8 year old sudden deterioration in reading.

[HomicidalPsychoJungleCat]

Hi,

My 8 year old has gone, over the summer, from reading well, to constantly reading old and new words wrongly. I can see that she guesses at words and have to constantly remind her to slow down and use her phonics. She is also adding words to a story when she reads aloud.

We had a hectic summer and didn't listen to her reading every night as we would in term time, and I'm actually very worried about this new development as she has just started y4 and I don't want her confidence shot by making mistakes in class.

Anyone experienced similar? Any advice from teachers out there?

Have you had her eyes tested recently? This happened with a friend of mine's son, and he needed glasses.

If it isn't her eyesight then it just sounds like lack of practise and concentration which will hopefully pick up again now that it is term time.

She reads a lot to herself alba, but no haven't had her tested for a while, will book for a test for the weekend!

If she reads a lot to herself, do you think she might be scanning the sentence very quickly and not paying attention properly?

DD reads a lot to herself and I have noticed that when she reads out loud to me she will sometimes add random words that aren't there but don't change the meaning of the sentence iyswim like a random "the, a" etc...

She doesn't do it very often and does it more when she's tired.

It's actually possible it's just a tiredness thing, as we've had a jam packed Hols. But she didn't ever used to do it, even when tired.

But yes, VERY possible skimming going on! :)

Dd is also a skimmer! Now I actually make her read out loud a min of 3 times per week as I know when she reads to herself that she's missing words out etc. I thinks It's trying to rush etc.

That's what we'll do I think jamtoast, having read to her for two nights running its already slightly improved...

I think skimming is natural - I know when I read a chick lit book I read it quickly, I am aware I don't read every word or that I probably substitute words without realising it etc which is one of the reasons that I read that kind of book to relax. Should I be reading a historical autobiography it takes me longer to read the book, I go more slowly and have to concentrate more. If I am reading a text book I have to consciously force myself to concentrate or I won't take it all in properly.

I would be surprised if many children read 'properly' when reading to themselves as I know I don't (which is one of the reasons I find it hard to read stories to the kids)

Hi HPJC

Yep I agree sounds like skimming. DD2 slipped into this due to benign neglect (she picked up reading very quickly and DD1 was seriously struggling, so we spent more time listening to DD1 regularly than listening to DD2).

Our solution was to try to rebuild a routine for DD2 reading out loud to us. She does get 'fed up' so we opt for things like you start the chapter and I'll finish it.

We also found that as books get more complicated in language there was also skipping over unfamiliar words (either couldn't pronounce or didn't understand).

Can't say it has totally solved the problem, but it has helped.

HTH

Thanks all for your experiences, good to know that it's relatively normal! We'll be reading together for a while too see how it goes.

It might be 'normal' but I think it would be a good idea if you were to help her to understand that she has to be selective about when to skim and when to read accurately. Exam questions, instructions and academic 'reading to learn' are 3 areas that spring to mind where skimming is not a good idea. If she gets into the habit of doing it with everything she reads it will be hard to break when accurate reading is really necessary.

(Afterthought) Besides, skimming might be fine for chick-lit but what about the 'good' stuff? Sad to think that an author has put all that effort into carefully choosing their words only for the reader to not bother to read them properly.

Started a new book together this weekend and she's read to her grandma a couple of times too, so we're on track to getting her back where she needs to be! Won't be letting my guard down on that one again!