Reading/LA for struggling 1st grader

[PGTlatte]

I am ISO a secular reading/language arts program for our DS1. He is 6.5 yo. I am calling this year first grade. He is struggling with reading and writing. He gets phonics and can decode words, but is having a hard time with reading sentences. He can copy individual words from his spelling list but he does not write words or sentences unless he is copying them. He has some vision issues that he is about to start vision therapy for. He needs large print, not too many words on a page, and simple sentences that don't overwhelm him. I would also like to find worksheets that require only very short written answers. Some of the materials that I preview online for his grade level I look at and know he is not ready for them yet. I want to help him feel successful with reading and more comfortable with writing. If anyone can recommend a program that is good for a young student who is struggling, I would appreciate it.

[MyLittleWonders]

You might want to look at Reading Pathways by the same author as Phonics Pathways. It's reading "pyramids" where the first "sentence" is one word, and then each following line adds one word (sometimes two if it needs to add an "and" or "the"). So, by the end of the pyramid (about 10 lines), only one word is new. The rest have been added one line at a time and repeated there after. It may help him build fluency. My boys enjoy them as they seem more like silly games rather than reading.

You might also look at Handwriting without Tears, the first grade book. The beginning of the book requires very little writing, and the amount slowly builds to small (3-4 word) sentences by the end. As he goes through the book, you could also use it for reading practice and discussions about spelling. Another option might be the Explode the Code workbooks. I'm not sure if there would be too much on a page for him, but at that level, there is very little writing, and again, it could help with spelling and reading, while slowly introducing more writing.

[AAK]

I love these:
http://3rsplus.com/

I typed up the full text of book 1 set 1 in an earlier post-- http://www.mothering.com/discussions....php?t=1188318 But, we love them mostly because they start very slow, progress slowly (so it isn't overwhelming), they truly stick to a controlled vocabulary and they tell you at the beginning what new sounds AND new words are in the book. I also think it covers first grade language arts because with the limited text they kids learn to pay attention to punctuation in order to understand the story. The pictures also play a BIG part in telling the story, but they aren't really useful for decoding. (this is a plus for us because dd was able to trick people into thinking she was reading). Oh, the first three levels are written in a fairly large font.

While I feel that the pacing is great--my dd needs a lot of reinforcement but also needs new material often--it would have been way too slow for my older dd.

Amy

[theretohere]

I'd give the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching reading a look for phonics, and for writing I'd try Writing With Ease, level 1.
Good luck!

[One_Girl]

I found some books that had only short vowel words in them and used them when dd was first starting to read and it really helped her get the hang of reading without being overwhelmed. Animal Antics is one of the series I used for the short vowels only, I also used some of the Bob Books, and I picked through the level 1 readers at the Library to find other good books. I found that short books with very few words on the page worked best because they were interesting but not time consuming. I also found that once dd started to memorize some of the sight words she had a lot more fun reading and was more willing to read because it went faster and was something she could actually do.

I am not sure what program dd used at her school, but it didn't seem effective. My dd started kindergarten able to read a level 1 reader and still was only reading level 1 readers in first grade though she could do more if she was really pushed to or very interested in a book. Now that she is homeschooling I use no reading program, I just have her read to me from a book everyday. In the last month since she started homeschooling she has gone from reading a short level 1 reader reluctantly to reading level 3 books excitedly. I think the daily reading practice really helped her a lot.

[PGTlatte]

Thank you all. Here is the thing - he has been all the way through phonics, and he can sound out words really well. Even multi-syllable words. But he is not retaining them. He sounds out the same simple words over and over and over again. He does not seem to be moving on to recognizing them. He also does not seem to put words in sentences together in his mind. He reads each word, one after another, but in his mind, they are just separate words.

He has been through the entire Bob Books series, most of the Click n Read Phonics program, and we started with The Reading Lesson before those.

I have been doing the Dolsch word list with him as a spelling list, ten words per week. He often gets them all right after a week of practicing them - reading them, writing them, and verbally spelling them. He even memorizes what order they are in on the list. But then when he encounters one of those words in a sentence - draws a blank, and starts from scratch sounding it out. I do use each of the words in an example sentence when we practice them, so it's not that he is never exposed to that.

Some of the materials I have been using seem like they made a huge leap from sounding out c-a-t, s-i-t, d-o-g etc, all the way to complex sentences with multi-syllable words, etc. And so with those materials, he gets so overwhelmed with the complexity of the reading that we can't get past that.

I think what I am looking for is something to help him get past sounding out words and on to recognizing them, and also something to help him ease into sentences more - to get past the idea of individual words and to start reading them as sentences.

