DS and his struggles with reading (Aspie related)

[DawnM]

My 11 year old has Asperger's. He struggles with reading, esp. if it has older fashioned concepts, idioms, sarcasm.....you get the picture.

We will be doing 5th grade work this year and I am really focusing on reading and writing above all else because he is so weak in these areas.

Our CLE order just arrived (Reading, LA, and Bible) and he actually likes it (LOVES workbooks!)

We started today and our only dilema is that he cannot read the reader himself and understand it. His reading skills are just not ready for this, BUT, his comprehension is completely ready and he is able to do the workbooks without too much help.

Today I read the reader to him and he fully understood it when I read to him. Should I continue doing that for now?

Those with struggling readers, how would you handle it?

Dawn

[Dobela]

I do reading as a subject with my on at his reading level with the goal of improving his reading skills. The other subjects I do at his comprehension level with me reading it. So for grammar and math we are much higher than reading. I just read it aloud to him when needed.

[newbie]

I would try some computer games. My niece loves these.

For free you can try funbrain.com. I am sure there are many others.

To purchase you might want to try Earobics or Fast Forward just until he comes up to speed.

[chiguirre]

I personally would feel more comfortable buying a level where he can read the reader for himself and answer the comprehension questions. I'd work on oral comprehension with history and science materials instead. If you haven't used them, the SOTW activity guides have excellent narration questions.

[Mandamom]

I think it would be best to remediate the reading problems (maybe a good phonics program, if that's where the problem is) and get a lower level reading comprehension program instead of having you read it out loud to him. I think that the time you spend in reading the material to him could be better spent remediating the reading problems.

I wish CLE had a diagnostic test for their reading program. It would certainly help a lot.

[DawnM]

Thanks for the input. I really want to keep the History and Science we have rather than buy new/more.

I have already substituted readers in the History program for him and that seems to be helping.

My main issue is that most programs have a huge number on the front of them (CLE 5). I just can't put him into 3rd grade readers.....he is actually 6th grade and it kills him that his younger brother is in 4th and he isn't in 6th.

He is fine with reading the workbook and answering the questions once I read the story to him. And he does read the readers I assign for History without a problem.

This has been a 7 year struggle.

He did just take the CAT testing for 4th grade and scored an 8 on some of the reading and then a couple of 6s. I was very happy about that.

Dawn

[chiguirre]

If the big grade level on the front is the problem, could you use an ungraded resource like DITHOR or the VP comprehension guides instead of something like CLE? I know it's lame to have to change curricula in July, but actually reading the stories in the reader is a key element in a reading program and, while your solution works well now, you may not be pleased with the results in May.

You may also have to explain to your older son that he faces challenges that his younger brother doesn't. He probably already knows that, but giving the problems a name and letting him know that he will make progress, but that he'll have to work harder for it, will help him accept the situation more gracefully. I'd also tell him how much you admire his effort and how proud you are of the progress he's made so far.

Dd has already passed up ds in math and she's closing in in reading too. So far, ds hasn't been too discouraged. He knows that he's autistic and has been building friendships with other kids on the spectrum this last year. I think knowing that he's not alone has helped him face his struggles with a more positive attitude (and I'm sure added maturity has helped too!)

I hope you can find something that works for you and your ds!

ETA: If you have to use CLE Reading 5, you could buddy read the story the first time through and then have him read it silently to himself. That's what he'd be doing in a classroom anyway (or at least that's what we did in upper elementary). You might need to start off reading more of the story and gradually have him do a larger share over the course of the year.

[Verity]

I do reading as a subject with my on at his reading level with the goal of improving his reading skills. The other subjects I do at his comprehension level with me reading it. So for grammar and math we are much higher than reading. I just read it aloud to him when needed.

:iagree: Exactly! The wonderful part of being a homeschooler is that you can support his weak areas and allow him to progress in other areas. Do what works!

[DawnM]

Thanks.

His comprehension is very high if I read to him. We have been doing SL and even the readers (Core 3) are too difficult for him to read on his own. But if I read any of the read alouds out loud he can recall info the rest of us have long forgotten.

I was able to substitute readers for SL with the American Heritage series and so far that is going well.

I will have to look into some of the alternatives to CLE Reading, although for Language Arts, CLE level 5 is just the right level.

Dawn

[ElizabethB]

Could you get him a book of common idioms to study?

I found them very helpful for foreign languages I studied, your library should have some meant for ESL students that could also help your son.

Is he logical or good at math? My remedial reading students who are good at math like my charts with percentages:

http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/phonogramsoundch.html

(Sadly, most of my students do not find the charts useful at all. I think they explain a lot, but I did work as a statistician for several years. However, the students who have liked them the best have been some of my most difficult cases and have found them quite helpful, so I don't feel like all the time I spent counting up words and making the charts was wasted.)

[sandellie4]

I would encourage you to ensure he has selections to read on his level. We have Aspies, as well, and right around age 11 we see similar issues. Our strategy has been to do an intensive few months of Sopris West's REWARDS program, followed up with practice applying the strategies to nonfiction passages at or just below their level (interesting passages, focusing on their special interests). During this practice time, we also use Critical Thinking's Reading Detective and TextThing (the latter is software that creates cloze activities, sequencing activities on sentence and paragraph level, and crossword puzzles from passages I select). We just had our middle child's testing updated -- she's 15 and testing at college level in reading! :-)

When they're starting to write, we use IEW, starting with the summarizing activities, which helps to further build their reading comprehension, as well as their writing skills.

Good for you for tackling this issue. It can be a long road, but Aspies can become good readers, and even our older ones, who once hated reading, read for pleasure now.

Sandy

[iammommy]

EPS Publishing has some high interest, lower reading level readers for remediation. As for the huge numbers on the CLE stuff, could you cut the binding off, remove the cover, and put it into a binder of your own?

Nan