Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy DYS DS7 Doesn't Like to Read

I think we've got a problem in hand - DYS DS7 doesn't like to read. He doesn't like to read instructions when working on math problems. He tends to ask me to read the question to him but I usually let him do it himself. When we go to the museum, we ask him to read the information on the exhibit, he does not want to read it. He would wondering around until we ask him come back and finish reading. He doesn't pick up a book and just start reading unless we ask him to do so. I asked him why he doesn't like to read. He said that reading is boring, even on the subjects that really interest him. He's rather find a video to watch and learn than read about it on a book.

This is the kid who was obsessed with alphabets, learning the longest word in the English dictionary, learn numbers in different languages and having so much fun playing word puzzles and games. He's at 99% on VCI on the WISC-V test. But he doesn't like to read! He doesn't have trouble skipping words or lines and reads fluently out loud. I am just puzzled.

He's tested >99.9% on VSI on the WISC. Does it have anything to do with him not interested in reading text? What can we do to help increase his interest in reading?

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

TIA!

Is there something perhaps going on with his vision?

Hi ajinlove,

How does he do on reading achievement tests? Is he possibly just too active to want to sit still for long periods of time? (which actually might not be terribly unusual for a 7-year-old boy)? Is there anything he has enjoyed reading in the past? Have you tried the Life of Fred books or Beast Academy (books about math)?

DD's very bright friend was found to have stealth dyslexia at about this age, but unless you are seeing signs, this might not be anything to worry about.

My DYS DS7 is impatient with words in math, but he has been forced to deal with them as the teachers have been giving him quite a few challenging word problems in school. The biggest problem I observe with him is a failure sometimes to CAREFULLY READ the details of the problem. I jokingly read the problem ssslllloooowwwwlllyyy to point out to him that he has missed a crucial detail, despite the fact that his math was otherwise fine (ok, sometimes he doesn't appreciate this). This is the kid who drives me bonkers because he wants to solve everything in his head and sometimes does so correctly, before I am finished working the problem alongside him. Other times, though, he'll simply make a silly mistake this way. He likes to do math QUICKLY.

My DS, I think like yours, almost prefers to do math problems to reading. Despite a very high VCI and very high reading achievement scores (DYS-level reading and math on the WIAT), he cannot seem to plant himself still for as long as DYS DD did at the same age...he is NOT hyper, but quite physically active. Most of his reading occurs at night when he is pretty tired. I plant sports books, the sports section, National Geographic Kids books on topics he likes around the house for him...sometimes it works. He has managed to read some challenging books this year. I don't know that he'll ever read as much as DD did/does, but he is a different child!

Hang in there!

There's been some good discussions about kids avoiding reading, or avoiding books at their level, which you might find helpful. Unfortunately, although I remember an extensive one (from last summer, I think?), I can't find it. Can anyone else remember, or track it down? Here's another one, though, that might be of interest.

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....6228/Advanced_reader_but_won_t_move.html

With the level of avoidance of reading you're seeing, though, I would definitely want to be really sure there wasn't some kind of hidden learning issue. A high VSI wouldn't have anything to do with not wanting to read - but it could be a huge help in allowing a seven-year-old to read fluently by sight words only, without being able to decode. A combo of high VCI/ VSI/ memory makes it possible to memorize one's entire reading vocabulary as a set of individual pictures to recognize as words (ask me how I know this). It's possible to read this way - and a few kids in this board do it very well. But it's usually exhausting, painful, and to be avoided where possible.

ConnectingDots,

I don't think he has a vision problem. I suspected that but he doesn't skip words or lines while reading. He's a pretty fluent reader. He does occasionally have ticks that he blinks his eyes too frequently, but he's back to normal after a few days or a couple of weeks.

Can he read lists of nonsense words? DD's friend struggled with this and this was one of the first clues to parents.

