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My 8 year old daughter has now been through 2 years of phonics instruction. The first year, in Kindergarten, when she was 6, she used Abeka (in private Kindergarten). This past year, for 1st grade (we are now homeschoolers!) we used The Reading Lesson. She has just completed The Reading Lesson, and Explode the Code books 1, 2, and 3. While I have seen terrific progress this year, she is still struggling very much with reading. One day she might read well, and the next day, she struggles to sound out 3 letter words. Or, she may even read the sentence through and have trouble sounding out only one word. Then, once she has figured out the word, I will have her re-read the sentence and she will miss a different word as well as the one she couldn't figure out in the first place. For instance, "It is made of wood." She read "It is made" fine. "Of", she read as "for". "Wood", she struggled and finally figured out. Then, in re-reading the sentence, she read "made" as man, then marked, then move. And, took forever to sound that out correctly, and she still could not figure out "wood". The 3rd time through the same sentnce, she was still sounding them out! The is one of the final sentences in the last couple of stories of The Reading Lesson. This is just one example of the many struggles - she also struggles with words like "fur", "as", "bit", etc.

I am not sure what to do. I know I am supposed to start the Emerging Readers set with her. Her 3 younger brothers will all be starting that set when we officially start school back in a couple of weeks. The Reading Lesson worked wonderfully for the boys, and they are very ready for Emerging Readers. But, I just don't know if she needs more phonics practice first to be successful. We started Explode the Code book 5 (after skipping book 4 due to it being considered "out of the norm" in the Explode the Code sequence), and she has "hit a brick wall". As additional information about her, she has moderate to severe auditory processing delays. Basically, she has a hard time retrieving information and processing oral information and discerning sounds. She is also using "Earobics" software to help with this.

Are there any suggestions for me on how to proceed with teaching her?

I know nothing about auditory proceesing delays- Im assuming[forgive my ignorance] that its a difficulty with listen type learning?
I finished TRL [and we did explode the code 1 before that]Nathan is very,very impulsive so when reading he will often suggest anything - whateveer first comes into his head- h has asperegers/ADHD.We have been using this website over the summer.http://readingeggs.com/
its only free for a couple of weeks and it starts off very basic c makes a cat sound but it has lots of intresting games for sight recognition and brushing up their phonic skills.

There's another level of RME coming out sometime...RME author Valerie Brandt is working on it now! I'm not sure when it will be available though...

What about something with a totally fresh approach like ETC online or ClickNKids...there's visual and verbal instruction combined and it's a fun change of pace.

I have one that struggles in a similar way. I am not sure if this will help pr not but we have found this really helps our daughter. I have her read aloud a ton and correct her. I listen to the words she is stumbling over then I take The ABC's and all their tricks and look over the phonograms that make that sound. Then I write on the board silly sentences that contain those words and sounds and we go over them sometimes being quite dramatic. I have her read them to me and then I have her write them down along with the phonogram and the sound it makes. She practices her cards and throughout the week I make silly sentences with all the words she missed. When I feel like she has gotten enough practice I do dictation with the words and silly sentences. This helps us quite a bit. It is a bit of work but I find any time we get stuck this seems to get us out of the rut. But I will say that it does still happen and she does still read things that are not there and skip words. I think the having them read it aloud and go back and read it as it is and stop them immediately when they skip things or use the wrong word it seems to help.

Anyway not sure if that will help you or not but just wanted to share because it has been of help to us.

I was going to ask if she has auditory processing issues? How bout having her read books she already has memorized. don't go into the emerging readers untill she has heard her brothers read them many times. I know it sounds counter productive. but think of it as input input input, having her "read" books where she knows what it is going to say just inputs the words over and over again in her mind. So she can get this reading thing working right! If your constatnly beign corected will you like reading? but if you only have to read a story where you already have a clue and can anticipate the right word that will give confidance and make it fun not frusterating.
Maybe do 50 % input where you read the word first then she reads the same word. Then the second time around she reads them by herself. Say 3-5 words at a time and words in ame family like pat cat hat mat...

