Anonymous wrote:I am having a hard time imagining a kid who can't read being ok in 2nd grade in any subject.

Teacher isn't concerned because DS is showing progress even though well below grade level still.

I was giving it time, understanding challenges of last year but I am starting to panic a bit thinking that this school year will be over before we know it.

What would you do??

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

It should be for sale on Amazon. Spend 30 or so minutes a day and around 30 bucks and fix the issue.

Don’t wait for government school and a teacher with many other children—maybe not doing as well as yours— to manage.

The natural age for reading is really around 7. Without a known LD< I would assume your kids is just one of those who will be going along, not progressing, and then suddenly, one day, it all clicks.

Mine was like that 8 years ago. Didn't read until the end of first grade, but here he is now, an honors student and former AAP.

Kindergarten teacher here. It is a good sign that your child is making progress. There can be a lot of reasons students are behind. The main reason is the pandemic. Did your child attend school in person last spring? Does your child have automaticity with letter names and sounds? If you were to show your child flashcards with letters on them, could they quickly and easily tell you the name and sound? If not, that's a good place to start. Decoding will be a struggle with this automaticity.

If your child is automatic with letter names and sounds, can they blend CVC words like rat, kid, cog, etc. This can take a lot of mental effort and requires a lot of practice. If they blend the sounds accurately and then say a different word, that is important to know. That usually means there is a deficit in their phonemic awareness abilities. If so, go back to blending orally only.


Continue reading with your child at home whatever the issue. Talk to the teacher and have her/him show you the assessments that show progress. Ask where students should be at this point in the year and where most students are. You may find that your kid is smack dab in the middle of where the other kids are due to the pandemic.

Anonymous wrote:OP here.We read to him daily and a few times a week we read a Bob book or similar level together (trying to avoid reading at home becoming a chore).

He can work through some of the easier Bob books but many are too hard. Every word is a challenge even if he just decoded that word on the last page so he gets tired quickly and sight words still aren't clicking consistently.

To clarify, not blaming school or teacher-l (this year's or last year's) just trying to figure out how long to ride this out under be patient, everyone is catching up at different speeds vs panic- time to pull out all the stops.

This sounds exactly like my now 6th grader when she was in first grade. We had a private neuropsych evaluation done at Mindwell. She was diagnosed with dyslexia (difficulty retaining sight words can be a symptom). Early intervention is key. If you can afford the private evaluation, I would schedule one now and not wait for the school to flag it as a problem. It was expensive but we decided it was well worth the money to find out if there were any learning disorders. If there weren't, we would've stopped worrying so much. After the diagnosis we got a private tutor who was trained in the Orton Gillingham method. She has stayed on grade level in reading.

You absolutely should get an investigation to understand what aspect of reading is challenging him. There is a series of steps that kids go through before they understand reading and you need to know what is holding him back (e.g doesn’t understand letter sounds, rules of phonics, can’t do blends, is reversing the order of letters, etc.) It MAY be developmental but you will regret it later if there was a problem that could have been addressed and you waited. His delay becomes cumulative and you can’t always easily catch up later. For peace of mind, get him checked.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's being overlooked. The class is too big and the teacher is too preoccupied with a host of other things.

Kinderg was a dumpster fire for him last year, right? - 100% online? No 5 yr old can learn effectively that way not to mention grasp basic reading fundamentals (dies he even know what sound the letter "t" makes? Mine didn't).

So it's not uncommon for 1st graders to be seemingly behind. And not all parents are as vested at home with reading to their kids daily. So, take heart Op, you're on the right track, but that final link between letters/sounds/word (and reading comprehension, but focus on that later, get sight words under control) is always tough.

If your kid doesn't know the names and sounds of the letters, why are you complaining? That's pretty basic stuff. Teach that at home.

^^Isn't that what school is for ??^^^

Why is there a burden on "home" to teach? Sure, I'm fine with reading bedtime stories and helping with homework, but I'm not "teaching at home" like you are ordering me to do. I dont have a teaching degree so i lack the technique, resources, time, and effort. And I shouldn't have to "teach" my kid or pay extra for tutoring, or printout worksheets to supplement. FCPS should be doing that.
It's a common scenario for a lot of households.

