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Bethany
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| Posted: Jan 26 2010 at 6:27am | IP Logged
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I feel like this will never end. My oldest, who will be 8 in June, still has a very difficult time reading. But I have no idea what my expectations should be. A couple of weeks ago I though she was doing really great and making progress, however, yesterday I'm completely confused as to why she does some of the things she does  .
Specifically, she will at times completely reverse a word (no instead of on or saw instead of was), this seemed to have stopped but all of a sudden we're back at it. Also, she OFTEN simply guesses, so if the word starts with C and climbing would make sense in the story, she doesn't even see that it is CH and just "reads" climbing. Too often I have to prompt her to start with the beginning sound and work her way across. It's like she sees the entire word and it's just too much, kind of like a messy room where you don't know where to begin.
I will admit I started trying to "teach" her much to early, she was about 5 yrs, 4 months, with LSLF. That was just way too much, too fast. I've wised up since then and did not do this with my now 6 yo. She and I stared 100 EZ Lessons, but she hated it after about lesson 4, just like my 7 did, and we canned it. She knows all her sound and is starting to do it on her own and has a desire to read. My 7 yo hates it when I have her read to me, but she did tell me yesterday that she dislikes these boring books she reads, that she wants to read something exciting like The Wizard of OZ. I guess that's the problem with letting little ones hear literature above their level  . So we did start reading a Magic Tree House together and she seemed to like that better.
I just don't know what to do . Do we just keep plugging away or do I "crack down" and really make her study more phonics. Nothing makes her cringe like a phonics page. I had pretty much stopped any phonics work in favor of reading. I do think that she'll learn most of the rules just by encountering them over and over in reading.
I think I'm just tired of the whole thing and I'm just so ready to have at least one independent reader. But I also now that when that happens, I'll have a hard time prying her out of a book. So I should be careful what I wish for 
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Bethany
Wife to Mike, Mommy to Amelia (6/02), Sarah (10/03), Martha Grace (10/05), Rebecca Anne (12/07), Laura Catherine (3/10) and Reed Michael 7/4/14.
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Kathryn
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| Posted: Jan 26 2010 at 10:11am | IP Logged
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 My 2nd, a son, will be 10 in June and we still struggle with his reading. However, I will say there has been much, much improvement. I don't think he could even read his sight words at your daughter's age! With 4 babies and another on the way, I completely understand about needing this one to be more independent but I think may be you both need a little less intensity?  Trust me, I know this feeling. I would continue the phonics and the reading but for fun and know that it will come...in her time.
Good luck,
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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ALmom
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| Posted: Jan 26 2010 at 8:35pm | IP Logged
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We had major difficulty with many of ours in some of what you are describing - ie reading no as on. We also saw reversal of letters, reversal of numbers and a myriad of other things. It is fairly normal to do some of this when you first start to read, but when it persists, and doesn't improve with practice, there may be some underlying vision issues involved.
I'm not at all saying your dd has this problem, but one of the hardest things for us in getting diagnosed was how we would feel like things were better at times or maybe she was getting it - and yet, the same old stuff would reoccur. It never hurts to have a really good eye exam by a developmental optometrist and make sure there isn't anything physical going on (and not just 20/20). In the meantime, see if print size and spacing between words on a page helps. That makes a huge difference in our house. Of course the tough part about that is that it is hard to find interesting, really classic books for that age in large enough print for mine.
Janet
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stellamaris
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| Posted: Jan 26 2010 at 8:48pm | IP Logged
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Your dd may just be a later reader, and that is fine. However, I would agree with Janet that she should have a good eye exam. Our now 8 yr old ds struggled with reading and also was doing reversals. We had a develepmental optometrist exam him and he was, in fact, crossing his eyes over the centerline of his vision, which was causing the reversals. He is now in glasses with prisms to correct that problem, and his reading is really improved.
If her vision is not the problem, I'd just give it time.
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In Christ,
Caroline
Wife to  dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Jan 26 2010 at 8:49pm | IP Logged
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Wow. Sounds like my dd to a T.
My dd is 8 and is dyslexic, so unlike a neurotypical child, it isn't something she will just outgrow if I wait a while. My solution is to just be consistent with the phonics, with lots and lots of review so she doesn't "forget" what she learned, combined with phonics-based readers.I also make sure to keep the lessons short and sweet to avoid frustration, and alternate the dryer, more intense stuff with fun things she loves and can do more independently.
I found that Alphaphonics has just the right quantity/quality of info per lesson for my dd, and the pace is just right. Slow and steady!LOL!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Jan 26 2010 at 9:25pm | IP Logged
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If she's mostly sight reading the guessing at the word is typical. How does she do if she reads silently and then you ask questions about the story? Is she comprehending well?
My oldest is mainly a sight reader and tests very well on comprehension but we have those same sort of issues if she is trying to read outloud. Since phonics is rather like speaking a language she simply can't understand.. we don't belabor it. And my solution is just to keep practising reading out loud. And know that she can read and understand much higher than she can read outloud.