I am using some kindergarten and grade 1 level reading comprehension worksheets from Teacher Created. These are exactly on his level. They are short passages of simple sentences. I also just purchased Spectrum Writing Grade 1. It is a workbook that makes a very gentle entry into the student choosing single words to finish a sentence and writing them down, and then moving on into writing sentences. I am also using some parts of speech worksheets from TCR that have very simple sentences to use for picking out nouns and verbs. He is doing well with picking those out. I thought maybe if the structure of a sentence made more sense for him, he might start to understand them better.

I am wondering if I should go back to the beginning of reading with him and use a sight word approach. He seems to have grasped phonics, very well in fact, but is having trouble moving beyond it. I would like to improve his speed of word recognition and his understanding. I would also like to find more materials to help him into very simple sentences, both reading them and writing them.

[AAK]

Sounds like "fluency" is what he is struggling with.

Remember those old "speed tests" for math drills. I have been told that I can do a similar thing with reading. Start with ten words or so that are simple. Have them repeated randomly throughout a page. Make it a game, not a stress oriented thing. Have him read as many words as he can in one minute. After he is doing well with those words, add another word to the mix. Don't add a bunch of new words, but just one or two at a time. Keep making up new sheets/lists so that memorizing the list isn't an option. This is supposed to encourage rapid recall.

You can buy packets of lists for this purpose, but I am planning on making my own.

Amy

[One_Girl]

Repeated reading can be very helpful for fluency. It sounds like you are doing some sight word stuff and it isn't working so I don't know that it would be helpful to do more. Is it possible that he has a reading disorder or that he needs more time in vision therapy before you make some changes? A reading specialist can screen him and give you a more accurate picture of where his reading level is at and how to best help him.

[jessicaSAR]

I agree with the Reading Pathways recommendation. It is designed to help with fluency - to help the student get their eyes moving ahead across the page and put the pieces of words together (rather than sounding out each individual letter).

[PGTlatte]

He hasn't started vision therapy yet - his initial assessment is this Friday. The optometrist said he can read now, as long as he has his glasses on and very large print, and to realize that his eyes tire quickly. So I have been keeping our sessions very short and using large, dark print .

I checked out Reading Pathways from the library a few months ago. I had him look at it. He did not like it because the pages looked very crowded to him. I recall there was a lot of stuff on each page and he needs everything he looks at to be very simple and plain. I might be able to use it though if I retyped small portions of it onto plain paper for him.

I was thinking - he has done something similar with math. He understands addition and subtraction very well. But he is not learning any of the facts. But he got bored with simple problems so I moved him on to more difficult ones. He can do multi-digit addition with several numbers, with regrouping, and two-digit subtraction, and has been asking to start multiplication. He is very good at working out the mechanics of how to do something and enjoys that process. But he has not memorized 2 + 3 = 5, etc. He works out the basic facts on the number line, over and over and over again. This has a similar feel to him sounding out words over and over again. Like a word is just a "phonics problem". He is comfortable with the mechanics of how to do the computation or decoding. But he does not seem to retain and recall basic math facts or basic words.

I am beginning to wonder if this is a trait that is particular to a certain type of learner ?

[PGTlatte]

I am reviving this because I have new information.

He did 10 weeks of vision therapy and things improved dramatically as far as his stamina, because it helped his physical control eye issues, but he still did not get past decoding...never started to keep whole words in his memory. That optometrist moved out of state, so we continued care under a new COVD optometrist, who did further testing in the area of visual processing. DS1 scored high in all areas except extremely low (well below 10th percentile) in visual sequential memory and form constancy. He was also low in visual closure.

He has the symptoms of "dyseidetic dyslexia".

http://dyslexia.learninginfo.org/dyseidetic.htm

This is basically trouble with sight words, reversals, words that look similar, and getting past decoding and into word recognition.

I am hopeful that vision therapy (over the next 6 months) will help with some of these visual processing issues. In the meantime, here are some resources I have found for him:

The book "Correcting Reversals" by Penny Groves. I purchased it from Rainbow Resources.

I also ordered some of the "Sight Words in a Flash" materials they sell. The notebook charts are only .25 each. I am using them as a guide to see what he knows how to write from memory, what he reverses, substitutes, etc, so I can give him help on specific words.

Since he has had such a hard time making the leap from words to sentences, and most workbooks don't step through that process slowly, I needed something that does. Remedia Publications has some books on writing sentences. Just to give him lots of practice, I ordered all four of the titles:
*Easy Sentence Writing
*Beginning Sentences
*Four Kinds of Sentences
*How Do I Write a Sentence ?

I think these are going to help him.

