how can i help my 5 year old son to read? national reading week!?

Question

My son is 5 years old. he has literally fallen behind in class, beause of his behavior. he finds it difficult to listen and concentrate in class for long period of time. due to tis he has fallen behind and cannot read well. he is last in class. I have put him into private tuition on sundays, but this is only for 1 hour and expensive for me. I want him to do well and really encourage him to do well all the time. he even tells me he wants to be a pilot when he grows up!

how can i try at home to help, we read bedtime stories, but he can't read and we practice alphabets and sounds.

please help as he has not even got any help from school as the school has used all thier allocated hours and time or budget up for extra assistant.
thank you

Answer 1

Sad indeed. Sad that your son cant read? No! Sad that educators are pushing reading at such a young age.
Did you know kids are not even developmentally ready to read until the are 7? Anyway email me for more info on that as I could write you a book here.
Anyways lets talk about his behavior first. He is 5 and if I had to guess I would guess he started school very shortly after turning 5, meaning he has a later month birthday. So in light of that his behavior is probaby typical for his age. Kids who are 5 arent suppose to sit still and read....they are suppose to be learning through play and movement (ahh the past days of developmental kinder are long gone...the days when kinder classes had centers and lots of developmental learning).
So anyway long story short back off a bit. Im not saying drop it all together but lets take some of the stress off. Its March now and you have 2 months until end of the year. Time to make a plan for next year. My suggesstion would be to hold him back. I am guessing your kid just wasnt developmentally ready for kinder, yet given another year he will most likely excel. Please consider this before using a diet change, meds or anything else. I mean do the obvious get eyes and ears checked, but if he passes all that please just consider basic development and the thougth that maybe your son just wasnt ready. Boys develope slower than girls so keep that in mind too.
I held my son back in 1st grade because I saw what your seeing now. I work in OT in the schools and know child development like the back of my hand so I could recognize that something just wasnt right. I held him back actually against teacher wishes. I sat him down at the end of first and just explained to him that he wasnt dumb or anything such as that, that he just wasnt ready for 2nd. He was ok with it. Needless to say he is in 5th grade now and considered top of his class!
I see to many times a kid get behind like this and teachers just pass them along. About 3rd-4th grade someone finally figures out that "things arent right" and the kid isnt learning. The next thing they do is refer for special ed testing. The kid is placed in special ed and while special ed programs can be great I have seen them deter kids from meeting thier potential. I have a strong belief that if some of these kids were held back in order to get the basics down (fundamentals of reading) then they would have never needed to placed in special ed.
Anyway I will get off my soap box now. In closing I want to re-emahsize consider holding him back. Then you have all summer and the next year to work on those reading skills. If then theres no improvement then look at other things that might be impeeding his learning.

Answer 2

Firstly, dont worry he is 5 he has a long way to go before not being able to read becomes a problem. I dont think my sons were reading alone at this age. Find out what is causing his behaviour problem at school, is it boredom or frustration because he does not understand. Get his eyes tested. There has been a lot in the news about the Omega fish oils helping behaviour and concentration, I was a bit sceptical but they do help. Keep reading to him and do not pressure him to try and read on his own too much, share the reading let him pick a word from the book that he will shout out when it appears on the page. For my sons reading was like riding a bike one day it just suddenly clicked. Dont just read books when you are out read road signs, shop signs, newspapers, magazines, comics, food packaging, computer games reading is everywhere for him. When you are going out for the day make little games up like the first one to spot a certain word gets a treat. Save your money on the tutor and spend the time with him yourself he will enjoy this more and benefit from it more than a tutor. There is so much testing and competition that the minute your child does not come up to scratch you panic, (not you personally parents in general, it is 5 in the morning and I am up worrying because my son passed his 11+ yesterday and part of me cant believe it and the other part is worrying that I wont be able to support him through secondary school properly with his work) but there is no need he is too little bless him. If he wants to be a pilot find him books and articles regarding this.
Good luck and it is hard but really dont worry.

Answer 3

I understand where you are coming from and, much as I think the people who made the point about the child not being ready etc. until you have had a child that is falling behind at school (like I have and you have) you cannot understand the desire to help your child catch up. This is not about ambition or hot housing, it is about how best to help a child that is falling behind. I know a boy who fell behind in reception and by halfway through year one he has basically given up. This can be brought back, but it takes a lot. It would have been better not to suffer that in the first place.

