Help with reading!!

[micah_mae_]

My 4 year old wants to try to read but he is driving me insane. He will sound out the word, then say a completely different word. For example if I show him the word "Cat" he will say, "C-A-T...Corbin!" Or "C-A-T...Pan!" 

Is this normal? Just a sign he's not ready to start reading yet? Is he trying to make me crazy? Lol

[tbone_kneegrabber]

Yea it's normal!

My housemate is a middle school Spanish teacher and his students do this with Spanish and they are in 7th grade!

[moominmamma]

I think it's pretty normal. It's a sign that it's not clicking for him yet. It doesn't necessarily mean he won't be ready soon: there's really no way to predict when it'll click -- it could be next week or it could be a couple of years. I always thought it was sort of cute when my kids did it.

Miranda

[onatightrope]

Totally normal.  There seems to be something developmental about being able to go from Cuh-Ah-Tuh to Cat.  He's probably just not ready yet.  

[SweetSilver]

But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy reading "lessons" with him.  If he asks for them, just let him lead the way, and enjoy this phase.  This is akin to "writing" those scribble notes.  One day, you'll be having your lesson, he will surprise you.

He is recognizing letters, and that is awesome.  He's simply not ready to pull it together yet.  Just let go of the notion that he has to show anything but enthusiasm, and you can rescue your sanity.  

If you know he's not really ready to read, give him reading practice only when he asks for it.  That will help you retain your patience as well.

[micah_mae_]

Thanks everyone, glad to know he'll grow out of it!

[lmk1]

Have you tried any sight words with him?  When ds1 was 4, I would read a book with him and say "this is the word 'go', this is your word, so you read this word when we see it and I'll read the rest".  I would then stop every time we'd see that word and let him read it.  Pretty quickly he got a lot of words he knew by sight.  He's now 5 and he reads pretty well, but he still doesn't get phonics or sounding out words.  If it's a new word for him that looks like a word he knows, then that's what he'll say.  Like he just read "screeched" as "scared".  But once he reads it a few times, he knows it.  Or I can say the first part of a new word "scree"...and that interrupts his flow and forces him to actually look at the word and he often finishes it properly.  But if I said "sound out this word", he'd not only not have any idea how to do it, but probably see it more as an exercise instead of reading, and not want to do it.

[micah_mae_]

Thanks that's a good idea!

[Silverring]

Something to consider - are you using pure sounds?

It's much harder to go from cuh-ah-tuh to cat than it is to go from c-a-t to cat.  

What I mean is that, if you say 'c' in its pure sound, it doesn't make a 'cuh' sound.  It doesn't need the voice box at all - it is all done with the back of the tongue - 'c'.  Same with 't' - just the front of the tongue on the roof of the mouth - unvoiced.

This might help explain it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwJx1NSineE  The sounds themselves start about half way through.

Also, helping him with the end of the word and asking him to fit the beginning to it can help - eg c-at is cat.  Just putting 2 things together to start can help.

[Catholic Mama]

The book I used to teach my now 7-year-old daughter how to read last year, and am using with my 5-year-old son this year, is called "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons". Depending on how well your child understands what is being taught and reviewed, the lessons can take as little as 15 minutes a day. I highly recommend it and you can learn more about it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671631985

[micah_mae_]

Thanks! Do y'all know how it compares to Explode the Code?

[Catholic Mama]

Originally Posted by micah_mae_ 

Thanks! Do y'all know how it compares to Explode the Code?

No, sorry, I hadn't heard about Explode the Code until you asked that so I can't compare or contrast them.

[crazyms]

I haven't tried either of those either so i can't comment on them but we use rocket phonics and love it! I will say my dd now 7 has been trying to read since about that age and just got it. She first learned some sight words then she knew letter sounds but couldn't grasp blending. We just did lessons where she asked and read a lot. Even a couple weeks ago she could blend a little then completely lose it. All of a sudden she's reading entire books and flying through her practice word pages, it just clicks now. The pp above is right just let him do it when he wants and one day he'll surprise you by reading it.

[Silverring]

Reading Eggs is excellent - there's a free trial at the moment.