Reading-Help!

[aslyn]

Hey all!

I have been working with my 8yr old DD and my 6 yr old DS on phonics and reading over the past couple months, my DS is now reading primer books with a little help on the site words. My DD refuses to sound out words, when i tell her to sound it out she spells it out and looks to ds for the answer..However when I put her on click n kids she can click the sounds and click the words given to her just fine. So last night I handed them each a primer book with the "am" & "at" words which they have been working on through click n kids..earlier in the day in fact..my ds completed the task with little trouble asking only for a couple words..she didn't get past the first page of "sam at bat". I am at a loss, I don't know if its performance anxiety or she's playing stupid or shes really not getting this! I put her on low level activities thats shes done a gizzlion times (like starfall) and she loves it and excels but the moment I have her read from a book (the sames sounds and words as on the computer) she goes back to the "i dont know" phase. I have been looking at the "Bob Books" to pick up for her, but I don't want to waste the money and they end up on the shelf like everything else. I am at a loss, her writing skills are OK but not the best so I've wondered if having her write out the words from the primer would help.I made flashcards, she reads the words fine with the flashcards..it seems like she just does NOT want to read from a book! Does anyone have any ideas?

[chfriend]

A couple of thoughts:

1) If you back off, you'll know if it's anxiety or something else. If you don't back off, you can make the anxiety worse. Which is really for everyone.

2) My kids love the books at www.progressivephonics.com . They are funny and, well, progressive. They do not require independence, which is a plus for my two. You read the "harder" words; they read the words for the pattern they are learning. The site/books are free. You have to register.

[aslyn]

thank you! I do try to remember she will do it when shes ready, its just very hard when DS is 2 yrs younger and doing it..and now she is being compared to him (not by us, but others in the family) Which is killing her self esteem

[Jeannettea]

two suggestions

My 1st suggestion is to start practicing what's called "chunking". You take the word chunks (-at, -as, -ad, and so on), and write that chunk on a folder or a big piece of paper, whatever - just make sure it's nice and BIG.

Then make up letter tiles for your dd to place in the front of each of these chunks (only do one chunk per week though!). She would put b next to -at and say "bat", then c next to -at and say "cat", etc.

I used to post these chunks on the closet door w/ velcro (laminate them first w/ clear contact paper - $5 per roll at WMt and it does a LOT), and I let her do all the manipulating. She really enjoyed it, and it helped her read at an early age.

Keep the completed chunks on another door or the wall, and she can grab one to review whenever she wants. It's fun, and it works!

Another suggestion - get and use the book "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons". Yes, the title sound absolutely ridiculous, like one of those "teach your kid to potty train in two days" type of deals, but this book works! I've used it for the three older kids (18, 15, and 10), and they are all EXCELLENT readers, far ahead of their peers in testing, and all love to read for pleasure, entertainment, and information getting. Get it used from ebay for @ $15. It takes @ 15 minutes 2x per day, 5 days per week, to complete the book. My son, who could not read when I started it, finished up that school year reading at a 2nd grade level. I am a definite supporter of the book!

Hope this helps!!!

[craft_media_hero]

My dd went through an anti-book phase, too. It lasted about half a year. We just did lots of reading games, charade cards, pointing out words as we encountered them during the day, taking turns spelling words with the moveable alphabet, and stuff like that. Oh, also we found that our bathtub crayons would wipe off of the table in our bathroom, so I would leave her "word presents" or phrases to figure out. Sometimes I'd out and out make a phonics word list and have her read it to me. But we were pretty much reading book-free from mid-May to just now, lol.

I took it very, very slowly because I didn't want to pressure her, and she has just now started the Harriet Treadwell "Primer" and has been able to read all of the stories, even though we only did informal reading practice until now. As a segue to books, I would make little comic strips for her to illustrate with words from a phonics book (and sprinkling in the sight words, too).

So I think it is okay to take a break from book reading and do more games and "life reading" activities.

However, should your daughter be required to do any reading testing, be aware that taking a break from books (even if you're "life" reading) may cause her to be placed "lower" than her real level---my dd's first reading assessment took place right at the tail end of her anti-book phase, so even though she was reading what I consider solid first grade or even more complex sentences in our comic strips at home, her lack of interaction with "leveled" readers at the time caused her assessor to place her far below what I believe her "real" reading level is.