The way I did it with my daughter was to buy a load of Peter and Jane books from ebay, buy a nice colouful alphabet poster from the Early Learning Centre, which I hung in her room, and buy some basic pre-reading books with gold stars etc. Do not pressure your boy and when he has had enough he has had enough. My daughter was highly incentivised by the gold stars, and better to start off too easy and build confidence, than to go in at the level you think he should be at. Once the confidence grows, then the desire to learn grows and it is possible to catch up, because my daughter has done. By the way, my daughter also has concentration issues and is borderline ADHD, but I wonder how much is frustration / attention seeking due to not being able to do something? Now her reading /writing has improved, so has her behaviour.

Once we started to get into the Peter and Jane books, we would, for example, say we will read you one bedtime story, but if you can work through 3 pages of this book (not perfectly, just work through it) then you can have two stories. he loved us reading to her, so that worked pretty well too.

Just remember: confidence, confidence, confidence and rewards for small progress (rewards can be praise, stickers etc)

Answer 4

Have you thought of Kumon lessons (instead of a tutor) - they give you plenty of homework and you work at your own pace. They take complete beginners.

Is it possible he may be dyslexic (don't know what age this manifests) or his vision may be compromised? (this can manifest itself so only a particular vision test can pick it up), I can't seem to find the article I was reading, but its part of an eye test done in Scotland and you have to go somewhere specifically for it in England as it takes a little longer - worth asking your optician - it makes the text jump about so they can't focus properly, not a 'normal' eye sight problem but apparently affects lots of people and affects their reading ability. So a regular test won't show it, ask an optitician.

I'm a great believer in omega 3 for helping with many issues - a friends boy couldn't speak and was real handful, never listening or sitting still (aged two and a few months) within a fortnight of daily omega 3 this was all improving greatly.
The best one (highest EPA/DHA) that I have found is called Eskimo Kids (from health food shop) it is an oil and I mix the right amount into a set jelly every night at bathtime - what a treat!
I make the jelly using a favourite drink (oasis) and something called vegigel (tescos baking department) to avoid the geletine. But it would probably mix with yoghurt okay.
Lots of children will just swallow it anyway - it tastes like bubblegum.

Answer 5

Not many kids can read at 5. Take the pressure off him and have fun with books. Join library if you can and if he wants to be a pilot - get loads of books on planes etc. Dont worry about words at the moment, get picture books etc. He will learn to love books if it is your special time together. If he likes the topic you will find he can sit for quite a while. Once books are fun, and non threatening he will want to be a reader - that then is the battle won. Once he wants to do it he will concentrate. It does not take long for the penny to drop. None of my kids were early readers, but all love reading now. If he still not reading well at seven or eight you might need a tutor - but not at five. Let him be little, have fun and play. he will know when the time is right for him.

Answer 6

Use picture books and run your finger along under the words as you read. He may be dyslexic, but even so he should be able to learn how to read, though maybe not so soon as other kids of his age. You could ask for an assessment of his educational needs if you are worried. If the school have a problem with his behavior, I would say that in itself is reason enough to have him assessed, if he is getting behind on his schoolwork that is another. The first place you should ask is the school itself. The school can't legally refuse to help him, they are obliged to provide an education, "according to age, ability and aptitude". If there is any doubt as to what his needs are then an assessment must be carried out by an educational psychologist. If you are refused an assessment you can appeal this decision. This site should help answer some of the questions you may think of. http://www.ipsea.org.uk/sevenfixes.htm Good luck.

Answer 7

For a start he's only five, I teach reception aged children, don't stress yet. Many children will take a couple of years even to get into reading. If you do want to help him focus on stories about things he is interested in football fact books, dinosaur books, show him how you have to use sounds to work out the names of the dinosaurs. Start with getting him to label things in his room with the correct letters of the alphabet tell him if he can label 5 things right he'll get a sweet, nothing wrong with bribing him a little, then go on to the correct words. Or if you do 5 minutes reading with me and really try hard you can then do..... something he likes. Short bursts of learning work better than an hour once a week, its the little and often approach. but what ever you do don't get stressed with him it'll put him off even more. Hope this helps.

Answer 8

There is an excelent book:
Learing how to learn for kids who are in primary school, based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard.

It teaches the kid how to understand the words and the subjects.
It works for the kid for him to succeed. It is a great book actualy.
There is also an easy to use dictionary - a simplified one which teaches what is important about the words: definitions and origin. And there is also a Grammar that tells the kid how to make understandable sentences and explains what is understanding.
The all set is fantasticaly FABULOUS.

Get them from http://www.appliedscholastics.org
Here you can order the boks from and you can also learn the barriers to effective learning.
It was amazing for me to get it touch with this study tecnology.
Myself I made the Study Basic Manual which is for older than 10 and I know I can learn any subject without the need of a teacher or professor.
If you would like a Study Professional Course, they have it available too.

