Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Grade 1 - typical reading skills

Hi

I had a meeting today with DS7's teachers about our recent OT report (which indicated possible DCD). (Thread is in the 2E section)

I was mentioning to them some observations I had of his reading-aloud:

He avoids doing the daily reading homework - strongly prefers me to read to him
When we read, he loses his place in the text frequently
He skips words often, filling them in with another word - sometimes makes sense in the context and sometimes not
He sometimes skips the endings of words
He improves if I hold a ruler or something under each line, but doesn't want to do this himself

Generally, he can (and wants to) read books at the level of Spirit Animals (~gr. 4), but he'll start to read it on his own and give up after a short time (usually asking me to read to him).

His English teacher said that these things are age-typical (losing your spot, skipping words, word substitution).

His OT suggested that it may be related to his fine-motor weakness (eye muscles being fine-motor muscles).


Does anyone know - are these typical grade 1 issues that he'll grow out of? And therefore the frustration is due to asynchronicity?

Or is it a true deficit we need to work on and accommodate for?

I was considering having him assessed for vision issues to see if vision therapy would help, but if he's age-typical, maybe it's not necessary...

Hi Can2K,

I don't have any professional expertise here. But I can give you our data point, and my observation from DS7's first grade class room, where I volunteer.

From the classroom: I should first point out that we are in a preposterously over-achieving school district. Even so, the kids in DS's class are all over the map. Some are still in the very early reading levels. Several (including DS) are now reading above third grade level, which is as high as they assess.

As I understand it, K-2 is a time period when brain development for reading is kicking in at multiple points in the brain. Different kids have different brain development "schedules" and will have that lift-off moment at different times. So typical reading in 1st grade is all over the place.

[[Hopefully aeh will weigh in and correct any inaccuracies in what I just wrote there.]]

Our data point - which I've written about extensively in other threads: DS was assessed as likely stealth dyslexic last August. He had many of the symptoms you describe for your DS. As we were lining up further assessments/therapies, something clicked for him. His reading went from early readers to >3rd grade (probably >5th grade) in a matter of weeks. He now routinely reads on his own, takes books to bed, loves reading.

We have whiplash, but are letting it ride for now. Maybe a mistake, maybe not. But honestly, his reading keeps galloping ahead and really seems unbounded at this point. So I can't justify reading therapy for him, though it would make me sleep better at night to force him to do it. I'm always anxious about whether I'm making the right decisions for DS. But that applies to everything, not just reading!

[[Again, aeh probably could offer good thoughts here, and recommend against our strategy. It's very "gut" based and honestly makes me fret. But it's still my best guess at what's right for him.]]

Of course this is just my DS's data point. You'll see lots of other folks with great results from dyslexia and vision therapies.

Edit to add: He was also assessed with dysgraphia and his handwriting and spelling are still awkward and arduous. But they, too, are improving and are at or above grade level. I have no idea if we're doing the right thing!!

Best of luck as you decide how to go forward!
Sue

I was a reading tutor and worked with about 20 different kids in grades 1-3. Many of the third graders had problems with tracking when they started the school year, but this improved over time. I would say that it's developmentally apprporiate for a 7 year old to have issues with this. My second grade 8 year old with DCD does not have these tracking issues but I think he had a few issues with missing words or entire lines a year and a half ago. When he read out loud he would blow right through periods and other punctuation as well like they didn't even exist.

I would say developmentally appropriate too. But since you know he has some issues and the OT has concerns further investigation will make you sleep better provided it doesn't cause too much financial stress.

It might be developmentally appropriate, but fwiw we've had the same issues with two of our children, and in both instances it was related to specific challenges that they needed help with (one had severe vision challenges, the other has a significant challenge retaining memory of sight-sound correspondence). My student with the vision issues was actually behind in reading at school in K-1, but my dd who has the issue with sight-sound correspondence was *not* behind - she was actually considered to be ahead of grade in reading skills early on, then fell to grade level, then made a bit of what seemed like a leap in reading again when she reached higher level chapter books - but that wasn't a real leap that meant the challenge had resolved or disappeared, it occurred because she now had enough text to infer meaning from context.

