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time4tea
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Hello Everyone,
I have been homeschooling our dc for 5 years now, and feel like I have hit a brick wall, particularly with my almost 7 year old. I have been working with her for about 18 months now on lerning how to read, with only very minimal progress to show for it. We have tried many, many programs, from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, to Little Stories to Little Folks, to the Kolbe 1st Grade Lesson plans (using the CNR), to enrollment with Seton Special Services for Reading, but with really minimal to no progress. She seems to be unable to really retain the information that is being taught to her, so I end up teaching and re-teaching, and re-re-teaching. I understand that children learn through repetition, but when it goes on for over a year with virtually the same lessons, it begins get worrisome. In addition to this, I have a very challenging 8th grader who needs my constant, hovering presence or else he falls off course, and two other children who I am also currently schooling, one of them a budding Kindergartener. I am expecting a 5th baby in the Summer, and between housework, meals, schoolwork, activities (Church related and otherwise), as well as a parent who is seriously ill, I cannot take anymore. Our finances are extraordinarily tight, otherwise, I would sen dd to a tutor for Reading instruction, but affording it is out of the question, especially with another baby on the way. I am very reluctant to spend anymore money on additinal reading materials for her, because so far, I have not found any that work. I am so discouraged, I cannot really express my feelings adequately, except to say that I feel like a failure and am beginning to think dd would be better off in the local school. Often, I do not even have the patience to work with her anymore, because I find the lack of progress so very discouraging, not to mention the stress of my other responsibilities pressing in on me, especially the 8th Grader who never seems to be able to keep his mind on his work and the housework that never ends.....
Thank you all for listening. I am looking forward to any advice/encouragement you may have to share.
__________________
Blessings to you!
~Tea
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Marybeth
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I am so sorry for how overwhelmed you are feeling. What is Seton saying about your dd's lack of progress? Do you feel she has retention in other areas like math and science? Can she track words as you read to her? I am curious about her vision. Anyway to talk to your ped. about getting a referral for a eye exam?
I wonder if she will be a late reader. I read late...summer going into 3rd grade..I was the last girl in my grade to read. Then it all evened out b/c by 8th grade I was winning reading contests and getting the highest scores on vocabulary tests.
Do you feel comfortable just taking a break from formal reading instruction until next year? This way you aren't stressed and can focus on reading good literature, books on tape and be able to incorporate more studies between your 7 year old and kindergartner.
See what your school district has to say about testing at this time of year. I know how hard it was to get special services for my students the last quarter of the year. ugh...the special education teachers spent most of their day reviewing IEPs and making plans for September for students who needed help March-May. These teachers are often very overworked...didn't want to come off negative on the teachers just the system.
Please be assured of my prayers. I had a strain of mono after Christmas and spent much of January having panic attacks about ds,age 6, and schooling. 
Thinking of you...
Marybeth
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Marybeth (Mb)
http://held-together.blogspot.com
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JennyMaine
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Tea,
When we are so vested in our child's educational success, it is completely draining to feel we aren't making progress. It's like getting up in the morning and strapping an extra 200 lbs to your back for the day! It weighs on your mind and soul.
My daughter struggled mightily with learning to read. I believe with her I am looking at a case of dyslexia or another learning disability, although I've never sought an official diagnosis. You said: "She seems to be unable to really retain the information that is being taught to her, so I end up teaching and re-teaching, and re-re-teaching." Oh, how familiar that cry is to my ears! And I'm sorry to tell you that teaching, re-teaching, and re-re-teaching is exactly what she needs.
First, please know that it isn't your lack of good teaching effort that is causing the struggle. No way. The situation does, however, need a triple extra dose of patience from mom, and that is so hard to dig up when you are tired of it all! Public school is not the answer in this situation. Your daughter would end up in a special ed program, lumped in with those who are there for behavioral issues. She wouldn't get the one-on-one help she needs. . .far from it. (You might see if there's a Masonic learning center near you -- they may ask you to get an official diagnosis from an educational psychologist, but will offer you affordable tutoring. That is a better option than the public school.)
