I can see that I am not the only one with a child with reading problems here. I have read the two most recent posts on reading and have gleaned some information but my question is a little different. I have a ds6 that hates to read as well. But what he struggles with is decoding. I have the same issues with attitude that when he doesn't want to read he doesn't try and just starts looking at words and making goofy stuff up instead of trying to sound things out. I had a melt down last week and decided I couldn't teach him to read and decided to take him to Sylvan Learning Center. I sat through their assessment with my son and they found that he is actually above grade level with the skills he has. But, his downfall is decoding. He struggles with blends at the beginning of words specifically. So, with that said, Sylvan is expensive and my husband is not really for it. I need to work through this but need some support. I need suggestions on the best way to teach decoding and phonemic awareness. Thanks for you help!
My son has the same problem. This will be my first year home schooling him. But, I know according to his IEP and the way the ps helped him was a phonically based curriculum. One of the big things is not to tell him what the word is but to help him sound it out. I know my son is hands on and we did things like sand on a cookie sheet and had him write the word he needed help with and sound it out at the same time. I can be a very slow process but now my son will NOT let anyone help him. He loves to master it himself. Also, I did find at times he needed someone else besides me and that when I did call the ps and the lilbrary for a tutor. I did get a tutor from the ps and it was one of the reading specialist that worked there. She meet us at the library twice a week. It was a lot cheaper than Sylan or one of those.
For an excellent programs that will take him right back to the basics try Dancing Bears. My 8 yr old son had some trouble with some sounds and he's too quick to guess and memorize rather then decode so we're working through this and it's excellent. Lots of drill and repetition to really get dcoding into his head but it doesn't take long and isn't boring due to the diversity of activities. There's a fast track version for kids with some reading but I'm having my son work through DB A. It does have UK spelling but that's not such a big deal (especially for me as I'm Canadian and mostly use UK spelling anyway! ). It does come from a US printer so there are no big shipping charges. They have the full book available as watermarked PDFs so you can take a look for free.
My 6 year old can only read easy 3-4 letter words. He has a fairly good phonics base, he just can't put it together to read words. I think this is totally normal for his age. So this year, we are just working on building his phonics base so he'll have that good base when he is ready to learn to read. I'm not a fan of the PS 'everyone needs to learn to read at 5-6 and progress at the same level or they are behind.' Life just doesn't work like that. People are different, they learn differently and at different rates. Kids are people too. So rather than push my son-I'm just stepping back and following his lead. I ask him if he wants to read, he says no, I say fine and I just read it to him. He was in PS K last year and they forced him to read and it made him HATE to even look at a book-he didn't even want me to read to him anymore, ever. So I'm taking the opposite approach....
Thanks for the ideas. I checked out the Dancing Bears and that looks wonderful. I am going to see if I can give that a try. Great suggestion! Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.
I haven't taught a child to read yet, but I am about to start using Teach Your Child to Read in Just 10 min. a Day, and it says that even if the child can read the words they need to sound them out each time anyway this really helps them get the sounds down. I don't know if it works, but that is what they suggest.
If he's able to read but struggles with the blending it sounds like Reading Pathways would be a great help for him! You can look inside the book at www.christianbook.com best part is that it's an inexpensive book to purchase so you don't have to feel too bad if it doesn't work.
Level 2 of Hooked on Phonics focuses on beginning sounds... like ch (chip) sh (ship) and end sounds such as ch (rich). HTH
