How to help kindergartener struggling with reading

[Anonymous]

I have a kid with dyslexia, and I would say that in kindergarten you can't tell yet whether your child is just not developmentally ready to read (kids develop reading readiness at different ages and it does not reflect their overall intelligence) or if there is an underlying issue. I would check in with the teacher to find out whether they used an evidence-based method to teach reading, but for now at home just provide a rich environment of available books and reading aloud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is trying to compare Kindergarteners when it comes to reading. Some will be reading when at the start of K, others will have progressed into reading by mid K, and for some they won’t get it until mid 1st. Guess what? In the long run it doesn’t matter as long as they grasp it by mid 2nd.

I’m an earlier post who said for now just focus on reading to / with your child, and I agree with this. Imo it is too early to know if this is a problem, and I’d trust the teacher’s thoughts as I think parents get worked up about reading/writing in these early grades because of the huge range of skills (you see Johnny reading Magic Treehouse and wonder why your kid can’t read a Bob book). Fwiw my kids are older and avid readers, and neither could read or write in K (they had gone to a play based preschool that didn’t directly teach either).

This thing is, *teachers do not know the science of reading.* Unless he won the teacher lottery and found one who has done his or her own research, the teacher will not know the signs of a struggling reader or even a dyslexic.

It's not taught to them even in graduate programs. (Slowly changing.) They are taught to teach the strategies of poor readers! Even the phonics lessons he's bringing home (again a small step in the right direction) are likey analytic vs. systematic synthetic.

OP's son may or may not ultimately have an issue but she is 100% on her own to figure it out, so I'm happy to potentially overreact while giving her resources to help her learn.

Also he's in school frustrated right now, and it seems she can't homeschool so being exposed to the better readers might already be hurting his self esteem. (True regardless of what anyone thinks should be being taught at what age)

--Parent who wrongly assumed teachers know this stuff

[Anonymous]

Read this book and see if your child has any of the signs of dyslexia:

https://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Dyslexia-Complete-Science-Based-Problems/dp/0679781595/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2JCW29Y1OMHFI&keywords=dyslexia&qid=1642515127&sprefix=dysle%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-5


MD has a dyslexia screening in KG. Ask the teacher about that. Get specifics about areas of weakness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid with dyslexia, and I would say that in kindergarten you can't tell yet whether your child is just not developmentally ready to read (kids develop reading readiness at different ages and it does not reflect their overall intelligence) or if there is an underlying issue. I would check in with the teacher to find out whether they used an evidence-based method to teach reading, but for now at home just provide a rich environment of available books and reading aloud.

Given this is an MCPS forum, the teacher is most likely using Benchmark. Which is not an evidence based program and IME most teachers don’t like it.

I wouldn’t stresss too much either OP but there are some good suggestions in this thread for helping build a better foundation for your child. That is lacking in MCPS and even if yours is one for whom reading will click on its own, having a better foundation will pay its dividends.

[Anonymous]

MCPL provides online books that are really helpful for kids to develop reading skills

[Anonymous]

I have an avid reader who is terrible at spelling. DC has always mixed up letters (like interchanging b and d, but more than that), and for years the teachers have said it's fine, but we really feel there's a connection. This thread has helped me understand maybe we need to dig further on possible dyslexia. We'd like to find a spelling program that works... are there any online?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kindergartner completes his math “homework” pretty easily but struggles with the reading activities his teacher sends home. He knows his letters, but his teacher sends home decoding worksheets and letter blend worksheets and he gets frustrated really easily and rolls his eyes and starts whining. We gave some Bob books too which are a bit better with the pictures but we still hit a wall after the first few. Trying to encourage him to be patient and just try with me but it seems he doesn’t really know what to do and my attempts to help are just making him more frustrated. I worry this is turning him off reading altogether and wonder if we need to step back and go through a more structured supplemental program at home. Has anyone done this? I’ve seen All About Reading and Logic of English mentioned in another thread and wonder if anyone has experiences with these (or others) for a kindergartener? Also wondering if there are specific elements of it you found useful ;or not). This isn’t something we could realistically devote more than a half hour a day to. TIA!

this is not an MCPS topic and should be moved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is trying to compare Kindergarteners when it comes to reading. Some will be reading when at the start of K, others will have progressed into reading by mid K, and for some they won’t get it until mid 1st. Guess what? In the long run it doesn’t matter as long as they grasp it by mid 2nd.