May I ask what program you are using through Seton? Is it the video program from the Texas Scottish Rite? If so, sticking with that might be the best thing in the long run. For my daughter, I used lots of Explode the Code and Hooked on Phonics. Memorizing all the sight words in HOP is what finally got her reading fluently (ie, not sounding out c-a-t for the tenth time on each page! ugh!) The other plus to HOP was. . .I didn't teach her. It gave me some distance from her struggle for a while -- I drilled her on sight word flashcards and the rest she did with the tapes and the Master Reader cd-roms. I needed that distance from her for a while. After that, I was able to tackle more one-on-one teaching with an Orton-Gillingham program. (I know you're tired of looking at different programs, but Saxon Phonics is Orton-Gillingham based. Personally, I avoided Writing Road to Reading because it intimidated me.)
Please try to get your hands on a copy of the book "Parenting the Struggling Reader." It was the best book I've ever read on the subject. One thing they strongly recommend you don't do is to just toss up your hands and declare her a late bloomer. Children who struggle with reading lose hours and hours of the very reading time they need to become strong readers. Even if it is super-easy basic readers, be sure she spends time reading them (at least 1/2 hour)in addition to lesson time each day. Even if it is the basic Bob books.
Hang in there, Tea. Maybe someone else has some suggestions for keeping your 8th grader on track to free up more of your time? Oh, and have you talked with a Seton SS counselor about the situation? What have they advised?
__________________
--JennyMaine, Mom to Catherine (17) and Sam (15) "The countenance is a reflection of the soul. You should always have a calm and serene countenance." -- Therese of Lisieux
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Ruth
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I am sorry that you are struggling. I also have had a very difficult time teaching our 8ds to read. We have used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Little Stories to Little Folks, and Seton's phonics, with not much success. He will be 9 in 2 months, and is just this past January he started reading for me.
I will pray for you. I'm sure you will get lots of great advice here. Take care and God bless.
__________________
Ruth
mom to 7 miracles
My family blog
Loreto Rosaries
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Bookswithtea
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Dear ~Tea,
I know how you feel...our dc are similar ages. My oldest is an 8th grade boy who is extremely high maintenance, and my 5th is going to be 2 in April. My third is slow on the reading curve, although not as you described. We had a car accident that totalled my Suburban and had to buy a new car this month, which means I now have a 15 passenger van  , but I also have ZERO homeschool money for next year. 
I know life is overwhelming especially when you are pregnant and money is tight. {{{Tea}}}
If the Lord is calling you to something else, then pursue it and feel good about it. But don't pursue traditional school just because nothing else seems to be working. It may be that God has some changes in your homeschool or routine in mind for awhile instead. He may have another vision besides the one that you are seeing right now.
May I gently suggest that this is not the best time to make dramatic changes? Could dh help you to get to Adoration a few times in the next month to pray about God's direction? And maybe you could cut everyone's schoolwork to bare minimums in the interim and institute a 'no tv' rule for awhile so that they play with creativity until you feel you have a clear vision for the future?
I speak from experience on this.  I spent the last year in knots over my homeschool, especially worrying about my oldest. I do not know why God sometimes takes soooooooooooooo looooooooooonnnngggg to answer. But I didn't get my marching orders till December. Until then, I just tried to follow the old hypocratic "First, do no harm." 
PM me if you want to talk more. Since we have kids so close in age, I'd be grateful for someone to talk to who is in a similar place as I am!
Peace be with you, friend.
__________________
Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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MacBeth
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Tea, I am so sorry you are struggling, but if it is any consolation, you can know you are in good company with a late reader and it's OK  . My dd did not read until she was 9, and even then, would not read on her own until 11. She is now a voracious reader. Get a diagnosis if you feel it might help, but it may just be her normal development. All children are different, and a six year old who does not read is within normal parameters.
Here's what I did with my dd in the meanwhile  :
*Kept trying, but with long breaks between methods. I waited to see signs that she was ready to read.
*Let her use as many books on tape/CD as we could find to keep up her "literacy."
*Read to her from the books that she needed to read that were not available in audio formats.
*Encouraged constantly without nagging, or showing disappointment when she failed.
