Okay, so I recently pulled my 6½ out of public school. She was halfway through her second try at Kindy and doing REALLY well... for Kindy level. Anywho, that's a long story. I just wanted to offer a bit of background to explain where we're at now.
The issue I am having currently is with teaching my DD to read. I had tried to teach her to read over the summer. It was not a success. I was rushed and clueless. It ended in a lot of tears and frustration for both of us. I was in such a hurry to "get it done" and she just does NOT work well under pressure. It makes me feel really bad.
So now that we're home schooling, I am able to take a more relaxed approach. I know that there is no time limit on learning. I accept that she will progress at her own pace. But in the meantime I have some concerns. I'm not sure if this is normal 6-year-old/ newbie reader & writer behavior. Quite often she will write letters and numbers backward. 3s, 6s, Cs, etc. She will also read things backwards. She knows that you sound a word out from the first letter on... and yet there are times that she'll start with the last letter... or pull a letter out of the middle and just throw a random word out there. A large part of me gets frustrated because I feel that she's just not focusing or she's being lazy or whatever. But then another part of me is legitimately concerned. Dyslexia and learning disabilities are prevalent in our family. I, myself, have dealt with a variation of it. I think it might be called discalcula now, although they called it "physical dyslexia" when I was younger. Mine hasn't affected my reading or writing performance, but it does affect things like learning to ride a bike and other tasks that involve certain levels of coordination. I will also randomly pull letters together when I'm reading fast and make words that don't exist, or pull words together and make sentences that don't exist... but this doesn't bother me much, probably because I'm older and have a firmer grasp on reading comprehension and such, so I am able to correct it without much issue.
I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else has dealt with this? Now I'm kicking myself for not having her tested while she was in PS. I'd thought about it before, but I figured that after 1½ years her teacher would have noticed if there was any cause for concern in the learning disability department. So I didn't have it done. Now what? Is this normal behavior for a child of her age and reading/ writing level? If not, how can I confirm that it is dyslexia? And even if it IS dyslexia, how do I go about teaching a child to read that has that sort of learning challenge?
Any advice, shared experience, or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.
The issue I am having currently is with teaching my DD to read. I had tried to teach her to read over the summer. It was not a success. I was rushed and clueless. It ended in a lot of tears and frustration for both of us. I was in such a hurry to "get it done" and she just does NOT work well under pressure. It makes me feel really bad.
So now that we're home schooling, I am able to take a more relaxed approach. I know that there is no time limit on learning. I accept that she will progress at her own pace. But in the meantime I have some concerns. I'm not sure if this is normal 6-year-old/ newbie reader & writer behavior. Quite often she will write letters and numbers backward. 3s, 6s, Cs, etc. She will also read things backwards. She knows that you sound a word out from the first letter on... and yet there are times that she'll start with the last letter... or pull a letter out of the middle and just throw a random word out there. A large part of me gets frustrated because I feel that she's just not focusing or she's being lazy or whatever. But then another part of me is legitimately concerned. Dyslexia and learning disabilities are prevalent in our family. I, myself, have dealt with a variation of it. I think it might be called discalcula now, although they called it "physical dyslexia" when I was younger. Mine hasn't affected my reading or writing performance, but it does affect things like learning to ride a bike and other tasks that involve certain levels of coordination. I will also randomly pull letters together when I'm reading fast and make words that don't exist, or pull words together and make sentences that don't exist... but this doesn't bother me much, probably because I'm older and have a firmer grasp on reading comprehension and such, so I am able to correct it without much issue.
I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else has dealt with this? Now I'm kicking myself for not having her tested while she was in PS. I'd thought about it before, but I figured that after 1½ years her teacher would have noticed if there was any cause for concern in the learning disability department. So I didn't have it done. Now what? Is this normal behavior for a child of her age and reading/ writing level? If not, how can I confirm that it is dyslexia? And even if it IS dyslexia, how do I go about teaching a child to read that has that sort of learning challenge?
Any advice, shared experience, or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.
- Lillian
) Left and right sometimes gets super confusing.
), we thought it would be a good idea to get him tested. We didn't go through the district, but instead paid for educational testing with a very esteemed neuropsychologist. For us (really my husband who was really bothered that his kid might also have an LD issue), it was worth it to understand how our kid is doing. Now it turns out that the testing shows no indication of dyslexia at all, but it did turn up some other possible issues.
) When he was younger, he grew into his reading and writing skills later than “grade level,” but now he reads journals that are absolutely incomprehensible to me.
