| Author | |
ALmom
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 18 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3299
|
| Posted: April 23 2008 at 10:44pm | IP Logged
|
 |
|
I wasn't sure whether to post it here or in picture books. Basically my 8 yo is reading quite well and could certainly handle vocabulary and comprehend say dePaola books reading on his own - EXCEPT for the print size and the closeness of the lines of print. He is already wearing prescription reading glasses. He is bored with the books that have big enough print. I was wondering if any of you guys know any good literature, history, picture type books that are large enough print. He even has to use a magnifying glass for his grammar workbook. My clue was that stuff he knew without coaching last year, he suddenly couldn't do this year - but it was because all the words were running together. I had him try a magnifying glass and suddenly he could do it all in a whiz without a glitch. Anyways, the last thing I want to do is strain the visual system and send him back into vision therapy. I know we can get basic science and even geography and history off of Montessori type materials. His math book is big enough print. But he just learned how to read early this year, has taken off in ability to read but certainly the reinforcement of reading quality books is something we all want. I just need really good books with large enough print. Any ideas?
Janet
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Karen T
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 16 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 927
|
| Posted: April 25 2008 at 2:16pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I just googled "large print kids books" and found this link which looks like it might be a help. Any type of organization which helps blind people would probably also have resources - there are lots of kids/adults who have some vision but are 'legally' blind and would need larger print.
hth,
Karen T
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
ALmom
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 18 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3299
|
| Posted: April 26 2008 at 12:24am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Karen,
Thanks. I've e-mailed one place to see how much it would cost to put some of the books I want into larger print.
The frustrating thing that I've found is that all the large print materials that are good literature are for older folks. I don't think my 8 year old should be reading Catcher in the Rye or Charles Dickens just yet. The children's books are either too easy reading level for him (basically counting or step 1 type books) or not quality literature and of course none of the wonderful Catholic stories.
Other than being far sighted and 8 with immature eyes, there really isn't anything wrong with him (eliminates us from the lending library options which maybe have better stuff). He wants to read some garden books and other stuff - and he's capable except the print size. He read The Story of D-Day today (about 14 point type) which is an old Cornerstone (hardback) book we have. His eyes were really strained at the end because of the combination of print size and the number of words on a page. Yet, he really liked it and wants to read more things. I don't want to end up with monocular vision again - and expensive therapy. I've already ditched several things trying to reduce eyestrain. It is amazing to me how suddenly print size goes down from 1st to 2nd grade. I won't subject you to my rant - especially since your lead is the best one I've gotten so far.
I'm really hoping I hear back from the one place and that it isn't too expensive to get the books I want put in large print.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Janet
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Karen T
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 16 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 927
|
| Posted: April 26 2008 at 8:27am | IP Logged
|
|
|
ALmom wrote:
The frustrating thing that I've found is that all the large print materials that are good literature are for older folks. I don't think my 8 year old should be reading Catcher in the Rye or Charles Dickens just yet. The children's books are either too easy reading level for him (basically counting or step 1 type books) or not quality literature and of course none of the wonderful Catholic stories.
|
|
|
I know, my first thought was all the large print books that are out there, until I realized they are for us 40's and up crowd who are needing reading glasses now (my dh has resisted a long time, not believing that it happens to just about everyone - I've been using them for a couple years - he's now borrowing mine!)
have you tried those whole page magnifiers? That seems like the most reasonably priced option, but I don't know about distortion. We used to keep some of those at my office, for clients who couldn't read handouts we gave them and didn't bring their glasses. There are also "line at a time" magnifiers which would have the added benefit of keeping him in the right place on the page. I have also seen some books in a catalog for learning disabilities which are supposed to have more white space on each page, but they were just things like mystery series written specifically for kids with reading difficulties (ie the wording was at a 3rd grade level, but content would be for higher, like 8th or 9th grade, to keep them interested) I'm not sure if a place like that, though, might have other resources. The catalog belonged to my son's evaluator for LD; I'll ask her next time I see her.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Karen T
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 16 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 927
|
| Posted: April 26 2008 at 8:31am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Try this one too
http://www.mdsupport.org/resources/largeprintbooks2.html
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
ALmom
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 18 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3299
|
| Posted: April 26 2008 at 3:11pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
The books for folks with learning disabilities are really mostly twaddle and/or the content is inappropriate. When we were in therapy, I got a lot of those catelogues. I do know that Cliffs complete (with the full story) has large print and nice contrast which is why my oldest loved Shakespeare  , though she hated most other literature. I cannot wait to have some of the great classics around the house in larger print for her and so these other resources will help me even if not for my youngest children, yet.