*Didn't worry (but that's just in my nature...I understand that it's hard, especially if a curriculum is telling you that your child should "be" somewhere that she is not, yet... )
__________________
God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
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time4tea
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Jenny,
Seton has really been no help to me (although I know that their SS department has been a blessing to many). They sent me the Stevenson Phonics Program, but unfortunately, this program has been updated several times since it initally came out in 1977, and Seton has a "mish-mash" of Stevenson Teacher's Manuals, Student worktexts and Readers, none of which seem to match up, and apart from literally taking the entire program apart and reconstructing what lesson in the TM goes with which Student Worktext page and which Reader, there isn't much else you can do, and I honestly don't have the time to do this right now. Seton doesn't provide any lesson plans for any of their SS products (at least not for Stevenson Phonics). The man at Seton was very nice, but made it pretty clear that solving my dd's reading issue was like a stab in the dark. Yes, she can memorize other things - she is a masterful ballet dancer, and dances with girls a few years older than herself because she is so able to learn and perform the various steps, positions, choreography required for pieces far above what most of her peers are able to do. Her vision is 20/20, no problems there. Her hearing was also tested by an audiologist and she was examined by and ENT (all of which were done prior to her entrance into the local Special Ed. program for Speech - she has a mild articulation delay - not receptive language, just articulation - she has a "lazy soft palate", as the ENT termed it). However, dh had dyslexia as a child, and I am almost certain she likewise is mildly dyslexic (as is our oldest son), based upon how she reverses words as she pronounces them, etc. She currently attends Speech Therapy 1x/week through our local public school system, and I have found it to be not a very promising program. I cannot imagine, when I really think about it, that putting her in the local school full-time would do her any good whatsoever, because she would most certainly, as you mentioned, end up in special reading (as did our oldest son when he was a 1st grader in public school) and be lumped in with a lot of kids with behavioral issues (which we experienced before when our son was in special reading), and she does not have behavioral or attitude problems. Mostly, I am just tired and very burned out. I, too, need what you called "distance" from the situation with my dd's reading. I agree with you wholeheartedly that writing a struggling reader off as a late bloomer is not a good idea. I have been receiving some encouragement from others I have spoken to to "just not worry about it," etc., and to suspend all reading lessons with her entirely, but I cannot bring myself to do that. Thank you for mentioning this aspect, because I was beginning to feel as if I was off the mark here in wnating her to keep plugging away at reading, even if it is easy reading.
Thank you for your help and God bless!
Tea
__________________
Blessings to you!
~Tea
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Carole N.
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JennyMaine wrote:
One thing they strongly recommend you don't do is to just toss up your hands and declare her a late bloomer. Children who struggle with reading lose hours and hours of the very reading time they need to become strong readers. Even if it is super-easy basic readers, be sure she spends time reading them (at least 1/2 hour)in addition to lesson time each day. Even if it is the basic Bob books.
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I cannot more readily agree with JennyMaine. I was also in the same situation as you. No matter what I tried, I could not help my ds learn to read. In the end, we place him in ps, but we were very fortunate (it is a literacy-based school). However, if I had it to do over again, I would just read, read, read to him. That is what they did in the school.
They kept drilling him on phonics (which I agree with), but they read all day long. And of course, he had his own reading time, but they emphasized to me that it could be any level just so long as he was reading. When we placed him in school, he was in the 3rd grade. They retained him one year, but placed him in 1st grade reading. He is now in the 5th grade and has a reading comprehension level of 7th to 8th grade. All this in 3 1/2 years! This child hated to read and now will read on request.
So don't give up! You are doing a great job!
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Carole ... in Wales
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time4tea
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MacBeth wrote:
I understand that it's hard, especially if a curriculum is telling you that your child should "be" somewhere that she is not, yet... )
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Macbeth,
You are so right! Most recently, we have been using Little Stories for Little Folks, and CHC suggests that the beginning of 1st Grade be delayed entirely until the dc reaches Level 2 of LSLF. Well, dd has only just now begun Level 2, and struggles with it. I cannot imagine delaying her entire 1st Grade year on account of this, and I am sure(?) that CHC may not mean this to be taken so literally, but I do take it literally, and then I begin to panic. Maybe I just need to stop relying on "Lesson Plans", period. Maybe they are just not a good match for this dc.
