Can you read words you can't spell? (kid reading related)

[crl]

I am struggling a bit with helping ds with reading. We are pursuing evaluations and other help for him, but in the meantime I am trying to follow his teacher's recommendations. She has suggested working on sight words as he is stronger there than in phonetics. I have been telling his teachers for over a year that I think he is a stronger sight reader than phonetic reader so I am glad to finally have someone agree.

I mentioned to her that he already knows all the sight words she gave me (he's in second and she gave me lists for first, second and third). I asked if she has any suggestions for additional words. Her response was to work on spelling them. I can read lots and lots of words I can't spell (and I am a sight reader). So I am a puzzled by this suggestion. (He usually gets very good grades on his spelling tests if that matters.). Ds is resistant to anything that is reading related so I am not at all interested in having him do more work for the sake of more work or to improve his spelling. I only want to spend our time and effort on things that will really help with reading. I would have thought using the words to write sentences? Or more words?

Thanks for your thoughts.
Catherine

[sariana]

If he is a sight reader, then I would think the best thing to improve his reading is to read as much as possible. The more words he is exposed to, the stronger his reading skills will be. Does he enjoy being read to? Reading together is a great way to expose him to new words. What about books on tape (an obsolete term, I guess)?

I might also do some dictionary work with him. Look up the etymologies of words. Study prefixes and suffixes. Learn about Greek and Latin roots. The more he understands about how our language is put together, the more able he will be to figure out new words he hasn't seen before.

Play Scrabble and other word games. Expose him to words and language whenever possible.

[crl]

He loves it when I read to him. But otherwise he hates every reading related activity I have suggested. His teacher last year had a word of the day calendar and he really liked that. I am thinking of putting one together for him. I also got a book on games for helping kids learn to read. I just started looking through it and hope to find some ideas in there.

I think, in addition to being a poor phonetic reader, he has some kind of glitch in comprehension. He was recently diagnosed with ADHD and I am sure that is part of it. I think there is something else going on though. I have noticed that when he doesn't know a word, he guesses wildly. His guesses usually start with the same letter as the word he is looking at, but don't fit into the sentence at all. It's like he's not getting much meaning from the combination of words, even if he can read them individually.

I really think we need the evaluations and I am frustrated with the situation as a whole. I feel like his teacher is just taking stabs in the dark at what will help him. But I also am absolutely not an expert at teaching reading so it is hard for me to know if I should just follow her advice (for example, having him practice spelling words he can already read) or not.

Sigh.

Thanks!
Catherine

[Uno-Mom]

I know very little about this topic but wow, if he's got so many bad feelings about reading at this early stage, and you're on the verge of getting him some really effective specialized help... I wouldn't want to push anything right now that would give him more emotional resistance. Why not build on the experiences that make him feel good, like reading to him? Help him build his love of stories until you get his real intervention plan in place.

I'm in NO place to question a teacher's expertise but that's what I'd want to do if it were my child and it sounds like your instinct is leading you that way. It's not like you're neglecting his education - you just want to give him some breathing room temporarily!

[egoldber]

if he's got so many bad feelings about reading at this early stage, and you're on the verge of getting him some really effective specialized help... I wouldn't want to push anything right now that would give him more emotional resistance.

I would agree with this. I know it is hard to wait and to feel like you are wasting time when you could be doing something, but I think that waiting for the evaluation and the appropriate response is better than rushing in and just trying things.

And FWIW, older DD learned to read almost exclusively by sight reading. In first grade she could read things like Harry Potter, but spelled like a typical first grader. It used to really frustrate her in her early writing efforts because she would try to spell a word and then be upset because she knew it was wrong. She did learn phonics and spelling later, but many kids learn to read by sight vs. phonetically.


I have noticed that when he doesn't know a word, he guesses wildly. His guesses usually start with the same letter as the word he is looking at, but don't fit into the sentence at all. It's like he's not getting much meaning from the combination of words, even if he can read them individually.

I know he was diagnosed ADHD recently, but older DD did this too and in retrospect I think it was totally an anxiety thing. She felt a lot of pressure to get the work right, and would get flustered and just guess vs. remembering to use her learned skills to figure out the word.

[crl]

Beth, I think anxiety is a possibility. His psychiatrist did not want to diagnose him with anxiety as he didn't feel it was a big enough issue/didn't effect ds often enough in enough situations. I think the psychiatrist may have missed the mark on that one.

