need phonics/ reading help

[ange]

Hi, I have an almost 7yo diagnosed with ADHD and w/ poor vision (eye muscle disorder and very farsighted, focusing on close things causes eyes to cross. He also has an astigmatism which effects his far and near vision.) He is in K in a CC private school, and has been learning phonics using the Riggs method. He has done very well with learning the phonograms, as well as the handwriting, but at this point (and given he is an "older" kindergartener) he seems clueless as to how to put the phonogram sounds together to read. He does not seem to understand how to blend sounds. When we try to sound out a word w/ him he will often add in sounds that aren't there or miss sounds that are there. He can NAME the phonograms in the word (and say their sounds separately) but he can't say the sounds together to say the word. I am at a loss for what to do as the Riggs method is touted as being one good for children with learning disabilities. I don't know if his problem is vision related or another issue. I am wondering if the focus he has to put on "thinking to spell" may be getting in the way of just learning to read. I understand the theory is that in learning to spell, you are supposed to be learning to read...but this doesn't seem to be the case for my son. I will be homeschooling next year, so I am looking for a phonics/reading program for him that he can easily transition to from Riggs. I will also be teaching his 5yo brother. Does anyone have any suggestions that will help me help my son to read? (He is a bright boy, and he is very aware that he can't read and wants to. He carries a Bible w/ him everywhere, including to school and pretends to "read" while the other students read their beginner readers.) Thanks in advance for your help.

[Ottakee]

I would highly suggest the I See Sam books.

http://www.teacherweb.com/CA/PomeloDriveElementary/Mrssakamoto/printap2.stm you can get the 1st 2 sets here to print out

www.3rsplus.com sells the sets and had a lot of great information on the books and how to use them. Look for information on the notched card/cursor as this might really help with his vision issues.

The type in the books is large and esp. in the early books, there are only a few words on a page. It is a systematic phonics program that provides a lot of practice. This looks overly simple and not likely to work but it DOES work.

There is also a free yahoo group called Beginning Reading Instruction for the books.

[Dobela]

Is he in vision therapy at all? If not, I would highly recommend it. My son's eyes were not tracking together and he had seriousproblems with depth,convergence... He could not put phonograms together, but could read them isolated. It was beyond frustrating. What was happening was that his eyes were tracking separately so as he would read a word, or series of words, his brain would be confused by the 2 different mesages being sent by his eyes and pick one. Sometimes it would go from one to the other whic made my son think the words and letters were moving on the page. Notched cards helped only if his eyes didn't jump above the card. www.covd.org (http://www.covd.org) has a list of Signs and Symptoms that will help you determine if it si a vision problem, or somethig else.

[cillakat]

He does sound like a great candidate for vision therapy (something I'm rarely heard saying;p)

Do you have any psychoeducational or neuropsych testing for him? I wonder if for him it really is just a vision thing.....it almost sounds like that is the case since he can name and pronounce the phonemes independently.

I'd use a notched card in all practice reading to at least insure that he's tracking consistently the right letters in order.

Phonics Road is *wonderful* and would be a great fit for what he's done so far.

:)
K

[cillakat]

I've never heard of Riggs nor seen their website before. I have to say that it is the *best* reading related website I think I've ever seen

http://www.riggsinst.org/

all of the phonemes, plus spelling, syllabication, pluralization, rules on one page
http://www.riggsinst.org/phonetics.aspx

[Shay]

I second Ottakee's recommendation of the I See Sam books for your ds. My ds took *forever* to be able to blend although he knew the letter sounds. And, I tutor in the ps and I've seen many, many kiddos just have trouble with the learning to blend stage. It takes time and abundant practice. The Sam books give the abundant practice and the sounds are sequenced brilliantly. The first sounds used are ones that can be blended more easily and the progression of sounds introduced is based on lots of research. The kids I tutor catch on and start blending well towards the end of the first set.

You know, I have WRTR and what you mention is what has puzzled me about these Spalding methods. There is a sense that if the child knows the phonograms they can just suddenly read. I cannot fathom the struggling kids I tutor to just be able to make the leap from knowing the sounds to reading the word. Blending is a hard skill for some kids (my ds included) to master. They struggle, struggle, struggle and then they start to "get it." I also recommend using the notched card that someone else suggested....at least at the beginning.

HTH

[TAKlinda]

The easiest way to teach children to read is by using decoding word lists. The students highlight the small words or sound units inside a given word and then just read the word as two or three separate parts. Since the child can speak the language and supposedly knows the word, they just need a method to decode it. This usually produces a confident reader in just a few months.