those with struggling readers, some wise words please

[yawningmonster]

First off I am in NZ so our system is a bit different to yours I know. DS started school at the beginning of the year. He actually turned 5 in September last year but delayed starting for a number of reasons. So he has had 2 and a half terms of school. He is struggling with reading. They do a mix of phonics and look and say approaches but the rest of the class is outpacing him big time and he is beginning to notice. He is on yellow books (here first level is Magenta, second level is red) According to our ridiculous new national standards he is expected to be Green by the time the year ends (so has to work his way all the way through yellow and blue) We are a book loving family and he adores being read to and has heaps and heaps and heaps of fiction and non fiction books and audio books. We play word games and I spy games and have phonics based readers at home. Is there any thing else I could/should be doing with him.
I personally think he is doing great and I am proud of his achievements (he has Aspergers) but he is getting increasingly concerned that children are moving out of his reading group ahead of him and has started saying he thinks he will never read :(

anybody

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there must be someone out there with some ideas?

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keep reading with him. Keep it fun. Books with lots of repitition are good like Dr Suess. Funny books are also good. When you are reading with him, let him read the odd word you know he can read. Children all progress at a different rate. In my sons class now age 10 the early readers are by no means the best. some that learnt late are now really good.

bless you for answering me mebaasmum. He loves Dr Suess, Julia Donaldson, Giles Andreae and Magic School Bus so has oodles of those. It was always fun until recently...he until now has loved, loved, loved books and having me read to him but struggling with reading is really starting to put him off, he is not keen to read odd words at all but will at times "read" to his sister (15mths with books like picture and one word e.g. Dog) which is great. Not worried about whether he is a great reader but don't want him to loose his passion for books or to get the message he can't do it.

As you said it is a bit different here, most children are taught using synthetic phonics. I would start by finding out which sounds he knows and which he needs to be taught ... if he can blend and segment words and provide lots of "fun" games.

Can you /j/ /u/ /m/ /p/?
Can you /h/ /o/ /p/?
Pass me the /t/ /i/ /n/ please

The book bands sound the same as we use in England (we say pink then red )and to be honest I think yellow is ok after 2 and a half terms but can understand he might not think so. Are the books phonic based or look and say?

He might like to play the games www.phonicsplay.co.uk

My ds started year R when almost 5. He could not read by the time he started Y2 (almost 7). We got a retired teacher to do an hour with him; we kept doing bedtime stories and hearing him read and he just achieved level3 in SATS (June, one level above where he should be) so there absolutely is hope - a lot of boys are late starters. Might be worth trying the TAG reading system if you can get hold of it?

Take reading away from books. My middle lad could not read even simple text at seven. We made a decision to stop trying with the reading we did at home but to focus on enjoying them. We did however made more of reading opportunities such as road signs, supermarkets, tv etc etc.

Main reason for trying this was that I did not want to 'ruin' sharing stories. He is now 13 and we had a big row in our house when the newest cherub book arrived this morning! He loves books and reads age appropriately and more importantly enjoys it.

Does your son have a special interest as many lads with Aspergers do? Could you use that to decode words and protect books?

thanks mrz will try him on the games he loves computer games. He knows most sounds really well but really struggles to then put the sounds together.
Grumpypants what is the tag system?

www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=songbirds+julia+donaldson&x=0&y=0&ih=22_1_0_0_0_1_0_1_0_1.108_383&fsc=-1

songbirds are phonics reading books written by Julia Donaldson

I use the CD Roms with my children who need a little support
www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=e+songbirds+julia+donaldson&x=0&y=0&ih=1_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_2.303_130&fsc=-1

I would back off completely with the teaching, or getting him to learn and leave that to school, while you have loads of stories at home.

Get him comics, and trading cards about whatever his interests are, (football form my ds, for eaxmple).

ANd when he gets discourages, point out to him in a really matter of fact way that he's had less time at school than the others so of course he's going to take a while to catch up.

Reading often just "clicks" with some children. I was worried about my ds because his big sister learnt gradually - getting a bit better until she could read, and I could see he wasn't doing that. Then he went from not reading to reading practically overnight. I bet your ds will do the same.

