Help for Reading Problems - Mom Scared!

Parent Cafe
1

<p>My almost 7 year old D is in first grade. She is at the bottom of the class for reading. She has struggled all year - first with recognizing letter and sounds - and now with reading. She has been referred to a reading specialist with a group called Elwyn, who helps her a few days a week at school. She isn’t really making much progress. </p>

<p>At this point, she is ok with sounding out and reading three letter words…but her class has moved into reading chapter books with complex words. She continues to fall farther behind her class and is so insecure about her abilities. Her teacher recognizes the issue and says that I shouldn’t even try to get her to do the normal homework and should just do other things that she can do. Thus, at this point I think I need to get very educated about this because it seems that I’ll need to teach her to read and maybe change schools. At this pace, I don’t see her passing first grade unelss I can figure out what’s wrong and correct it. It’s really sad because she’s a wiz at math! her teacher feels that now she’ll begin to lose pace with the math because they are moving into word problems. She can’t read the words - so she can’t do the problems.</p>

<p>I’ve been searching for sites that would provid support or resources and can’t find much.</p>

<p>I started to think she might have ADD or ADHD because she couldn’t sit still when it came to reading. During math she would sit still and complete the work without a problem. But, when it came time to read, she had to stand at the table and would move around constantly, lose focus, forget what she was doing, etc. She would know a word on one page and totally forget how to read the very same word on the next page 30 seconds later. Or, when I would test her on her words she would write down the wrong word because she forgot what word I told her to write…only second after I said the word. IMHO, this all points to something being wrong. However, when I read the sites with info on ADHD, ADD or dyslexia - she doesn’t really fit the full criteria for any of it. </p>

<p>She seems to have a few symptoms of multiple issues…but not the majority of symptoms for any one issue. She has no trouble playing, sitting still, no outbursts (her teacher said she’s the most behaved child in the class - which worries the teacher because well-behaved kids with learning differences often get overlooked because they aren’t causing problems for the teacher). She loves to play games and has no social problems. She does move a lot in her sleep - but I;m not sure than she moves more than other children. </p>

<p>The weird thing is that I am able to teach her 8 spelling words per week, which is required for a spelling test. These are complex words. She gets 100 on her tests. But, once those words are placed into the context of a story she loses her recognition of the words. She also loses recognition of easy words - even some 2 letter words. </p>

<p>I recently bought Hooked on Phonics. But, my friends who are teachers say it’s no good. She enjoys working with it…so we’re going to stick with it until something better comes along. </p>

<p>There is a school in my area for kids who have reading problems. It’s called “Center School”. <a href=“http://www.centerschoolpa.org/default.asp[/url]”>http://www.centerschoolpa.org/default.asp&lt;/a&gt; I’m reluctant to pursue this because I don’t know that her problem is as serious as some of the other kids there and I don’t want her to be placed in a situation where she can’t thrive because the other kids are much slower. Center requires the child to be tested by your own school district before admission. I think I should ask for these tests as a starting point for how to handle this. Does anyone know if my public school district is obligated to respond to my request for testing, even if my D attends private school? </p>

<p>Right now she is sitting next to me easily reading her Level 1 Hooked on Phonics books and laughing out loud at the stories. These are really easy stories with two to three letter words. She’s moving her feet/legs quite a bit -constantly, but is sitting down. It’s weird that she only moves like this when she is reading. </p>

<p>There are some alternative schools in my immediate neighborhood that don’t stress reading until later years…such as those who teach by the Waldorf method. I’m just not sure that such is a good idea for a student with an identified difference. At this point, pushing it aside feels wrong.</p>

<p>I’m really worried and stressed out about this. Any and all suggestions are welcome!</p>

2

<p>My sister was diagnosed with dyslexia in fourth grade, when we had just come back from living abroad. The school that we had gone to before was much less challenging than the school that we came back to. My sister could barely read, and she almost failed fourth grade. She ended up at a school for learning disabilties, and she now loves books more than anyone I know!</p>

<p>When my family first moved to live abroad, I was extremely shy. I did not talk at all during pre-K and part of kindergarten. My teachers knew that I was capable of doing the work, and I did learn without participating, but they did not know what to do about my problem.</p>

