My 9 years old has been diagnosed with visual-mostor intergration problems, memory weaknesses and poor expressive language. His IQ is 119. He hates to write, and though he has not receievd help in reading, he hates it too. He can’t remember alot of what he reads. He can sound out words well and loves to hear me read to him books that are too hard for him. I want him to get help in reading or at least learn to love reading. He is getting o/t. Any advice?
Re: Need help in reading
Most of the time, over 90% in my experience, weak readers are also poor decoders. First he needs to learn decoding, and then he needs to learn to apply it to actual reading.
Three common patterns: (1) The school is religiously “whole language” and any phonics knowledge the child has is accidental and disconnected from his other knowledge. He may sometimes be said to be “good at decoding” because he did a few disconnected worksheets OK. (2) The child has been taught a certain minimal amount of phonics, beginning consonants and vowel names (“long” sounds) and sometimes a few “short” vowels, but this is not enough for practical use; he doesn’t know digraphs or vowel combinations and so cannot sound out more than a few words successfully, so he ignores phonics as not effective for him. He is said to be “good at decoding” because he passed the minimal tests, but he isn’t good at a level that is actually useful. (3) The child has learned phonics in a separate program and may be very good at saying individual sounds or decoding words in isolation, but he hasn’t learned how to use this skill in running reading. This used to be rare but is becoming more common as phonics-based tutoring programs are becoming common (a good thing!) but typically, American education is very bad at transitions.
The solution in most cases: (a) find out what his real phonics skills are. (b) Teach not just the Grade 1 minimum, but the main points of the whole structure; around 100 common spelling combinations for a good start. (c) **Practice this skill in running reading until it becomes automatic.** (d) Work at comprehension in parallel with skill development; it’s not a separate issue and disconnected learning is usually the problem, not the solution.
There are many different programs around, and there are disagreements on this board about which is the best; but any good complete phonics program and any developmental reading program with consistent and slowly-increasing vocabulary can be used successfully — it’s the teaching that counts in the long run.
Re: Need help in reading
Dear Jo,
I am a Special Education teacher and the author of Looking Glass Spelling. Perhaps my books could help your son. They have been very successful in my classroom with slightly older children. The vocabulary level would be good for a bright young man such as he, and he can work nearly independently at home or in school. Looking Glass Spelling is a unique, multisensory method of spelling instruction for students grades 2-8 who are reading 2 or more years below grade level. A single, reasonably priced binder of materials provides sufficient work for an entire school year with the kind of reinforcement and practice that LD students need. Looking Glass Spelling teaches strategies (not lists of words) that also improve reading and vocabulary because it is based on Glass Analysis, a recognized instructional technique for teaching decoding, and it uses age-appropriate vocabulary. To learn more about Looking Glass Spelling, see a sample chapter, or to order, just go to our website at www.gwhizresources.com. Good luck
Once my son could decode (he was very slow at first) the thing that helped him was practice.
I would start each reading session with him reading one page or even less. Encourage him to decode each word. Then I would read the rest to him.
You can have sessions where that is it, just one page maybe at bedtime. Also, have other sessions when you take turns reading pages.
My son’t first grade teacher told me to read to him as long as he will let you, even after he reads well himself.