<p>OK. Here is a ton of information all in one place. It is Chapter 4 of some book and it’s on “Encouraging Boys to Read”. It’s quite thorough and covers most of the issues and answers, concluding with grade appropriate suggestions for novels. I don’t agree with everything it says, and some may not apply, but it is pretty complete and on the mark:</p>
<p>Lastly, try not to worry too much. I have three kids and reading is my passion. I tried every trick in the book and my eldest who is going to grad school next year, just is not a reader. But she has all the ability she needs to excel in school and in her career, so at this point I chalk it up to personality. If your S loves to have you read to him, enjoy it, do it, give him lots of good memories. He may become a fan of books on tape and enjoy his fiction that way, as my SIL does. He may even join a book club one day! My three kids are so different sometimes I think they’re not related. Do your best; don’t worry; it will turn out right in the end.</p>
<p>My son was a late reader. He did not learn to read until the end of 4th grade. This was in spite of being pulled out of class for a reading specialist plus for the Learning Disabilities specialist. I finally had him tested and paid for him to go see a private reading tutor who specialized in the Lindamood Bell method. For whatever reason he learned to read. He had always enjoyed being read to but did not find reading for pleasure. Like your son the lack of comprehension held him back. End of 5th grade he was retested. He now was reading at grade level and they released him from special ed. after they tested him. He continued to struggle with reading and we tried everything. Different types of books, books on tape. His school performance was up and down. Finally in 9th grade his english teacher came to us, frustrated that my son would one day get an A and the next an F. He wanted to help but felt he needed to know what was going on with my son’s brain. We had him retested privately. A few things came out. While my son could read small passages that were not complicated and have decent recall he did terribly when the passages were longer. So while his decoding skills were good the time it took him to read each page made it difficult for him to comprehend the material. Read it to him and he had great recall. We also revisited the idea that he might have ADD. After testing revealed he indeed had ADD and we started some meds the reading comprehension improved dramatically. While we were all thinking that the lack of interest in reading was due to his reading disability in truth my age 15 it was the ADD and lack of ability to concentrate that was having the largest effect on his reading and ability to recall information.
You know your child best. I knew from early on that things were not right with my son. In spite of the public school psychologist who intially kept telling me he was young. It took 2 yrs to convince the school it wasn’t my imagination. He finally had a teacher in 2nd grade who said this boy is one of the lowest performers but when we are sitting in the circle he sometimes comes up with the most far out advanced thinking of anyone in the class.
Private testing is expensive but well worth it. The private psychologist usually has nothing to gain or lose. The school psychologist often is hestitant to recommend anything that is going to cost the school alot of money. (note I realize this is not true in all school districts). Also in our experience the school psychologists were often interns not licensed psychologists.
There is a great coffee table book that might be interesting for your son. It is colorful and describes all different facts about countries all over the world. It has lots of great pictures. The facts are presented in an easy to read format. I will try to think of the name and post it.</p>
<p>The book- Lonely Planet Travel Book- A journey through every country in the world</p>
<p>My kids both like to read-as adults. ( younger D even reread Dickens on her own, that she had been assigned for AP lit in high school)
however while my oldest taught herself to read @ 3, and was reading chapter books like Little House on the Prairie @ 5 & Island of the Blue Dolphins @ 6, her sister still did not know letter sounds by the beginning of 3rd grade.
Unfortunately, exhaustive testing is not the purview of the school district and they do not use the term dyslexia * at all*, apparently because there are proven methods to help dyslexia and they want the freedom to slap something together.</p>
<p>My concern was that she eventually learn to read/like books- however- I know feel that I could have been even more of an advocate- even though with our district it was a very fine line between getting services and ****ing them off so that they didn’t want to help.</p>
<p>While she didn’t know letter sounds at beginning of 3rd grade, she was reading Harry Potter by the end. Motivation helps.
But that doesn’t mean the battle was won, it is a difference in how her brain processes and retrieves information.</p>
<p>Something my daughter struggles with ( and me), is a small short term memory, she can only hold so many words in her head at a time & it takes a long time before transferred to long term memory. ( makes taking notes difficult)</p>
<p>One thing she did, that I thought was fascinating, was that when she would read to me, she would read what the page meant- but not what was written.
When she came across a word she didn’t know, she wasn’t able to sound it out, but instead would scan through her memory to find a word that fit with the context, and oftentimes, the word was not as " simple" as the word on the page.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until years later, when I had her extensively tested, that I learned what that was all about.</p>
<p>I know that boys often have more problems reading, and I know that the interconnections between halves of the brain are not as developed with males. Not knowing a lot about the processes of reading, I am wondering if cross lateral exercise that helps with other learning issues because it helps the neurological system develop, would help with reading.</p>
<p>I was a tutor at D’s high school, for kids that whose English reading skills were way below what they needed to be. The PTA paid for this program, and it worked well- however- I don’t think it is necessarily what kids with learning differences need.
[!Guaranteed</a> Reading Improvement and ESL for Children and Adults!](<a href=“http://www.readright.com/index.html]!Guaranteed”>http://www.readright.com/index.html)</p>
<p>Thank you for all the information! I’ll keep you posted on my progress at figuring this out. I emailed S2’s 4th grade teacher, who responded that he will call me next week to discuss. He’s a superb teacher, whom I’ve known for the last 5 years, since he had S1 for 4th, and I have a lot of confidence in him. I will keep looking into things on my own, though. It is quite possible that there is an issue that even a superb teacher might have missed.</p>
<p>Came late to the discussion, but S4 is very bright, always did well in school until 7th grade when we noticed problems with subjects heavy in reading comprehension. He has never enjoyed reading, I gave up the battle somewhere in 5th grade. However, when he got to highschool and was getting Ds on tests that the older three boys said he should be getting As on our wonderful learning center teacher directed us to our states Department of Vocational Training. They did all testing for free. We found out he had a processing learning disability which made it hard for him to track words on a page. He also had a hard time getting ideas from his head onto paper. His IQ when tested verbally was quite high but on written test was low!!
The state paid for a program to read his texts to him (while he reads along), a program for him to speak his papers into and vocational testing.
He has his tests read to him and is doing well in high school. They also have a program for transition to college.
The psycologist said it was common for kids to be able to compensate until about 7th grade when alot of these problems are diagnosed.
I felt horrible that I had ignored the problem for so long, chalking up his disinterest in reading to laziness.</p>
<p>keymom, is there a treatment for this processing disability, or is it just addresssed by compensation? And don’t blame yourself! This sounds like a very subtle problem.</p>
<p>No treatment that we have found except he is also going to be going to an eye specialist because as other posters have noted there can be an eye muscle component to the whole thing.
Interesting things we found out:
Our son always read on his stomach and did his homework that way. This is a natural compensation as it has been shown that kids read and comprehend better that way.
Using highlight lines when reading (colored transparent lines that highlight lines of text) really helps and it is simple and inexpensive. Onion Mountain educational aids sells them.
It is so easy to blame yourself, I often think if I had really paid attention I would have picked up on it sooner. My son is very social and I blamed his lowering grades on lack of effort. Sometimes by child number four, they get a little lost in a hectic life.
Good luck in finding answers for your son</p>