<p>It is possible that your daughter cannot read because she needs to be taught in a different way. She might have dyslexia, or it could just be that she is having trouble adjusting or that she is not yet confident in her abilities. Your post leads me to think that your daughter has similar problems to the ones that my sister had. What makes you think that it is not dyslexia?</p>

3

<p>Momsdream-
I can hear the worry in your post! </p>

<p>Our youngest child has significant cognitive disabilities that were noted from infancy.
So we have navigated through the medical and school ‘systems’ for the last 15 years. I’m answering your post hoping to help and not presuming to understand what might be happening with your daughter.
I hope you understand…</p>

<p>You mentioned she is receiving some special reading help several times a week.
How was it determined what to provide for her?
Is it a public school? In our state (don’t know if it differs by state), either a teacher or parent may request an evaluation by the child study team in the district.
This done officially, in writing. The child study team schedules the testing which may involve psychologists, learning consultants, etc. The results are discussed with the parents, usually in a face-to-face meeting. The decision may be reached to ‘classify’ the child so the child can receive an individualized program to address the learning problem. This can be in the classroom, as a pull out program or combination.
Students classified have written IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) reviewed annually. </p>

<p>Our daughter was educated in district until grade 5; she is now in an out of district special ed school that can accomodate her until age 21 if necessary.
She needs and will be involved in vocational training and placement at graduation.</p>

<p>I hope my response is not overwhelming. My D obviously has very serious learning issues and yours does not. But perhaps if you can get an evaluation, either through the school or ‘on the outside’, you can get a handle on the best way to proceed for her. I wish the best for you.</p>

4

<p>Thank you Yemaya. It very well may be dyslexia. She has a couple of the signs, but not most. She is good at sequencing. She excels at math. Her handwriting is excellent. Her speech is mature and she shas always been on target for speech development. She usus very sophisticated words and sentence structure - so much so that people who don’t know her will lean over and ask me where she goes to school - remarking on how well she speaks. She doesn’t have directional confusion - she knows to read left to right and always does. This is why I didn’t think it was dyslexia.</p>

<p>Musicmom - She is in private school. The reading tutor takes her out of class to the trailer a few times a week. Early in the year the teacher recognized that she was falling behind. She was referred to the program and a form came home for me to sign to have her begin working with the Elwyn Program. When I met wiht the teacher about a month later, I asked what the diagnosis had been. But, there wasn’t one. It seems that there were no tests or evaluations given, just enrichment for reading. Between that news and the lack of progress, I decided that the program wasn’t going to fix this. It also adds more stress to her work because she has to make up, at home, what she misses in class. Thus, her homework time has significantly increased. She is already having so much trouble with the reading homework and now she does more - simply more of the same stuff that isn’t working and homework has become an intense time of frustration. She dreads it. To add insult to injury, the teacher puts sad faces on her papers or those big red Xs. We already know she can’t do the work, so why mark up her papers like that? I am frustrated with the entire school enviroment, at this point, because they don’t seem to be abale to adapt to a difference. </p>

<p>I don’t expect anyone here to be ableto diagnose this, as you cautioned. I agree with you 100%… I am moreso looking for advice on how to go about inserting myself into the framework of the system so that I can understand what’s available and how to take advantage of the resources. Do I go to the public district for testing? Do I need to hire a private evaluator? What tests should she be given? How do I know if it’s appropriate to move her to a special school? I’ve heard that getting kids into Center School requires an act of God or political connections in the right places. What if the teacher suggests holding her back a year? </p>

<p>I just ahve no idea about any of this. My son (the 17 y/o) went to school and learned to read with no intervention from home. I recall that his school used “Writing to Read”. This school isn’t using any formal methods. </p>

<p>I guess I’ll start by calling my District on Monday to see what my options are. Frankly, sometimes those calls don’t always get answered by the most helpful people or people who know the answers or care to get them. So a little knowledge on my part is needed as I deal with the district and their endless red tape.</p>

5

<p>Momsdream:</p>

<p>I think a private evaluator is called for. Dyslexia is a spectrum of issue, not an either/or situation, as far as I know, so your D could have it, or she could have some totally different issues.</p>

