Slow reading start for your child is something you want to change

England's Department of Education shows that 75% of children who get a slow start fail to catch up by the time they leave grade school. US NIH research shows 6 / 50 ever catch up from a slow start in 1st Grade. (The fix is below.)

Children get stuck - by a tiny set of lessons - and do not know how to help themselves. And, new lessons never stop coming; the mountain quickly becomes impossible to climb.

Teachers believe and tell parents their child will catch up next year; research says no. And, parents mistakenly allow their child to "work at his own speed," instead of stepping in with the required help. Here is the required help: (I am blunt; I now tutor middle school strugglers. Waiting is not your friend.)

Regardless the age of your child: confusing b /d and p / q / g when trying to read words; and slow with tricky sight words are the problem. 15 minutes a day will make a difference.

1) Quit stopping to sound out. Tell your child the word or tell your child to slide over the unknown word and keep reading onward. Have your child read on through several more sentences (or paragraph). Then stop; ask your child what is happening in the story so far. Using that gathered meaning, now try to sound out the unknown word - or tell your child all unknown words - and move on to the next paragraph. This will reap big rewards over a month's time; your child will see how to gather meaning. (canoe means boat) (boulder means rock) etc. Have faith. The brain drops gathered meaning when you stop to sound out; this is the way everyone's brain works.

Sight words - get a list, all sight word lists are the same and in the same order no matter the name your school uses: Snap, High Frequency, Instant, etc.  Put on your frig. the list your child is working on: their, there, they're // these, those, then, etc. (My books provide all 300; or download from online.)

B /d and p / q / g rules below: (Upper grade kids need to be aware of these, also. The problem for upper age comes when add ed, ing and changing y to i - too much to think about to get  b /d / p / g correct. Use my blog's search box - top left corner- put in comprehension after reading the rest of this page.

Bb rule: b is the 2nd letter in my ABCs and b's round face looks the way words go in a story >. Draw lots of giant b's with a smile and eyes looking the way words go >. Find and point to b at the start, middle, and end of words in print. Repeat the b rule when printing b. Take turns saying b words: boy, bear, bus, etc. (Ignore all other backward letters your child may print; is rarely dyslexia, will not slow your child's advance, will self-correct by mid-2nd Grade.)

Dd rule: the straight line of d blocks d's round face from seeing the way words go in a story.  Draw lots of giant d's with sad eyes and a sad mouth; d is sad. Make a big point of blocking d's round face with d's straight line.Take turns saying d words: dog, dragon, door, etc, Find and point to d words in stories - d at the start, middle, and end of words. Learn the d rule.

Gg rule: the fancy tail of g tries to reach up to tickle the round face of g. Draw lots of giant g's with eyes looking down at g's fancy tail. Take turns saying g words: go, goat, green, etc. Find and point to g in stories, at the start, middle, and end of words. Repeat the g rule.

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 p's with a smile and eyes looking the way words go. Take turns saying p words: pie, pigeon, please; find and point to p at the start, middle, and end of words in stories. 

Qq rule: the straight line of q blocks the round face of q online and in print. The tail of my handwritten q blocks the round face of q and has a small hook curving up and away from q's round face. Help your child draw lots of giant q's - both with straight tails and hooked tails. Take turns saying q words: quick, quiet, quest, squirrel. Qq says kw. Find and point to q in words.  (Handwritten q looks the opposite of g.)

All my books teach the tricky lessons plus a special comprehension method which is the next best thing to a magic spell. Lots of color pictures, stories, and special tools. Tricky lessons are in bold - your child will see them. I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help. All my books will pop up. All are brand new and include my contact info; email or call for help.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Please free welcome to make a comment or ask a question. Have a great day,  Mary Maisner

Vowel patterns will help your child read

Vowel patterns are a tool for your reader:

1) Hear the patterns - repeat them aloud.

2) See the patterns by helping your child write the word families, or circle them on a page, or in used books that it is OK to write in.

Teach short vowel word families first.

The vowels are a, e, i, o, u, y. Each vowel can have several sounds. When the vowels are called short, they have these sounds:

Aa ban, can, Dan, fan, Jan, man, pan, ran, tan

Ee Ben, den, hen, men, pen, ten, yen, zen

Ii bin, kin, din, fin, pin, sin, skin, tin, win

Oo cot, dot, hot, jot, lot, not, pot, rot, tot

Uu but, cut, gut, hut, mutt, nut, rut

Yy as the short i sound, as in myth, system, rhythm 

Notice only the first letters change in a rhyming family, such as: ban, can, fan, span, than.

