Help with ideas for an 8yo struggling reader

[5sweeties]

Hi! I'm asking this for my sil, who has a son that is in public school. She is in the beginning stages of considering homeschooling. Her son turned 8 in December, and is in 2nd grade. He is not doing well at all, especially in reading. She feels that he has completely given up, and has stopped making progress. If she were to pull him out of ps, and homeschool him, are there any programs for reading, that you could recommend, to help him?

TIA!!!

[Claire]

My dd was 8yo, in 2nd grade at a private school, and tested as reading at a pre-kindergarten level. During Easter break that year I sat down with her every day using the book "Reading Reflex" by McGuinness, doing the exercises in that book. Within 20 hours of working one-on-one like this, we could both see she was finally "getting" reading. She went back to school happy because she could finally decode some words. We ended up homeschooling starting in 3rd grade because she learned so much more at home than she had in school.

There are different underlying reasons why a child may have difficulty learning to read. In my dd's case, it turned out that a good reading program alone was not enough. She also needed vision therapy and cognitive skills training. Homeschooling made it possible for us to work in all of the therapies she needed for 3rd grade, so she was fully remediated in reading by the start of 4th grade. Other children may have auditory processing or sensory integration issues that need to be addressed. In any case, homeschooling gives a parent the opportunity to work directly with the child and observe what is going on, research ideas on the internet (I did a lot of this, especially on forums where other parents offered information and advice), and pursue those therapies that seem likely to benefit the individual child.

Sorry this got so long. The program I would highly recommend to your sil at this point is ABeCeDarian (http://www.abcdrp.com/). It uses the same methodology as "Reading Reflex", the program I started with, but has developed better parent support materials. Also, their email support group (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/abecedarian/)on Yahoo! is excellent at helping people get started with the method, answering questions, and providing help getting over rough spots.

[Lorna]

Our son was really put off reading by school. Looking back some of the best things we did to turn him into a reader were:
Reading aloud to him lots.
Making sure there were plenty of books age-appropriate, and personality appropriate (quite difficult but this board helped me a lot and Amazon lists)
Audio books to help increase comprehension.
Writing letters to friends
No television

[readwithem]

Our son was really put off reading by school. Looking back some of the best things we did to turn him into a reader were:
Reading aloud to him lots.
Making sure there were plenty of books age-appropriate, and personality appropriate (quite difficult but this board helped me a lot and Amazon lists)
Audio books to help increase comprehension.
Writing letters to friends
No television

Yes to all of this, also just an encouragement to remember it's a marathon and not a 50 yard dash. My now 16 yo dd didn't enjoy reading to herself that much till she was 10. She always loved to be read TO but not so much to herself. Now she reads at least 2 hours every day between school and fun books.

[LisaTheresa]

I would look at Funnix (www.funnix.com). It is a direct-instruction program and has an excellent track record. I used it with my son who has mild learning disabilities as well as with my daughter who does not. Both kids enjoyed the program and have learned to read well.

Lisa

[Nikita]

My son has never been to school, so being a late reader didn't bring the baggage that it would have if he'd been in school. We had always read together a lot every day, and I had taught him all the letter sounds, but he was not interested in reading at all. However, by the time he was 8 and not reading even the simplest words, I decided we needed to focus on getting him reading. He was not motivated at all until I told him I would not read aloud the next Harry Potter book - he would have to learn to read it himself (I think that was book number 3).

I used Reading Reflex primarily, and did a lot of work with him playing the games they suggest. I also made up cards with a whole lot of CVC words, and we'd go through them every day, logging how many words he could read in 3 minutes, with rewards for beating his previous score. It was slow going but it finally clicked. He was so proud when he could read his first BOB book to me.

After RR, I used Phonics Pathways, but I had to cover most of the page and only show him a few words at a time because the number of words on the page was overwhelming.

It was hard work teaching him to read. We worked together for almost an hour (broken up into shorter times) every single day until he got it. He got frustrated, and it took so much patience and creativity to keep him at it. But in six months he went from being a non-reader to being able to tackle that Harry Potter book. He's never looked back.

(The side benefit was that his 4yo sister, who spent most of that time on my lap or sitting beside us drawing pictures, inhaled all the reading lessons too, and figured out how to read within a few months of her brother, without any direct teaching. I hadn't even realized she was listening to any of it!)

Nikita

[Lori D.]

Some reading problems stem from physical problems. A good eye exam will determine not only if the child is having trouble focusing/seeing, but will also check for eye tracking and perception problems.

Here are some webpage with info on reading and eyesight issues:
- http://www.irlen.org.uk/
- http://www.children-special-needs.org/vision_therapy/esophoria_reading.html
- http://www.crossboweducation.com/Eye_Level_Reading_Ruler.htm

Also, even mild dyslexia makes reading extremely difficult, so it might be helpful to get some testing to rule that out, too. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

[Lorna]

He was not motivated at all until I told him I would not read aloud the next Harry Potter book - he would have to learn to read it himself (I think that was book number 3).
Nikita

No matter what people's views on J K Rowling's books, she has certainly got a lot of children reading. What an incredible accomplishment.

[Kathy in MD]

problems Claire mentioned. And throw in a poor memory to make comprehension difficult once his body was working and he could read. :(

[Nikita]

No matter what people's views on J K Rowling's books, she has certainly got a lot of children reading. What an incredible accomplishment.

Finding interesting material for him to read was one of the biggest problems with keeping him motivated, and absolutely, I have JK Rowling thank for a big part of it. I kept a journal through that time, and I wrote: "Most of my selections [of easy readers] were not enthusiastically received - he felt they were simplistic, childish, and just plain boring."

Yet, "every few weeks, he would reach for Harry Potter and try it out, then announce that it was still too difficult."

Between the BOB books and Harry Potter, we did have success with the Amelia Bedelia books, the Commander Toad series (by Jane Yolen), A Big Ball of String, and The Christian Liberty Nature Readers. After those he picked up the Wizard of Oz book that had been our family readaloud and snuck off to read it under the bedclothes with a flashlight. That was the moment I knew he was hooked on reading.

At one point, he turned to me and said, "Remember how you told me that once I started reading, I wouldn't be able to stop? How reading would open up a whole new world for me that I didn't even know about before? You were right, Mom!"

Truly, teaching that boy to read has been the most satisfying experience out of all our years of homeschooling. I really have to hold onto that feeling when we are having our down days.

Nikita