Child loses place

Any age child can have trouble staying on the correct line of print. This is called tracking. 

Signs of trouble:  skips lines of print, or loses his place,  skips a word, substitutes a word, dislikes reading. 

Try these tips: 1) Have your child point to each word as you read your child a story. 

Later, take turns reading a story with your child. Even as your child starts improving, let him continue to point to each word as he reads, until he gets stronger. 

Let him place a finger at the end of the line he is reading so that he is sure which line he should be reading next. (When your child gets tired, it is time for a break.)

And, quit stopping to sound out. Telling your child unknown, unrecognized words is a much better way to build skills.  

2) Place a plain sheet of paper below the line of print in the story your child is reading. Ask him to move the sheet of paper down line by line, as he reads. (The look of lots of words on a page is scary and confusing for a reader. This reduces the feeling of being overwhelmed.)

3) Strengthen your child's eye coordination with: dot-to-dot pictures, mazes, and puzzles. Also, get a pile of large print used books your child can write in: circle or underline words you are targeting for practice: saw, was, does, goes / these, those, then, them / thought, through, etc.

Tip: use my blog's search box - top left corner - put in backward b and working memory. Wobbly skills make children feel silly at school.

4) Beware: any age child can need eyeglasses. I now use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you.  All are brand new and include my contact info; email or call for help.

 

Thank you, Mary Maisner

Help child decode reading

An example of a code is your phone number.  

Instant recognition of the sound and shape of each of the ABCs is the code your child must know for success. Being slow with any letter (think b, d, g, p, q within words; is it olb or old) means a child cannot keep up, which starts a cascade of misery. 

 

By the time parents see there is a problem, the child is behind. (Remember, your child also needs to learn arithmetic, science, etc. And, classrooms are distracting places.)

Good news: You have already been asking your child to say and point to each of the ABC letters. You have asked your child to tell you an item that starts with each letter, like ant, alligator for letter Aa. Those are the 1st steps of decoding. 

Only b, d, g, p, q must be printed correctly, and identified correctly as letters inside a word.

Ignore all other backward letters, they will not slow your child, is rarely dyslexia, and will self-correct by mid-2nd Grade. There are too many other crucial items to work on. Let's get started:

Sit with your child and a story. You say: I am going to read this story, while you point to each word and read the word with me if you can. 

When you have finished reading the story, you say: you already have a big Speaking Bank. Your speaking bank is all the words you know and use when you talk. Tell me some words in your Speaking Bank (boy, bird, elephant, car, etc). 

Today we are going to start putting words in your Reading Bank.  

Using the story you have just read, pick a word your child would like to know, like dog, puppy, dragon, bird - ask your child to tell you the letters in the word, then you say the word.

 

You say: this word - is always going to use these same letters. Let's look for it again in the story. Find the word repeatedly, if you can. 

Once a child starts getting tired, the lesson is over; but later, ask your child to find his (or her) Reading Bank word again and tell you the letters.  Talk about the letters of the word - those letters make that word what it is.  

Can the word puppy be the word push? No, puppy does not have letter s sound.

Could puppy be bump? No, puppy starts with the letter p sound, not b.

My blog has a search box - top left corner - put in backward b and working memory and how the brain learns to read.

I now use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you. All books are brand new and include my contact info; email or call for help.

     Thank you, Mary Maisner