God bless!
__________________
Blessings to you!
~Tea
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amyable
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time4tea wrote:
| Her vision is 20/20, no problems there. |
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I can't add much to the good advice you have gotten already, except to add that my oldest dd, who is 9, is just starting to read fluently. She has had vision tests since a baby that put her at 20/20 sight, *however* a visit to a local developmental optometrist has shown that my child had/has many vision problems! Her eyes don't work together properly with her brain. I know others on this board have similar stories. My dd has made nice progress in reading since starting vision therapy. We still struggle in some areas. Of course this may not be her problem, but I thought I would throw it out there. Here is one website that talks about vision therapy www.covd.org
Many  to you. I know how frustrating this can be on top of other issues.
__________________
Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of 
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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amyable
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time4tea wrote:
Most recently, we have been using Little Stories for Little Folks, and CHC suggests that the beginning of 1st Grade be delayed entirely until the dc reaches Level 2 of LSLF. Well, dd has only just now begun Level 2, and struggles with it. I cannot imagine delaying her entire 1st Grade year on account of this, and I am sure(?) that CHC may not mean this to be taken so literally, but I do take it literally, and then I begin to panic. Maybe I just need to stop relying on "Lesson Plans", period. Maybe they are just not a good match for this dc.
God bless! |
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We had the same problem that year with CHC, for the same reason! I ignored their advice, and went on with the lesson plans, reading to my dd where she would have been reading to herself and could not, and just continued to plug along with whatever reading program we were using at the time (I too tried many!!). It didn't seem to harm her in any way. In fact, it helped her see how "smart" she was in other areas, by giving her success at her grade level.
__________________
Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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JuliaT
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Tea,
I am so sorry for your discouragment. I have had a similar problem but for us it is math. My dd has dyslexia with numbers (dyscalculia.) We have to go over and over and over her math facts. She will be 8 this year and she still doesn't know her addition facts. It is very frustrating. But I know that she is in the right place because I can find the best ways to teach her.
There is a yahoo group for homeschool moms whose children are having a hard time learning to read. There are lots of information in the files about the best way to teach reading. Also, there are many moms on that list whose children have dyslexia. This group may be a help to you.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartofReadi ng/
The best thing I can say to you is not to give up. I know it is hard for you to keep going over the lessons, but that is what she needs right now.
Blessings,
Julia
mom to 3(7,6,4)
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Juliainsk
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aussieannie
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What wonderful advice! I can relate too, Tea - as I have a 10year old who still struggles - what you talked about I understand perfectly.
Even though my daughter is slowly progressing, (very slowly) I worry alot and I hit a particular wall over it a few weeks ago - "What can I do?" Well, I'm still not sure!  BUT I have decided since then, to pray with her at the beginning of each reading lesson, asking for help through an intercessor who I know understands well - St Sergius (a Russian saint.)
This picture is St Sergius as a little boy who is miraculous cured from his serious reading problems by the Holy Monk.
O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Sergius of Moscow, may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
I got this picture from this site and I superimposed the prayer over the picture and it is my daughter's bookmark in her reading book.
A lovely Catholic picture book that you can both share together over this issue is The Wonderful Life of St Sergius of Radonezh - here is a beautiful passage for the book:
When Saint Sergius was a little boy, his name was Bartholomew.
He loved the forest.
He could stand for hours and watch the birds soar or watch the bugs crawl. Ever since he was old enough his father had sent him to tend the horses in the woods.
He loved the forest almost as much as he loved his mother and father. He loved his brothers Stephen and Peter. He loved God. He loved going with his family to the rich services and clebrations of the beautiful Churches and monasteries of the city of Rostov where he lived. He wanted to become a monk and move into the forest and be forever with God in prayer. He loved God. He loved his family. He loved the Chruch, and he loved the vast forests of God's creation. He loved everything, everything except school. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't learn to read and write.
His classmates easily learned to turn letters into sounds, words, sentences, and meaning; but for Bartholomew these same letters only turned into birds that flew off with him to circle in the blue sky above the forest, or the letters would change into little bugs that crawled off with him into the woodland undergrowth. It hurt so much that he couldn't learn to read or write. His parents were displeased, his classmates teased, and the headmaster continued to scold him.
