if you had/have a "late" or struggling reader...
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Anonymous
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My 7yo DS (spring birthday) is pretty behind on reading. He starts 2nd grade in the fall, and is not reading with any kind of fluency. He struggles to sound out words and doesn't retain many sight words. He's doing fine in math. His school has been providing him additional reading support since last October. He's in a bilingual school, so I know that could be part of the delay. He's behind in both languages. DH also remembers really struggling to read and has a nephew with significant learning disabilities. FWIW, he loves books and stories and being read to. He has the attention to sustain him through listening to chapter books.
He's such a great kid, and lots of things come easily to him (athletics, social stuff, creativity). I've already reached out to the school for advice for over the summer and to schedule a meeting for the fall. But when I got all of his end of year assessments from school, it made me so panicky! Today when I sat with him to read together, he ended up so frustrated and wanting to give up. I'm trying not to put too much pressure on him, but I think it's important to practice every day. I know in some European countries they don't even start teaching reading until age 7 or so, so that brings me some comfort, but not much, since he's being measured against US standards! He sees what the other kids in his class can do, and I know it upsets him. His teachers have done a great job of helping to keep his self-esteem up about it, but he had made comments about feeling "stupid". I'd really appreciate any advice/success stories from parents who have supported kids for whom reading didn't come easily! |
Anonymous
| Some degree of dyslexia affects 15% of the population. It's very underdiagnosed. Keep that in the back of your mind if it doesn't all fall together by end of 2nd. |
Anonymous
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Shell out the bucks for a neuro-psych evaluation so you know what you're dealing with.
We're about to begin a summer program with the Atlantic Seaboard Dyslexia Education Center to get some targeted help with DC's reading. |
Anonymous
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I'm so sorry for what you are going through. My child is going into third and he is slightly behind grade level too. I try not to stress about it too much. I have him practice reading out loud at home to me each day. I also read more complex books out loud to him each day. Try to find stuff that he is in to for him to read. For my child, it's anything lego, superhero, and animals. I also reward him for doing anything extra and offer lots of encouragement and support. When he is struggling with a certain paragraph or sentence I read it out loud to him and then hand him back the book and tell him it's his turn to try reading it.
For rewards, he gets to pick a prize from my bag of stuff that I keep hidden. It's small things like from the dollar tree, but there are also little lego characters in there. He also has to do his reading before he can use his iPad, computer or tv. Good luck, I'm sure he will get caught up eventually. It sounds like you really care a lot about helping him and supporting him and that you see all kinds of good qualities in him, so I'm sure that helps a lot. |
Anonymous
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My dd is a rising third grade, and she was identified as below grade level in reading in first grade. We hired a tutor for her in first grade and continued tutoring in second. The school also does pull outs with a reading specialist twice a week, and once a week, she got to read to a dog as part of her reading instruction (it was cute).
By the end of 2nd grade, she was no longer below grade level, but her DRA was the lowest for 2nd grade. She is going to summer school (SELTS) through FCPS, and she is tutoring over the summer. Especially when she was struggling, she would refuse to read with me ever. However, she would read fine with the tutor, and the tutor even commented about how much dd loves to read! As dd has gained skills, she has gained so much confidence as well. Now she will read spontaneously to me sometimes, and I love that. We did a neuropsych exam during December of 2nd grade, and she was diagnosed with ADHD-combined, but no learning disabilities. The psychologist diagnosed that her poor focus was contributing to her struggle with reading. |
Anonymous
| My son just turned 8 and a rising third grader. He sounds a lot like your son, its uncanny how much. His reading problems were identified in 1st grade and he has an EIP, lots of extra support at school during the school year, and a private tutor. We also did vision therapy privately for a year because it was suggested that his eyes did not team. We have completed that work now. He is still behind grade level but closing the gap I was told by the school in his end of year assessments. He still struggles clearly to read what should be sight words. But he's improving. We aren't doing the tutor except for a few times over the summer because camp and vacation schedules make it impossible to schedule much with the person that we work with. And I think kids need a break over the summer anyway. Remember how hard it is for a child that is struggling and receiving extra help all year long. Those kids more then others I think deserve to enjoy their summer and participate in the things you mention that the child excells at, and just to feel good about themselves. But even so, I still require my child to read to me almost every day. There is no substitute for that I think and they could backslide if they don't do that. I know what you are saying when you descibe the frustration and push back you get from your son even when you are just reading together, which comes so easily to so many. If its not going well he'll often devolve into tears or even tantrums. We are doing better then that now most of the time. Just keep at it and don't sacrifice the reading and like you say, we drive our kids to learn this skill so early and expect such signficant results, try not to panic too much. He is probably a late bloomer and will get there. |
Anonymous
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Sounds like my kid, who has dyslexia. He is a rising second grader, diagnosed mid year in 1st. Dyslexia runs in families (I have it too, undiagnosed as a kid) so if you see struggles in your husband's family, and kiddo is struggling, it makes sense to look into it. If you have the resources I'd just get him tested - you want psychoeducational testing. My kid is really smart, and really social tuned in, and so for him to struggle at reading in front of his friends was devastating for him. Truly ego-bashing. He was hiding his work at school, refusing to try to read at home, etc.
