Reading help for my 8 yr old DD

[steph111397]

I just had a meeting with DD's teacher today and the learning specialist at her school.

DD is a smart child. She does well in all subjects except reading. While her accuracy in reading is just fine, they are concerned with her phonics and fluency?

I'm looking for suggestions on what I can do at home to help her in these areas. I have suggestions from her teacher and the reading specialist, but I'm hoping for suggestions from another parent(s) that may have had a similar problem with their DC and what they did to help them. The teacher and learning specialist suggested one minute interval readings - where she reads for one minute then repeats that same section 2 or 3 times. They also suggested something called "The One Minute Reader" (http://www.oneminutereader.com/products/products.html). Anyone have experience with this?

Has anyone had a similar problem with their DC? If so, what did you do to help them at home?

Right now I'm a bit frustrated because this is the first I am hearing of this problem even though they showed me her scores from first grade (last year) and she was having the same problem!!!

[magdesilver]

I was a first grade teacher before I became a SAHM. I'm not sure I understand how she can have problems in the phonics if her accuracy is low. Her accuracy being fine actually points to her having a good phonics knowledge (that is, being able to decode the words at a high rate of accuracy). For fluency, that also goes hand in hand with comprehension- understanding the story. If your daughter isn't reading fluently (following a speed close to the normal patterns of speech) then it will be hard for her to recall what she has read and understand the story. Repetetive readings are a really good way to work on this. Also, when you sit down to read a story with her, do a "picture walk" first. Look at the cover and read the title together. Talk about what she thinks the story might be about. Then go page by page looking at the pictures (not the text though) and discuss what is happening in the story. THEN go back to the beginning and read the story text. Read it a few times until she is reading it fluently. After the story is over, have her retell the story back to you, prompting her as needed. If she doesn't remember then look it back up in the story. Go back and look at words she had a hard time with and using a little whiteboard (they sell them at walmart, target, etc.) or a cookie sheet and magnet letters from the dollar store, disect the word and talk about the phonics behind the word (for example, if she had a hard time with the word "shame" talk about the "sh" sound, and the "silent e" rule, whatever she had a hard time with) and re-read that sentence a few times.
Practice, practice, practice will help her read more fluently. Also reading stories just below her reading level will help as well, because the stories are a bit easier for her and she can read faster. Ask the teacher to send home her reading book a few nights a week or some stories that are on her level for you to do this with her. It shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes total.
Take care!

[jenniferlynne]

I'm an educational therapist, which means I work with kids who have learning disabilities, mostly dyslexic kids in my case. I'm not saying your daughter is dyslexic but some of the things that help those kids may also help your daughter.

I agree with Mag that if kids have good reading accuracy, then they are usually able to decode words well, which suggests good phonics knowledge. HOWEVER, if your daughter has a good visual memory (easily remembers things she's seen), she may have memorized lots of words and is reading that way. Or she may be relying on pictures and context, which helps sometimes, but is no substitute for the ability to decode. I see many, many bright dyslexic students who have managed to get by in the classroom this way for a very long time--until the reading gets more complex and these strategies no longer work. If her spelling is also poor, then I'd be likely to think she really does need phonics work too.

If your daughter does need help with phonics, there are lots of ways you can work with her at home. Many kids need to be explicitly taught the sound-symbol correspondences, and you can do this with flashcards, games such as Bingo (i.e., find a word with the short "a" sound), magnetic letters, etc. Just make sure you're up on the right way to pronounce sounds. You might want to check with her teacher and learning specialist to see if they have a specific way of teaching and practicing sounds so that you can reinforce what your daughter is learning in school.

Fluency is also very important, but it's very easy and fun to practice at home. Mag gave you excellent suggestions. I think that repeated readings are the best way to build fluency! Have your daughter read and reread favorite books, using good expression, attending to the punctuation, etc. You can also model that for her. If a book is too challenging in the beginning, you can read it and she can echo you until she can read it on her own. For fluency practice, you want to use texts that she can read easily. Definitely do this using books, but you may also want to look at a program called Great Leaps! which is specifically designed to build fluency. I think it's highly effective and very easy to use. It consists of timed drills of three different types--phonics drills in which kids give the sounds of letters on the page; phrases, which use high-frequency words; and texts, stories that they read aloud. They spend 60 seconds on each page, and the goal is to read the whole page in one minute with no mistakes. They practice a page until they "master" it and then they make a "leap." The fun part is they get to chart their progress: the number of words read and the number of mistakes, and so they can actually see the improvement. Ideally, you'd do this five days a week, but it's easy because it takes less than five minutes total. You can see this program at www.greatleaps.com. It's not that expensive, but you could probably sell it on ebay when you're done with it, or maybe your daughter's school would buy it and let you copy it. So many of my students' classroom teachers have bought this program after I introduced them to it!