<p>If your D enjoys it and in particular enjoys mastering reading through, why not let her continue with phonics right now? My s-i-l used Hooked on Phonics for her son before he entered school, and she swears by it. My two Ss were educated with variations on whole language and have come out well. I personally think a mix of the two approaches works best, but phonics is a good basis to begin with. But I definitely suggests having your D tested for learning issues. She sounds like a very bright girl who may get discouraged if these issues are not addressed in time.</p>

6

<p>Momsdream-
We also have a (now college freshman) 18 yr old who is academically bright and had no learning problems.
We have had to learn a whole new path for our daughter and it’s not been easy.
We are in NJ and pay astronomical property taxes that support our schools, including special ed. We have been very fortunate that our school districts child study process while not perfect, has been better than many I hear of.
Our daughter’s needs are undeniable so the purse strings have not been so tight in her case. It might almost be more difficult to obtain cooperation and help for your daughter whose situation doesn’t seem so urgent (except to you the caring mom!).</p>

<p>In NJ, I do believe that the sending school district is responsible to perform evals and testing of students living in the disctrict. I would start there. Try to obtain written progress reports from your child’s teacher and put all your requests (politely) in writing. Please ask if you think I can help.</p>

7

<p>Momsdream: You have my real sympathies. My younger daughter repeated kindergarten and still wasn’t learning to read by the middle of first grade. It was excrucriating: She would painstakingly sound out a word like “cat,” and when the same word appeared three lines later, it was as if she had never seen it before in her life. We were totally baffled, especially since reading had always come easily to everyone else in the family. In my daughter’s case, she did learn to read with a one-on-one tutor who worked intensively with her on phonics, but it wasn’t until we had her privately tested at the end of fourth grade that we discovered that she had an attention disorder (which, for all the talk about the overdiagnosis of ADD, sometimes goes unrecognized in girls who aren’t hyperactive and don’t give the teacher any trouble). </p>

<p>My heartfelt advice is to have your daughter thoroughly evaluated by an educational psychologist–possibly through the school, but if they don’t seem to getting to the heart of the problem, a private evaluation can be invaluable. (It’s expensive, but health insurance may cover some of the costs.) There was also a related thread in the Parents Forum about a 13-year-old boy who turned out to have a specific vision defect: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=16676&page=1&pp=20[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=16676&page=1&pp=20&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

<p>A smart evaluation can help you pinpoint your daughter’s strengths as well as her weaknesses, and help you chart the most positive course for her no matter what kind of school she attends. (I found a pretty good overview of such evaluations in Dr. Mel Levine’s books, A Mind at a Time and The Myth of Laziness.) My daughter’s 15 now and doing well in all kinds of ways. But I still regret that we didn’t get a handle on her particular difficulties much sooner; I feel that we could have helped and supported her better if we’d understood things more clearly.</p>

<p>Good luck, and please keep us posted.</p>

8

<p>My 14 yr old daughter at the beginning of 3rd gd ( she was 8) didn’t know letter sounds and for all purposes could not read.
Because of her anxiety- she had been in a very small private school K-2 where she did well, except still was not making progress in reading and this really concerned me. I couldn’t afford to pay both private school tuition and a tutor, so we placed her in public school the following year where she recieved an IEP and by the end of the year was reading Harry Potter.
I can’t tell you the program that the teacher used, it was my impression that it was more neurological growth and steady attention than a particular program.
In 9th grade she is still doing very well, getting A’s in most classes and reading regularly challenging books and enjoying them ( well she didn’t like The good earth so much)
IF you want to try a program, I would suggest Kumon.
It takes you away from the role as tutor and has had very good results.
I also would look into the reading programs your district uses. Our school uses ReadRight for struggling students, but it is still regional.</p>

<p>As you knw reading delay isn’t necessarily a sign of lack of intelligence ( and I would not place a child who is 6 under the category of reading delay- in Waldorf they dont even BEGIN to teach them till 7)
Her sister taught herself to read when she was 3, we have a ton of books in the house and I actually think that my younger daughter is more intelligent by the insight and understanding that she has. My younger daughter is much more physical than her sister was as a young child, are there other things that your daughter may be working on that are taking “away” from focus she could be spending on reading?
I agree with gettin gher evaluated, but she is still very young, they didn’t used to teach kids so early- remember all those Spot & Puff books? That was first grade. Now they want kids to read chapter books!</p>

