View Full Version : WWYD if you were me?

01-30-2012, 03:10 PM
What is my next step?

DS is 9, is below level in some subjects but catching up better than I thought. Phonics/Spelling however is just not progressing. We do All About Spelling and he gets it, retains it, weeks later can do it. Knows and gets the reasons of sounds etc.

When we advance to bigger words (mainly in other subjects) he can not do it, does not segment the sounds and usually calls it something different. He understands syllables so we tried that route. He recently leveled up in subjects but of course with that comes some bigger words. Example today he could not read BRACE to save his life. He was doing CLE 300 and this was one of the spelling words. While I do the spelling part of CLE I do not use it as his core words to master, but he does retain the rest including the meanings of the words because of the spiral teaching. Brace was breeze, no matter how we looked at it he was not seeing the /A/ in the word at all.

Now stick a subject he is obsessed with and he goes nuts, give him a chapter book he wants to read and he does better. But break it down and it is not happening. Today we also tried a new history on the computer. The words were too big. I had him try once, then I read to him. I then decided to see how he would do on the lesson quiz. I ended up having to make it an open book with the highlight and read to me option because he retained notta.

If your child is anywhere like this what are you doing for subjects when you level up and they are ready for it? We did second grade 2 times and he is long past it but in some ways, mostly the reading/retaining words on subjects he is not there. Should I stick with more time on lapbooks and such, we still do those as I have a 6 yr old who is on the Spectrum as well. But I was attempting to motivate my 9 yr old a little more, which has worked in all areas but this. Thoughts from out of the box thinkers?

01-30-2012, 03:37 PM
I'm looking forward to hearing from others, but I have a couple of thoughts. First of all, if he struggles that much with phonics, does he do better with sight words? Can he memorize words to become more fluent? Is he frustrated with his reading, or is it just you? He could be dyslexic and its worth getting checked. What curriculum are you using? My biggest worry w my 8 yo is that he would struggle badly if he went to school, because he really cant write - a sentence brings tears. But his writing made a major leap recently, and his retention for listening has been getting really strong. I dont make my kids do tests tho - we are maybe kinda light on curriculum? idk.

01-30-2012, 03:47 PM
Alex was a late talker, age of 4 and half and it was broken like an infant. Writing also came late. It is only when we repeated second grade things that he matured in his work enough to get past it. Working, listening, writing all became easier. His handwriting I can read now and no longer taller than the page. I could easily say he finally has that down. It is print.

As a rule we do not 'test' persay. But I wanted to try this History Program out online. It had a quiz. We treated it as a review. I personally wanted to see how this program fit him, if at all.

It is strange how he retains AAS, almost with ease. But break away into something else and it is not there, which makes studies very difficult.

I have had him evaluated before pulling him from PS in 2009 by the school as well as medical resources. His DX is Severe but Functioning - he scored 3 points into that catagory but yet is very verbal and bright now. He has all the ticks, behaviors and melts of a classic kid in this range. He also has Sensory Processing, Anxiety, and ADHD. We are working in all areas but no one really thinks he is dyslexic. Now my just turned 6 yr old, were watching him a little more closely in this area. He can spell, read, above level but writing is always backwards.

01-30-2012, 04:16 PM
Since AAS involves using visual, auditory and kinesthetics, could you try that approach with other subjects? Not exactly sure how you would incorporate kinesthetics with History, but maybe through living books and visits to museums, videos, projects, etc. Do you allow him to keep his hands busy when you are reading to him? Good luck to you, I know it must be frustrating.

01-30-2012, 04:31 PM
Oh yes if I read he will listen, pending interest and/or activity. He may be still as can be or bouncing on a trampoline or on his stability ball. He also has fidget toys and pipe cleaners he can toy with.

I guess I am at that part of the game to find the curve he/we need in order to advance. Given the right method I know he can do it. He learns a lot with field trips, Discovery Education etc...

With two polar opposite Sensory Driven kids I am seeking that balance. Most days it works. We just leveled my 9 yr old up in his studies. Somehow I have to find that balance with History and other topics soon to take place.