Good luck with your daughter! She's lucky to have a mom who's so willing to help her at home.

[steph111397]

I'm not sure I understand how she can have problems in the phonics if her accuracy is low. Her accuracy being fine actually points to her having a good phonics knowledge
I was a bit confused by this as well...I thought they went hand-in-hand...

If your daughter isn't reading fluently (following a speed close to the normal patterns of speech) then it will be hard for her to recall what she has read and understand the story.
See, this is where I am confused - she is able to recall what she has read and understand the story.

Not sure if this will explain better the problem she is having but, her reading is choppy. Unfortunately she has this perfectionist thing about her. Her handwriting is very neat, her artwork is also very neat. She can spell really well. But when she reads - I think she is afraid to get a word wrong so she will take a longer time looking at it to make sure she is saying it correctly - KWIM??? And 99% of the time she DOES get the words right, I just don't think she is trusting herself to just "know" them....?

She still has first grade level books that she will lay in bed and read to herself (stuffed animals) at night when she can't sleep. And she says those are easy for her.

She brings home a reading packet each week and has to read it all the way through at least 3 times. However, I have found the reading packets a little strange...here's an example of her current one...it is titled "Dinosaur Fossils" - this is just one paragraph of the reading...
"Sometimes scientists find many dinosaur bones in one place. In Wyoming, scientists discovered several complete skeletons of Camptosaurus dinosaurs. That made it easier to describe a Camptosaurus. After studying the skeletons, scientists decided that the Camptosaurus grew as long as 23 feet."
I'm thinking they tie their weekly reading packets in with whatever topic they are covering in science at that time. ALL of her reading packets have been similar in content to this (not the dinosaur content, but the science content).
So that makes me wonder if maybe she just isn't interested in it???

She says that she really likes to read, so I'm not concerned about that being the issue...I just want her to CONTINUE to enjoy reading and for reading to be one of the easy things for her, since it seems to affect so many other subjects...

Anyway, we are going to try the suggestions of the people at the school and see where that takes us. But honestly, I'm not at all convinced it will help her since it's the same thing they have been doing with her at school and hasn't helped her yet!

I'm just extremely frustrated at this point. I'm peeved because they never addressed this issue with me until NOW! She is 3 months away from being done with second grade! :confused:

[steph111397]

jenniferlynne - looks like we posted at the same time....Thanks for all of the suggestions - I will definitely look into the great leaps thing.

Good luck with your daughter! She's lucky to have a mom who's so willing to help her at home.
Awe! Thanks! I am determined to get this taken care of - by whatever means necessary! I told the learning specialist that I want an update every 2 weeks at minimum! Again, I'm a bit peeved that it has taken them THIS long to address this with me - when she's had the problem since first grade, apparently! argh! Sorry - just letting out that frustration for my child. :rolleyes:

Honestly reading is something that always came easy to me. So, I've had a harder time understanding all of this. I was always off the charts with my reading/vocabulary/spelling abilities in school. DH OTOH is NOT, has NOT and probably never will be a good reader. He has NEVER read a book in his life! Well, since grade school at least. He has a very good vocabulary, but cannot spell to save his life! And he only reads computer magazine articles - lol. The learning mentioned that "supposedly" learning disablilities can be genetic? Not sure about that one though.

[e&d]

Steph, I think you have fantastic suggestions so far.

I'm a reading specialist and the director of the local Sylvan Learning Center. We work with kids like your daughter all the time and in addition to the great ideas already posted, here are some things I see work well with parents:

- When you read with her at home, try alternating pages with her. This way she can see and hear you model fluent reading, and it cuts down on any frustration she might be feeling.
- If she is struggling to sound out a word, step in after she's given it a good try. You can remind her of the strategies she has learned in school. (Like, if it has a silent 'e' at the end, the vowel has a long sound. etc.) Let her know that some words are really tough to sound out. Like, you could try to sound out "enough" all day and you probably wouldn't get it. This is one of those words you just have to memorize...etc.

I agree with JenniferLynne's assessment that based on what the teacher said, she probably has a great memory for words, which is really helping her. This is a good thing and means that she has a good strength in one area of reading development; it will make her phonics growth that much easier.

Again, I'm a bit peeved that it has taken them THIS long to address this with me - when she's had the problem since first grade, apparently! argh! Sorry - just letting out that frustration for my child. Absolutely. I understand. I usually recommend that in this situation, parents find out what specific milestones school wants to see her accomplish and within what timeframe. For example, they might say they want to see her able to decode (sound out) all long and short vowel sounds within three and four letter words by May. If you know what they are looking for and when, it will be a lot easier for you to work towards that specific goal.

