Recommendations to encourage short attention span 6yo to read themselves

[KronkeyCroc]

DD loves to be read to and can read quite well but struggles to concentrate (questioning ADHD due to lots of other reasons as well as this). So she’s still on a low level with school as she comes across as not being competent due to her attention span. She also gets overwhelmed at longer passages of text on the page.

If I sit with her patiently and work at it she actually reads well. But I understand they don’t have the time to dedicate to her at school.

Anyone recommend any books that will encourage her to read and increase her stamina? Ideally it would be engaging but shorter stories. Finding it hard to get ones that don’t have too much text but aren’t too simple.

Have you had her eyes properly tested ie behaviour optometrist not usual NHS one?
Does she like to listen to stories going to bed at night.
Is she struggling with phonics.

I have 3 dc and two are reluctant readers - one due to dyslexia the other just has to be on the go.
The dyslexic will read comics, read things like diary of a wimpy kid/Tom gates where could read small bits.
Dc2 will listen to audio books while drawing /moving around. Loves facts so books with lots of facts in blocks and can dip in and out of them.
Reading doesn't have to be a novel.

Yes had her eyes tested. 20/20 vision. She loves to listen to stories at night. Prefers me to read them to her. Will be read to for ages if she is also colouring at the same time. She is very good with phonics. Is doing well with split digraphs and working on multiple spellings for the same sound. Excellent at blending. Interested in how words are spelt.

She’s just struggling to read more than a sentence before needing to jump around or talk or look away. Sometimes it’s only a few words at a time. We’ve had some success with winnie the witch. But she doesn’t want to read them over again. So was hoping to get some more similar to that.

Ooo fact books could be a great shout. Thanks!

Roald Dahl.

My 6yo doesn't concentrate well but loves me reading The Enormous Crocodile to him. Worth a try.

So she's been taken to they behavioural optometrist... Not normal NHS one.. Which is basic.

Perhaps cartoons?
The phoenix magazine...

The ottoline book series is very good.
It has beautiful illustrations and text on page is broken up so doesn't seem as daunting?
I wouldn't make get re read books though and it's fantastic she hears and is exposed to language and new words via you reading to her and listening to stories.

Roald Dahl.

People always suggest Roald Dahl but, having just ploughed through 2 chapters of Matilda, there is no way a reluctant reader aged 6 would read them without endless coaxing and support.

I have a 6 year old DD. She really likes the Kitty books by Paula Harrison about a girl who turns into a superhero that can talk to cats! They are really lovely because the text is sort of overlaid on the illustrations so it isn't too overwhelming to the eye.

My Dd is a reluctant reader. Sometimes we do race to the door - every time she reads a double page we race to the back door and back to the sofa. Amazing how we suddenly manage a whole book. I do let her win... Usually

DSs teacher recommended getting where’s Wally books to help with general concentration and focus.

I do think though that 6yo is quite young to be voluntarily picking up a book to read herself for any length of time. I'm sure some do not also many more don't.

Kingdom of Wrenley, Ivy & Bean, 13 story treehouse, Magic Story Treehouse
Were all hits for similar stages here.

I know mumsnet / the general population is very anti the old fashioned messages contained in the mr men books but - what about those? They are short, not much text on any page, often contain random “stretching” words. These were the first books my then 6 year old boy read willingly to himself.

Dog Man or similar graphic novels, the Beano, National Geographic facts books. Games like Dobble and Where's Wally books are great for working on focus and scanning skills.

Have you tried just trying to bribe her? Like just telling her that you want to hear her read to a certain point, like the end of the page, and then you will stop for chatting or jumping around time before carrying on. You could use a little egg timer so she has a defined amount of time for each chat/jump. If she does that with a whole book, or however many pages you think is appropriate, then she gets a sticker in her reading diary or something?

Encourage her to read the books from school, even if they do seem dull. They serve a purpose, and they should give her the ability to feel successful with her reading if she reads them more than once. Other than that, if she wants to, get her to read the story books that she is already familiar with.

@TheYearOfSmallThings

Roald Dahl.

People always suggest Roald Dahl but, having just ploughed through 2 chapters of Matilda, there is no way a reluctant reader aged 6 would read them without endless coaxing and support.

My son loves The Enormous Crocodile, has pictures all the way through.

I agree though, some of his books won't be suitable for a 6yo.

Comics comics comics! Tried and tested with both of my initially very reluctant readers and it was a breakthrough for both of them. The Phoenix is great, and of course the Beano is always a favourite. Old annuals of the Beano and dandy are also good to have lying around!

January knows what she is talking about. My daughter's vision problems weren't picked up until she was 11 when I took her to a behavioural optometrist. All high st opticians before that said she had perfect vision but it turned out she could only focus to read for a few seconds at a time. Just long enough to pass a 'reading test' at Specsavers. Worth getting her checked.

Thank you all for your suggestions! I really appreciate them. I will look look into them all.

She loves where’s Wally but not actually looking for Wally just finds the pictures funny!

I didn’t mean I expect her to pick up a book and read to herself I just mean her read the words to me.

She loves Roald Dahl stories but no where near ready to read one herself. Though we have the enormous crocodile so that is a good shout. Will try that over the weekend.

I’ve tried bribing and it doesn’t really work as she still struggles to concentrate then panics she’s not doing it and won’t get the reward. Then just gets upset and frustrated with herself. Sends her down in to a bit of a meltdown of I’m rubbish I’m no good etc. so tend to avoid bribing. Same with timers. They just send her into blind panic.

She does read the books from school but only take one session, maybe two and then she’s not keen to read them again (I don’t blame her). So we have 5/6 days of reading to find as I try my best to do 5/10 minutes every day.

I don’t want to pressure her and she’s doing just fine. But it would be nice if we could find some things she enjoys reading to make practice a bit more fun for her and help build the concentration up a bit.

What is she interested in generally, OP? My DS would never voluntarily read a story, but if it's a Pokémon encyclopaedia, a guide to Minecraft or a book about the top ten deadliest predators it is a very different matter.

Dog Man (and Cat Kid!). My 6 yr old is obsessed!

Ottoline, have a look on amazon you can see how the pages are laid out.

But if she has issues with the eye sight tracking etc then she will find it hard to read text.

Sorry I misread your post earlier. Not been to an behavioural optometrist. Never even heard of one! I’ll have a look into it. Thank you.

She loves dragons! But also likes animals and then natural world in general so will definitely look into getting some fact based books from the library. And some comics. I loved a Asterix when I was a kid.

My dad started sending books through the post to my eldest dd when she was about 5 or 6, we stay in the next town so he could easily have handed them to her but them coming by post got her so excited about the books. Just random books at first from the local charity shop, this developed such a love for reading, she's 11 now and we have to wrestle her kindle off her at bed time. DD also loves dragons and loved the how to train your dragon books when she was younger.
DD9 has adhd and she loves diary style books, like wimpy kid dork diaries and lottie brookes although 6 is a but young for these. We had awful problems with her reading for the first few years of school but something just clicked about a year or so ago and now she loves it.