Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Need book ideas to read aloud (Long post, sorry)

DD6 (Kindergarten-late birthday and rigid entrance regulation)had an appointment for psych evaluation this week, and while we will receive her results on Monday the psych indicated that she is dyslexic. This actually makes sense, because she LOVES to be read to but hems and haws when asked to read aloud. She worked on Reading Eggs this spring and summer, but has issues when she encounters words in a book that we *know* she can read on a flashcard. That is an entirely different post, though...

Right now we are searching for appropriate reading material. She owns a lot of beginning reader books, and she looks through them and reads them once or twice before she's done with them. Our assumption is that she memorizes the books after we read them aloud to her, and then practices reading them using context clues and guessing. When my husband or I read a bedtime story, she picks a book of fairy tales or a longer, more complex, book. She moved to a new school this year (private K-6) where she has library class on Thursdays, and she brought home a Littlest Pet Shop chapter book last week. I'm thrilled that she loves going to Library, and that her librarian let her pick a more complex book. This has caused a revelation for us: she enjoys books that she is not capable of reading to herself. To reiterate the fact she told me last night when I picked a beginning reader for us to read together ( http://www.amazon.com/Im-Going-Read...r=1-1&keywords=no+more+tv+sleepy+cat) that she "hates this book, it's too boring". She told me she would read it with me, but she still hates it. I'm a book lover, and I am so happy that she enjoys reading. I want to support her reading habit, so my questions are:

1. Is it typical for a child to love books that are above their "reading level"? She comprehends what is read to her; she gave my Mom an enthusiastic synopsis of each chapter of her Littlest Pet Shop book.

2. What books would you suggest that are on this book's level? She loved it so much that she brought it home again, because she said she couldn't find the next book in the series when she went to Library yesterday. Per Amazon, the recommended age is 7-10 and the grade level is 2-5.

1) ABSOLUTELY! Especially at that age, their comprehension is typically much more advanced than their reading skills.

2) My daughter loves the Magic Treehouse books, and I'm reading How to Train Your Dragon to her now and she's really into it.

1) My DD8 had me reading Harry Potter to her when she was 5, so that's a definite "yes."

2) The book my DD currently declares to be the best one she ever read falls right within that same level you described. It's called "The Castle in the Attic." There are two of them, actually, and DD found the second one first (she found it in the library, and decided to read it because the cover reminded her of, yes, there's a theme here, Harry Potter). The first one is called "The Battle for the Castle."

But honestly, my DD is all over the place when she reads, because it's more based on interest and content than how challenging it is. I wouldn't be surprised if your DD could comprehend even more challenging reads, especially if you're the one doing the reading, as you can fill in any gaps on archaic language, idioms, etc. that might be expected to go over her head. So if I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about the reading levels.

Re #1 - ABSOLUTELY - I think this is true for most kids, and was true for each of my children, one who learned to read easily, another who had severe vision issues that made learning to read difficult until the vision issues were resolved, and my 3rd dd who has a dyslexia diagnosis.

We were told it was *really* important for our dyslexic dd to have us read books to her that were at her comprehension level (audio comprehension) - both for her enjoyment but also to keep her vocabulary and "reading" comprehension etc progressing.

FWIW, we have also been told that reading aloud is important for *all* children, for as long as they'll let you We still read aloud to our teenager

Re which books o chose - have you thought of just going to the library together and letting her pick out whatever interests her? I would make some suggestions but I honestly can't remember what my kids liked at that age (I'm getting old lol!) The only thing I remember for sure is we read (original, not condensed) classics and other interesting higher level books out loud to our kids when they were very little and we never really found a book they weren't interested in and couldn't follow. Our kids also liked the abridged kid's classics when they were learning to read - so that's the one book I can remember that my dd liked - I can't remember the name of the series, but it's the "Jane Eyre" version in the series of easy-to-read children's classic books. DD read that book probably 1800 times. I will never forget her Kindergarten teacher having the kids sit in circle and everyone told what the name of their favorite book was (they didn't have to know how to read, just a favorite book). After almost a full circle of kids naming picture books, dd said "Jane Eyre". Her teacher was, um, not used to that answer lol!

polarbear

ps - Dude mentioned Harry Potter - my kids all also loved HP around this age.

Thank you all for the suggestions! We have read a few chapters of A Little Princess at night, and she enjoyed it, so we will definitely bridge to other classics. She loves the Pippi Longstocking movie, and Harry Potter is a family obsession, so those are others we will look at as well. I don't love reading aloud, and I'm mentally exhausted by her bedtime, so I'm going to have to build up my endurance! I found audiobook versions of the first few Harry Potters at a consignment store, so we may follow along together.