Don'tdiss He doesn't really have a special interest unfortunately. I agree about not wanting to ruin sharing stories and so have been upping the audio books lately as he 'feels' like he is reading and feels successful. I am reading to him any time he initiates it and offer but don't push him at other times. He is very anti reading out loud which is fine, I have told him to just let me know if and when he does want to but I won't push him. We have used his love of computer games in that some games have the speech written as well as spoken and we have turned subtitles on the t.v.

mrz thanks you have some great links. thanks seeker...I have definately backed off in regards to teaching. Not interested in comics so far but quite likes me to make books with his drawings so do that when ever I have time.
In his class he is one of the oldest as he was 5 and a quarter when he started and they have continued to take new entrants until May so some children are 8mths younger than him and surpassing him which is why is getting upset.

Both my kids were late-readers. My DD (just 6) stuggled with phonics but can sight read some words. She is coming on but very slowly and if I try to help it sometimes backfires but she loves writing so doing more of this and reading bedtime stories.

My DS did not really get interested in reading until 7. At the beginning of Year 2, he sat with a blank sheet of paper when they did their first comprehension. He had pretended to write all the way through and teacher did not notice. By the end of Year 2, he got a 2B (exactly right for a 7 year old even though he was only 6 at the time - June birthday). Now he is a great reader although prefers non-fiction.

Apparently Einstein was a late reader so do not panic. My DH was in remedial English at primary and got a very good physics degree at 21, passed all his accountancy exams with flying colours but still hates reading. Your DS may be a science star.

thank you fsmail funnily enough ds loves science and has done since he was quite tiny, drives me to distraction nicking ingredients from the pantry to do experiments with!!!

My ds also hated reading and continues to find it very challenging and frustrating despite having a high IQ. I used to read to him a lot, which he really enjoyed as the stories were age and ability appropriate - unlike his school reading books. I also used to make stories up.This was and still is his absolute favourite. The books he used to bring home from school were mindnumbingly boring due to his reading difficulties and did a very good job of putting him off actually reading, but he loves a good story.

My son really struggled with reading in Reception, he knew all his sounds but struggled with blending, he just didn't "get" what the sounds meant when run together and he was still on ( I think) Stage 2 ORT books at the end of the year. In year 1 it just seemed to click, he realised what he was meant to do and started blending! He was level 3 in Yr 2, Level 5 in Yr 6 and has just achieved As for English Language and Literature at GCSE . He never stops reading now! I would make sure you are using the "pure" sounds when sounding out and practise the blending strategies as much as possible.

I agree cornsillky the readers ds comes home with are pretty dire and he would much rather I read from one of the authors he actually enjoys or from the secret seven book we are working our way through chapter by chapter. I am not too good at making stories up but ds would love this as he loves to draw and then asks me to make a book from his drawings (usually complains about my lack of imagination in said accompanying stories but yet refuses to entertain the idea that he could dictate what he wants me to write!!!! but that it another thread entirely)

ds1 (now aged 9) also grew up in a house full of books and book lovers. Couldn't read at all til he was 6, eventually learned by reading whole words rather than breaking down into sounds, and even now still can't do the breaking down.

He was 8 before we discovered (more because of other problems than the reading)that he's severely dyslexic, i know now that his early reading problems were classic markers for dyslexia which i am still amazed the school didn't bother to point out.

I'm afraid the story of Einstein having reading difficulties is a regarded to be a myth as his school report at 6 shows otherwise.

spanieleyes can you explain what you mean by pure sounds. it sounds as though ds is doing what your son was as in he can see the word
bun and say b/u/n but just can't run it together and "hear" the word iykwim. other times he just gets stuck with the first sound so using bun as an example again he will see it and falter but if I then say b (phonetic sound not letter) he will then be able to read or at least guess the word and when he then checks it can see if it fits or not if that makes sense. He struggles with things like going unless I cover the ing and he can then read go and works out the reast must be ing. He is not too hot with what I think are called diphongs so sh, ch, pl, cl, etc he tends to seperate the sounds still so something like shout he will sound out as individual letter sounds despite being taught the sh ou t sounds at school.

Ladysanders can you please tell me what classic markers would we look for if that were an issue?

bear with me and i will find some links for you, just about to feed a squealing baby but will come back to this!