Behind in reading

 

Every child is unique but when there are reading problems, every child has trouble with the same lesson set. Research shows that early instruction was unclear for the child; it was not the fault of the child.

(Fast help for 3rd Grade-high school: put into my search box- top left corner- fix reading trouble.)

What goes wrong?  Parents depend on preschool and Kindergarten. Parents have no way of knowing the amount of repetition required to be ready to read b, d, g, p, q within words when starting to read in early 1st Grade.

Luckily only these five letters require rigorous attention.

The child knows the name and sound but confuses the shapes of b /d and p / q / g when trying to read words. Are the letters toab or toad? A child has to hold a lot in his mind all at once. Recognizing each letter in a word is crucial to success. Teachers believe the child is merely getting a slow start and will catch up next year. Research shows only 6 / 50 children ever catch up from a slow start in 1st Grade. Do not panic; teach my letter rules: 

Bb rule: b is the 2nd letter in the ABCs and b's round face always looks the way words go in a story >. Help your child draw lots of giant b's. Draw eyes looking the way words go > and a smile. Look for b at the start, middle, and end of words. Get sure with b. 

Dd rule: d's straight line blocks the round face of d from seeing the way words go. Draw lots of giant d's with sad eyes and a sad mouth; d is sad because d's round face is blocked by d's line and cannot see the way words go in a story. Watch for d at the start, middle, and end of words. Play games: find three d's, find three words with d inside the word.

Gg rule: the fancy tail of g tries to reach up and tickle g's face. Help your child draw lots of g's with eyes looking down at g's fancy tail. Watch for g at the start, middle, and end of words. The fancy tail of g hangs below the bottom line of lined-paper, as do the tails of p, q, j, and y.

Pp rule: the round face of p looks the way words go, just like b; b and p can see. Help your child draw lots of giant p's with eyes looking the way words go and a smile. Find p at the start, middle, and end of words. The tail of lower-case p hangs below the bottom line on lined-paper.

Qq rule: the round face of q is blocked by q's straight line. Help your child draw lots of q's with sad eyes and a sad mouth because the round face of q is blocked and cannot see. 

Be clear: online and in printed stories, q's line is straight. The tail of handwritten q has a small hook that curves up and away from q's round face. Handwritten q is the opposite of g.

Qq says kw, together say: quick, quest, question; u always come after q. While reading stories watch for q at the start and middle of words: queen, squirrel, quick, quiet, quest.

If you do not have the time, or you and your child do not work well together - very common - buy my books and hire a tutor (not a tutor company). I use eBay as my website; search: Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up.  All include my contact info; email or call for help.

 

My methods are proven. Three of my 5th and 7th Grade tutor students made the Honor Roll at their school. A 3rd Grade boy got the highest score of his entire class on a social studies test.

Thank you, Mary Maisner

Help child read

This blog offers 160 lessons. Use the search box - top left corner.

Possibilities: backward b;  short vowels long vowels;  sight words;  working memory;   oy;   silent gh;  adding ing; 

also ce, ci, cy;   tion, sian;    tient, cious;  compound words; silent h;    silent t,  kindergarten reading; 1st Grade, etc.

Tip: Quit stopping to sound out. Telling your child the unknown word is a better path. Stopping breaks up your child's comprehension - which is weak in early readers. 

Use this comprehension path:

With your child pointing to every word, read a story with your child. Let your child read whatever words he can. Talk about the story. Recap what is happening in the story to help your child connect to comprehension.  

Next, use the story to play games: find and point to the word this; find and point to there, find and point to why - these are tricky sight words. Assign "find and point" to words you know your child has trouble reading. Used books are great for this kind of fun; your child can circle words.

One-on-one help with parents is the key. 15 minutes a day is enough.  Teachers believe kids will catch up next year; research says no.

I now use ebay for my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up. All are brand new, teach all the tricky phonics in stories, Q & A, an easy comprehension method, and include my contact info; email or call for help.

Have fun reading with your child. Best wishes, Mary Maisner

 

Help child read

Mountain goats like a challenge.

A tiny set of lessons snarl all struggling readers. 

1) b /d and p / q / g shapes look alike within words when a child starts reading words in early 1st Grade. This is the major cause of failure. 

The child has no way to help himself and new lessons never stop coming. Do not depend on teachers -  your child needs your help.

2) Slow with look-alike sight words, like: these, those, there, their, etc. also cause a child to fall behind.  All sight word lists are the same and in the same order. Your school might call them Instant Words, High Frequency, etc.