Loy58,

He took the MAP test (K-2) last fall and he was at 99%. I think he can understand or comprehend if he pays attention to what he's reading. He's not hyperactive and can sit still for a long period of time if he's playing an educational APP on iPad or doing games on puzzle books. We are doing Beast Academy books right now. He seems reading it himself fine but I never really asked him questions besides doing the workbook. He loves jokes or riddle books. Those are usually few sentences and he thinks those are fun. Beast Academy maybe an easy read for him too as they are short reads in the comic format.

I just read about signs of stealth dyslexia, I don't think he has that. He's very strong with phonics and decoding. He can read fluently out loud and no problem spelling a new word with sound it off.

His teacher is going to give him a project to do this quarter. Since he loves geography, she is going to ask him to pick a state or country and do a research about the place. This will help him read and write what he finds out about this place. BTW, he doesn't like to write either. Often he would say I don't know what to write. Sigh....

When you say list of nonsense words, do you mean words that are put together as a sentence but don't really mean anything? If that's the case, I can try that with him but I don't think he would have problem...

Platypus101,

Thanks for sending the link. I suspected vision issues and Dyslexia but I don't think I am seeing signs. He's great with phonics ever since he was 2, 3 years old. He can spell words just by sounding off. He can sound off a new long word with not much struggle. He has no problem with writing and in fact has very good handwriting for his age. What other signs of stealth dyslexia or dyslexia I am missing here that may be a concern?

DS9 does not like to read either, but he is the kid who scores 143 on the PRI and 2 STD lower on VCI. He had vision issues, and had gone through vision therapy, which helped but not as much as I would hope for. He just picked up Harry Potter 2 weeks ago and likes it. Unlike his older brother who could finish reading the entire book in one day. He is much much slower, as expected

DS9 reading comprehension just picked up recently, which I am not entirely sure if it is due to vision therapy.

Like others who have commented, I would not rule out vision issue. Does he easily get tired after reading a few pages? Does he skip lines and forget his space while reading? How is his posture and handwriting?

Of course reading is boring when comparing to watching videos: with actors, cinematography, digital effects, etc.

Find something he is interested in. Breads of dog, cats, horses, electronics, chemestry, astrology, ancient greek mythology - GET DS a books (and ban the YouTube).

purpleviolin,

He doesn't get tired after reading a few pages, however he seems bored. He likes to do Lexia, an online reading tool that the school provides. They read about something and then answer 10 questions about it. They then get a flower or a fish or whatever as a reward when they answer each question correctly. It's more like a game. When reading paper books, he skips a word or two occasionally but doesn't skip lines.

He could hold the pen the correct way since he started scribbling on pager. His handwriting is really good.

I wonder what other choices does your DS7 usually have that he chooses over reading? I wonder if his choices were more limited, if he would choose reading books that were about topics he likes rather than other things. If he chooses to go outside and play instead, maybe he just needs to move around a lot. What other choices does he have at school?

Does your DS's father read for fun, or even the newspaper? I do not remember where I heard this information to check if it is well-researched or not, but I remember being told by someone (who I thought had authority on the subject) that boys will read much more often if they see their father reading. That could also work with grandfather or uncle or big brother, etc. Just food for thought.

I agree I wouldn't rule out vision. Get it tested by a specialist. It never hurts to get the obvious checked out. There are many different types of vision issues. Just because he CAN read things when he's concentrating doesn't mean he's not starting to have vision problems. My understanding is vision issues often come along slowly, get more prevalent as kids get older. And that the start of vision problems don't make reading impossible, just difficult.

What I find is odd is that he can read words well but he isn't just reading everything is site automatically. In comparison my son at 7 didn't like to read novels/fiction. But he taught himself to read at 3 and by 4 couldn't help but read every and all text he saw. At 4 going to a museum/aquarium/zoo he would read each sign out loud and in order. He quickly reach a point where he couldn't help but read.

Keep in mind there are a lot more reading issues than reading than dyslexia. My older DD had language processing issues. While she could read individual words just fine, she had difficulty stringing those individual words together into a sentence with meaning. She looked like an on target reader in K & early 1st grader but when other kids took off with their reading she stagnated. Doesn't sound like this fits your son but there are many different types of language & reading disorders.