We have a sheet magnifier but it is a bit awkward to use it to read a book. My husband is currently trying to think of a way to mount it so our son would have hands free to read and turn pages. If we figure out a good way to mount it, then we'll get a new sheet with less scratches!!! They do tend to warp just a bit and scratch easily with normal little boy use but might be a temporary solution until we can get back to our optometrist (3 hours away). Thinking about it, our son may simply need new reading glasses.
My struggle is how much to let him barrel ahead and how much to hold back. Would his eyes stop going more and more far-sighted if we just kept him busy outside and away from books for a while. I know that sounds terrible - but we saw our 11 yo get more and more far-sighted until the eyes stabilized when he was about 10. Now he sees double without his glasses  but we couldn't keep him out of reading all kinds of little books though his eyes strained a lot. I keep going back to: isn't 10 the age that Dr. Moore says boys eyes typically mature and when he recommends "starting school"? I cannot, legally not do school until 10. We don't start school until we have to by law and we try to keep the visual stress very, very minimal. But we also have children who are inquisitive and a mom who doesn't have answers off her head - so where do you go but books! I would love to have great books in very large print for my 8 - 10 year olds.
I printed off the mdsuport so I can call some of the places. Wind in the Willows looked promising. I think this boy would like that one a lot - at least in the next year or two. My 10 yo might even find literature more enjoyable with larger print. And the best part is that it didn't look as if it were priced outrageously. I could even get it off Amazon. That is a very promising lead.
Are there other mom's dealing with this or am I the only one who finds that my children just need larger print? Looking back, I'm almost certain that my oldest started out far-sighted and we didn't figure it out soon enough. When she was in high school, she would get sick to her stomach after 20 minutes of close work - but she was near sighted starting in 8th grade and hated to read. We didn't notice any trouble with her until about 4th grade and didn't put a lot of close work demands on her till about that time (following Dr. Moore's recommendation and seeing as she was the only child for 4 years, I had plenty of time to read aloud and do a lot of other ways of learning). When we realized she had focusing deficiencies and began therapy, they told us she had muscle spasms in the eye muscles from not knowing how/being able to relax these muscles. There are things that still effect her visual system really badly, like lack of sleep.
Our former vision therapist (retired from that and coming to our house to help me for an hour with my nephew and do a few science presentations) suggested taking a projector and project the stuff on the wall. We are also thinking about that. She may have one in her house and loan it to us to try.
Karen, you have been so, so generous with your time on this one. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Janet
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Willa
Forum All-Star
Joined: Jan 28 2005
Location: California
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3881
|
| Posted: April 26 2008 at 8:33pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
This might be a bit of a stretch, but if you go to Baldwin Project or some of the online sites for books you can print out reading material in any size you want. Or if you don't have an economical printer, you could have what you want bound at Kinko's. Unfortunately only public domain (older) books and copier bindings aren't as nice as a real book, but still something that occurred to me.
The other thing -- I have a magnifying screen that came with our Atlas. Oh, I see that Karen already mentioned those -- like this
I was thinking the same thing that you said about Dr Moore and IML. My daughter learned to read quite young, when she was five, and she wanted to read quite advanced books right away. For several years she had trouble because the small print would tire her out and she'd start to skip words. So that is my limited experience with that IML. My boys learned to read later and didn't seem to have a problem with reading whatever they picked up. I am wondering if my 5 year old might have some visual immaturity because his eyes water when he looks at something for a long time.
__________________
AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Forum Locked) 
4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: reading material and print size