9

<p>Thank you all. Editrix, your D’s reading issues seem close to what happens with my D. A simple word - cat as an example - she can sound out the letters - Cuh - Ah -T …but can’t get to CAT - she just keeps repeating the separate sounds. She can’t seem to blend them. Like your D, she then forgets it 10 seconds later. Also, if she reads CAT, and the next word is BAT, she misses the connection that BAT is CAT with a B. You would think if you can read CAT, you can read BAT. Not in her case.</p>

<p>And, aside from all of that, I have to maintain my sense of calm. Smetimes I just go into the kitchen and breathe deeply…because this is VERY frustrating work. I don’t think anything else in my life has ever frustrated me this much. </p>

<p>I will keep you all posted.</p>

10

<p>momsdream - I am definitely not an expert on learning disabilities, although both my good friend’s son and my niece have learning problems and I have seen how difficult and stressful it is to properly diagnose and address them. Both my friend and my sister-in-law have needed to have their kids evaluated privately, outside the school system, in order to try to figure out what was going on with their kids. Health insurance may or may not pay for this evaluation. </p>

<p>I wanted to suggest that you have your daughter’s vision tested for “convergence insufficiency”. It involves inability of the eyes to change focus from close to distant, and can really affect kids’ performance in school. My niece was found to have this when she was about 9 or 10, but apparently it isn’t checked for in the standard vision screenings that kids have. The problem is addressed simply by eye exercises, as it is actually a muscle problem and the muscles can be strengthened with use. A lot of the things you have described about your daughter, such as immediately forgetting words she has learned, and learning spelling words well but not being able to use them in context, sound similar to my niece’s problems. It turned out she could not see clearly when switching her view from the blackboard to the book, or even from a book to the paper she was writing on. </p>

<p>Also, my friend’s son is dyslexic, and she has become a self-educated “expert” on this condition. I have heard her talking about it enough to know that it does not necessarily affect the ability to read left to right or involve seeing things reversed or backwards - this is a common misconception. </p>

<p>I wish you the best of luck in helping your daughter - you are ahead of the game compared to the other parents I know in addressing her problem while she is still very young and that will help her greatly in the long run. Many of the parents I know did not key in to this kind of reading problem until the kids were older, around fifth grade.</p>

11

<p>EK, just saw your post. The teacher assigns a lot of homework. At his point, it takes a little more than 2 hrs to complete it all, which seems like a lot to me. She doesn’t have any other after school activities, except Girl Scouts one night per week for 1 hr. She doesn’t go to any after-school programs - I pick her up at 3, so that may be an open timeslot for her to get special help from a tutor in one of these programs. </p>

<p>I’ve never heard of Kumon. I’ll check into that. Thanks.</p>

<p>Thanks MomofTwo, I guess I should do more research on dyslexia. I’ll also make a note to ask about the vision issues.</p>

12

<p>momsdream- I just went back and skimmed the thread that editrix mentioned. The part about the vision problem is near the very end, on the 5th page. It sounds very similar to what I described above for my niece. My niece also has ADD, and apparently (from the other thread) there is some relationship between this vision problem and ADD, but I was not aware of this.</p>

13

<p>two hours is too much for 1st grade
I think the educational association made a statement of 10 minutes per grade
10 min 1st grade- 20 minutes 2nd etc.
I would sit down with teacher and ask how long homework should take.
I can’t imagine anyone assigning 2 hours of homework a night for 6 year olds, when are they supposed to sit like zombies in front of Sesame Street! ( I meant unwind :wink: )</p>

14

<p>Editrix, your D’s reading issues seem close to what happens with my D. A simple word - cat as an example - she can sound out the letters - Cuh - Ah -T …but can’t get to CAT - she just keeps repeating the separate sounds. She can’t seem to blend them. Like your D, she then forgets it 10 seconds later. Also, if she reads CAT, and the next word is BAT, she misses the connection that BAT is CAT with a B. You would think if you can read CAT, you can read BAT. Not in her case.</p>