Honestly, though, even in spite of the testing experience, I'm really glad that I respected her needs at the time and didn't push the books thing. I only ordered her first reader after she'd had a chance to view it online and give her approval, lol. Now that she knows she can read the more engaging stories in the primer, she's much more interested in books again.

Our "play" reading provided the perfect bridge for her. But my girl is funny like that, she really does NOT like the leveled readers at the library. It's like she can sniff them out or something. She wants REAL stories, now!

So in conclusion to my overly long example is that you can do a lot of reading practice without books. We went from C-A-T to "Put some food in the lunch box, please." without her picking up a book. It's okay if you decide take a break from the formal approach for a while. Different kids, different ways of learning!

[skueppers]

Originally Posted by chfriend

2) My kids love the books at www.progressivephonics.com . They are funny and, well, progressive. They do not require independence, which is a plus for my two. You read the "harder" words; they read the words for the pattern they are learning. The site/books are free. You have to register.

I also think this would be worth trying. My daughter made amazing progress in a short time using these books. Before we started them, she was totally unable to read a sentence, even if she could read the individual words that made up the sentence. Within a week or two of reading these books together, she could read simple sentences.

Oh, and like your daughter, she doesn't like to sound out words. I don't think this is a real problem -- my daughter is obviously developing her own understanding of how the written language works, even if her eyes glaze over at the mention of even the most basic phonics rules. I think I may be less worried about this than some people would be because I learned to read without any instruction at all, and have absolutely no conscious idea what the phonics rules are.

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by Jeannettea

My 1st suggestion is to start practicing what's called "chunking". You take the word chunks (-at, -as, -ad, and so on), and write that chunk on a folder or a big piece of paper, whatever - just make sure it's nice and BIG.

Then make up letter tiles for your dd to place in the front of each of these chunks (only do one chunk per week though!). She would put b next to -at and say "bat", then c next to -at and say "cat", etc.

yes. this works very well, and this is how i teach reading in the beginning stages. i make letter tiles (i just cut up cardstock into small squares). i'll pull specific letters out, such as B,C,F,H,M,N,P,R,S,M. then, i'll use the tile that says "at" & ask my ds to turn it into cat. then cat into rat, rat into sat, sat into sam, sam into ram, ram into bam, bam into bat, etc. (i start with beginning sounds only, and once they've mastered that, we focus on end sounds). i also make homemade bingo cards, and well play that a lot. once they've mastered CVC words, i'll introduce blends (sh, ch, fl, cl, etc). we also play on reading eggs (which we have for free currently), and we have headsprout & hooked on phonics as well. certainly you don't need that much (or any of it for that matter), but my ds likes to have choices and hates workbooks - so each day he picks the activity. they all teach the same thing, so it's okay by me. he'll use readingeggs for a week & get sick of it...then move onto bingo or other games for a few days....then bob books....then back to headsprout.

on another note, if it's obvious your dd is "getting it" at click-n-kids - then i wouldn't be worried honestly. it really sounds like she doesn't feel comfortable reading outloud just yet. i think that's very normal. i wouldn't worry. hugs!

ETA - i forgot! another reading game my kids like is "word slap". write words on paper and tape them all over the floor (or you can write letters, blends, or small sentences). give your kids fly swatters and as you call out the words, they have to search for them and "slap" them. my kids love this game & it's great exercise too!! my ds also like "slap jack", but we play with sight word cards instead (slap "the", etc). hth.

[yippityskippity]

She might not want to read the primer because she finds it boring. Perhaps you could take her to the library and have her browse the easy reader section and choose something that looks interesting to her. I'd also leave harder high interest books lying around.

My DD is emerging from her anti-reading phase and what renewed her interest was browsing through the book "Traction Man" (one of her faves) on her own time and discovering she could sound out most of the sentence, "Traction Man is guarding some toast." by herself.

She's done this with some other books,too. She'll study the pictures and text and discover that she can read some of the words. It's really motivated her a lot.

Hope that helps...

[Shianne]

It seems like she appreciates visual stimulation. If she likes things like starfall, how about trying things like Reader Rabbit, Cluefinders, Jumpstart or other reading games?

I also second letting her pick her own books out from the library. Once she finds something that is of interest to her, she may just take off in reading.

