Re: Fwd: Teaching how to read
Joanna
I just wanted to chime in my experience with my daughter. It may or may not not apply to your son's experience, but it may apply to someone out there.
My dd started asking me to teach her to read from the time she was about 7. I tried a few things, at which point she would quickly lose interest. Every so often she would ask, I would start something, and she would lose interest. It was like shampoo, rinse, repeat. I finally realized that she just wasn't really ready to read fluently, but she had another unschooled friend who was starting to read, and maybe was just feeling the pressure around her to read (not coming from within the family, but it's still out there). She's pretty independent, and may have even been irritated by having to have help reading things like videogames. She has really taken off now--she started really having things click around 8 1/2, and now as a 9 year old she's becoming pretty fluent. It's just been a longer process for her than she would have liked, but it's all just come when it was ready to come--and ultimately without any teaching.
I had already learned with my son, who did have some early schooling, that even with all the phonics, etc., it didn't come until 8 1/2, and after he'd had a year off of school--so that seems to be the magic age in our family! In his case, I happened to come across some information about muscle development in the eyes, and it was clear that his weren't there yet. It was irritating for him to track a finger moving along a page of text. All of a sudden, one day, he asked me to move my finger along while I read to him, and that coincided with his wanting to read on his own. The connection was so obvious--the muscles just weren't ready to support the activity of reading and he couldn't process the information coherently, and then he could--but no one taught him that.
So I would recommend trying some stuff, but being ready to ease off if it's just not clicking, and help him have confidence that it will be there when it's ready to be there.
Joanna
My dd started asking me to teach her to read from the time she was about 7. I tried a few things, at which point she would quickly lose interest. Every so often she would ask, I would start something, and she would lose interest. It was like shampoo, rinse, repeat. I finally realized that she just wasn't really ready to read fluently, but she had another unschooled friend who was starting to read, and maybe was just feeling the pressure around her to read (not coming from within the family, but it's still out there). She's pretty independent, and may have even been irritated by having to have help reading things like videogames. She has really taken off now--she started really having things click around 8 1/2, and now as a 9 year old she's becoming pretty fluent. It's just been a longer process for her than she would have liked, but it's all just come when it was ready to come--and ultimately without any teaching.
I had already learned with my son, who did have some early schooling, that even with all the phonics, etc., it didn't come until 8 1/2, and after he'd had a year off of school--so that seems to be the magic age in our family! In his case, I happened to come across some information about muscle development in the eyes, and it was clear that his weren't there yet. It was irritating for him to track a finger moving along a page of text. All of a sudden, one day, he asked me to move my finger along while I read to him, and that coincided with his wanting to read on his own. The connection was so obvious--the muscles just weren't ready to support the activity of reading and he couldn't process the information coherently, and then he could--but no one taught him that.
So I would recommend trying some stuff, but being ready to ease off if it's just not clicking, and help him have confidence that it will be there when it's ready to be there.
Joanna
Sandra Dodd
-=-. All of a sudden, one day, he asked me to move my finger along
while I read to him, and that coincided with his wanting to read on
his own.-=-
I liked it when I was a kid, if someone would move a finger, but
unless the kid wants it, I think it's just more pressure, and
generally a kid would be better off listening than watching my finger
drag by squiggles.
Just the other day, Holly (16) was sitting by me at the piano bench
and she pointed at a phrase and asked me what it sounded like. I
played it, with one hand, and ran my finger under the notes with the
other ones. She said it didn't *look* like that. I said it did to
me. <g>
I played a few other single measures, or a run or repeated section--
things I thought might sound like they looked. She was just a little
interested, and then she was done.
It was enough.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
while I read to him, and that coincided with his wanting to read on
his own.-=-
I liked it when I was a kid, if someone would move a finger, but
unless the kid wants it, I think it's just more pressure, and
generally a kid would be better off listening than watching my finger
drag by squiggles.
Just the other day, Holly (16) was sitting by me at the piano bench
and she pointed at a phrase and asked me what it sounded like. I
played it, with one hand, and ran my finger under the notes with the
other ones. She said it didn't *look* like that. I said it did to
me. <g>
I played a few other single measures, or a run or repeated section--
things I thought might sound like they looked. She was just a little
interested, and then she was done.
It was enough.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]