Need help teaching an older child to read

[Chris in PA]

Hi everyone,
One of my dearest friends began homeschooling her 3 ds's this school year. Her middle ds is 11. The PS sysytem couldn't teach him math or reading. Her ds is now using MUS and doing math well. He is now mutiplying with ease. Her biggest issue is reading. He is currently at a beginning 2nd grade level. She is using Scaredy Cat reading with him. He knows his sight words and all his phonics rules. When it comes to reading words in a sentence, he has a lot of difficulty. He is a very bright boy.
I was wondering if anyone has experienced a similar thing with one of their children. Any advice would be appreciated.

TIA
Blessings

[Stacy in NJ]

This is pretty much the definative book about dyslexia. A bright 11 yo child who has received quality reading instruction and is unable to read is dyslexic. The book describes many remedial reading programs aimed at dyslexics. You may want to post on the Special Needs Board. Laurie4b usually provides some very specific advice.

[Cadam]

I would get a developmental vision exam as well as the dyslexia testing. There may be convergence or tracking problems and these can be treated.

[Ellie]

Of course, it wouldn't hurt to have him tested.

Y'all might know that my advice is WRTR. The Spalding Method works with children of all ages and with learning difficulties of all kinds.

[Maria/ME]

Well, you are almost describing my dd. She is 10 right now.

She's always enjoyed great literature, has a gift of story telling and words. However, she struggled with reading. I couldn't ever define anything specific, however. Sometime she mixed letters, but not consistently. She COULD read, but didn't enjoy it. I tend to be a bit of a relaxed schooler so I read a lot about delayed reading and let her approach it from her angle.

Someone mentioned the Spalding Method to me and we started to use it. I noticed improvement immediately and LOVE this method for myself. But it wasn't a great deal of improvemetn and if we didn't use it ever day she would 'loose' what she knew it seemed. Frustrating. She still wasn't devouring The Boxcar Children or Laura Ingalls to my dismay. She was at a beginning 2nd grade level, if that.

Then someone said "Try a developmental optometrist." So I did. And she has convergence insufficiency. I believe this is under the umbrella of dyslexia (still doing research..)We'll go through some VT(vision therapy) for a couple months. It can be helped!

I have written about this a bit on my blog. (Scroll down quite a bit) and have links posted there if you would like. Or feel free to email/pm or whatever if you have more questions. But the description you gave was spot on with my daughter. I was told that it was highly doubtful the public school system would've caught this until much, much later, perhaps into high school. This runs in our family I am just now finding out.

Hope this helps,

[Greta Lea]

We suspect he has dyslexia. He does have some visual tracking problems (we saw a developmental opt. for this). He received therapy for this last spring. His reading level hopped up one level pretty quickly. He began fourth grade reading on a higher 2nd to lower 3rd grade level. He's not jumed up another grade level this year, but his fluency and comprehension has improved.

We also worked through the Phonics for Reading program (level 2 and 3) from Curr. Associates late last year and early this year. This worked on reading multisyllable words and helped alot. I think the visual tracking therapy *and* this together made a huge difference.

Also, repeated readings helped. Google repeated readings and you'll get lots of info on that.

HTH,
Greta:)

[Kathy in MD]

Your may already be aware of this, but sometimes the student needs more than just VT to read well. Many times cognitive training is needed to train the mind to use the new imput from the eyes. A few DO's do integrate cognitive training with VT, however most don't. If yours doesn't, there are some cognitive training programs available. PACE and Learning Rx are highly respected programs. By the time you're through with VT, there may be a new home based program out. Check Special Needs boards for updates.

[Maria/ME]

Your may already be aware of this, but sometimes the student needs more than just VT to read well. Many times cognitive training is needed to train the mind to use the new imput from the eyes. A few DO's do integrate cognitive training with VT, however most don't. If yours doesn't, there are some cognitive training programs available. PACE and Learning Rx are highly respected programs. By the time you're through with VT, there may be a new home based program out. Check Special Needs boards for updates.

Kathy, thanks so much for bringing this up! I appreciate it so much. I will post on the Special Needs board to see if I can get further input on the subject. My dd has incredible comprehension for someone who struggles with reading. She can answer all the questions put to her by myself or a worksheet. HOWEVER, I don't anything lost in the shuffle.

Thanks again,