutrition, etc. are more likely than not to be delayed in some areas. The testing is only valuable in telling you where she is versus where she’ll be the next time she is tested. IQ scores really just illustrate the deprivation the child has experienced.
You sound like you are doing a fabulous job! I like your work so far in reading and spelling. Be sure you review the advanced code to be sure she retains it. Just keep working on the fluency. You might want to try QuickReads from Pearson Learning. The passages are from science and social studies so the child is learning valuable content while increasing fluency.
A good source of all kinds of language materials is Lingui-Systems. They are usually very user-friendly.
Again, you are doing a great job, and I hope she continues to make great progress!
Janis
Re: Improving fluency for my ESL daughter
I work with second-language kids all the time, and time and experience are the keys, period.
Your program sounds wonderful, and doing the “Little House” books in her second year is excellent progress.
I would suggest you back off the speed drills and repeated readings. As you have proved to yourself, they are not doing much good. On the other hand, they are taking up time and energy that could be spent on enriching your child’s experiences and language.
I would say keep up the excellent work in reading all sorts of material and learning the code from PG; then take time to do things that enrich general experience and language — field trips, group activities and clubs, sports, etc. Talk with her as much as possible, encouraging conversational fluency and logical reasoning. Encourage her in activities that teach physical coordination large and small too.
Your child will probably show a great increase in IQ scores as she gets more mental input. Reading speed should go up as she gains practice and confidence in her new language.
Wow—your daughter sounds really lucky to have “found” you. I’m just a mom, but it sounds to me like you’ve done almost everything right. My son is 11. in fifth grade, and has a diagnosis of dyslexia and dysgraphia. His IQ is quite high, and his oral vocabulary is several years above expectations for his age. Like you, I’ve done an enormous amount of research, and we homeschooled for awhile. My son’ s decoding skills have improved enormously, but fluency is still an issue for him, just as it is for your daughter. Based on my research, I’ve concluded that this is largely due to his relatively late (appropriate) remediation, and that his automaticity will never be what it might have been. (You might be interested in some of Joe Torgeson’s research—he compares effects for early intervention and later intervention, and fluency seems to be the big difference). Even so, I understand that fluency can still be improved. We also do repeated timed readings of word lists and of controlled text. His best times now (on text with about a 4th grade readability) have reached up to 170 WPM (but definitely not consistently). And his times on first reading have improved—occasionally he’ll read 90 wpm on his first try. This time last year he was about where your daughter is. So don’t quit, and don’t get discouraged. I would suggest that you be sure that the timed readings are not above her instructional level. Otherwise I just wanted to say kudos.