The public library is one of her favorite places because she loves books, but she gets overwhelmed by the choices so I try to narrow the field for her to choose. I grabbed a Katie Kazoo (glad for the warning re: redundancy) and the first Magic Treehouse book, and I can't wait to read them with her!

I appreciate the help and feedback from everyone. Like many others, I have lurked for a while and gained significant advice/affirmation from all of your experiences!

I just wanted to add, I do this with my son, who doesn't have any reading difficulties, as well. Right now I'm reading Miss Peregrin's Home For Peculiar Children. I've noticed that he likes to stop periodically to ask questions, and I think it's partly asking how to discuss something he's thinking... what words to use, etc.

I didn't wait for DD to stop me to ask a question, though she was certainly welcome to at any time. I would preempt her with questions of my own, especially when the language got outside of her experience. "Do you know what that means?"

At various times I'd interject other questions, too, to gauge her understanding of the material, and get her thinking more deeply about it. "Why do you think this character did that?" "Do you think that was a good idea?" "What do you think will happen next?" Etc.

When we read HP, these options presented themselves: "How is this different than the movie?" "Which version of this event did you prefer?"

Normal but I think longer lasting and more obvious if the child has a problem with reading as it takes longer to get reading level and interest lined up.

totally go for it. you never know what your kid will latch on to and it's really, really major that kids have access to literary content that appeals to them while they're sorting out the learning-to-read part. audio books can be a really big help, too - but as far as stuff we're reading to her right now, DD5 is currently listening to two books:

Under Wildwood (Book 2 in a series by Colin Meloy/ read to her by her dad)
The Secret of Chimneys (Agatha Christie/ read to her by me - we're basically reading them all - works out to about one a week.)

and of course the Harry Potter series and Alice in Wonderland and the abridged Jane Austens and the Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton. endless fun - and she's reading basically all of those to herself now - the switch was strangely quick.

and ha, polarbear - we had a similar "favourite book" fiasco last year: The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins was what DD (then 4) told the class. she was literally obsessed with it, sketching things out of it and going over the chapters hundreds of times. apparently there's nothing like a little evolutionary biology to make teachers jump to all the wrong conclusions...

DD had little tolerance for sitting through regular chapter books until I started reading the Ramona Quimby series. Then she was hooked, and I've read lots since then (Little House on the Prairie books, the Borrowers, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle...). As much as DD loves Henry and Mudge (which she can read on her own), she enjoys a more complex storyline.

I use the AR Bookfinder site (http://www.arbookfind.com/default.aspx) to get a sense of a book's grade level. I don't know how accurate it is, but it's something. It's also a good site to find books by the same author, or in the same series.


eta: I mostly read the kids books that I enjoyed reading as a kid, and that they may not necessarily pick up on their own. But, sometimes we have a fail. I tried reading E. Nesbit's "The Railway Children" and we just couldn't get through it. DS asked me to quit reading Mary Poppins after the first chapter. I think in both cases the language was just a little too difficult for them.

I wonder why the psychologist says your dd has dyslexia? Your description of her reading makes me wonder.

It seems to me that if she's reading the Littlest Pet Shop books, which you say is a grade or so above her, she's a good reader for her age. Also, not recognizing a word in a book, when she can read it on a flashcard isn't typical-- it's usually the other way around. Kids with dyslexia use context to help figure out words that they can't read in isolation. What other signs of dyslexia does she have? Does she struggle with fluency? Is she a hesitant reader and does it sound like she's seeing each word for the first time? Can she sound out? Again, dyslexic kids often can't.

As for read alouds, regardless of whether she's dyslexic, I'm sure she comprehends far above what she can read. Go for good, complex literature. My kids loved Raul Dahl, Magic Treehouse, and other chapter books sprinkled with pictures when they were 6.

Thank you for your response, I did not get into the entire backstory for the sake of time but I'm happy to expound.

Dd loves to be read to, but reading on her own is problematic. When I say that she can read a word that's isolated versus on a page, I mean that she can look at a word on a flash card, isolate the letters, and with coaching combine the sounds to make the word. She can read beginner books for content, but will jumble the word order or substitute words (like see mail and say mailbox). She brought home a chapter book to read, but to my knowledge could not read it herself. She could possibly read it silently, but she said she chose it to be read aloud at bedtime.

She saw the psychologist primarily for adhd testing, as she is an extremely active/fidgety child and has been in trouble at school for impulse problems (ex: drawing on the table when she should be drawing on paper and saying she can't resist playing with the pencil caddy on the table she sits at). He ran a battery of tests (WISC, WIAT, Beery VMI, Child memory scale, CPT-2) along with snap-IV and bds-2 to rule out any other issues. He said his initial findings are that she writes in mirror image more often than expected for her ability level (which we and her teachers have seen), she has trouble organizing her thoughts and often ran out of room on her paper while writing for him, and that she confused b, p, and d in words and by themselves. Since he saw the dyslexia issues, he wanted extra time to look at test scores before making a decision about adhd. He said she did well on her cpt test for the first portion, and that bright children often compensate on the test so she could have masked her inattention. Once she got 3/4 of the way through the psych said she got tired and started making more errors, then told him she was ready to take a break. He also mentioned that he expects her iq scores to be skewed as a result of the pending adhd and dyslexia diagnoses. We will get his final report on Monday.