I’m an earlier post who said for now just focus on reading to / with your child, and I agree with this. Imo it is too early to know if this is a problem, and I’d trust the teacher’s thoughts as I think parents get worked up about reading/writing in these early grades because of the huge range of skills (you see Johnny reading Magic Treehouse and wonder why your kid can’t read a Bob book). Fwiw my kids are older and avid readers, and neither could read or write in K (they had gone to a play based preschool that didn’t directly teach either).

This thing is, *teachers do not know the science of reading.* Unless he won the teacher lottery and found one who has done his or her own research, the teacher will not know the signs of a struggling reader or even a dyslexic.

It's not taught to them even in graduate programs. (Slowly changing.) They are taught to teach the strategies of poor readers! Even the phonics lessons he's bringing home (again a small step in the right direction) are likey analytic vs. systematic synthetic.

OP's son may or may not ultimately have an issue but she is 100% on her own to figure it out, so I'm happy to potentially overreact while giving her resources to help her learn.

Also he's in school frustrated right now, and it seems she can't homeschool so being exposed to the better readers might already be hurting his self esteem. (True regardless of what anyone thinks should be being taught at what age)

--Parent who wrongly assumed teachers know this stuff

+1000. First thing to do: get the hell out of MCPS. What worked (and this sounds crazy) was to have our child read to the cat. While child was being abused in school by MCPS teachers who were belittling her in a W elementary the pet provided a neutral and non-judgmental audience. Turns out child was dyslexic and we left MCPS, found a tutor but it was amazing how child found work arounds. So tabby cat > MCPS W elementary teacher as reading teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading to your child an hour or every half-hour every night is the best method.

Please, pay attention to this, or you will create a life-long hater of reading. Read fun books to your child (let them ake the lead/pick which books). Do not make it a chore

We read to my daughter every night. Her teacher complimented her on her extensive vocabulary and comprehension skills. But that doesn't change the fact that she struggles in reading and likes to guess words

OMG. The only point of reading is comprehension. That's it. That's the point. Reading without comprehension is useless. And it's the comprehension part that's hard! Your DD has a huge headstart. Once she figures out the decoding, she'll be ahead of many of her peers because of that extensive vocabulary and comprehension skills. Plus, the listening comprehension skills she's developed from being read.to so much will serve her for the rest of her life. There is no real benefit to learning to read at 5 versus 7. None. And if learning to read at 5 means forcing your kid to sit with worksheets they hate, then it can actually be counterproductive. (I would also argue that if reading earlier results in parents stopping reading aloud earlier, then that's also bad. Young kids learn so much more from being read to than from reading to themselves.)

Seriously, look at your child with the extensive vocabulary and excellent comprehension skills. Look at your home, with books everywhere. Look at the kids a few years older all around her who have figured out how to read. She wil figure it out, too, and she won't need phonics at age 5 to do so.

I wrote the long AAR post. Disagree strongly with this as well. I read like crazy to child 1 and purposely didn't teach reading. Biggest regret of my life.

Benefits that would have happened if I had done it at five or earlier:
-confidence - that disappeared sometime in K and started to come back only after intensive tutoring
-love of school - also disappeared for a while even though love of learning outside school was still there
-money - I'd have a lot more of it. Tutors are $$$
-brain pathways - would have been done correctly and not have to be undone/relearned
-spelling - would be way better if taught from the ground up
-writing - all else about my child (vocabulary, creativity) indicates they would have written very well but the congnitive load of not being able to spell meant writing output was way below all other indicators. Finally coming back in line after 1.5 years of tutoring.