So on the day when our story begins we find him as a seven year old boy, wandering the forest, sad, sorry, and hurting.
On this special day
His father had sent him away
To find a foal in the forest,
But instead of the foal he found a sight
That filled him with awe and wonder.
Under an oak tree up ahead
An aged monk stood praying.
Silently the boy drew near
And watched and watched and waited.
At the end of his prayers
The monk looked to the boy
And asked what he wanted and needed.
Bartholomew poured out his pain and his fright
Because he could not learn to read or write.
The withered old monk raised his hands in prayer
Then lowered them to a bag that hung at his waist
And from the bag he withdrew a piece
Of the holy, blessed bread that he carried.
"This bread is a sign," he softly said,
"That now by God's grace
You can read and write,
As well or even beter than others."
There they talked, this monk and the boy
Until the shadows announced the coming of night
And the boy begged the monk to come to his home
For evening prayers and a supper.
Bartholomew's parents welcomed with joy
The stranger their son had brought them,
But when the monk gave the boy a book
And asked him to read evening prayers,
The boy did plead: "I cannot read,"
But the monk only said,
"Remember the bread,"
And then, indeed, Bartholomew saw he could read,
And he read, and read, and read.
This book is marvellous, one of my personal favourites with the most beautiful illustrations.
This posting is not a replacement for the excellent advice you have been given but just a prayerful dimension to add to an intercessor who your daughter could relate to. Asking for miraculous help - yes but praying for prudent guidance also, for the right course of action.
It is sure to be a comfort to you both during this difficult time to come together to ask for God's help with it all.
__________________
Under Her Starry Mantle
Spiritual Motherhood for Priests
Blessed with 3 boys & 3 girls!
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Servant2theKing
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Tea,
Seven is pretty young to be worrying about her "delay" in reading...each and every child has a unique timeframe for reading readiness...just as they develop at different times than other children in areas like potty training. The worst thing we can do is box them into a specific time frame that other children might be on, or one that a set curriculum suggests. If you can get your hands on a copy of "Better Late Than Early" by Raymond and Dortothy Moore, there are a lot of ideas in there which can help you relax and take it more slowly with your dd.
The suggestion to read, read, read to her is excellent...I used to follow the words with my finger, as I read to our son, so he could see the words as I read them and become more familiar with how the words looked as they were sounded out (larger print text is helpful for this). Our son is 12yo now and has only become stronger in his reading skills over the past year or two. He has a very sensitive, artistic nature, and is left handed...I'm pretty certain if I had pushed him and made a bigger deal of learning to read he would not be enjoying reading as much as he does now! Another tip that we found helpful...choose simpler books about subjects your child is very interested in for read alouds. In time, as reading is catching on more, have them read one page for every one or two that you read to them!
The beauty of homeschooling is that you are able to tailor your child's instruction to their needs and abilities!
For what it's worth, I have wanted to stop homeschooling pretty much EVERY year that we've been at it...16 1/2 years! I always console myself with the knowledge that teachers in school feel the same way...sometimes every day! And teachers in a school setting rarely have the opportunity to give a struggling student the one on one attention they need.
__________________
All for Christ, our Saviour and King, servant
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Donna
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Tea,
Nothing more to add to all the excellent advice already given, but wanted to tell you that we struggled here for several years with a very late reader. My son was nearly 11 years old before he was reading well....and he had a reading tutor once a week on top of our daily reading lessons.
I wish I could pop in to help you with your housework.
Hang in there....
__________________
Donna
DH, Keven
Jason, Stevie, Marie, Jackson, Clara, and Aaron
Jacob, Sam, and Regina with God
Grandbabies Leigha and Elsie
Moments Like These
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Servant2theKing
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Aussieannie,
Thank you so very, very much for your beautiful and inspiring post...I wanted to cry while reading those blessed words ! Saint Sergius is a wondrous intercessor to turn to....the image and words you shared are priceless treasures for those who guide struggling readers! You were truly inspired by the Lord to turn to St. Sergius for help in guiding your child through the wondrous world of reading!