I don’t understand this attitude. I’m going to let my kid fail, because it’s not my responsibility. If you want your kid to be successful in life, your responsibility as a parent is to do what it takes to make sure that they have needed skills. Problem solving, fluent reading, and writing are all fundamental. As a parent, you need to step up and do what it takes to make sure that your kid has the fundamentals.

Get an evaluation so you can be sure there isn’t an underlying issue.

We used Hooked on Phonics - kids did not necessarily like it but it taught them to read. We also read books they enjoyed every day (separating the two - learning to read and enjoying reading). They can read very well now but we still read to them (higher level books).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's being overlooked. The class is too big and the teacher is too preoccupied with a host of other things.

Kinderg was a dumpster fire for him last year, right? - 100% online? No 5 yr old can learn effectively that way not to mention grasp basic reading fundamentals (dies he even know what sound the letter "t" makes? Mine didn't).

So it's not uncommon for 1st graders to be seemingly behind. And not all parents are as vested at home with reading to their kids daily. So, take heart Op, you're on the right track, but that final link between letters/sounds/word (and reading comprehension, but focus on that later, get sight words under control) is always tough.

If your kid doesn't know the names and sounds of the letters, why are you complaining? That's pretty basic stuff. Teach that at home.

^^Isn't that what school is for ??^^^

Why is there a burden on "home" to teach? Sure, I'm fine with reading bedtime stories and helping with homework, but I'm not "teaching at home" like you are ordering me to do. I dont have a teaching degree so i lack the technique, resources, time, and effort. And I shouldn't have to "teach" my kid or pay extra for tutoring, or printout worksheets to supplement. FCPS should be doing that.
It's a common scenario for a lot of households.

That is a very low SES belief. Native English-speaking parents should have no issues with teaching their kids the basics like counting, letter names/sounds. Some kids need a lot more repetition than they get at school. If a kid doesn't have automaticity with letter sounds, they will struggle to blend. If they struggle to blend, they will struggle to decode. If they struggle to decode, they will struggle to comprehend what they are reading. Practice the basics at home.

Also, it sounds like the OP's kid might have a deficiency in phonemic awareness. Give your kid the PAST assessment (Google it) and report back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's being overlooked. The class is too big and the teacher is too preoccupied with a host of other things.

Kinderg was a dumpster fire for him last year, right? - 100% online? No 5 yr old can learn effectively that way not to mention grasp basic reading fundamentals (dies he even know what sound the letter "t" makes? Mine didn't).

So it's not uncommon for 1st graders to be seemingly behind. And not all parents are as vested at home with reading to their kids daily. So, take heart Op, you're on the right track, but that final link between letters/sounds/word (and reading comprehension, but focus on that later, get sight words under control) is always tough.

If your kid doesn't know the names and sounds of the letters, why are you complaining? That's pretty basic stuff. Teach that at home.

^^Isn't that what school is for ??^^^

Why is there a burden on "home" to teach? Sure, I'm fine with reading bedtime stories and helping with homework, but I'm not "teaching at home" like you are ordering me to do. I dont have a teaching degree so i lack the technique, resources, time, and effort. And I shouldn't have to "teach" my kid or pay extra for tutoring, or printout worksheets to supplement. FCPS should be doing that.
It's a common scenario for a lot of households.

No one is making you do it! Lots of families want or need to supplement.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's being overlooked. The class is too big and the teacher is too preoccupied with a host of other things.

Kinderg was a dumpster fire for him last year, right? - 100% online? No 5 yr old can learn effectively that way not to mention grasp basic reading fundamentals (dies he even know what sound the letter "t" makes? Mine didn't).

So it's not uncommon for 1st graders to be seemingly behind. And not all parents are as vested at home with reading to their kids daily. So, take heart Op, you're on the right track, but that final link between letters/sounds/word (and reading comprehension, but focus on that later, get sight words under control) is always tough.

If your kid doesn't know the names and sounds of the letters, why are you complaining? That's pretty basic stuff. Teach that at home.