The thing with letting the school provide the extra help and just getting standard reading tutoring is that if your child does have dyslexia, the treatment isn't MORE time learning, necessarily, but a certain kind of teaching. A dyslexic kid needs a special sequential methodology and curricula. The approach with the most evidence behind it is called Orton-Gillingham, and there are a couple of curricula based on the approach to chose from. So if the school or tutor is doing a structured O-T approach for intervention, and it works, then fine, you may not need a diagnosis. But if they aren't, your kid may not get what he needs if he does have dyslexia. Good luck! |
Anonymous
| What is the other language at school? If it doesn't use our alphabet, that might be part of the problem. Also, how much time is spent daily on phonics? |
Anonymous
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Waldorf also doesn't start reading until 7.
I'd try it but try in really fun ways that incorporate physical movement into it. For example I taught a slow reader about attaching sounds together to form words by playing hopscotch and writing each syllable in a different box - he hopped from box to box sounding out each word. Stuff like that. |
Anonymous
Some kids are not a good fit for immersion. While many kids can learn to read by any method- whole language, phonics, being taught to read another language, there is a significant percentage of kids that need intensive phonics instruction. If your child wasn't taught to read in English this year, it makes sense your child is behind in reading. In other schools kids spent two hours a day on language arts in English. I have one child who would do really well in immersion because he is really verbal and has learned to read in English almost effortlessly. My oldest would have really struggled. He has a history of ear infections / tubes and needed intensive phonics and one to one instruction to learn to read fluently. I bought a reading book called Dancing Bears by the Sound Foundation. We spent 10 to 15 minutes EVERY day when he was six going through level A and B. He is now a fluent reader. http://www.soundfoundationsbooks.co.uk/ |
Anonymous
My DC will enter 10th grade in the fall. We discovered his dyslexia in the fall of 2nd grade. I would highly recommend getting an evaluation ASAP. I would recommend doing reading and/or reading games every day during the summer - 30 minutes. Reading to him, using audio books for 30 more. Summer is prime time for regression, especially with children who are already below grade level. |
Anonymous
| We delayed getting an evaluation for our daughter, husband had lost his job, it was expensive until 3rd grade . She had similar problems. If you can swing it get the evaluation, almost always there is a wait so call sooner than later. What we found is that the delay and anxiety of knowing she was not meeting the standard frankly my stupidity in thinking she was just avoiding schoolwork was a huge self-esteem issue we are still dealing with 5 years later. |
Anonymous
| Get him some summer tutoring. Not every kid (or probably not most kids) who struggle in a subject has some disorder. And given that your child is in a dual language program, he isn't getting the same amount of time in English reading instruction as most kids his age. Learning to read in two languages with two different sets of rules and possibly alphabets is not easy. He may need some extra help. He doesn't need a diagnosis. |
Anonymous
| PP, you don't know OP's son doesn't need a diagnosis any more than anyone on here knows that he does. Dyslexia is real and treatable with a specific kind of teaching. Without the specific teaching kids struggle through school. Seems like a reasonable thing to check out to me. |
Anonymous
| This is going back a while but I remember a program that used therapy dogs to help children with reading delays. The whole idea was that by reading to the dog the pressure to "get it right" and the incurred stress was removed. So, if you have a pet who is capable of sitting for 15-20 minutes at a time maybe you could try having your child read to their pet? |