Comprehension & reading voice sounding like you are torturing them?

[LookingUpAtTheStars]

So that every word sounds like I'm extracting state secrets rather than just read about Buff, Chip and Kipper's latest exploits?

Y1, August born. Reluctant reader (and doesn't he let me know it!) Aside from the torturous robot voice, I'm trying to develop his comprehension skills however we have a couple of issues;

He will randomly stop in the middle of a sentence, look at the pictures, ask questions, fiddle with his chair/feet/clothes etc, stare into space. This means he often forgets the beginning of the sentence and we have to start again.

He doesn't seem to care about the story & has no interest in it at all (and we read a selection of fiction, non-fiction and different kinds of books rather than just school type reading books). He's always been like this even with bedtime stories, quite often he can't tell you what happened because he doesn't listen. He still wants the story though.

And of course there is the annoying voice when he is reading, what is that all about?

Is any of this within the realms of normal? Are other 5 year olds like this?

Thank you for the reassurance Cheryl, certainly am glad I don't have to listen to 27 little robots!

Yep, sounds exactly like my DD last year. Now in year 2 she is mostly quite pleasant to listen to!

The stopping half way through a word or sentence really resonated with me. DD would manage half of one of the early phonics bugs books in one sitting (about 10 pages with one short sentence on each).

It was better when I really praised attention and concentration. I would supply a sound she couldn't quickly recall (but not the whole word), and if she stopped mid sentence she always had to go back and reread the whole sentence so I could 'understand' it.

Bastard Biff and Cunting Chip make me want to stab myself!

Reading books for emergent readers are so dull. He will have to slog through them at school. At home I would read good stuff TO him but point out common words, especially difficult ones e.g. 'said' 'go'. Google 100 High Frequency Words. Talk about the story, encourage him to repeat rhymes and generally have some fun.

Mine read everything in a duck voice for a while, then really mumbled and when I complained about that read everything in a shouty robot voice.. going from i-mst-rd-ths to I. MUST. REEEAAAD. THIS. Stopping mid-sentence or even mid-word is familiar, too. Three years on, she is a very good reader.

Ha, I'd forgotten that stage! DS is an inveterate fiddler, falling off the sofa was a favourite too. I think I sat him on my knee and got him to point at the text to help him keep his mind on the job.

At the end of the sentence I'd get DS to go back and say it in a more natural voice (or you do it for him) to check he actually understands. He may be not interested because he's robot-reading individual words and not actually making sense of it as a whole. And later on I'd get DS to look at the sentence in his head first then say it.

And lots of jollying along "Ooh what do you think is going to happen next - ahh ha ha ha he's fallen in the puddle. Do you think he's happy about it? No? What would you do if you fell in a puddle?" One good point about Biff et al is it's easy to relate to things in their real life. "What's your favourite thing to do at the park?", "Do you remember when your Gran came to visit?" etc. If you don't pretend enthusiasm, can't really expect them to do it!

Do you think easier books for a bit might help if it's being tortuous?

The secret to getting a child to read with expression is to read lots of real books to them. I sometime read the reading scheme book to my daughter to her after she has read it to model what reading with expression should sound like. To stop children pausing in mid sentence it helps to teach children where to breathe. I listened to year 4s read as a patent helper and I found it really helped compression if they took a breathe at comma, full stops and after a connective. (Ie words like and, but, or etc.)

Do you think the books might be too hard for him?

I gave up trying to get ds to read at home, but read lots of books to him (not the reading scheme ones)
At the start of year 2 he suddenly seemed to get it and reads very well now.

I don't think they're too hard, he's only on yellow band books at school although I've done blue band books with him and he could do them easily. I'll try focusing on breathing at the pauses.

I read lots to him at home, he's been enjoying some short chapter books with me recently like roald Dahl and horrid Henry. The more chaotic and naughty the better!

Do you have decodable books? It may well be that the books are beyond his phonics knowledge even if they are yellow band books. Book bands were designed for mixed methods of teaching rather than the phonics methods most English schools use.

We have a set of Songbirds at home, and we get books from Reading Chest too (only the phonics ones, I unsubscribed from the non-phonics series). He is allowed to change his book at school as often as he wants which means he brings his favourite book home as often as he can, or brings truly random selections home as it doesn't seem the book choosing is supervised (we've had purple, red and gold bands home because he liked the look of them).

It sounds like he needs more blending practice. Its a great step forward that he can blend, but obviously its still taking lots of mental effort. He is still really little and you will be surprised by how much he will come in the next six months. He has only just turned five and I think it sounds like he is doing well. Reading with expression will come later.