Preschool-kindergarten-1st Grade: use my blog's search box - top left corner - put in backward b  and  working memory.

2nd Grade - high school: use my blog's search box - top left corner - put in struggling reader.

You are going to get an easy, immediate method for comprehension.   Later, put into my search box: 

sight words     or ce, ci, cy      or ge, gi, gy     or oy      or compound words     or short vowel long vowel

or add ed     or change y to i      or tion or tient -- my blog has 160 skills lessons.

If you want a book, I use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you. All are brand new, full of stories, skills lessons, comprehension exercises, etc. Include my contact info, email or call.      Have a great day, Mary Maisner      

Sight word smart

Will the fish win this fight?
Artist: Kuniyoshi Kitagawa

Sight words are confusing for nearly every child to learn because so many look alike (were, we're, where). Plus, sight words do not have clear, concrete meanings.

Your child can make a mental image for lion, frog, etc.

Example: The 2nd sight word of has no clear meaning. Of can be confused with for (sight word # 13) and or (# 24).  My tutor kids have proven this sad lesson to me.

Practicing sight words in sentences and stories is much faster than flashcards because a child needs context to grasp the difference between look-alike words.  All sight word lists are the same and in the same order. Download it; or, all of my books include a list of the first 300.

Today's tip: buy any book at a used book store. Any book will be full of the tricky sight words: there, their, they're; this, these, those, then, were, whether; are, our, hour, etc.  

Assigned your child the Treasure Hunt of finding and circling words you know are tricky.

National Institutes of Health tells us only six out of fifty kids who get a slow start in 1st Grade ever catch up. Do not panic; my blog has 160 free lessons. 

My work with struggling older readers has shown me that rarely is a child a slow learner. When a child has trouble it is because specific early lessons were not clearly instructed. 

My books make it easy. The mother of a struggling 2nd Grader wrote back to tell me she could see immediately which words were holding back her daughter. I use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help plus your child's grade level. Instant Reading Help Kindergarten. Instant Reading Help 3rd Grade, etc.

Have fun reading! Mary Maisner

Build working memory help child read

Recent research into how the brain works shows us that being well prepared gives kids a huge advantage because of the way our eyes and memory systems work together.

Everyone's brain is set up with two supporting memory systems:

1) long term storage memory
2) and short term working memory

Long term storage memory is unlimited, like a huge bank. But, short term working memory is extremely limited. It operates in tiny bits of each second. Brain time is lightning fast compared from human time.

Short term working memory is the captain of all action, all thinking. But, short term working memory cannot make a move without information sent to it from long term storage memory.

Think of storage memory as the contacts in your cell phone. You push a button - instant success. But, if info is incorrectly or partially stored in your contacts - no success. 

When your child is looking at words in a line of print - the eye system (saccades) looks a few letters or a word ahead, unbeknowst to the child.The eyes send a lightning fast message to long term storage -- send up letter b or send up the word can. 

The crux: if your child's long term storage has well -practiced what the eyes have asked for - letter (b) or word (can) instantly pops into place and the short term memory successfully hums along.

But, if letter (b) or the word (can) is weakly practiced, long term memory cannot find it, short-term memory slows and fails. The child is at a halt, he does not have enough skills yet to help himself out of this mess.   But, the rest of the child's class moves along successfully; very distressing for the child. A cascade of misery is coming - and so easily avoided - since we adults know what lessons the child needs to know: 

Got to be instant with the correct shape of b / d  and p / q / g within words when starting to read words on the page in early 1st Grade.      Every child knows the name and sound of b / d and p / q / g but gets confused when they see these letters within words. This child will quickly fall far behind. It is important to step in and help your child be in charge of b / d and p / q / g when he sees them inside words.

Use my blog's search box - top left corner - put in backward b.

If your child is beyond 1st Grade put into my search box - top left corner - fix reading problem.   On that page, find  2nd Grade - middle school.  

You may want one of my books. I 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

 

Best way to teach my child to read

This is the best way to teach reading because it shows your child how to get comprehension from the start.  (Quick look;

story > words > letters > letters within words > tricky letters.)

Unknown by parents and teachers, is the fact that so much brain energy is fixated on decoding words - figuring out the letters and sounds - that many children never, or only slightly, pick up the meaning from the words the child is trying to read. 
 

Kids learn to talk by imitating your talk. You are going to help your child see how comprehension happens. 