Just have a look at the bok store and contact them if you have any question. Any question at all. They are really Pro.

Wish you the very best.
Greetings from Frankfurt am Main - Germany

Answer 9

Try Jolly Phonics - this is a great scheme. The P1 class at my school have started to use it and it is great. I don't know 1 child that hasn't come on well with it. It really helps with identifying blends like 'oo' , 'ai' , etc so that the children learn it says 'ooooo' or 'A'. When the kids come across a word like 'sail' for the first time then they learn to sound it out as 's...A...l' and it sounds like it's said rather than 's..a..i...l.' which doesn't sound like 'sail', if you follow me!
The scheme is available in places like Early Learning Centre and you can get a huge variety of games, resources, videos to go along with it.
http://www.jollylearning.co.uk/jp.htm
It doesn't have to bought new. I know eBay will sell this and other such sites.

Otherwise, just keep reading with him. Go along to the library and look up a variety of different books over the space of a few weeks till you find the style that suits him and he can benifit from.

Buy a pack of blank postcards and write a letter of the alphabet on each on and use as flash cards, so even when sitting on a bus you can make up a game that can help him with memorising the letters.

If walking along the street ask if he can find a particular letter in any of the shop signs, street names etc.

I made up word bingo with one of my kids - just 6 boxes drawn out on a piece of paper with easy ryhming words, such as fat, cat, hat, sat, mat, pat. I then had 2 games - the first was the same words written on separate pieces of paper that were picked up 1 by 1 then matched to the same on the bingo card. The 2nd game was putting a smartie on each word then it was kept as a prize if the word from the pile was picked up, read correctly then placed on the right spot. If it wasn't read correctly then it was put back on the pile to be tried again afterwards. The smarties were all eventually won and it was a game he enjoyed!
I had my bingo card too so that we played together, though obviously I made a few 'mistakes' so he enjoyed getting a chance to try and corret me thus helping boost his self esteem and confidence.

Please don't get caught up in worrying about where your son is placed in the class. The important thing is that he is working to his level and he is achieving and progressing at a rate that is suitable for him.

Here are some other sites that might be of interest to you.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/190
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/storybook/#
http://www.boxtops4books.co.uk/parents/supporting-reading/Reading-at-School.aspx
http://www.duboislc.org/EducationWatch/First100Words.html
http://www.succeedtoread.com/learntoread.html
http://www.first-school.ws/theme/alphabet.htm
http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/preschoolers.htm

There are so many ways that you can help with his reading - and you are probably already doing more that you realise. You don't have to be buying expensive books etc. Loads of things can be made at home and he can be involved in. It's great that you are seeking to encourage him. You're a mum that cares and that can't be beaten.

I really hope you find something that will click with your wee boy and that he finds the confidence and perhaps when he realises that he is capable then this will have a positive effect on his behaviour.

Answer 10

Hi Miss Tee,
You say that the main problem is that he finds it difficult to sit still and listen in class. This may have several causes, and it is important to find out which one, as that will help you to help him.
Firstly ask him why he finds it difficult. It may be that he cannot hear the teacher (indicating he may need a hearing test), or see the board (eye test), or he gets hungry (high protein breakfast or oatmeal rather than sugary cereal) or simply that the boy who sits next to him talks too much!

The other thing is to ask other mums if they could come in and read at the school one day a week. My previous company let us spend up to 3 days on these sort of activities, and I spent an hour a week reading to my son's year 6 class - and my current company does with one school in Camden - perhaps a large business could do the same? Also ask at local colleges if students could come in to help reading like Imperial College does with Pimlico school.

Answer 11

Your son is still very young and most schools would not be expecting him to be able to read fluently. I think it is great that you are encouraging him to recognise alphabet sounds, but try to incorporate this in everyday activities. For example, when you are out and about and you notice somewhere like McDonald's , emphasize the initial letter sound 'mmm' and then say the word - do this in a way that will help your child to participate and want to learn, for example, his favourite football team, favourite TV programme, favourite foods etc. From there it should be easier to build up into sounding out simple three letter words, such as c -a-t or d -o-g. It's best to avoid flashcards - they are boring and most children quickly lose interest. Keep reading bedtime stories, and make regular trips to bookshops and libraries. Let him help you to write shopping lists before you go out, it doesn't matter if he doesn't spell words correctly, as long as he participates he will begin to enjoy the early process of reading and writing - last of all, praise, praise and praise - it is very important that you reward him for his efforts by saying good things. Hope this helps! (I am a qualified primary school teacher)