I don't know how close we are to getting real help, I have requested evaluations for determining eligibility for special education, two weeks ago. They have 60 days. They haven't contacted me. We may have a real fight on our hands to get appropriate evaluations done and to get any help as a result.

We are loath to go private as we already went out of pocket for the ADHD dx and because I don't want to pile outside testing and tutoring and such onto ds, I want him to get it during school hours so that his free/play time is preserved.

Thanks you all,
Catherine

[hillview]

Catherine how old is DS? Sorry I know I should know this!

[crl]

Catherine how old is DS? Sorry I know I should know this!

Oh, sorry, I should have said! He's eight, but in second grade. He was "nearly a year" behind in reading according to his testing at the beginning of the year (super frustrating to me as his teacher last year kept telling me he was doing fine--I guess he lost a lot over the summer even though we tried to work on it). He is catching up, but is still behind grade level. I know he's got issues and I don't expect school to ever be easy for him or for him to necessarily be top of his class. But he is reasonably bright and I really think he is capable of being at grade level.

I didn't mean to drag you all into all of this; I am just so puzzled by the spelling suggestion and I don't know if I am missing the utility of this suggestion in my overall frustration with the situation.

Thanks,
Catherine

[inmypjs]

I'm sure you've probably read some of my posts on our journey with my DS7's dyslexia. Honestly a lot of those symptoms sound like my DS. Most dyslexics are poor with phonics and phonemic awareness, but do much better with whole word learning. It is really hard to wait for evaluation results - I know the feeling! I think it is great you are doing that and hopefully soon you will have some answers. If it is a reading-related learning disability, just know that there are lots of approaches to choose from to help your DS. I have read pretty much everything I can find on dyslexia and all of the remediation choices available. We found an approach that it is helping my son, and as our psychologist put it - if school were taught that way, he wouldn't have a learning disability! Sometimes it is just a matter of finding more about how your child learns.

[vludmilla]

I don't think I understand the teacher's recommendation. Is she saying that he should work on spelling the sight words that he already knows? Do you know what aspects of reading he finds difficult?

As for the evaluation, I know that you said that you wanted to have the school do the testing and the remediation but I want to gently suggest that you reconsider going private for this. Reading disorders are often relatively easy to remediate when a child is young but as a child gets older it gets much, much more difficult to remediate reading problems. Although the school might do an adequate evaluation and offer appropriate services, if they don't, it won't be a simple to matter to correct. I am currently considering paying for a private reading evaluation for my DD and I intend to pay for private reading tutoring because I have seen the difference between high quality reading interventions targeted to specific weaknesses in reading and more general reading intervention (that may be high quality but not as targeted to specific weaknesses). It pains me to think of the thousands of dollars that this will cost us but I can't stand the worry that the school may provide good remediation but not necessarily the best remediation for DD's specific needs.

[egoldber]

I want to second what vludmilla is saying. I completely, utterly and totally get wanting the school to be able to meet your DS's needs during the school day. But even in our well funded district that very seldom happens unless the needs are pretty severe. IME an evaluation does not have to be time consuming in the long run and a quality eval can save time. Once you have an eval/diagnosis, they can then feed that info back to the school. The school may then be able to meet his intervention needs. But maybe not especially if the threshold for receiving in school services is high.

[crl]

Thanks!
Catherine

[inmypjs]

I agree with the 2 previous posters about the importance of getting a good eval. Our school won't make any diagnoses and they have no tests for phonemic awareness skills. If you suspect a reading disability, you really want to know about those because it will help you make better choices about what interventions could help your child. We went with a private eval for those reasons. Yes, it was pricey - but it was worth it. The data was more useful and now we have specific diagnoses in our pocket so to speak. I did talk to the school psychologist ahead of time about where we went for testing, and he expressed a positive view of the place we went and said they'd have no problem accepting the results.

I belong to an online support group for parents of dyslexics, and one of the resources that the veterans suggest to the newbies is a book called "Reading Reflex." There are tests in the book for phonemic awareness that you can do at home. They recommend that parents do that and then they lots of resources about which methods tend to help what kinds of deficits (and what kinds of kids). I have the book though I did not do the assessments. It's no substitute for a full evaluation of course but something you could use as a resource in the meantime.

[thomma]

Any Wilson tutors in your area?
Look into it...it can be pricey but well worth it.