For your ds, I'd consider the following: you already have a potential DCD diagnosis, and it's been suggested that might cause weak eye muscle response. The things you've observed when your ds reads make sense if he has weak eye muscles. A developmental optometrist's eval will let you know if it is or isn't something that's going on with your ds. You aren't going to lose *anything* by going through the eval other than the $ invested in it and the time (which shouldn't be more than a few hours). If he does have issues with tracking or depth perception or convergence or peripheral vision or anything that a developmental optometry eval would typically uncover, you'll be relieved that you *know*. If you sit back and wait because you might not need to worry about it (but you aren't sure).. and then a year from now it's still an issue, you have the eval and you find out there are vision-related challenges, you'll most likely regret waiting.

I'd also consider that it took us 2 full years from 2nd grade when dd's reading challenge was first becoming obvious to 4th grade to get to a point where we understood the challenge and had tutoring in place that was making a difference. Although she's catching up on reading and comprehension skills *now*, she lost at least two years of reading books/words/etc that her peers were reading and it really shows in her vocabulary and in how difficult it is to pick up a book that's appropriately challenging for her and slog through it (again, due to limited vocabulary).

polarbear

Does he read independently for pleasure at all? I can't tell from your description. Is there an issue of mismatch between desired content and what he can comfortably handle solo?

My DS7 read very early and well but routinely skipped lines, words, substituted, etc. I think he does not do this any more, though I don't have him read aloud much anymore since his skill level is obviously very high. FWIW, I actually found that he did this less when he read harder books. But the difference is, he was a very avid solo reader at the time he was doing this.

When my kids were 7-ish, they all skipped words and lines, lost their places, and so on. Holding a ruler helped, but I usually had to do it. FWIW, two of my kids have been tested, with one PG and one MG. The third is likely HG+, so it wasn't correlated to IQ in their cases.

I remember being frustrated by this problem when I had to read out loud in first and second grade. It drove me nuts. I also didn't have this problem when I read silently --- I feel confident of this statement because I was quite aware of it when reading out loud. It was like my mouth couldn't keep up with my brain. Does your son report anything like this?

One of my kids' teachers used to put up informational brochures about this being a normal thing in kids. If I recall correctly, the brochure said that it can continue for a long time (12? 14?), though it gets better. So, between this, my tiny sample size, and the comments of others here, I suspect that it's a developmental thing not correlated with IQ.

My second son had the most trouble, and he was mostly past it by the time he was 8.

ETA: my daughter learned to read very young, but she complained about books with "small writing," saying she had trouble reading them. This meant that chapter books were out if they had small print. So her case was different from mine in that one respect. I'll ask my kids about their experiences with reading out loud and report back after I go exercise.

While I suspect that this is age appropriate, I would get my child evaluated for a developmental vision delay were I in your shoes.

The chances are that there is nothing to worry about but I would still like to know one way or another because I think that the earlier this sort of thing is treated the better the outcome.

As others have said, your list is probably not inappropriate in the average 7 year-old, but it would make me twitchy in a kid who can and wants to read grade 4 books, but then seems to find something frustrating and getting in the way that makes him stop.

Your list is very familiar and (in our case relates to both visual processing processing issues as well as dyslexia). A smart kid who seems like they can read but fights it, is always worth a careful look.

Thanks everyone - it's good to know that it might just be age-related. I don't recall DD10 having these issues at age 7, but she ramped up her reading very quickly and now reads faster than I do.

DS does read on his own - mostly comics (Pokemon, Sonic, Big Nate). But his preference seems to be to ask me to read to him.

The other thing that slows him down when reading aloud is perfectionism - he wants to get the expression just right and often re-reads a sentence until he likes how it sounds. Do other kids do this?

I think I will go ahead with the vision assessment, just in case.