This is not even a severe dyslexic, but the cost of waiting has been tremendous.

NP to this thread, but I also dropped the rope on teaching my kid reading in any way, and just read a ton to her, and she caught up late 1st/early 2nd and is way ahead in 3rd.

I had some of these concerns, but I'll tell you--

-confidence-- she has tons-- she felt she "got it," "on my own"
-love of school-- this has been dampened for other reasons, but she still loves learning
-money-- n/a
-brain pathways-- idk but she scores in the 99.5th percentile in MAP for reading now, and her comprehension/vocabulary have always been off the charts, even when she couldn't really read herself
-spelling-- not a great speller, but I was always known as one and I recently came across old papers and... honestly I wasn't much better than my kid, and they TAUGHT SPELLING back then-- I'm not worried about this
-writing-- she's an incredible writer

My kid is not your kid! And that's fine. And maybe your kid could have benefited, while mine apparently turned out great either in spite of, or because of the fact I never taught reading. It's true my kid is particularly averse to being told what to do lmao.

I just don't know that anyone knows which kid OP has. Even OP-- it's hard and usually only clear in retrospect!

I would, personally, say that the "just read a lot" strategy does work best for most kids. That doesn't mean all, though.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thank you all for the perspectives and options! I do think confidence is becoming an issue, he was originally in the top reading group but was moved down and I think he’s discouraged by the other kids in his class who can already read.

Also, has anyone used reading eggs? They have a free trial so I was browsing the website. But I don’t know how it compares to some of the other programs mentioned here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thank you all for the perspectives and options! I do think confidence is becoming an issue, he was originally in the top reading group but was moved down and I think he’s discouraged by the other kids in his class who can already read.

Also, has anyone used reading eggs? They have a free trial so I was browsing the website. But I don’t know how it compares to some of the other programs mentioned here.

If you want free, Stephen Parker has free. https://www.parkerphonics.com/

Might not be fun, but he's a definite SOR believer. Maybe you could get some fun activities from other websites and use his scope and sequence.

Full disclosure: I've read some parts of these books and learned a lot but had already started with AAR and will continue that for now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thank you all for the perspectives and options! I do think confidence is becoming an issue, he was originally in the top reading group but was moved down and I think he’s discouraged by the other kids in his class who can already read.

Also, has anyone used reading eggs? They have a free trial so I was browsing the website. But I don’t know how it compares to some of the other programs mentioned here.

Work on his confidence. Directly ask him about reading. Explain that people get it in their own time with practice and he will too. The question right now is progress; is he making any? If so, then just find interesting ways to practice what the teacher sends home. Play games making lots of C-V-C words. Point out words he knows he stories and let him say them while you’re reading together. Do a word hunt in the house for things with the appropriate sound. Have you talked to the teacher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thank you all for the perspectives and options! I do think confidence is becoming an issue, he was originally in the top reading group but was moved down and I think he’s discouraged by the other kids in his class who can already read.

Also, has anyone used reading eggs? They have a free trial so I was browsing the website. But I don’t know how it compares to some of the other programs mentioned here.

Work on his confidence. Directly ask him about reading. Explain that people get it in their own time with practice and he will too. The question right now is progress; is he making any? If so, then just find interesting ways to practice what the teacher sends home. Play games making lots of C-V-C words. Point out words he knows he stories and let him say them while you’re reading together. Do a word hunt in the house for things with the appropriate sound. Have you talked to the teacher?

+1. We read lots of go dog go and made up silly rhyming games. Just have fun with it whatever you do!

[Anonymous]

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+1000. First thing to do: get the hell out of MCPS. What worked (and this sounds crazy) was to have our child read to the cat. While child was being abused in school by MCPS teachers who were belittling her in a W elementary the pet provided a neutral and non-judgmental audience. Turns out child was dyslexic and we left MCPS, found a tutor but it was amazing how child found work arounds. So tabby cat > MCPS W elementary teacher as reading teacher.

Who was your tutor? We are struggling so hard!!!