Reading - can anyone explain why my dd

[PackingALunchbox]

who has just started Yr 2, can read words like 'explain', 'idea', 'magical', and yet stumbles over the 'simple stuff' like says 'I' when the word is 'and' or 'seven' when the word is 'even', or runs the last letter of the previous word into the next word, so 'likes to party' becomes 'likes stop party?

It is very strange, and makes her reading become quite incomprehensible, and confuses her, which puts her off. I think she reads for meaning, but is too quick, and just focuses on one letter and makes the rest up! What do you think? She is doing ok with reading - Stage 9 ORT at the end of last term, but I think her reading is quite weak compared with other areas.

Has anyone else's child done this? What helped? Any words of advice?

[PackingALunchbox]

Oops, I meant to add, could it be her eyesight needing a check or possibly some degree of dyslexia? Or is it just normal - it has been the same for over a year now, although she has progressed nicely through the ORT stages.

[gingernutlover]

probably worth getting the eyesight checked, just to discount it.

Have you tried coloured overlays at all?

sounds like she is better at words she has to "work out" like explain or magical, whereas the sight wordfs like and and I she is rushing.

[PackingALunchbox]

Thanks gingernutlover. She had her eyes tested over a year ago, so I should book another test I suppose. She sight-reads longer words - it seems shorter words give her the most problems, she rushes them and doesn't seem to see all the letters or use her phonics knowledge. I wonder if she sight reads most things and struggles with the little words as here are fewer clues in them for her to recognise? Not sure how we go about solving this - tbh I expected her to be free reading by now, as she went caught on with reading as soon as she started school. Very strange!

[Hulababy]

It is very common in confident and able readings to skip or misread the simple and/I/it/the type words, especially when reading out loud. I listen to readers regularly and hear it all the time. It often happens when they read fast. Nothing to worry about providing they are comprehending the whole sentence/passage, and it is making sense to them.

If you do some reading out loud yourself then you may also find you do it too.

Less confident readers are less likely to do it as they tend to need to read and dijest the sentence word by word, rather than jsut reading the whole sentence straight off.

[cazzybabs]

As a year 1 teacher and a mother of someone who reads with a similar incomprehensible style I agree with hulababy...check her comprehension..I bet she understands all she reads.
I wouldnt worry about it TBH..she sounds fine to me.

I doubt very much if she is dsylexic and besides it is too early to diagnose it anyway.

[bramblebooks]

/although clearly a competent reader, it may be that her reading book level is slightly too high for her to gain fluency. Often children are moved through the book bands when they are technically able to read the book but don't yet have the comprehension at that level.

She needs to be reading a book at 95% accuracy, ie fewer than 5 mistakes in 100 words.

Use little prompts like 'does that make sense there', then try it again using various word attack skills on the tricky word (ie, chunking, context using the rest of the sentence, picture cues, initial letter cue) etc.

Let her settle into her new year at school and see what the teacher has to advise in the reading diary or in a meeting.

[PackingALunchbox]

Thanks for all replies. Although dd sounds like she is a confident and fluent reader, I don't think she is, although she can rattle through an ORT with ease, give her a mainly phonic book and it can be slow progress. I am glad (sort of!) it sounds a common thing. I have noticed she reads sight words better than unfamiliar decodable words, and she often doesn't use her phonics, or seems confused by them. Yet she reads other words I think are really tricky with no problem. She also reads very badly for the first page or so, stumbling over loads of words, then gets into her stride. However, it can take a bit of patience and cajolling to get her over the stumbling phase.

If she has made a lot of errors, I ask her after each paragraph what happened, and she is always spot on, just the words she has read may not be the ones in the book. I find it all rather odd.

She doesn't like reading much, and I think it is because she doesn't like getting it 'wrong' (she hates getting anything wrong!), so I am very gentle with her, but end up having to say, 'no, what is the word on the page'. Should I correct her when she says 'and' when the word is 'I' do you think?

The school don;t just use ORT btw, I am just using that as a guide to what she can read. She tries reading Rainbow magic fairy books, but doesn;t have the stamina yet.

Sorry, this is a ramble. I am grateful for your help, and welcome any more insights.

[teamcullen]

This sounds like it could be Irlens syndrome. My DS has this. The problem is that the words seem to move around on the paper or distort in some way. It is worse when black text is on white paper.

have a look at this page

Try putting a piece of coloured see through plastic over her book and see if you notice a difference.

[PackingALunchbox]

Thanks MM. I expect it is all quite normal, but then I have no memory of learning to read, so it feels strange to me!

tc, that is interesting. I don't think dd's issues are as severe as on that website, but I may try the coloured plastic to see if it makes a difference. She definitely benefits from a bookmark underneath each line when she reads.

Her reading record was rarely filled in by her teacher last year - so maybe all dd's issues are so normal they aren't worth commenting on? Is it worth a chat with her new teacher do you think, or should I just wait and see if it is a learning stage that she will pass through?

[Builde]

My dd is left handed and - despite being able to read long words like those you mention - nearly always reads 'was' as 'saw' and 'of' as 'for'!

She now never bothers decoding phonetic but long de-codable words. So, we'll let phonics carry on at school but just enjoy reading 'properly' at home! E.g. like adults who read by work recognition.

[throckenholt]

builde - my 6 year old does that too - actually they both do - and one is left handed the other right handed

[flyingdolphin]

My 6yo dd does this all the time and she is a very average, but extremely impatient, reader, and it used to puzzle me. A teacher friend of mine said that she regularly comes across children who do this, and often the reason is that they rush and don't bother with detail, she also said that there are two skills - reading aloud and comprehension, and that one is not necessarily linked to the other, so if she is understanding what she is reading then the rest will probably slot into place in due course, or could not - depends what value you attach to reading aloud later in life...

Funny thing is that the other day I overheard her father reading to her and he did exactly the same thing, and she stopped him and told him to slow down, look closely, and read more carefully.