As your child sits with you and a story, you say: "point to each word as I read it. If you know the word, say it with me."    (Do these steps with any age child.)

After you have read five sentences, stop and ask your child what this story is about? What is happening in this story so far?   (You want to be sure - do not assume - your child is getting the meaning of the words and holding on to it. Help your child recap the story.)  

Your goal right now is getting meaning, not sounding out.  If your child is reading some words, tell him any unknown words and keep going forward. (If you see decoding problems --  correct letter / sound -- make a mental note to work on it at a different time.)

Start teaching words by picking a creature, like dog or cat or kitten. Talk to your child about the 1st letter - kitten - k says ka. This is the word kitten. The word kitten always uses these same letters. Do we see the word kitten anywhere else on the page?  Let your child read the word kitten as you come to it when reading the story. You can add other creature words like dog - d says da.  

After a few weeks, begin helping your child see that certain words are not animals but are repeated. Using a story, help your child point to the word the. Instead of reading the story, look through it, finding and pointing to the. As you read the story with your child still pointing to each word, ask your child to read the word the as you come to it. The is the 1st sight word.

Sight words are not real things you can touch like a kitten or dog; sight words have vague meanings. Sight words are service words: the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, he, was, for.

All sight word lists are the same and in the same order; they are the most frequently seen words. It was discovered decades ago that a child instant with sight words had a huge advantage over children who were slower.

Many sight words look alike to children who have a ton of other lessons to pay attention to: the, these, those, there, their, they're, we, were, was, saw, does, goes, and so on.  

Children do not learn sight words without parent help. Stories is the easiest way to learn them. Try to learn the 1st 20 in kindergarten; 1st 50 by Thanksgiving of 1st Grade. 

By now your child knows: words have letters and letters make sounds. Get an ABC letter strip at Target, Office Max, etc. Start learning the names and sounds, three letters at a time, daily review starting with Aa. (52 letter shapes and a huge variety of sounds.)

Printing letters backward is natural and will self-correct by 2nd Grade; it is very rarely dyslexia, and will not slow your child's progress. Ignore them.

However b, d, g, p, q have to be correct. Children have limited energy, spend it getting instant with b, d, g, p, q. Children must be able to identify b, d, g, p, q within words. Getting confused by b / d  and p / q / g when your child starts reading words in 1st Grade is something you want to avoid. 

Preschool and kindergarten will not prepare your child; there is not enough time for the needed repetition. Use my blog search box - top left corner - put in backward b.

Recap: be sure your child recognizes b, d, g, p, q within words and is learning sight words.

My blog and my books give you clear tools and tips. I use Ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you. All my books include my contact info; email or call for help. Instant with early lessons gives your child's short-term working memory the keys to success.  Have fun reading, Mary Maisner





 

My child has trouble reading...what to do

Being a slow reader is not a phase. But, your child will be thrilled to know he or she is missing only a small set of lessons. 

You might not be aware of trouble until 3rd or 4th Grade but skills weakness has been stealing the fun from your child for a long time. 

Luckily, there is a way to give your child a quick-fix. (And, once this system is in place for your child, you can start work on the weak letter team skills that caused the problem.)

This system works at any grade-level. An 8th grade boy went to the Honor Roll at his private school after one summer of catch up with this system. A 3rd Grade boy got the highest grade of his entire classroom on a social studies test.

1) Quit stopping to sound out; telling your child the unknown word will have better, faster results. Stopping to sound out causes the short-term memory to drop most comprehension gathered to the point of stopping.This is the way the brain works for everyone.

When your child is reading with you, tell your child the unknown words or tell him to slide over the unknown word and keep reading onward. Tell your child to let the words he does know help get the meaning of the sentence and the paragraph. This helps your child get better at gathering the meaning of what is happening on this page, or this story. 

At the end of the paragraph or page, you ask questions of your child: what is happening on this page, who is doing what, and so on.

2) Now look back to the unknown words; ask your child to try them twice, then tell him the words. Many words cannot be sounded out but your child can get their meaning. Canoe, chaos, boulder - cannot be sounded out but your child will get their meanings from the rest of the words in the paragraph. Do these steps in several 15 minute sessions with your child, so that your child can see what to do when he is reading on his own. You will see good progress. 

To work on your child's weak letter skills, find this blog's search box -- top left corner. Search: ce, ci and ge, gi and silent gh and compound words and short vowel long vowel and tion and tious. 

Or look at my new books. I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you. Write me if you wish. Have a great day, Mary Maisner