I am over at Writing to be Read today with a post about chapter books versus short stories for children. Thank you Kaye Lynne Booth for hosting me.
I was having a conversation with my sister recently. Her younger son has recently been diagnosed with dyslexia and he finds reading difficult. He is an incredibly bright young man and I believe he is frustrated by his reading barrier. I experienced this same frustration with my younger son, Michael, who has and auditory processing learning barrier.
Our conversation led to a discussion about books and the fact that her son avoids reading as much as possible. He becomes difficult and even rude in an attempt to escape the hardship of having to try to read.
I recall similar behaviour by my son so I am deeply sympathetic. It is incredibly difficult to remain patient and kind when your child is going against you at every turn.
I gave my sister some advice based on my own experience with teaching Michael to read. I advised her to try tandem reading…
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Great advice! I too had a reluctant reader because of auditory processing problems and when I finally homeschooled her in 6th grade she finally became a reader because I let her read whatever she wanted. She had to have a book with her at all times because she went everywhere with me and if there was time she was to read. She started with Baby Mouse books, which are simple graphic novels, and grew from there. Good luck to your sister.
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Hi Marci, that is lovely to hear. I am glad your child discovered the joy of reading. As a reader myself, I can’t imagine not having reading, it is my comfort and fall back at all times. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
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I think you’re great, Robbie. Having problems with your own son has given you an extra insight to whatever other children may need regarding reading, not to mention cooking…All credit to you. Hugs x
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Hi Joy, thank you for your kind comment. There is nothing like experiencing a problem with your own child to make you research and learn. We were advised by my son’s school to keep him in main stream when the problem was diagnosed, I am so glad I went against that advice and put him in a remedial school. It did wonders for him.
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Well done you! Having had three sons myself, I quite understand. If they grow up like ours, you’ll be very happy! xx
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I hope they do, Joy. Your family sounds lovely.
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I left the following comment: I’m glad you found something worked for Michael, Robbie. The importance is to keep the frustration level to the minimum and satisfaction level to the maximum so children wouldn’t avoid reading totally. What we do at school is to provide “high interest, low vocabulary” books for some upper grades students, so they read upper grades subjects without struggling through the vocabulary and the length of reading. They still get the general ideas of the subjects studied.
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Hi Miriam, thank you for adding you experience and advice. That makes perfect sense to me and is in line with the short story concept. Keeping it shorter prevents the child from being overwhelmed and frustrated.
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Yeah, Robbie! It’s both a common sense and research based approach. Children can learn facts without a huge vocabulary.
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Just a quickie as I was very touched last night by a sweet act on youngest son Robert’s part. He’s 52 and lives 5 mins drive away in the car. I was late for my newspaper column deadline and my page ‘froze’ – I’m NOT into technology so rang him to ask what I could do. It was 10 pm. He was around in 10 mins…and showed me what I didn’t do! Whoops. Bless him, he was cleaning his teeth prior to going to bed early when I rang. I was really moved. xx
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I think, Joy, that your son’s loving actions are a wonderful tribute to your mothering skills. He really loves you and that is the most marvelous thing. Hugs.
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Robbie even my son was dyslexic and I too faced a lot of problems with him in his school life. From the age of six we were told in the school that your son is dyslexic and I have gone through a tough time. My son could not study main stream and I had to take his medical test too, then when he went to 8th standard, I was told to change his school and kept him in Open schools where the studies are not very difficult and he studied till only 12th standard with pushing and plodding. Finally I made him do a distance education on Advertising and Media with a London based college for three years and today I can say my son is doing good in his job and he likes what he is doing. This is what happens with children with special needs. Thank you for your lovely post.
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Thank you for sharing you story, Kamal. You have worked very hard to give your son the best opportunities in life. You are a wonderful mother. It is not easy with special needs children. It feels sometimes like I’m pushing an elephant up a hill, but it is worth it and Michael is doing quite well in most subjects.
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Yes Robbie this is what I too felt with my son and then we have to go and work too so a real hard task though my daughter was good in her studies. You too are doing a marvelous job with Michael and all will turn out great in the end. You are always welcome dear. This is life in a nutshell for all of us we have to go through the ups and downs but with God’s grace everything works out well. Love and light to you Robbie ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
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It sounds like you did a wonderful job with your son, Kamal. It isn’t easy dealing with children that struggle at school, it takes huge patience and endurance. I am so glad your son has found a job he likes. That is so nice to know.
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Yes Robbie he never liked school though could not cope up nor study like regular kids but slow and steady he passed every year but afterwards was not wanting to study at all. With luck he loved doing designs and media and now with the digital world he is doing websites and working with a reputed company too and appreciated for what he is doing. But what a struggle it was for him too. Hope our schools do something for these dyslexia children it would be so good for both the mother and the child
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I can imagine it was very hard for him in Main Stream school, Kamal. Sending Michael to a remedial school for his primary school years was the best thing we could have done. He got some much help and was taught coping skills.
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Lovley article with good advice, Robbie.
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Thank you, Norah ❤️
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Excellent advice, Robbie.
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I wondered what you would think of this post, Jennie. I know you love reading chapter books to children. Reading them to children and getting them to read them to you is quite different though, isn’t it?
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Yes, it definitely is! Taking turns is effective and takes the pressure off the child. Do your libraries have therapy reading dogs? Children sign up to read to a dog. It’s very popular here.
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HI Jennie, we don’t have therapy reading dogs in our libraries. Our libraries are not well maintained unfortunately. I can see the value in this concept.
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