Just today we were reading about another saint who struggled with learning, St. Thomas Aquinas, who early in life was known to his classmates as "dumb ox"...however, he went on to become the first scholar in his class and eventually in all Europe...instead of the "dumb ox", he became one of the greatest scholars of all time and earned the titles "Angelic Doctor" (as Doctor of the Church) and "Prince of the Christian Schools". As we were reading this I shared with our son that although St. Thomas may have lacked some academic skills early in life, God had given him even greater and deeper understanding of matters of the soul...and his writings are still enlightening our souls today!
I still read aloud subjects like History and Religion for our 12ds...he's much better able to retain what is read when he hears it, than if he were struggling to work through the words. His comprehension is wonderful when he's read to, but far less if he has to read the text himself. But, he applies what is read, and is a much better thinker than his older and younger brothers, who are excellent readers! Each child has special gifts and we are incredibly blessed to help them unfold those gifts little by little!
__________________
All for Christ, our Saviour and King, servant
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Angel
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Tea,
I just wanted to second Amy's experience with a developmental optometrist. Reading didn't click for my oldest (now 10) until he was about 8.5. Then he took off. However, based on some IQ testing we had done over the summer, we took him to a developmental optometrist this winter. We had been told by many optamologists that he had a mild stigmatism and might not even need glasses. When we went to the developmental optometrist, we found that he basically had zero peripheral vision and that he lost focus frequently, making reading for any length of time difficult (and I had noted that he seemed to avoid chapter books, even after he learned to read well.) The optometrist gave him bifocals and I was amazed at the difference! He could sit and read for *hours*. (The optometrist was amazed with all his difficulties that he was reading as well as he was.) We're doing vision therapy now for other issues, which will hopefully help with other issues he has, such as handwriting and math.
If you do suspect dyslexia, the book _the Gift of Dyslexia_ may be helpful. It details a method the author has succesfully used in helping dyslexics to read, by using clay to model the words in 3-D and also to create 3-D images to go along with the word. His theory is that dyslexics often have visual-spatial gifts which make it difficult for them to keep letters in their place.
As far as being worn out goes... not much help to offer there, but complete symapthy. Even though he can know read, parenting and homeschooling my 10 yo continues to often be exhausting, and then there are the other 4 to keep up with, my husband is traveling quite a bit, and I am pregnant with, too (with #6). Some days it gets to the point where I don't even want to get out of bed. I'm trying to deal with by calling a break from school this week. It's February, and all the schools around here are on winter break anyway. So we might as well have one, too.
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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Taffy
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| Posted: Feb 19 2007 at 5:42pm | IP Logged
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You've already gotten so much good advice and I totally agree with all of it. Public school for your children will difficulties will, more often than not, make problems worse and not better. One thing that you might be able to tap into and that might ease the burden at home a bit is a partial enrollment - where the student only attends for part of the day. That might take some pressure off for areas that take a lot of prep time but your children aren't struggling with. As a labour saving option, however, this will only work if you don't have to worry about transporting the kids to and from school.
My oldest is a struggling reader but not struggling in word decoding. He is struggling mightily with comprehension. Believe me, having a problem with decoding is much easier to deal with! Read to your daughter lots and use auditory books when you don't have time to read. Have her narrate the readings back to you. She'll be learning what she needs to and will be doing just fine until she manages to figure out the decoding.
FWIW - have you tried Phonics Pathways? I found it VERY straightforward and user friendly. It's pretty boring but I found that my children were more receptive when I simply wrote exercises on the large white board that we have and went through them that way. Once they were reading real books without difficulty, we left the text and haven't looked back. It's worth a look at your library if you haven't tried it yet. Of course, if you've already tried it, then simply ignore this piece of rambling.
__________________
Susan
Mom to 5 on earth and 1 in heaven
Susan's Soliloquy
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ElizLeone
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| Posted: Feb 19 2007 at 6:23pm | IP Logged
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This subject is near and dear to my heart, because we are also currently dealing with a struggling reader - ds, age 6. I don't have answers, but I can tell you what we're doing.
