DS is reading a year behind grade level – what more can I do?

[Anonymous]

Lindamood Bell. Massively expensive, but the only thing that moved the needle on my son's comprehension. His standardized test scores improved more than 2 years over 12 weeks

[Anonymous]

Can you explain a complex concept and have him comprehend?

My son is dyslexic and ADHD and did ASDEC tutoring. He is doing well but his reading comprehension is never going to be strong.

But his ability to understand concepts and reason is very high.

Discuss the news, politics, science, etc with him. Watch Discovery channel, etc.

Help him acquire language (vocabulary) in other ways. If there a good vocab words in music pick them out and discuss their meaning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. According to all the testing we have had done through the school and his developmental pediatrician and his psych, his ADHD has affected his executive functioning in such a way that he struggles with comprehension. I have been reading about the connection pretty extensively, and like at least one of the PP's, he also had language issues when he was young.

We are still getting a handle on fully medicating the ADHD, as we only just started a few weeks ago with so far only one type of medication. As everyone on this board knows, tweaking the meds can take months – still hoping that if we get that under control, the reading may begin to get easier for him. As I mentioned, he has begun being a little more enthusiastic just recently, although I don't think we are on a high enough dose or one the right med just yet. But we are still trying to read with him, talk about it, ask questions.

One reason we were a little unsure about getting a tutor was that a reading resource specialist had mentioned to my DH that if my son has anxiety (which he does), bringing in a tutor sometimes can make the anxiety over reading worse. I'm just not sure we can wait much longer in terms of getting him more reading support. My DH is kind of freaking out about it (which also doesn't help).

This is really bad information and I'm shocked that a resource teacher would think they are qualified enough to give out what is basically medical advice.

While he may not love the idea of it, if you found a tutor that he gets along with and gets his learning style and that helps him get up to speed with reading he would be better off in the long run. Right now he has an IEP and is getting special instruction. My son gets this too and I know he doesn't like it in school because everyone knows that such and such teacher helps out those that need "extra help". This very well could cause more anxious tendencies.
My son also sees a tutor after school and while he doesn't jump for joy over it, he doesn't put up much resistance either. He knows he needs the help and he knows the tutor just wants him to succeed.

[Anonymous]

My son was very delayed in reading when he started MS - he wasnt much beyond first grade level. He had major issues with inferences and decoding. MCPS put him in the Read 180 program, which focuses on these skills. We supplemented with Huntington Learning Center which also has a program that addresses these skills and was affordable. It took almost all of 6th grade but he caught up and stayed on target after that point.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks so much for all these great posts! I really appreciate it, as it gives some perspective as well as some concrete other things to try.

One of the PP's mentioned watching Discovery Channel and that made me think about some other useful ways of engaging his attention, reasoning, and comprehension. We all watch Planet Earth as a family (own all the DVDs) and we have just started watching the Planet Earth 2 series on TV. He also loves watching Mythbusters with my DH, and that has also been great about making predictions or a hypothesis and then seeing what turns out. So maybe we should do some more of that!

Thanks for all the recs about tutoring places and methodologies that work. I will be looking into them all. Was considering – after reading some on DCUM – about trying Learning Essentials to see if we could get paired with someone who matches him need-wise and personality-wise.

Funny that one PP mentioned continuing speech therapy – he just completed his last year of school ST this year (he doesn't qualify anymore). But we are looking at doing some speech work targeting comprehension and inferencing over the summer. So thanks for pointing that out – the connection with speech and reading is definitely there.

[Anonymous]

Some books to try:
-- Verbalizing and Visualizing (Gander)
-- Stars (available on Amazon -- follows SOL type skills)
-- Inference Jones/Reading Detective

Wordly Wise is a great program for vocab building, but you have to buy it through a homeschool co op as a single purchaser.

[Anonymous]

My ADHD kid loved having a tutor - it was one on one time and also it increased his confidence in reading. I would try to find someone your kid might like.

[Anonymous]

You are doing some great things - reading with him in a fun way, staying on top of 'where he is at' in reading level, and working on getting the ADHD under control. I'd be curious to see what happens after you get his attention focused. It would be nice if that helps improve things quickly. Be patient - getting the medication just right takes time. It also needs adjustment as they grow!

My boys didn't like to read much and kept up in school okay, but didn't excel at reading. However, when they read Hatchet, they finally found a book they were interested in. They then read other books by the same author. Then we went to a bookstore and asked what other authors the boys might like if they liked "Hatchet" and we found more books they could concentrate on because they enjoyed reading them. Maybe you can do something similar with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid since he likes it.

I also love "Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8: Teaching Kids to Succeed by Deb Silver". She has quite a testimony about her own son moving from special ed to success and I don't think that story is even in the book. (She is great at answering emails to). I know many other examples of students that I've taught who have had major difficulty in a subject (even reading) and have later improved greatly or even excelled when they keep at it and expect that there is the possibility it may change.

I've seen students who were more than a year behind grade level in reading catch up. If you do decide to try a tutor, check for testimonials and make sure they have a positive attitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest (now in HS) has ADHD/anxiety and had language delays when he was in ES. We did ST for a while but the therapist indicated she didn't think it would help as his issues were more related to his ADHD more than anything else. We were grateful for the honest opinion because we also have a younger DS with more significant issues and were paying out the wazoo for therapies.

In addition to pull out services for reading/writing, your DS should also be getting ST through school. It made a huge difference for our DS and he had it up until the end of 7th grade. The difference between private and school ST is that the school ST focuses on the academic impact of language issues rather than the ADL impact of the language issues. The school ST did a lot of work on comprehension, inference, perspective taking as well as specific techniques to identify key words/passages. She also taught him to use different kinds of organizers for developing his writing.

It's good that you've found a book your DS likes to read. That is really key (as you know) because practice, practice, practice is what's really going to help get him where he needs to be. You might also look into the Origami Yoda series. Those are about the same level and really engaging. Good luck!

What school system are you in that you got speech therapy for non-speech impediment issues? We asked for this for years for our kid who had been diagnosed with MERLD since age 4. It was clear when DC hit 1st gr that DC wasn't picking up reading and writing normally. Basically, MCPS speech therapist would not agree to provide ST unless DC's spoken communication was so poor that DC couldn't be understood by others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Lindamood Bell. Massively expensive, but the only thing that moved the needle on my son's comprehension. His standardized test scores improved more than 2 years over 12 weeks

Can you be more specific about which programs in LMB were used that were so helpful to comprehension? How old was your kid? How many times a week did you do LMB?