Also one thing to consider is he is a 7 year old boy. Gifted kids can be very asynchronous. And average 7 year old doesn't read really fluently at this stage. That although he can decode words just fine perhaps he is just taking a bit longer on the other aspects of reading, that it just hasn't become automatic enough. There is a lot more for the brain to put together than just decoding individual words. It's also possible that HIS reading is too slow for him. It might frustrate him because it takes too long & he misses the meaning while struggling with decoding. This is why I advocate that even with the most advanced reader, you don't stop reading TO your child. Perhaps expecting him to concentrate at a museum/zoo/etc. is putting him on the spot and asking him to slow down too much. At 7 is might be better just to read the signs to him. I read nightly to both my kids till they were much older than 7. Picking books that were what I though of as beyond their reading level. I have no idea what your parenting style is, but I see many parents who stop reading with their child once they figure they can read. Encourage reading by sharing it with your child.

On the other hand I'm wondering if it could be a more modern age video/tablets/computers are so prevalent issue. It's so easy to find video's on almost any topic online. Why should he bother to read for content instead. It easy to entertain oneself with video games & movies. Educate oneself with video's. Why should he bother?

Well this quote from bluemagic is my best guess about what was going on with my DS8 who sounds very similar to your son. He has always enjoyed being read to, and we still read to him on a daily basis. He was basically not reading on his own at all at the beginning of first grade. We were working with a stealth dyslexia assessment although I , like you, felt there were a number of things that seemed to make it a bad fit for DS.

Then, over a period of a few weeks he went from not reading on his own at all to reading on his own voraciously. And with seemingly no upper bound on level of material. (He does still mispronounce all sorts of vocab - but his mispronunciations are usually phonetically correct.)

Now he is one of those kids who loves reading to himself. He always carries a book along, and will stay up as late as we'll let him to do it. We do still read to him, and he loves that, too. But he'll often pick up where we stop and, for example, finish a book with a flashlight under the covers.

I really think it was a matter of some things clicking into place. Once all the (asynchronously developed) bits were in place he just "knew" how to read. So long as our reading to him was faster than his own reading though, he preferred that. As bluemagic put it, until that point, his own reading was too annoyingly slow and it was just inefficient.

Of course you should check out the vision and other issues folks on this board have pointed out. But if none of them bear fruit, you might want to consider just giving him a little more time, while enjoying being able to read to him a bit longer.

Sue
P.S. DS would NEVER have been willing to read museum labels and such. He still wouldn't even though he has no problem with it. Too close to a dog and pony show activity for him and he relentlessly avoids that. Even if it's just his dad and me there. I wouldn't push that if your DS is at all like that. You could, though, try to get him to read to you when it's more of a "necessary" thing. DS will sometimes read to me when I'm cooking or folding laundry or driving - e.g., when it's not possible for me to read the material myself.

BrownTiger, howdy and bluemagic,

Thank you for your advice and suggestions. I do think that having the option of getting information off of a computer or a tablet is at least part of the reason he doesn't feel like reading even on subjects that he's interested. It may be true that he feels it is too much slower to get the information out of reading by himself than watching someone else talking on a video.

My DH is not a reader but my DS9 is a good reader. If he finds a good book, he'll sit there and read. Often you'll see DS9 reading a book and DS7 on his word game book solving problems. DS9 has finished the first three Harry Potter books but DS7 had no interest reading them.

Seeing a specialist to get his vision checked out is a good idea. There may be hidden issues with his vision that is slowing him down when reading.

I used to read to or with the boys until they were able to read small chapter books. Now I only do it once in a while. Maybe I should pick that up again and read to DS7 more often. I think he'll enjoy the time we spend reading together.

[/quote]

P.S. DS would NEVER have been willing to read museum labels and such. He still wouldn't even though he has no problem with it. Too close to a dog and pony show activity for him and he relentlessly avoids that. Even if it's just his dad and me there. I wouldn't push that if your DS is at all like that. You could, though, try to get him to read to you when it's more of a "necessary" thing. DS will sometimes read to me when I'm cooking or folding laundry or driving - e.g., when it's not possible for me to read the material myself. [/quote]

Great idea asking DS to help read things that I am not able to myself.