^^Isn't that what school is for ??^^^

Why is there a burden on "home" to teach? Sure, I'm fine with reading bedtime stories and helping with homework, but I'm not "teaching at home" like you are ordering me to do. I dont have a teaching degree so i lack the technique, resources, time, and effort. And I shouldn't have to "teach" my kid or pay extra for tutoring, or printout worksheets to supplement. FCPS should be doing that.
It's a common scenario for a lot of households.

Most MC/UMC kids in FCPS come to kindergarten either reading or at least with knowledge of the alphabet and letter sounds just through the kind of standard daily family reading/activities--not specialized tutoring etc. So FCPS instruction will get your kid to read by 3rd grade or get some specialized services as that's what's deemed 'behind' in public school (based on the full population of the public schools). But if you don't want your kid behind who you see as their peers (e.g., academic high achievers) then you need to be more proactive. But if you don't care, you can coast on it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's being overlooked. The class is too big and the teacher is too preoccupied with a host of other things.

Kinderg was a dumpster fire for him last year, right? - 100% online? No 5 yr old can learn effectively that way not to mention grasp basic reading fundamentals (dies he even know what sound the letter "t" makes? Mine didn't).

So it's not uncommon for 1st graders to be seemingly behind. And not all parents are as vested at home with reading to their kids daily. So, take heart Op, you're on the right track, but that final link between letters/sounds/word (and reading comprehension, but focus on that later, get sight words under control) is always tough.

If your kid doesn't know the names and sounds of the letters, why are you complaining? That's pretty basic stuff. Teach that at home.

^^Isn't that what school is for ??^^^

Why is there a burden on "home" to teach? Sure, I'm fine with reading bedtime stories and helping with homework, but I'm not "teaching at home" like you are ordering me to do. I dont have a teaching degree so i lack the technique, resources, time, and effort. And I shouldn't have to "teach" my kid or pay extra for tutoring, or printout worksheets to supplement. FCPS should be doing that.
It's a common scenario for a lot of households.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am having a hard time imagining a kid who can't read being ok in 2nd grade in any subject.

Teacher isn't concerned because DS is showing progress even though well below grade level still.

I was giving it time, understanding challenges of last year but I am starting to panic a bit thinking that this school year will be over before we know it.

What would you do??

Forget “all you need to do is read to him” you are WAY past that! Get All About Reading Level 1 and start one lesson each day. Yes, you need to do it, don’t rely on school or teacher to do it for you. You want your child to succeed? You need to do it.

I would encourage this strongly. AAR is well-structured phonics program. If your child is mildly dyslexic or is just suffering from one of the ubiquitous crappy three-cuing based reading programs, it should help. If AAR is not enough, next level is hunting down an Orton Gillingham trained tutor. Do not expect the school to come riding in on a white horse to save him.

These two articles by Emily Hanford will provide useful background information:

https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read "Hard Words: Why aren't kids being taught to read?"

https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading "At a Loss for Words: How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers"

Besides reading and working with him.

I would ask for an evaluation ASAP from the school in writing. It takes time to get one and if there is nothing wrong, great.

Many teachers don’t have experience with learning disorders and keep telling you there is nothing wrong and the kid is making progress. I think many have good intentions.

If there is a problem it is better to know sooner rather than later.

This is our kid. He's in second grade now and it is finally clicking. Also, he hated the Bob books in first grade. Once we let him pick out books on Epic Reading, he was much more engaged. But honestly, every kid learns to read in their own time. If his teacher isn't concerned, I would just try to be patient. We also subscribed to Nessy Reading and Spelling for a while and that helped too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am having a hard time imagining a kid who can't read being ok in 2nd grade in any subject.

Teacher isn't concerned because DS is showing progress even though well below grade level still.

I was giving it time, understanding challenges of last year but I am starting to panic a bit thinking that this school year will be over before we know it.

What would you do??

Forget “all you need to do is read to him” you are WAY past that! Get All About Reading Level 1 and start one lesson each day. Yes, you need to do it, don’t rely on school or teacher to do it for you. You want your child to succeed? You need to do it.

All About Reading and All About Spelling are gold. +1.