The part of the word that remains the same, is called the rime; an is the rime in the ban, can family. Show your child how to change only the first letter to make a new word in the same rhyming family.  (You mentally run down the ABCs to see which letters to suggest to your child. 

Some letters will create real words. For _and use b, h, l, s, and br, gr, st, str.

__and       __ant        __ank       __am         __amp        __ap        __ast

 
band        pant          bank          ham            camp          cap           fast

land         can't          sank          slam           damp          tap            past

The brain is a fantastic instrument. Unbeknownst to your child, his eyes peek ahead to see what letters or words are coming next.  This alerts his brain to get ready to pop into place the bits he has been learning. The brain actually anticipates what is coming next and begins retrieving it from long-term memory storage. This is why it is so important to be good at the bits and pieces of reading.

Your eyes do the same thing for you as you read; this is the eyes saccades system.

I use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help, all my books will pop up for you. All books include my contact info; email or call for help. All patterns and lessons are instructed through story-reading and skills pages with lots of color pictures. It is the easiest way to be sure your child has all the skills to succeed. 
Thank you for visiting my blog,  Mary Maisner

Teacher Tip plus a gift

If you are a classroom teacher who tries this tip and makes it work for you; I will take 1/2 off any of my  books (eBay; Instant Reading Help) and mail it free.

Before my second year of teaching, I knew I was being assigned a wild child who had spent his first tour through 2nd grade sitting in the hall. The Special Reading teachers refused to have him in their clinic. The Lunch Room was always in chaos at the hands of ... Johnny. Gorgeous child but nearly dangerous.

What to do? I made up my mind to surprise Johnny and it worked better than I ever imagined!

The first day Johnny roared in to my classroom, spewing combinations of profanity I'd never heard assembled before. I smiled at him, instructed him to get a drink from the drinking fountain and take his seat. Johnny was so shocked, he did take a cold drink, he did take his seat.

All kids love to do the special duties teachers dole out: take this note to Miss Jones, take these books to the school library, run this note to the office. Usually teachers require children to earn these honors. These duties are bestowed only on perfect students.

Right off the bat, I was sending Angela to the office with the lunch money and, with the same breath, sending Johnny to the library with a pile of books.  (One can always find a pile of books.)

How long do you think it was before Johnny was actually working pretty hard to hammer himself into a civilized shape? 

He thrived, basking in the chance to take a note to Miss Jones and show a visitor to a chair in the classroom. These duties were never held over his head as leverage. Yes, he had many falls off the wagon, still got into fights, and his creative profanity made many appearances but he made a huge change in himself.

He started reaching for success. He learned a beautiful smile! The Lunch Room Ladies were shocked and pleased and singing his praises. Special Reading took him back and honored him with sweet pats on his back. And, me?

I cried. It tore at my heart that it took so little to open the door of school success for this dynamo named Johnny.

Let me know how this strategy works for you. Expect that it will be a day-to-day journey, don't give up. Tell me your story. Then, pick out a book at eBay, search Instant Reading Help.

The wonderful graphics I use are from Corel ClipArt, originally Micrografx ClipArt.
Thank you, Mary Maisner


  

Reading and the brain

All of our brains are constantly monitoring what is going on around us. Also, monitoring what is happening inside us. Are we hungry, worried, need to visit the bathroom, does the person with whom we are working like us, recurring flashes of an over-heard argument, etc.

So - we all have to work really hard to keep our attention centered upon a task. As adults, we must start early in guiding our children to build sustained and focused attention.

Our working memory is only about one and one-half seconds long. This is actually a lot of brain time. Connections in the brain happen in bits of 1 / 1000 parts of each second. The short bits of working memory string along as connecting loops - as long as we are not interrupted.  An interruption breaks the string of connecting loops.

Interruptions occur when we stop to sound out a word, or we experience an error, or we allow our focus to drift. (An error even creates a noise in the brain.) Quit stopping to sound out; it is counter-productive. Tell your child to slide over unknown words and keep reading. Or you tell him any unknown words.

It is most likely we will not be able to retrieve the bits of information we had stored on the loop before we got interrupted. Short-term memory is a "work space;" it does not "hold" for long.

Surprisingly, much of what we do all day is increasingly automatic as we age. You can see the early stages of this in young children as they gather skills: dress themselves, tie shoes, manage a spoon, then a fork, etc. These skills become automatic with mastery.

Did you know that reading needs to become an automatic activity for your child?