It is also good to know that if no vision or other processing issues, there is still hope that one day it will click and he'll starting reading

I think it sounds like you have a great plan!

Thank you, howdy

I wouldn't rule out vision. But, I can also add that, in my experience as a parent and as a teacher, kids can get frustrated when their intellectual interests do not match up with what is at a comfortable reading level. If he is able to think abstractly, deeply, and quickly, then even if he has a high reading level, the books that he can read on his own aren't rewarding enough intellectually. I would highly suggest reading aloud to him. Or, allow him to do puzzles or move around while listening to audio-books. I think that you will find that he will like it more. I also think that you will find that he will retain the information and that the positive attitude toward "books" will then transfer to printed text after a while.

Great advice, hen27! We've started reading out loud to him and with him after reading all the posts on here. We also ask questions while reading to make sure that he understands what it is telling. Audio books is a good idea too. He doesn't need to be on a screen watching a video to learn something but listen to a story or subject he's interested in

Thank you so much!

My DD9 sounds similar. I recently had her assessed by a reading specialist who said she was reading at grade level and her resistance to reading was perhaps possibly related to ADD (just a guess on her part) - but this reading specialist probably has not worked with a kid like mine, she mainly works with kids who are trying to learn to read.

DD9 reads at grade level, hates to read unless it is a graphic novel, and loves YouTube. When I do find a book she likes, she will voraciously read it. The problem is, it's hard to find a book she feels that way about.

At this point, I have just taken to reading to reading her higher level books every night, and trying to keep her reading - anything. Graphic novels have been useful as she will read those and carry them around because she really likes them.

DS's teacher told me that he's definitely reading at least 2nd grade level and she was surprised to hear that he doesn't like to read. Maybe we just need to find the books that he's really interested in. We were just reading a book about ancient Egypt last night. At the end of the chapter, there is a chart showing the symbols that represented the English alphabets. After reading the chapter, he immediately started writing my DH's name and his name in the symbols. He also made his own chart showing all the alphabets matching the symbols. We probably should find books like this with graphics and things he likes (such as symbols, maps, flags) so he reads the text and have something fun for him to look at as well...

When my child was ready to read chapter books, he refused to pick them up because he was scared by a lot of black and white text and worried that things would be too hard for him because he only wanted to attempt easy things. I got him an e-reader and the e-book of the book that he refused to read because it had "too much text" on it. I taught him to increase the font size so large that each page had only a few lines of text. And that gave him the initial confidence to attempt chapter books. He raced through the whole series on his ebook reader using big fonts. After that experience, he has been reading mostly regular books because he no longer thinks that chapter books are intimidating. So, it could be that your son has a mental block to "too much text" in a page.

Possibly true. He does tend to avoid things that he thinks that are "too hard". He loves reading joke and riddle books because the text is short and they are funny to him. Large fond with graphics books may be the way to go

When my son was K-2nd grade he mostly read non-fiction books. I couldn't really get him to read chapter books. We had (still have) tons of big thick books about dinosaurs, dragons, animals, Ancient Egypt, you name it. The lexile level of these books are are way past "2nd grade' reading.

Keep in mind that most 'early' chapter books aren't great literature. In order to fit the genre they use limited vocabulary intentionally and short chapters. Early chapter books are fairly "new" genre. (Didn't really exist when I was a kid, and early chapter books were things like Frog & Toad.) Kids used to go from reading longer picture books straight to those now labeled for the 8-12 year old range. And while many kids find them a good stepping stone it's really not a requirement to learning how to read. Another good stepping stone for reluctant readers available these days are kids graphic novels.

Excellent point.
There is a series called "Boy vs Beast" that is supposed to be for reluctant boy readers. See if your son likes this one!
http://www.boyvsbeast.com

Thank you ashley. I'll show this to him and see if he's interested.