[yippityskippity]

Oh, one more thing: since she likes the starfall stories (and they are rather fabulous!) I would order hard copies of the books for her. They're not very expensive, she'll be familiar with the text and it might help increase her comfort level in reading real books.

[water]

At 8yo, I would start to wonder if she needs more specific phonogram-based instruction. My DD needed to learn to read by analyzing the words and remembering the phonograms and putting the words together. Sight words and words families didn't work for her, nor did high-repetition readers like the BOB books. For a kid who is not just remembering words, which is a lot of phonics and sight-based instruction, reading reflex or other phonogram-based programs can work much better.

I used Reading Reflex with my DD, who was not "getting" reading by age 7. Starfall and the like are fun, but didn't teach either of my kids any reading. There are too many cheats and workarounds to actually get reading practice in there.

ETA: oh yeah, the RR people are convinced their method is the only glorious path to literacy, so take that with a grain of salt, my other kid learned just fine with a totally different method, but this way does work really well for kids who aren't "just getting it" or who can't seem to remember sight words etc.

[craft_media_hero]

I wanted to add a couple more things:

1. Comic books! My daughter just discovered them and mostly skims the illustrations, but she has learned that she can sound out the "sound effects" and really likes that. Plus, I'm just happy that she's looking at any kind of book and really taking pleasure from it.

2. There is a great book called "Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books", which is a whole language AND phonics approach not based solely around leveled readers/repetitive text. There are a lot of great ideas in the book. Basically, you just spend time with her browsing these really great children's books while she's mastering the language and becoming comfortable at her own pace. I have checked it out twice from the library and still want to get it again. I mean, it's a "reading program" that could be extremely natural and non-invasive for a reluctant child; you probably could do it fifteen minutes a day without her even really "knowing" that you're doing it, kwim?

So hope that helps. Keep us updated!

[yippityskippity]

The full text of "Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books" is available to read free online at ERIC.

[aslyn]

Thank you all for such great ideas and input!!

I had a long discussion with DH last night about this whole thing, he and his siblings were all homeschooled..I am a product of the public school system..my BIL did not read until 10 yrs old..He failed K because he didn't know his Abc's (which is why my MIL pulled them out to homeschool) Of the 4 of them he was the only one who struggled with reading and my DH & Siblings are all just fine as adults and have productive careers in their chosen fields. DH is convinced that given enough time like his Brother, it will click for her.

After I talked to him, and read the responses here as well as had a long hard conversation with myself (not literaly, I am only half nuts LOL) I think the problem lies with my own concerns of failing her..I learned to read at 4, I LOVE to read, and was reading at her age on a college level. I realize SHE IS NOT ME, and I have to take a step back and let be her own person..

What we decided to do is make a chart for both kids. Everyday that they do 1 lesson on click N Kids (by their own choice) if they get 3 or fewer mistakes they get a star on their chart, Click N kids is a total of 100 lessons, so at 25/50/75 lessons done we take them to the dollar store to pick out their own prize..once 100 are completed They get their own respective chuck e cheese pizza party.

We put the phonics readers on the shelving unit with all the other books (my landlady used to have foster kids so she gave us mounds and mounds of books for the kids), phonics tiles, writing materials etc that they all have access to anytime they decide they want to read them. So far DD hasn't touched any of them, but she excitedly did her click n kids lesson to get her star DS pulled down the phonics readers and wrote out all the words from the book..

So in short (or long since this post is huge) I decided to take the advice of taking a step back and letting her take the lead. I will try not to freak out so much that she may be behind, and just keep giving her the opportunity to be herself and learn at her own pace.

[craft_media_hero]

Originally Posted by yippityskippity

The full text of "Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books" is available to read free online at ERIC.

Ooh, thanks for that!

OP, I'm glad that you're feeling better about the whole situation. It's great that your husband is so understanding and supportive about it and not making you pressure her . . . I can identify with you on feeling at a loss about the reading, esp. with an anti-book phase happening. I remember knowing how to read anything they threw at me in kindergarten without instruction! So it's really weird to me to be "teaching" someone to read, when it feels like the act should be so spontaneous and cutting it up into pieces feels artificial.

I had a similar post a while back for my own daughter, and that's when I decided to chill out about it and just read books together, giving her time to become comfortable again . . . it seems to be working out so far, but I do have those moments of panic, too.