Is the ear arobics exercising that short term memory? If she is having trouble with 3 letter words maybe more phonics isn't going to be the answer. She has to be able to remember those 3 sounds together before she can read those words. If she can't hold the information long enough to remember it maybe a sight word approach will give her success... and help her love to read. Dick and Jane has helped us over some confidence issues. And has been a good bridge back to phonics, by using words she sight reads accurately and making her sound them out...she had that "Ah HA!" moment of "that is how it works!!!!"

My dd was just diagnosed with auditory delays and when I think back to our reading lessons (100 easy) we never moved on until she "got" the lesson, sometimes that meant we stayed on a 15 min lesson for 12 days. Which unbeknownst to me was the right thing to do. Short accurate lessons are really helpful here.

I aplogise for the spelling errors my spell check isn't working and my disleixa is acting up

Have you had her vision checked? My dd has the same issue with missing small words after she has already read them a couple lines earlier and also gets the big words like "Israelites". We just discovered last week that she needs glasses for reading. Eureka! I hope this is the fix we are so needing. We have not gotten them yet....hopefully today. Can't wait to hear her read WITH her glasses.

Judy

There are already such good ideas here. I second Judy's suggestion to check her vision if you haven't recently, just to be sure that's not a factor. I think I'd go through Reading Made Easy with her. Valerie Bendt does a wonderful job of teaching phonics in this book, and it is done in a new and totally different way than Abeka or The Reading Lesson. I also think it takes dc further, to a higher level of reading by the end of it, so it would continue to stretch your dd.

Getting the BOB books and having her practice each book for 3-5 days before getting a new book would also be helpful. They are short, funny, and perfect for beginning readers. They are very inexpensive and available at most book stores (and also Sam's Club).

Another idea is to have her watch the Leap Frog Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory 1, and Talking Words Factory 2. These DVD's do a wonderful job of helping dc with early reading. She could just watch one a day.

Last, having here listen with headphones to books in tape while following along in the book as she listens would really help. Most libraries (even small ones) have a fairly good selection of audio books; otherwise Amazon or Blackstone does too.

We did Earobics with our first ds. He had delayed speech and struggled with auditory learning. I did think it helped, but it was sooooo painfully hard for him at first. Doing parts of it repetitively (by registering him as a new user each time) helped him do better with that.

I just want to encourage you here - I know she will blossom with her reading. You are wise to put time and thought into this decision. There are many good ideas in this thread, and I know you'll have some great things to try.

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you all for your replies. You've given me much to consider using with my dd. In answer to an above question, yes, she DOES have Auditory Processing Disorder. We had her evaluated by a Speech/Language pathologist who used many tests with her. Her disability ranges in different categories from moderate to severe. And, yes, Earobics does exercise the short term memory, which is a HUGE issue for her. It also help her learn to hear sounds, to distinguish them. She often can't repeat a 3 syllable word if asked to, especially one she isn't completely familiar with hearing repeatedly. New words are VERY tough for her.

She is using starfall.com and just started the "First Steps" Pathway Reader primer book. Starfall now has workbooks they will send you for free that go along with the lessons on the website. We are going to try that with her too.

While I was waiting for your ideas, I also found a website (www.donpotter.net) that has some free reading materials. Blend Phonics and Word Mastery are the two I'm looking at. Anyone heard of those? Many people on the yahoo board I'm on for kids with dyslexia, auditory processing disorder, etc. recommended it. But, it doesn't look very teacher-friendly.

I like the idea of using Reading Made Easy to go through phonics with her again in fresh way. And, I could use their new workbooks to reinforce her learning. She loved Explode the Code until we got to he 2-syllable words in Book 5. I also love the suggestion to have her read out loud to me even more than I have been using simple books/BOB books. We do already have the BoB books, but I hadn't really used them as I thought since they are so easy, they wouldn't help her learn more. Especially after finishing The Reading Lesson -it feels like she should be ready for more difficult books than those. But, you've reminded me she needs SUCCESS and to feel like she can read. She tries so very hard and it seems she knows learning to read should be easier (as it is for her brothers), but just isn't for her.