The reason we have so many children in the upper grades failing to do well in school is that they never anchored the critical elements of the early reading task within their minds.  They were never able to get enough mastery to become automatic. The sad thing is that they could have. 

I have created a few books to help your child learn the tricky lessons that make a difference. They also teach a special comprehension method. I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you.
Teaching smarter is so much fun and lots less stress!!!  Please feel welcome to leave questions or comments. Thank you, Mary Maisner

Help child finish a task; easy steps

This is great for any child, of any age, in any setting:

1) Cut up the child's work papers into smaller bits of two parts or four parts. Place his smaller work papers in a box marked "work to do." Put the box on his desk.

Parents, alert the teacher that your child's work is going to come back to school in a pocket folder, safeguarding the paper pieces.

2) When the child has completed one piece of paper, he takes it and places it in a specific "work collection" box on the teacher's desk (at home, pick a spot off your child's desk). 

Having deposited his finished work, the child picks up one star for himself (stars or stickers are already there waiting for him).

3) He takes his star back to his desk and pastes it on one square of a multi-squared piece of paper taped to his desk (looks like a bingo or a tic-tac-toe box). This is necessary at school because you are trying to help the child learn structure and get control of himself. 

4) Still at his desk, he reaches for his next small piece of work from his " work to do" box (the bit of work you have cut up for him). He starts this whole process again.

At the end of the day, the child gets to take his star-grid home.  This little process gives your child a legitimate reason to get up and move; children need this. I have used this process with very short-attention span children, also problem, impulse-driven children; it really works. 

I have created a few great books to help your child learn the tricky parts of the reading task.
All books include a special comprehension method and underline the tricky phonics so your child is sure to see them. Lots of color pictures and lessons are practiced within stories.

I now use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you to consider. Good luck and have a great day, Mary

ADD, ADHD: help your child focus



Are the bears looking at a whale? 

Dr. Klingberg is the professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He has done extensive research into the problems children with ADD and ADHD cope with while learning to focus their attention on a task. 

His findings are useful for helping all children learn to process information and keep their attention on the task until it is finished. 

His evidence shows ADD and ADHD to be very real conditions. He suggests these specific steps for the early and repeated training of a young child, and especially for children who may have had a less than perfect APGAR number at birth:

1) give the child one direction at a time and wait for the child to complete it

2) give the direction in a short and specific sentence

3) when giving a series of directions, repeat the important parts  (when giving an assignment to a group of children, allow three or four minutes to pass, then again announce the steps) 

4) when possible provide the child with visuals, like check lists

Dr. Klingberg recommends that after firmly and repeatedly establishing this training, the adult slowly increase the complexity of the direction by using a longer sentence, or more sophisticated vocabulary. Eventually, give a two sentence direction, and so on.

His point is that your child's brain must be trained to a more sophisticated level of concentration and organization for the more challenging work the child will encounter in his future.

My reading instruction books are based on this information. My books start with an easy comprehension method because it is concrete for your child.

All tricky letter teams like ce that says s are in bold type in the words of the stories. This makes it easy to see them and learn them. All my books teach through stories with lots of color pictures. I use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for your consideration.

Dr. Klingberg's book is a wealth of researched information: The Overflowing Brain, Klingberg, MD; PHD (2009). Oxford University Press; Inc. New York.

Please feel welcome to write with questions. Have a great day, Mary Maisner

 

Sight Words: Why they help your child read

Although English has over one-half million words, a group of three hundred recurring words make up about 65% of all print. The first 25 sight words make up about 33%; the first 100 words, roughly 50%.(Research by E. B. Fry). 

The 1st ten are: the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it. All lists are the same and in the same order. Your school might call the list: Instant Words, Snap, High Frequency, etc.

Children need to know them on sight because stumbling over recurring words causes a child to be slow and fall behind. Many sight words look alike, have no clear meaning for a child, and many cannot be sounded out: does, goes, their, there, they're, were, where, though, thought, bright, etc. 

Learning these words in families, and in stories is the best way to plant these words in your child's mind. It is also the most effective way to master so many words in a short time.

It is normal for children to appear to learn their lessons then quickly forget them because new lessons are always bombarding them. This is why review is so important. Rereading sentences and stories, and word-hunting on any page of print, and circling words in used books your child can write in, are all good ways to review.

It is well worth it to help your child for 5-10 minutes daily with sight words.  Eliminate trouble before it starts. Waiting is never your friend, when it comes to reading.

I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help; all my books will pop up for you.


Thank you for visiting my blog. Write with questions.  Mary Maisner