Mercy Watson books! We only read the first three because that is all the library had and then when I thought about them again my son was past them (and my other son flew by them before I remembered how much we liked them).

I'm not sure if its typical but definitely not uncommon. My ODS has loved to be read to since birth practically. At 6, though, he showed little interest in learning to read on his own. His comprehension, however, was always way above his decoding abilities. I wanted reading to be a joy not a chore, so I read to him and didn't push to hard on the learn-to-read books (they ARE boring after all!).
He is 10 now and reads way above grade level, but I still read to him because he still enjoys it. I am reading David Eddings' Belgariad to him right now. I am thrilled to share books I loved as a kid with him. When he was your daughter's age we read the Magic Treehouse books and he also loved George's Secret Key to the Universe series. Another favorite was The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie (Andrews) Edwards. Great book about encouraging imagination!

We also talk a lot throughout about the choices the characters make, what unfamiliar words mean, etc. I try not to ask HIM too many questions though because he starts feeling like the whole experience is a test and then its much less enjoyable for him.

My advice is to read her anything she shows an interest in and don't worry about the reading level.



epoh, I hadn't thought to read that one to him, I enjoyed reading it myself though. I am intrigued that the author found the pictures first and constructed the story around them.

Also, I think reading to them is a great way to manage books that they are interested in but may have subject matter that might be a concern. I read Ender's Game to him over the summer, which gave us a better opportunity to discuss some of the themes. He wants to read The Hunger Games, but I think that is another one that we will read together.

I am reading "The Hobbit" to my 6 year old son right now. He loves it and as a special treat, we will watch the movie version when we are done.
I read most days for 25 minutes to him. I have a policy of reading real literature books and not those graded "read to me" books because I want to instill a love of good books in my child in the little time that I have to read to him everyday. I too ask a lot of comprehension questions throughout the read aloud time and am surprised when some of the complex sentence structures in these books and the unusual language (to my child) is within his grasp. I also mix in qustions like what he might have done if such a thing had happened to him and could he imagine the dark and dreary night where the characters were plodding through the forest etc and ask him to describe his responses with finer detail.
Before this, some of our more fun read alouds were Dr Dolittle (the original version) and Winnie the Pooh series.
So, go for it and you might find yourself enjoying them as much as your child!

Oh another fun series that comes to mind (after reading the fairy thread) is Fablehaven by Brandon Mull.

Some books that we like are:
The Ivy and Bean books
Clementine
Judy Moody Books
The Stink Books- Judy Moody's little brother, he has his own series:-)
Amelia Bedelia
Grace series-Grace, Just Grace, Still Just Grace.


Tried to read Encyclopedia Brown books to her and NOT interested....the pictures weren't interesting enough:-(

Gook luck!

I wouldn't be overly worried at 5 unless the diagnosis is confirmed and verified by a second opinion. If it does come back as dyslexia You have a jump start on working to help you child.

FWIW, I discovered that my DD was pretending to read books using the context based memory you mentioned when she was 6. She had previously been reading books to me and I wondered why she suddenly made mistakes with an entirely novel one - the answer became apparent. I would not jump to diagnostic conclusions too hastily.

I spent some time with my DD right then and there - she already knew the 'letter sounds' so we worked on the word sounds and persisted through the tears (I hatedmyself and felt like Dr Mengele at the time but I 'just knew' I had to do it) and a couple of hours later DD could read. Just six months later she had torn through the Hobbit and was well into the HP's. Only mentioning this because my DD showed the similar behavior...

Thanks, madeinuk. I posted a response explaining the tests dd was given, but it seems to still be awaiting approval by the moderator.

We started reading the first Magic treehouse book last night and dd LOVED it. Thanks for the suggestion!

Also, I wanted to nite that my post on page 2 gives more backstory on her testing and the psych's preliminary thoughts. We should get her results today, and my stomach is tense just thinking about it.

Glad to hear it! The nice thing about the Magic Tree House books is that there are a TON of them, and the local library should have several of them, at least.

Try and practice some meditative breathing if you can. Stressing yourself out does no one any good!

My 10 year old still likes to be read to, even though he is capable of reading anything and everything. We travel quite often to out of state soccer tournaments, and both he and my husband quite happily listen to whatever I choose to read to them