Thanks again for your thoughts!

I just want to chime in a bit and say that our son really struggled with reading when he was younger. He was diagnosed with dyslexia in 3rd grade. Dyslexia really means "trouble with words". He is now 17. He is a decent reader but he does not enjoy reading. I could go into all the details, but I won't right now. Recently we went to an eye clinic and they said his eye tracking/focusing is off. So we went ahead and did an in depth evaluation and we found that he could use Vision Therapy. As an example, one test measures the efficiency of the visual system while reading 100 words in a paragraph (the reading level was appropriate for him). They measure fixations (the number of times that the eyes stop to read a word). This is done with goggles and the goggles actually record all his eye movements and you can see the results on a computer. This test alone said so much. Our son stopped 171 times to read 100 words. This was equivalent to a second grader. When watching it on the screen, his eye literally go back and forth the whole time he is reading. Plus he spends longer looking at the words (this was equivalent to a 1st grade level). Now realize, he is reading words he knows, they were not difficult words. He answered all the questions on the paragraph with 90% accuracy. Because his eyes are not focusing correctly, they had to work very hard to read what he was reading. That is why he is slower than average. We are waiting for our son (who is gone this week) to decide if he wants to proceed with Therapy. It is VERY time consuming and HE has to want to do it. He is now in our local H.S (which I might add is 20 miles away) and VT is 40 Minutes in the opposite direction. Plus he would have to miss some football. It is a sacrifice for him.
I personally know of 4 people that have had their kids go through therapy now. Three of the four said it was a life changing experience. The fourth (was an A student, could read well, but not for long periods), found the therapy worthwhile and said that it has helped. He can read for extended periods and said that school is easier. This is just something to consider for anyone who has a child that continues to struggle with reading.
Amy
Mom of 4
Twin girls in BLHFHG

busymomof4 wrote:I just want to chime in a bit and say that our son really struggled with reading when he was younger. He was diagnosed with dyslexia in 3rd grade. Dyslexia really means "trouble with words". He is now 17. He is a decent reader but he does not enjoy reading. I could go into all the details, but I won't right now. Recently we went to an eye clinic and they said his eye tracking/focusing is off. So we went ahead and did an in depth evaluation and we found that he could use Vision Therapy. As an example, one test measures the efficiency of the visual system while reading 100 words in a paragraph (the reading level was appropriate for him). They measure fixations (the number of times that the eyes stop to read a word). This is done with goggles and the goggles actually record all his eye movements and you can see the results on a computer. This test alone said so much. Our son stopped 171 times to read 100 words. This was equivalent to a second grader. When watching it on the screen, his eye literally go back and forth the whole time he is reading. Plus he spends longer looking at the words (this was equivalent to a 1st grade level). Now realize, he is reading words he knows, they were not difficult words. He answered all the questions on the paragraph with 90% accuracy. Because his eyes are not focusing correctly, they had to work very hard to read what he was reading. That is why he is slower than average. We are waiting for our son (who is gone this week) to decide if he wants to proceed with Therapy. It is VERY time consuming and HE has to want to do it. He is now in our local H.S (which I might add is 20 miles away) and VT is 40 Minutes in the opposite direction. Plus he would have to miss some football. It is a sacrifice for him.
I personally know of 4 people that have had their kids go through therapy now. Three of the four said it was a life changing experience. The fourth (was an A student, could read well, but not for long periods), found the therapy worthwhile and said that it has helped. He can read for extended periods and said that school is easier. This is just something to consider for anyone who has a child that continues to struggle with reading.
Amy
Mom of 4
Twin girls in BLHFHG

Hmm...Thank for this information, Amy. I'm going to keep this in mind.
Leah