Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Help! Llow Reading Assessments

My DS7 is now in second grade and has struggled with reading assessments in all three grades.

Last year we tried to have him assessed for a learning disability through the school because he hated reading, wouldn't do his reading (he refused to read at all during the summer between K and 1st), and he was always in the bottom reading group. The school refused to do the assessment because he was at grade level, but our physiologist's assessment gave him a VCI of 140, average processing speeds and working memory, and possibly very highly visual spatial.

He currently reads fourth grade level books for fun (he likes them short with pictures, Danny DragonBreath)and likes Horrible Science books.

I talked with his teacher at his conference and she finally gave me his assessed reading level, 20. He hasn't read a book (except evidently in class) at that level since August of last year when he decided that he liked Nate the Great.

I've tried not to worry about it this year because he seemed happier in class, but it seems really strange to me that no one else seems to find this a bit off.

Should I be worried about a learning disability? I have also thought that he might be having trouble verbalizing what he sees in his head. He has told me that he is really distracted in class and so has the teacher. The kids sit with their desks in groups of 6. I am starting to wonder if he would be better off in a regular classroom.

I am just not sure what to do at this point. The teachers have not been very forthcoming. I know his teacher seems to think he is doing well, but this seems so odd.

Rocky

Does he seem to be reading books at home without any type of struggle or are you seeing signs at home that make you wonder about challenges with reading?

If the issue is just at school and that he's reading at a lower level than you anticipate he is capable of, it's possible that whoever did his school testing just didn't expect him to go beyond grade level and therefore didn't push to test beyond grade level. This happened a few times with our ds in early elementary - once he was reading he was reading *way* ahead of grade level. At the end of K he tested not-so-high above grade level... after a night where he'd stayed up half the night. His teacher found out about that when I off-handedly mentioned it at pickup and right away she thought outloud, "Hey! I should recheck that reading level" so she tested him again and it went way back up to where it really was. The next year with a different teacher he was always testing as "at grade level" and when we asked if they'd tested any further were told "we don't need to, he's where he's supposed to be". So any number of things can happen with testing at school.

Re the selection of books he reads (at school or at home) - some kids don't get excited about books in early elementary, especially (just in my experience) boys. Our ds never was very interested in fiction, and the only fiction he'd read for the first few years of school was Captain Underpants. When he was in 4th grade he discovered the Ga'Hoole series and the Warriors etc, and he loved those books - but he also read through them really quickly and then was back in the zone of not having any books he was interested in reading.

Re the books you mentioned, I'm not familiar with them but took a quick look at them on Amazon - neither of them look like they are 4th grade level books (to me), but I'm not a teacher so don't put any weight at all on my opinion - that's just an observation by a mom of a former and a current 4th grader.

If, otoh, you're worried about what you're seeing at home - do you feel like he's struggling? It's not always easy to recognize reading (and other) challenges in gifted kids because of their overall ability levels. Are you seeing things at home such as struggling over words when reading aloud, reluctance to read aloud, other signs of things being "off"?

Re your ds saying he feels distracted in class - both of my dds have said the same thing. My kids were all initially in an elementary school with project-based work and they sat at tables in groups. My older dd really liked the project-based type work in spite of the distractions so with her we worked on learning how to avoid getting caught up in the distractions. My younger dd, however, is extremely individually achievement oriented and the distractions really bothered her. We transferred her to a more traditional school this year, where children are seated at individual desks and there are behavioral checks and consequences which keep the classroom overall much quieter. It's not the classroom I'd dreamed of having my children thrive in - but it's been wonderful for her - she's much happier in that type of atmosphere at school. FWIW, she's also my child who has a challenge that impacted her ability to learn to read (not dyslexia, an associative memory challenge). It went unrecognized until 2nd grade in part because her intellectual abilities overall masked it and she was reading at grade level.

My last piece of advice, as the mom of two 2e kids, if your gut is telling you something isn't quite right, listen to what it's saying. You're the parent and you're the one person who knows your child better than anyone else, no matter what their credentials may be. If you think you need to look into this further, don't be slow or afraid to look for further info. You may find it's nothing, but if it's something, you'll be very glad you didn't wait for another year or more reasons to look further.

Best wishes,

polarbear

I'm wondering about how is his vision overall...both his actual acuity, plus the 'behavioral optomitrist' stuff of getting his eye pointing muscles to work properly.

Is your son willing to listen to audiobooks at a much higher level? Is he willing to listen to you read denser books? Has he read the Harry Potter series, for example? Eragon? It may be that he's interested in a much 'juicier' level of book,but has something physical going on with his eyes that makes reading challenging. Does your library stock many 'Large Print' books that he might find interesting?

I would follow up in various directions - if the teacher notices that he is distracted in class then he might be underplaced or have an attention issue, or some other problem, but whatever is causing it, the question that worries me is: "Is he learning to engage with learning at the level that is reasonable to expect from a child of his age?" It takes years of practice to develop a good emotional strength to carry one over the challenge of learning 'non-instantly' yes? Why shouldn't your son get to start those years now?

Love and More Love,
Grinity

He appears to read aloud almost anything. However, the books he reads like the Danny DragonBreath series he can read in 2-3 sittings or about an hour, sometimes 2 which is really flying for him. The Horrible Science takes him a little longer. He has read 20 books since the start of school at about 20 minutes a day.

I agree with how the books look, but some of it is the formatting, especially with the Horrible Science Books. The ratings on the books also reflect what the teachers are expected to do with them (so they say). I looked up the books on scholastic book finder. Danny DragonBreath was given a DRA of 40 or 4.3 grade equivalent. The Horrible Science Books have grade level equivalents between 5.5 to 6.9. Nate the Great which he devoured last year has a DRA of 24 or a grade level equivalent of 2.2. So 20 has to be barely second grade.

I asked last year because he was struggling with the material he was given. This year he has been happier, but the disconnect seems worse. He was at 18 at the end of 1st. This year the teacher didn't want to tell us his reading level at all. We worked with him last year, and I didn't think he had trouble understanding the material as much as verbalizing a response within a time limit. Possibly even thinking of the material in that particular fashion, 5 finger retelling.

I hadn't thought about his vision. Yes on the denser books. His father read everything I could find published by Louis Sachar last year. He read Wayside school stories by himself and part of Someday Angeline. Then he stopped trying to read the larger books. I thought that maybe he had hit his limit.

I hadn't thought but all the books he likes have almost annotated formatting and his favorites (that he reads for fun) have larger print.

I hadn't made the connection about distraction and underplacement until after the conference. He had talked (actually drawn a cartoon) about being distracted. I was thinking that maybe it was a noise overexcitability.

His cousin who is 2 months older and home schooled is doing 3rd grade math and 4th grade language arts. DS started EPGY at the 3rd grade level 3 weeks ago (he had been working 3a Singapore math workbook, but he had never done drills).