With him repeating 2nd and delayed we only focused on core basics, everything else was fun or an elective.

01-30-2012, 07:41 PM
So, it sounds like he's not generalizing his decoding skills very well?

Last year I had my son do Time4Learning's first grade language arts. I think he really got the whole idea of "sounding it out" from them. I also write words on the white board daily and we clap and sound them out and we also do a lot of phoneme substition stuff, like say, I write down the word house and ask him to swap out "ou" for "or" and read me the new word. I still have to prod him into sounding out words when he reads, though.

Good luck!

01-30-2012, 10:01 PM
I don't know if this will help you, but it might so I'll throw it out there.

I did Blend Phonics with my ds when we started this year- basically the idea is that you put up one letter at a time, and kids blend as they go. We weren't facing precisely the same issues you are, but it did show my ds that big words are no harder to read than little words. He actually learned with sight words, though, so he did a ridiculous amount of guessing. I think the blend phonics slowed him down enough so he would actually pay attention to the letters and what the sounds were. I didn't let him read while we were going through the program, so his ONLY reading was through this. It has made a huge difference for us (he reads much better, sounds more fluid, finds it easier, and no longer guesses- plus his comprehension is light years ahead of where it was)

For my daughter, I pretty much started from scratch so we've done some work breaking up words into smaller sections, drawing lines between the syllables, underlining letter combinations that she knows, etc. I didn't pull punches, either- she had crazy long words to ferret out- and she struggles with reading. I needed her to see that big words follow the rules, too, and that we can figure out EVERY word just by knowing some basics. It worked and she tackles the bigger words much more readily.

I know that isn't specifically what you asked, but both of my kids had some issue with reading, and it just took very pointed work on that bit to get them both moving ahead.

Cactus Flower
02-03-2012, 04:33 PM
My immediate thought is Dyslexia. In Dyslexia the person can transpose letters, parts of words or numbers. With reading books, they might be able to guess a word because of the meaning as it's used in the sentence. When they see the same word alone they can't read it. In writing, does he ever make letters or numbers backward? Some of the most common letters/numbers to get backward are b/d, s/z, g/q/p, 2, 3, 5, 7,6, 9.

02-04-2012, 12:58 AM
My DS 11 is severely dyslexic and what is working for him is Apples & Pears spelling program.

02-05-2012, 07:49 PM
We use Story of the world for history and remove the biblical references such as the parting of the red sea.
I find for my multi learner info sticks well if he does the colouring page while I read.

Ld's are an issue here as well and often have left me scratching my head.
I wish you luck and hope you find something that works real soon.

02-07-2012, 10:23 AM
My son is almost 8 and does much better with sight words than with phonics. Since I just pulled him out of 2nd grade to homeschool, I'm seeing that he's about a year behind in reading because of this. We're basically starting over with basic phonics. I've been using Progressive Phonics, which was recommended by the awesome folks on this blog, and it's helping. For my son (who has Tourette's and ADHD) I have to repeat the same lesson over and over until he gets it. I'm 4 weeks in to silent e, and he still pronounces the short e at the end of a word. He's nowhere near being able to spell from memory, but he's very visual and I write all of his weekly sight words ona large dry erase board in a bright color. Flash cards work really well too. I think for some of our kiddos, it just takes repitition; that's certainly the case for my kiddo. And for what it's worth, my husband has a genius IQ, built his first computer at 8 years old, and is the worst speller known to man. Spell-check is his best friend.

02-07-2012, 03:12 PM
I am still trucking along with AAS. It seems to work. I have added in some IPAD apps for Spelling and oddly enough he CAN do them. I am not sure if this is a case of I do not want to or processing. I am leaning towards a little of both. Now he could not do age recommended words, but I know he is delayed. But that booger did more on the IPAD them he does in the classroom. Prob the extra bonus of visual/audio helped a great deal as well. I am re-using the AAS flash cards and making Fun Fridays for learning. Boggle, banana grams etc are used to spell these. Past couple of times he did better than I thought.

We will keep trucking..... :)