Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Still not reading.....?

My HG girl, very verbal, montessori edu until recently...is still not reading. She has been exposed to books all her life, and just is not reading. It is odd.

She is 5.5yo.

We read to her many times per day, and she looks /listens to books on CD by herself all the time. Books are everywhere.

She did have beginning montessori phonics work at school, word blends, etc.

She can do some basic reading and sounding out, but it is slow and not fun for her. She is embarrassed, and does not want to read because she thinks she should be doing better.

It seems odd for a HG kid to not read at this age, I am not sure what is going on. We have not really pushed the issue, but I think it is time to work on it a bit more. We are homeschooling now.

Any suggestions? She is really enjoying the Epgy Math program, and I wondered if there was a similar reading program at that early reading level (epgy reading starts at 2nd grade, she is not there yet)

Any of you with late readers? I read so many posts with super early readers, but not many late/normal readers.

Thx...

My ODS was like this. His actual reading level was pretty much on average until the end of first grade. He preferred being read to and could comprehend books several grade levels higher. I wanted him to love books and reading so I gave him what he craved, more complex books that we read to him rather than forcing him to read boring simple books on his own (he did that at school). Eventually and quite suddenly his ability to decode and his fluency caught up to his comprehension. He was reading middle school level books by the spring of second grade. I say read whatever she wants you to read to her and don't worry about the nuts and bolts. That will come.

I also want to point out that she is not actually a late reader. She isn't behind. She just isn't ahead like you would expect. It also sounds like she has some perfectionism going on as my son did as well.

So glad you asked the question, as I am very happy to share my experience with this! My DYS 11-year-old daughter did not read until she was almost 7 years old. Her VCI on the WISC is 166. She always loved books, and even as a tiny toddler, would run to me with a book in her hand several times per day. She always wanted to be read to, and listened to many audiobooks from an early age. She was advanced in the kinds of books that she wanted read to her – sitting still for long periods even as a three-year-old to listen to chapter books.

We have always been relaxed homeschoolers, and I did very, very minimal phonics instruction with her, but not until later – maybe first grade. But she didn't pick up reading quickly. I mean, it wasn't like I showed her some phonics, and then she took off. She's a little tentative and perfectionistic by nature, and I think trying to read made her feel anxious. I began to push the issue gently as she neared her seventh birthday. I made her read some easy readers to me. She hated it. She is still the type of kid who doesn't like to do something that she's not good at.

By her seventh birthday, she was proudly reading frog and toad. Six months later, she was reading at a fifth grade level. But she wasn't early, and she wasn't self taught.

Sometimes I feel like the lone parent of a late reading gifted child. I think the fact that she didn't read early is in large part what made it hard for me to see her giftedness. I wonder how many more of us are out there!

I know you don't want to hear this but there could be a learning issue. If your gut tells you she should be doing better at reading, she probably should be.

I have twins. One read at age 3. The other, at 5, was still a long way off and he would tell me he worried that he would never learn to read. He also stopped wanting to try around that time because he was embarrassed. He was just as smart as his brother, so it didn't make sense.

I WISH I would have done something about it when he was 5, because he has dyslexia, and since he wasn't technically behind, I just let it go for 2 years. Plus, teachers told me not to worry about it. They were my first, so I took their advice, even though they were wrong. It would have saved 2 years of grief if he had been diagnosed, or if I had just started a reading program like Hooked on Phonics (which might have helped, but would have certainly shown me he had an issue.)

Once he was diagnosed, it took 2 years of intensive, expensive tutoring to bring him back up to where he should have been if he'd have started learning to read in K.

I would work with her this summer and if there's not progress, get her evaluated. The only reason I would suggested Hooked on Phonics is because it's a fun video aimed at young kids (I used it on my dd at age 3 to make sure she didn't have dyslexia and she was reading really well within a couple months.) By the time my son was diagnosed in 2nd grade, he thought it was too babyish (especially since his brother was such a great reader).

I would toss in here, to make sure her vision has been checked carefully. Some vision issues don't prevent the seeing and understanding of words, but make the individual letter identification much more difficult.

I just want to add to my earlier post. I believe it is either in Sweden or Norway that reading is not taught until age seven. Whichever country it is, they have one of the highest literacy rates in the world. Reading didn't used to be taught in kindergarten. A generation ago, reading wasn't taught until first grade. There is scads of research that shows that teaching kids to read early is not beneficial, and in fact may be harmful. Note that this is not relevant to kids who self teach early! Also, as an unschooler, I personally know many kids who were not taught to read, and didn't read until they were nine or 10, at which point they took off like rockets. Not something that I would've been comfortable with – waiting that long – however, I do wonder if our culture privileges early reading too much.

I am fairly certain that my second child is dyslexic, so there is something to that mother gut feeling. If it feels like something is wrong, then get it checked out. I'm just suggesting that not reading by five six doesnt necessarily mean there is a problem.

Gabalyn, your child sounds alot like mine. She loves books and listening, but the perfectionist thing may be getting in the way.

She also is so advanced on material...the type of book she is interested in (alice in wonderland, little women) is not what she is capable of reading herself.

She can sound things out, and does it well, so I dont think she has an auditory processing issue, and I just had her read letters to me on a small font printout, and she sees them all fine...

And, I did get a trial for a computer reading game to see if that sparks her interest a bit. We have not let her play with any screens until recently, no TV/videos etc, so any media is still pretty new and exciting for her.

We will go get her eyes checked though, since dad and I both wear glasses, should do it anyway.

Thanks for all your input!

My DD8 was not an 'early reader', once she cracked the code she just took off but she was *NOT* an early reader nor was she self taught. I wouldn't worry about it too much at this age. I couldn't read until 7ish myself and I cannot say that it ever held me back.

you are not alone!

DD5 only began reading 3 months ago, though her comprehension has always been... uh, quite good. (i still am kind of freaked out about some of the books i've read to her in the past few years - Far From the Tree/The Emperor of All Maladies/etc)

given the fact she could sound things out at 2... and then her crazy comprehension level, i honestly couldn't figure it out. even though i personally didn't care if it took a few more years, it was just really weird. she was always obsessed with books, but showed little to no interest in learning to read.

then... this year, she had a horrible year in Pre-K and i was really forced to figure some stuff out. as it turns out, it was a combination of the following:

1) she'd been actually preventing herself from reading - literally glazing over when confronted with any/all text in order to stop her brain from working it out. this stemmed from her fear of being different - she obviously worked out how different she was YEARS before i did.

2) because of her comprehension, the early reader material just seemed pointless to her - most of it is just atrocious. once i told her she could skip the school readers and read chapter titles/ newspaper headlines instead, this got a tiny bit better.

3) once we figured that out... her perfectionism still really stood in her way. she has always seen herself as a great lover of books, and hearing herself read aloud so haltingly started killing her love for it. we fixed that by letting her stay up 15 minutes later and just read on her own... she can now read from any of the Harry Potter books or Alice in Wonderland - it's slow, and she's still only doing a little bit at a time, but... three months ago you couldn't pay her to read so i'm calling this a win!

ps - Frog and Toad were our gateway books too, gabalyn - they're just so lovely.