After our two daughters picked up reading at lightning speed and at startlingly young age, we noticed our son was not falling into the same pattern. For a couple years, we thought nothing of it, figuring boys mature at different rates, and all children are different. However, when our two-year-old son was responding to the phonics flashcards faster than his 5-1/2-year-old brother, we knew something was up.
We did some research and found a local occupational therapist who did some testing and found that while he is bright in many areas, he is severely deficient in areas of memory and visual sequencing. Also, his visual discrimination skills are very poor. All this leads to great difficulty learning to read, despite the fact that he is creative, well-spoken, and bright in other areas. Notably, he had some pretty severe oxygen deprivation as a baby which they think could be the cause of some of these issues. So perhaps our situation is unique in that regard. Nevertheless...
We had the occupational therapist work with him for several months. One thing they did is begin some therapeutic listening with him. There is a 4 Real thread on this topic here. They also did specific gross motor and spinning exercises which were supposed to help him with better eye tracking and other things that might contribute to an improved ability to recognize letters and words. Ultimately, we quick the therapy, because we just weren't convinced it was doing anything for him, and insurance didn't cover it.
However, a couple good things came out of the therapy. One is that I was first exposed to the idea that perhaps pure phonics is not the best route for a struggling reader with memory issues and that sight words might be the best way to start. I must say, this whole idea is still unsettling for me, as I am a HUGE phonics proponent. I learned to read with pure phonics, and it's how I've taught my other kids to read. Nevertheless, it's not working for ds at this time. And it does make some sense to me. If memory and recall is the issue, which seems to be the case for our son, then a pure phonics method is pretty tough. By the time he remembers that c says "c" and a says "a" and t says "t," he's forgotten the "c" and the "a" part of the word "cat," and he can't say the word. The same is true for sentences. If it's taking him so long to phonetically sound out, "The fat cat..." then he's not going to know what those first three words of the sentence are by the time he gets to "...sat." So we're looking into sight reading methods currently. Type in "dolch words" in a google search, and you'll come up with all sorts of good info.
Also, if you think memory/recall is an issue, do a google search for "digit span." There is interesting info out there that basically says that your digit span should mirror your age, up to age 7. As I recall, to read phonetically at the most primitive level, you must have a digit span of 4. To read phonetically with any fluency, you have to have a digit span of 5. Our son, age 6, rarely gets a 4 when we test him. (To do the digit span test, just say four one-syllable numbers in a monotone voice, with about a second between the numbers. If your child can repeat back those numbers acccurately, the child has a digit span of four. Then try five and so on to see where they place.) This digit span finding was a huge eye-opener to us, as it seems to indicate that in our son's case a deficient memory was the biggest stumbling rock to reading. So we are working on his memory. We're drilling him on digit span sequences. We also got him Memory Challenge, a computer game which drills memory. He enjoys it. I can't be sure yet if it's helping.
We have been using AlphaPhonics, together with some Dolch sight words for a phonics/sight word combo approach. We work every day, but I've found a few reading lessons a day for five minutes each are better than one longer lesson, in order to ease the frustration.
Just today, I found a program that works on "visual memory." I just ordered it in hope that it may be helpful to us.
I don't know if any of this info is helpful to you, but I thought I'd share it, as we are also struggling here, and it's nice to know what other folks are doing and how they're tackling the issue. And, yes, like you, some days I do truly feel like giving up. After seeing great progress each and every day with my daughters, seeing little to no progress with our son can be discouraging. But I take great comfort in the OT's recommendation that we not even think for a second about putting him in a public school program. She said he'd be instantly labeled, and that label would likely stick with him for life. She strongly encouraged to keep on working with him, gently and consistently, which is what we're doing.
I hope this is helpful in some way.
__________________
Elizabeth in Wisconsin
7 kids, 1 little saint
Munchkins on the Path
Our Adoption
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chicken lady
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| Posted: Feb 19 2007 at 10:30pm | IP Logged
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If it is any comfort I have a 9 dd who still cannot read. We have tried many of the things that have been suggested.
I think I understand your fears, one thing I was told, and it comforts me, if she is having this much trouble with reading at home, school would be terrible for her. She would be labeled and made to feel bad.
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Ready to Give up on Homeschooling
