Dd's reading, possible dyslexia or just refusal to conform

[Sleepytea]

I have concerns about dd's reading and need some reassurance. Dd hates reading out loud. It has always been a struggle. She's currently in year 3 and on lime level but is about ready to move up another level. I'm quite happy about this - she's not top of the class but not bottom of the class either.
My concern is that when she reads to me, she often reads the correct words but puts them in the wrong order or adds different words e.g. She will read 'is it going to rain today said mr Smith' as 'it's raining today mr Smith said'.

Do you think this is just her being careless or could it be indicative of a problem such as dyslexia (my mother and several oh her relatives have dyslexia).

The other thing is that I'm not sure how much I should correct her when she's reading. She's a reluctant reader and if I ask her to slow down and read more carefully she tends to want to stop reading. Are there any strategies I could use that won't destroy her confidence?

it could be either to be honest.

If it has always been a struggle with her then I would be inclined to think it might point to a problem, if she had read easily for a while then went through a careless patch I would think the opposite.

You could try doing something Mrz recommends of cutting a hole in the corner of a piece of cardboard and move it along uncovering one word or part of a word at a time so she has to do them in the right order.

It is probably worth trying to find a behavioural optometrist near you. It could be a tracking issue where her eyes aren't reading left to right but darting around. They can give exercises and vision therapy to help with this and solve it.

I think she has always had this problem but obviously with only a few words on a page it was easier to point and make sure she was reading correctly. I'll try the tip with the card and see if it helps her concentrate on word order.

www.childrensvision.com/reading.htm - this link has explanations of more obscure/less well know vision problems including tracking - that it might be.

Is it worse at end of day when she is tired? Is it better with a ruler under the page - or as nonicknameseemsavailable suggests a piece of card with the the edge cut out so you see one word at a time ?

Point to each word as you read, you could do a line or page each.

Is it better with a ruler under the page

I meant under the line - so its easier to see the line they are reading and not start on a different line of text.

She does find it easier to read with a ruler or line marker of some kind but then starts fiddling with whatever we use. I just looked at your link on tracking problems and it reminded me that she also skips small words or replaces them with others e.g. And may become the. Sometimes she will correct herself but more often she will race off to the next sentence.
So if she does have tracking problems, is there something we should do? How do we access a behavioural optometrist. Would we go through our usual optometrist or via school.

you can probably find one by googling but any good normal optician would probably happily recommend one because they know that the cover different things. Ours checked that the one we were going to take DD to was reputable and indeed the school recommended them too.

They can do all kinds of tests (normal eye test is funded, extra tests may incur costs depending on what they are - DD has coloured glasses so this test costs as do the coloured lenses). Tracking can be monitored and special exercises given I believe to bring eyes back into line, convergence can also be tested more thoroughly and exercises can correct that too. DD will probably get some exercises when she is a bit older but at the moment they are waiting to see what happens when her eye muscles grow and mature anyway.

also worth asking her what she sees. DD doesn't actually SEE all the words, she can't see small punctuation because it is in a blind spot for her, some text is very dark bold and some is so feint she can't make it out.

Competition? You get a point for every word she reads in the wrong order, she gets one for every correctly read sentence. With suitable prize at suitable intervals..

I found that this worked for most chilldren, though, as I wasn't their mother they may have reacted differently to me.

Child generally wins, BTW.

She sounds exactly like my dd. The replacing of small words drives me up the wall. I have no idea what to do about it though. Sorry.

As a TA working with children I knew were reasonably competent readers, I would often overlook the occasional 'slip' provided the sense was still there. Some teachers, however, insist on 100 percent accuracy, but I felt children could get irritated by constant correcting.

So I guess you need to assess if it is laziness, carelessness, or some other real problem, and take it from there.

She is quite possibly dyslexic, especially given your family history. Personally, I'd have her tested.

My dd is the same in yr3, nearly 8. Reading inaccuracies, adds extra words and gets small words wrong. I think it's worse when I read with her at night than when teacher does. How is her writing? Dd's teacher was more worried about that recently. It's not the actual construction of the sentences. It's getting it on page correctly. e.g. for 'golden' she writes 'goldne'. I have been considering optometry testing but teacher says her reading is on track. I know she is struggling. I have 2 sons (5 and 10) who find it all much more straightforward and less effort. The comparison makes me upset for did .

Dd2 is also in yr 3 and similar issues. The school at my request tested her with overlays and a pink filter really seems to help (as does reading text on coloured paper) - we also got some cheap pink sunglasses from Amazon. Just waiting to be back in black to take the plunge and get her tested - although still not sure whether to go for full dyslexia assessment as well as behavioural optometrist. I would start talking to the school about it.

Coloured overlays might help. However, you really need to get to the bottom of the problem - dyslexia is not just a matter of scotopic sensitivity/Irlens (where overlays might work). You should also be aware that the effectiveness of coloured overlays is a very contentious topic. There is no scientific evidence that they work although many people who use them say they do.

Dyslexia testing can be done by either an educational psychologist or a PATOSS registered practitioner. These websites might help.
www.patoss-dyslexia.org/SupportAdvice/TutorAssessorIndex/
www.dyslexia.bangor.ac.uk/assessment.php.en

My DD did exactly the same at that age, she skipped words, rearranged them, added random ones in. She was quite a reluctant reader too. Getting her to track the words with her finger or a ruler/bookmark helped, as did reading a page each. We never really got to the bottom of why, I think it was a combination of rushing through because she wasn't interested, being tired and also we discovered that she needed glasses - not actually for reading but for long-sightedness, but she had been getting headaches and straining her eyes so assume that contributed too.

Thanks for all your responses. I've just spoken to dd about her reading. She says that the words don't move around and that she can see them clearly. Apparently she is reading ahead whilst reading out to me. Hopefully if this is all that is happening then a piece of white card will help her to slow down and just read 1 thing at a time.
I am going to try and speak to her teacher next week and see if he can keep an eye out for any issues.