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

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.

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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.