He is also meeting with a tutor once a week. Although her focus is phonics, I gave her information on his issues and she has changed her approach with him. She is working on chunking (word parts) and working verbally, having him make words from play-doh and pipe cleaners (this is recommended in the Davis Dyslexia approach), and helping him with his reluctance to write anything.

I am also switching him to the D'Nealian/Modern Script type of handwriting because I think it may relax him more. I am having him relearn the whole alphabet. (I came back to add...I also think the italic script will help him with reversals and keeping his left-right orientation since the letters all lean to the right.)

Finally, he has also had great difficulty learning his addition facts. I have read that goes along with this type of dyslexia. He can do math that is quite advanced for his age and grade level, but he does it all mechanically, calculating in his head over and over again, with no memorization of addition or subtraction facts. I have realized he will *never* learn them by doing written problems. I have gone into flash cards and verbal fast drill with him. He is making some slow progress. It is interesting...he has to get over a hump of frustration and get a little flustered and then his brain gets into a zone and boom - it's all there. And then he gets really happy. I want to give him enough practice getting into that zone where he can retrieve what he knows.

I also ordered a computer game from the Critical Thinking Company called Memory Challenge. I haven't tried it out yet.

Anyway, I just wanted to post what I have found in the last few months in case it helps someone in the future.

I came back to add - I purchased used copies of the first and second grade student books for the Harcourt Trophies series. The leveled readers from the library never worked well for him, and the levels were not consistent across different series. I wanted something that is assigned levels according to state/national standards, so I could know exactly what level he is reading at; I also wanted to get away from the phonics readers. He has a truly excellent grasp on decoding words with phonics...I want him to move on to word recognition and fluency. These school textbooks are nothing wonderful from a "classical" POV but he seems to enjoy them and they are serving their purpose. Also since they are easy reading, I can use them for his vision therapy exercises that require reading - that way he can concentrate on the therapy part without getting too frustrated with the reading part.

[meetoo]

oppppsssss

[sbgrace]

There is someone who posts on Well Trained Mind whose daughter has that type of dyslexia. I remember that she found Headsprout very helpful for her daughter and I wonder if it would be for your son as well. I can see what it might be helpful with this type of dyslexia particularly. I know she's mentioned math programs and other things too and I think she'd be very helpful to you if you go there and search for dyseidetic by posts I'm sure you'll find her. If not let me know via pm and I'll find it because I think she might be a real help.

You may find the vision therapy really helpful as well depending on teh type of issues identified in that area. My son couldn't have read prior to vision therapy because his tracking and convergence were so poor. As you know the dyslexia and vision issues are unrelated and both need to be addressed. Where it is tricky for you I think is that the "typical" dyslexia interventions aren't going to be helpful/needed as much as things specific to her type.

[PGTlatte]

Originally Posted by sbgrace

There is someone who posts on Well Trained Mind whose daughter has that type of dyslexia.

Yes, her posts have been very helpful to me.

Originally Posted by sbgrace

You may find the vision therapy really helpful as well depending on teh type of issues identified in that area. My son couldn't have read prior to vision therapy because his tracking and convergence were so poor.

His first ten sessions of VT had amazing results, because like your son, his tracking and convergence were so poor that he literally couldn't do it. Now his tracking and convergence are much improved. Since the new COVD optometrist has prescribed therapies that are supposed to help with his specific visual processing problems, I figure it is worth a try. We will do the full 6 month course of VT. If after that is done he still has these visual processing issues causing him problems, then I guess we go from there.

I feel fortunate that we have learned what the issues were while he is still young. I am also glad that phonics have not been difficult for him and that he does so well with decoding. It does appear that most dyslexia programs focus on those who have problems with phonics, so those would not be helpful for him.

One of the things someone - may have been her - mentioned is that the Davis book (The Gift of Dyslexia) was more in line with this type of dyslexia than most of the other popular dyslexia books. I read a few others and they did not seem to be a fit for our son at all. The Davis book is a much better fit for him. I am not ready to jump in to their in-house program (very expensive) but I am going to adopt the idea of making words in 3D with various materials, and helping him to orient himself. Most of his issues seem to be right-left. VT has already helped with that some but I can tell I need to do more work in that area. Sometimes he will verbally spell a word perfectly, but then write it down backwards, and really have a hard time figuring out that it's backwards. I also made him some "chunking" cards - a set for word beginnings (onsets) and a set for word endings (rimes). I hope they will help him get the right-left/beginning-end pattern set in his mind.

[AAK]

Thank you for updating us! Also, thanks for giving us the names of the resources that you are using. As I've mentioned before, I am sure my 7yr old is dyslexic, but I haven't had her tested. I think knowing the specific type would be very helpful to me--we seem to be hitting a wall over here. I will be looking up the stuff you mentioned.

amy