I would also suggest asking what will happen if she is not able to meet that goal within that timeframe. Will there be extra help in 3rd grade, and if so, what would it consist of? A lot more independence is expected in 3rd grade, and you want to be sure she is ready for the work they will give her.

Hope that helps, and again, lucky girl to have a mom who is on top of things! :) The contact you requested every two weeks is fabulous. It will really keep you in the loop.

[steph111397]

e&d -
When you read with her at home, try alternating pages with her.Great suggestion! I will definitely implement this!

If she is struggling to sound out a word, step in after she's given it a good try.I do this. I tell her to say what she thinks it is. I give her a hint after the first try. She does this twice before I will correct her and then explain why the word is what it is. She seems to be able to remember that specific word after that...for the most part.

Hopefully by getting updates every 2 weeks - I can really push the help she is getting - whether that means finding some other method or just letting it be known how important this is to us as parents. I know some parents leave it totally up to the people at the school to "educate" their children, but both DH and I view education as highly important and want to alleviate any unnecessary stressors for DD in hopes that it will help her later on when school gets REALLY hard!

As far as what will happen in 3rd grade if she is still struggling, they said she will continue with whatever program she ends 2nd grade with until it needs to be changed...so no MORE help, but the same???

[jenniferlynne]

"supposedly" learning disablilities can be genetic? Not sure about that one though.

Actually, they do tend to be genetic. If you don't think of it as a "learning disability" and just think of strengths and weaknesses, it makes sense that if one parent is really strong OR really weak in a certain area, then the child might be as well. Your husband could very well be an undiagnosed dyslexic. Many people, particularly if they're older, wouldn't have been recognized as dyslexic and so wouldn't have gotten help in school. Being a poor speller and hating reading definitely go along with being dyslexic. (Again, not saying your husband is dyslexic, just that he could be.)

It's great that your daughter loves to read. If she is a bit of a perfectionist and is hesitant to get words wrong, then fluency work will be great for her since she'll get lots of practice and will be able to read the text easily, smoothly and perfectly!

Some kids do have difficulty when what they're reading moves from narrative text to expository, and maybe that's contributing a little bit to her difficulties. I know that by 3rd grade, kids start reading more expository texts whereas in the younger grades they've mostly been reading stories. Talking a little bit about the topic before she reads (asking what she knows about dinosaurs, has she ever seen a Camptosaurus, what does she think it would look like) can pique her interest and make her more invested in the reading.

If you want to know more about reading development and how you can help at home, you might want to look at a book called "Straight Talk About Reading," by Louisa Moats. It's got lots of helpful information!

[Daniel's Kitty]

I hope she isn't just bored. I hated reading comprehension stuff. I love to read still, even if most of the books I read now have plenty of pictures :P.

I really hope they can help her. My husband is dyslexic and most people just acted like he was ADD instead of figuring out how to help. He reads so slowly and his spelling is horrible. He never used to read at all.

[steph111397]

My husband is dyslexic and most people just acted like he was ADD instead of figuring out how to help.
Ok, now I'm wondering....DH was diagnosed ADHD when he was a child. His mom refused to put him on medication and just dealt with it (which is probably why she drank so much!:eek: ).

I hope she isn't just bored.
I've thought about this as well....although she likes to read 1st grade level books because they are easy for her. She will read 2nd grade level ones as well, but she complains that it takes her longer to finish....ugh!

It's great that your daughter loves to read. If she is a bit of a perfectionist and is hesitant to get words wrong, then fluency work will be great for her since she'll get lots of practice and will be able to read the text easily, smoothly and perfectly!
I like the idea of her being able to 'chart' her progress. I looked at the Great Leaps website - then emailed her teacher to find out if the school uses it...no response yet. Hopefully they do, so I can get a copy of some of the materials.

Talking a little bit about the topic before she reads (asking what she knows about dinosaurs, has she ever seen a Camptosaurus, what does she think it would look like) can pique her interest and make her more invested in the reading.

Again, another great suggestion! These seem so simple and I'm wondering why I haven't thought of them on my own! lol.

I just want to thank you all so much for the suggestions and ideas. It is GREATLY appreciated! Any additional suggestions/ideas are welcome!

[jmvan74]

Steph, There have been so many great suggestions! I was a first grade teacher before being a SAHM and I would've given the same advice as previous posters. I especially like the idea of echo reading or what I always called "I read, you read". It helps the child understand how the sentence should sond when read fluently.
I think she is afraid to get a word wrong so she will take a longer time looking at it to make sure she is saying it correctly -

This sounds like a bit of confidence issue. Keep working with her and praise her for every little thing she does well. It might help to keep reminding her that it's okay if it's not perfect as long as she is doing her best, she will get it.
Good luck. I'm sure that with your help she will do great. :D