<p>Our daughters’ symptoms do sound amazingly similar–I’d forgotten that cat/bat/hat business, but it comes back to me all too vividly, along with the incredible frustration we all felt. I’m sure there are many different causes for such problems, though. Again, while tutoring helped my daughter master specific skills so that she could read, her school performance was erratic in various ways for another 4 years or so–and I wish we’d gotten a thorough evalulation for her much sooner. For one thing, the evaluation told her that she was actually very bright–which none of her teachers had really considered; they thought she was a nice, slightly slow little girl who had pushy parents but just wasn’t interested in schoolwork. Unfortunately, she was discouraged for an awfully long time; and though she’s made her peace with schoolwork at this point, I don’t think she’ll ever approach it with true confidence or enthusiasm.</p>

15

<p>momsdream-
Sounds more like your daughter might have problems with sound blending and/or phonemic decoding. What you are describing is difficulty with phoneme/grapheme knowledge. There are lots of different aspects of reading disorders, but if you don’t catch them early, the consequences can be worse. Not to scare you, just don’t want you to dawdle. Kids at this age learn to memorize words for spelling rests, but then can’t decode them in paragraphs. They often read the first few letters of the word and then guess at the rest based on their vocabulary or the context of the paragraph. They also often skip the conjunctives (and, or, but, etc). Reading is often laborious and dysfluent. They can also be slow at object naming. I fully agree that a private evaluation is in order. Not to poo-poo the public school services, but I just don’t think you’ll get the kind of comprehensive evaluation you might prefer. Personally, I’d steer you to a pediatric neuropsychologist, and you might consider calling C.H.O.P.S (childrens hospital of Philly) for some direction, or call your local Psychological Association for a referral.</p>

16

<p>Thanks jym. You sound very well connected to this area, which I suspect is related to your profession in psychology. </p>

<p>Here is what I have taken away from all of you:

  1. I am not overreating, this is serious. Though, can be treatable if corrected early.
  2. Private evaluations are best - and seem warranted in this situation.
  3. Evaluations should be done by someone with nothing to gain from the outcome - pediatric neuropsychologist / CHOP (Penn gets more money from me! :)).
  4. not much point in me exploring methods of teaching until the diagnosis is done and a recommendation is made.
  5. make sure the potential for a vision related problem is explored
  6. If ADD/ADHD is discovered, parents are seeing good results with newer meds</p>

<p>Finally, as my former boss used to say : This isn’t cheese or wine - It won’t get better with time! Act now.</p>

17

<p>Momsdream, I sent you a PM. I can offer a lot of help & suggestions. Your daughter’s combination of being a math whiz & difficulty reading is similar to my son – it’s fairly common, but it is also an indication of a particular pattern of dyslexia. Usually kids like this are strong visual-spatial learners, and are often highly gifted, so they tend to need to learn to read with methods geared to their learning styles. </p>

<p>Phonetic decoding tends to elude them, because they are global, big-picture learners – they need to have all of the pieces of the puzzle in mind for thing to make sense to them, and often have difficulty with any sort of tasks involving sequencing or step-by-step learning. </p>

<p>Check these 2 websites for more info:
<a href=“http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/VSL/VSL_List.htm[/url]”>http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/VSL/VSL_List.htm&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.dyslexia.com/[/url]”>http://www.dyslexia.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

18

<p>Momsdream-
Yes- Get a good eval done first. You really need to know what you are dealing with before you try to intervene. With anything-- a car, a washing machine, an illness-- you need to diagnose before you treat. And CHOP may have the services to assess this, or they may refer you out to someone in the community. I am not sure. The person I know on staff there deals with the effects of chemotherapy and radiation on learning issues in pediatric cancer survivors, so wouldn’t be an appropriate contact person.</p>

<p>I’d hold off on the vision eval at this point. The issues that were going on with SBmom’s child that prompted me to suggest that route for her s. are different than what you are describing. Wait and see what comes from the neuropsych eval first-. It may be similar to what calmom is describing.
Good luck.</p>

19

<p>Here’s the link for the International Dyslexia Association. This should give you a lot of info.
<a href=“Interdys.org”>http://www.interdys.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

20

<p>momsdream,</p>

<p>I am going through a similar time of figuring out how to help my son. I send you a e-hug; it is such a hard thing to watch your child struggle!</p>