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All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Bethany
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| Posted: Jan 27 2010 at 5:29am | IP Logged
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Thank you all for your suggestions. I think she may be mostly sight reading, because at times we will come to a pretty straight forward (phonetically) word and she will just stare. I have to prompt and prod to get her started. I also think she is pretty perceptive, so when words don't exactly fit the rules it makes her question all the rules. Like I think it's strange to use the words ten and pen on the short e's, maybe it's my southern accent, but I (and she) say these words kind of in between the e and i, not exactly either one.
I did pick up Reading Pathways from the library and yesterday she read several pages. She thought the pyramids were great fun and really didn't want to stop. I do think it was great practice for her. But even then, she read ten and after a couple of lines of building this sentence she finally exclaimed, "Oh, they mean the number 10!"
I haven't tried having her read silently, but maybe we will today. The only problem is she's very good at perceiving the story. I have to find something with large enough print and not too many pictures or it won't matter, she'll just "read" the pictures . I think I grabbed a new Frog and Toad at the library yesterday, so we will try that.
Thanks again.
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Bethany
Wife to Mike, Mommy to Amelia (6/02), Sarah (10/03), Martha Grace (10/05), Rebecca Anne (12/07), Laura Catherine (3/10) and Reed Michael 7/4/14.
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: Jan 27 2010 at 11:07am | IP Logged
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My dd12 we believe is dyslexic. I feel the same way as you about reading- it is so difficult to teach after going through one dyslexic and now another (my ds7).
One thing we found out was that phonics in general was a bust! She is primarily a sight reader- slows her down, she is poor at figuring out new words, spelling is no where in sight! but she just finished The Two Towers after many, many, many hours, and we are celebrating. This chld is a genius though (mom's opinion), can memorize like crazy ( had the whole highwayman memorized at age 9), and can sew, quilt, draw, fix, anything. She does love literature though- always has a stack of audiobooks and mp3s. I always tell her about the great dyslexics in the world past and present.
Edit: The genius comment was just a funny mom moment- but she is a very bright child.
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Bethany
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| Posted: Jan 27 2010 at 12:03pm | IP Logged
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Oh Kristie, my daughter sounds a lot like yours. Last fall she had The Owl and the Pussycat memorized after I had read the Jan Brett book to the girls maybe twice. She is always wanting to listen to audio books and remembers soooo much. Just the other day I was reading them a Native American myth about the Pleiades and she said "Oh, you mean the Pleiades? (slightly different pronunciation). She had learned about them while listeneing to Mary Poppins on CD. So we looked them up online and found the pronunciation in the UK is what she was saying (a la Mary Poppins) and I was using the US pronunciation (I had to look it up also).
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Bethany
Wife to Mike, Mommy to Amelia (6/02), Sarah (10/03), Martha Grace (10/05), Rebecca Anne (12/07), Laura Catherine (3/10) and Reed Michael 7/4/14.
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LeeAnn
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| Posted: Jan 27 2010 at 12:51pm | IP Logged
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If she does better with sight-word reading techniques I would let her do that rather than agonizing over making her phonetically sound out each new word. Phonics is a good tool but only a means to an end. There's nothing wrong with just telling your child what the unfamiliar word is, having her memorize that and recognizing it when she encounters it again. We make too much of phonics sometimes.
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ALmom
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| Posted: Jan 27 2010 at 1:21pm | IP Logged
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Bethany:
I had to laugh about the southern accent thing with pin and pen and such. I used to tell my dc that when there was an n at the end we just slur so much that the e sounds like an i. A tutor we had here for my nephew heard me and had a funny look on her face (she is from NY) and since we are friends also, I just asked. She explained and worked with me until I could hear the difference . It took a while. Now I just overemphasize initially with new words and also explain that most of us become somewhat sloppy with speech and each region has its own areas of blurring.
Not that this changes what others have advised in terms of utilizing sight reading, etc. But when you do bring in phonics - this may help, from one southerner to another. It also sometimes interferes with their ability to hear syllables. We have an extra syllable or two if we really drawl .
Janet
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Tina P.
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| Posted: Jan 27 2010 at 1:33pm | IP Logged
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Bethany wrote:
| I just don't know what to do . Do we just keep plugging away or do I "crack down" and really make her study more phonics. Nothing makes her cringe like a phonics page. |
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How about instead of presenting her with a phonics "page" engage her with a phonics GAME? Don't even call it a phonics game, just a game. There are a ton of fun phonics games here. I only led you to the home page because I don't know your daughter's specific issues. When I was getting desperate with how slow my second daughter was picking up on reading, I ordered a few carefully selected games addressing the specific problems with reading that I observed and we played them once or twice per week until things started to make more sense to her.
Also, when we're reading, I *still* have to remind her of certain rules (like "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking" or even "when there's a comma, you pause in your reading") during her reading.
Sometimes, as was the case with my third child, a break is what's in order. If all that's happening is frustration and tears, that's when to take a break and read aloud like crazy! 
Competency in reading takes time and patience. She'll get there!
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Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: It's always reading
