Because my son has had so much difficulty reading and writing in elementary school and had already been through many SLD programs and techniques (LiPS, Reading Reflex, etc…), I decided to try something different for the summer before middle school.
I believe that my son has missed some basic skills in language arts while he was pulled out for SLD in elementary school. I feel that giving my son the opportunity to work on Kumon reading packets at a much lower level than his actual school grade will fill-in some missing pieces for him. He can progress along at his own pace until he catches up to where he should be. This opportunity to go back and review basic skills will not be available to him in the regular language arts curriculum. The work is pretty easy, taking less than 15 minutes per day and builds his confidence. Each packet progresses a little bit further along in a subtle manner. This is a fairly inexpensive way ($100 per month) to give your child daily reading and language arts skills. They also have a math program for kids who need help in that area. The child takes responsibility for their own learning by completing the packets daily. It is not tutoring, the child basically is working through the material on their own with twice a week review by the Kumon proctors. At this point, I think it is good that he is taking responsibility for his own learning as well. Not everyone who goes to Kumon is there for remediation, I see a lot of kids whose parents are trying to push their little geniuses ahead as well. You might want to give this a try if you think your child could use a skill-building review.
We have tried many things over the years already
Believe me, my kid has already tried plenty of “programs” over the years.
He has done Speech Therapy (fronting), Fast Forword I & II (auditory processing), LiPs, Reading Reflex, Vision Therapy (over-convergence), SRA Reading/Spelling Mastery, Balametrics, and Audiblox. I actuallly have the REWARDS workbook you suggest as well. He has had teachers tutor him over the summer in previous years to teach him how to write essays using graphic organizers and drilling math facts for speed.
I just feel that he has missed some basic language arts skills because he was “pulled-out” of regular class for the past 3 years every day. He has the 5th grade language arts workbook available to him to practice over the summer as well but I really feel that he needs to go way back and make sure he is capitalizing the beginning of sentences, noticing the correct tense and suffix on words when he writes, building vocabulary and spelling, etc…
He knows phonemes as much as he is going to learn them at this point. His reversals are just about non-existent anymore. He still has fluency issues by making up words that are not on the page and losing his place when he is tired. He says he reads better silently than out loud. He did get a “3” (on grade level) for reading on his FCAT both last year and this year.
I am going to give this a try and see if he can progress to grade level language arts by getting the practice I feel he needs. I want to give him a chance to catch up that I don’t think he will have the luxury of doing in regular class in the Fall.
Another thing with tutors is that my kid is very clever with a cute personality and he learns how to distract the teacher so they waste time during tutoring sessions. With these packets, he does them and I check them. There is no manipulation going on. Also, tutors are very expensive and usually you can only afford 1-3 days a week. My son does Kumon every day, even on the weekends.
Re: Kumon Reading
I find that reviewing relatively easy material can be a help, especially for fluency issues. And yes, he does need to be *taught* capitalization and all that stuff, it doesn’t occur by magic. So your plan has a lot of good points.
The business of “reading better silently” is being discussed on another thread on this board. I don’t believe it. In every case I’ve met, it’s been a case of faking better silently, which is not at all the same thing! Not to be rude, but if he’s such a hot silent reader, why is he in need of help?
I would add to your plan having him read the selections in the packets to you *out loud* for twenty minutes every day. And while he is reading, you don’t let him get away with guessing and sloppiness; make him stop and correct. The point of reading easy selections is that he can manage them and develop fluency, so work on the accuracy; in my experience fluency picks right up once accuracy is working.
Re: Kumon Reading
I think going back and reviewing basic skills is a great idea, but paying $100 to Kumon is really a stretch. There are many homeschool language arts curriculums and workbooks that you could by which would cost you much less and would work just as well since he is working independently anyway. Steck-Vaughn has some nice language arts workbooks, as one example. I have used several of thier workbooks in the past including Language Exercises. EPS (www.epsbooks.com) has very nice materials as well and they are mostly designed for LD kids.
Janis
Good Points
I agree with Victoria that I don’t believe my son is reading better silently than out loud. He does mis-speak words he means to say when talking like many dyslexics but I am sure he still continues to “guess” some unfamiliar words. I also have him read to me every night so I can hear his fluency. He likes the Henri Winkler books with larger print and less words on a page since they do not intimidate him as much.
I work outside the home full-time so this program seems to fit into our schedule and still leave my son time for lots of summer activities. Thanks for the suggestions for other workbooks but I think I will give this a try and see if his writing/spelling improves by the end of the summer.
Well I have mostly not heard good things about Kumon for Ld kids. The problem is that he is not really going to improve his reading skills doing material that is very easy for them, and the Kumon folks won’t know how to get him reading harder stuff. Depending on what grade level he is reading at, I would recommend him doing Rewards (you might actually be able to do this with him). It is for 4th grade or higher. The other option is to find a private tutor to work with him a few times a week. He might actually increase his ability if he worked with someone who knew what they were doing. (Recommend IDA, local weeklies asking lots of questions, etc.)
The idea that “increasing his self-confidence” has any impact on reading has yet to be proven.
—des