Rising 2nd grader not reading

[Anonymous]

My rising second grader really cannot read (Bob books are a struggle). Our school has promoted him to second grade but I am starting to get concerned because he is way behind his peers who seem to all be reading chapter books (boys and girls). Would you press the school to keep him back a grade or consider holding back and sending to public? I can’t really blame virtual school because he was in person most of the year. I’m worried that school is going to become incredibly demoralizing next year and I’m not sure he will be able to catch up even with summer work. Should we give it another year at this private or act now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My rising second grader really cannot read (Bob books are a struggle). Our school has promoted him to second grade but I am starting to get concerned because he is way behind his peers who seem to all be reading chapter books (boys and girls). Would you press the school to keep him back a grade or consider holding back and sending to public? I can’t really blame virtual school because he was in person most of the year. I’m worried that school is going to become incredibly demoralizing next year and I’m not sure he will be able to catch up even with summer work. Should we give it another year at this private or act now?

Have you had him evaluated outside of school? What do his teachers say?

[Anonymous]

I would be concerned too, OP. Do you know why he's not reading yet? Is it possible he has a learning disorder? Does he have zero interest? You need to figure out the why first, I think. What did his report cards say?

[Anonymous]

Teacher here. He won't be the only one but maybe the only one in his class. I work in a Title One school and most of the kids going to 2nd grade will be barely reading. Is he struggling with decoding unknown words? Recognizing high-frequency words that cannot be decoded?

[Anonymous]

I had two early readers and one who really didn’t read until the beginning of 2nd grade. The late reader was a boy. He was also young (turned 7 in August as he started 2nd grade). The 1st grade teacher told me that learning to read at 7 is still within the normal range. I wouldn’t worry, but definitely keep a close eye on it. One caveat- Do you have a history of dyslexia in your family? If so, I would probably have him tested over the summer. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Get a reading tutor, three times a week. Do not wait for the school.

[Anonymous]

Hire a phonics based tutor over the summer. Ask her for work that you can do on the off days. It sounds like your child doesn’t know the 41 basic sounds and rules of decoding.

[Anonymous]

Keep a close eye. But reading by the -end- of 2nd grade is ok. Even if it's not common.

[Anonymous]

Agree with posters here. You may want to get some psych ed testing done over the summer to see if he’s just on a late end of typical or if he has a learning difference that is impacting his learning to read. If he does have a learning difference, you’ll want to be sure to work with a tutor who has expertise in that area and knows how to teach him in a way that will work for him.

[Anonymous]

I'd focus on building literacy skills this summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My rising second grader really cannot read (Bob books are a struggle). Our school has promoted him to second grade but I am starting to get concerned because he is way behind his peers who seem to all be reading chapter books (boys and girls). Would you press the school to keep him back a grade or consider holding back and sending to public? I can’t really blame virtual school because he was in person most of the year. I’m worried that school is going to become incredibly demoralizing next year and I’m not sure he will be able to catch up even with summer work. Should we give it another year at this private or act now?

When is your child’s birthday?

[Anonymous]

I'm in the same boat OP. My rising 2nd grader was in virtual all but the last two weeks of this year (and then, only 2 days per week in person). He cannot read. He does know many high frequency sight words, but he's just not at the level of reading.

That being said, his teacher was great, it was just that virtual learning is not great for someone so young as he is, and who has a mom that has to work full time and can't afford to hire a tutor or pay someone to help him navigate the remote learning - so it's hard to telework at a high stress job and try to navigate his remote school at the same time. I need to keep my job to support us.

I am seriously thinking of having him repeat 1st grade next year - I am agonizing over this and what would be best for him. We thought about redshirting him to start K late, but ended up not doing it. His birthday is 2 days before the cut-off, so he is the youngest kid in his class.

He also did have speech therapy for years before and during K (through a private company, as PG Co. said that he was not delayed enough to qualify for free speech therapy).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the same boat OP. My rising 2nd grader was in virtual all but the last two weeks of this year (and then, only 2 days per week in person). He cannot read. He does know many high frequency sight words, but he's just not at the level of reading.

That being said, his teacher was great, it was just that virtual learning is not great for someone so young as he is, and who has a mom that has to work full time and can't afford to hire a tutor or pay someone to help him navigate the remote learning - so it's hard to telework at a high stress job and try to navigate his remote school at the same time. I need to keep my job to support us.

I am seriously thinking of having him repeat 1st grade next year - I am agonizing over this and what would be best for him. We thought about redshirting him to start K late, but ended up not doing it. His birthday is 2 days before the cut-off, so he is the youngest kid in his class.

He also did have speech therapy for years before and during K (through a private company, as PG Co. said that he was not delayed enough to qualify for free speech therapy).

I would absolutely keep him in 1st again.

[Anonymous]

My concern with holding back is what will they do differently? If he didn’t get it this past year what resources will he available to help him if he repeats the grade. You should be asking for resources for the grade he is supposed to be going into. And work on reading throughout the summer too.

[Anonymous]

Age matters. If he’s young for his grade, that could be it. My daughter is average age and only started learning to read in K but was fluent (so to speak) well before the middle of 1st grade. I say that to point out that the time it took her to go from not reading at all to reading fluently was very short.