heartofdakota.com

Hello to all! My dd7 is doing quite well overall but I recently noticed something when she is reading her ERs to me. She is reading to the end of each line as if that is where the sentence stops. Also, she does great with more difficult words and yet often uses and in place of the or for in place of to. Not sure what to think about this. Up until she turned 7 in August she never did this. She has been a great reader for quite some time which makes it even more confusing to me. It seems to be affecting her comprehension. Thoughts?

GinainMD wrote:Hello to all! My dd7 is doing quite well overall but I recently noticed something when she is reading her ERs to me. She is reading to the end of each line as if that is where the sentence stops. Also, she does great with more difficult words and yet often uses and in place of the or for in place of to. Not sure what to think about this. Up until she turned 7 in August she never did this. She has been a great reader for quite some time which makes it even more confusing to me. It seems to be affecting her comprehension. Thoughts?

Hi Gina! My dc have both done what you are describing with their poetry. We just had a lesson on how punctuation works like a stop sign. You "go" until you see the punctuation "stop sign". Maybe if you explained it like that it would make sense? It really helped my 7 yo. My 7 yo also had opposite habit of your dd's, in that he just read everything without stopping anywhere. It was like every page he read to me was one giant run-on sentence. It helped him when I read his book aloud to him that same way. He told me to slow down, and that he didn't understand me. I didn't do this in a mean way - we had a laugh about it together - but maybe if you read the way your dd is reading and see if she can catch what sounds off about it? Once my ds heard what his reading sounded like, he understood the need to change it.

The substitutions you are describing are actually very common, especially when dc are able to pick up the pace in their reading. Even we as adults do this. But, many dc can begin to think that they are showing they are excellent readers if they just read very fast. This is probably because while learning to read they went slowly, and they are thrilled to be able to forge onward. If your dd substitutes a small word occasionally, and what she reads still makes sense, I'd let it go. But, if she is doing it very often, and her substitutions do not make any sense, I'd stop her, and point to the word she missed telling her she said "x" for it. Have her read the sentence again properly to you then. You may also want to let her know that careful reading is more important than fast reading, as making errors can change the storyline. My ds grew impatient with me correcting him and having him reread lines at times, but he did eventually understand that he'd have to do it, so why not just get it right from the start? I hope something here helps, but I do think what you are describing is quite natural.

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks Julie for responding! I've kinda been fretting over this so I'm glad to hear it is considered normal. I am going to try the stop sign thing and also maybe reading to show how confusing it can be when you ignore punctuation. I have been pointing out the words when she makes substitutions and having her correct herself but just the word not the entire sentence so I think I'll try that as well. Thanks for the insight.

I would also say it's normal. My ds 7 has begun reading 'chapter' books for fun in the last several months, though we are still working through his phonics book (RME). I agree with Julie that the issues with run-ons could be because she is so proud of herself and equates being quick with being a 'good' reader. My ds is big on telling me how much he reads at one time....he's so proud! We are also currently working on remembering that a period is like a stop sign, using a good volume as he reads (he tends to be very quiet) and to enunciate, as he also tends to mumble a bit. Reading aloud is so different from reading silently to yourself! I think it really takes a bit of work for them to get it 'right'. My son will also skip a word occasionally or substitute a word. I just have him re-read it correctly and then move on. I think Julie gave you some great advice there. Overall it sounds as if your dd is doing a great job and just needs to continue practicing her new skill.

My DD's ER's have a great big pink post it note on them... that says Read slowly and carefully.
She has to read that note to me before she starts reading. My DD is substituting words and guessing as well example: started for stared. I just make her re read the word then the sentence. Some things I have been doing is:
1. Every word she gets wrong or subs I write it on a white board. We review these words before she starts reading then next day. So words like Laramie and Majors get to be remembered before we start in for the days reading.
2. I give her a week with the book first. She gets to read it real slow one time through. The second week she is able to read it at speed and correctly. This has really helped her feel confident in her reading. And she finally gets to read it the way she wants to!
3. I also take note of any phenoms she is not getting for example substituting ch for sh... I then make up a word list with both sounds in them and make her read em off example: church, shoes, shall, challenge. this seems to help her remember.