Help Your Intermediate Reader Through a Reading Slump

Laura’s son, Rick did not enjoy reading and he didn’t see the point of it.  It was just too much work. She was desperate to help him, somehow.  But with each passing day, she felt like she was failing her son. She couldn’t pinpoint what Rick needed and didn’t understand, then, that gaps in reading were hindering her son’s growth and motivation. 

Rick had made it to sixth grade without the teachers noticing that he wasn’t actually reading or growing as a writer and now the text he had to read didn’t have enough picture support to help him to understand what he was reading about. Teachers no longer taught reading after grade two. Every time she sat down with him to try to help him with his homework, it felt like he resented her effort.  She was on a hunt to find answers.

After signing up for learning resources online, and getting so many confusing explanations in Facebook groups, someone recommended a reading interventionist at Confident Kids Academy. At the time she felt hopeless, but regretful now, for not looking into it right away.  She finally decided enough was enough. 

She reached out to the founders who have over 30 years of experience in teaching kids with learning challenges because of their experience and unique approach.  She realized this was exactly what she had been looking for. She didn’t have the time to learn how to teach her son herself, so she did the next smart thing to address her son’s predicament. Week after week, she watched Rick gain techniques and skills to fill in the gaps that he was missing.  Rick’s disposition began to change as his confidence grew. 

All she had to begin doing was the following:
1. Schedule an appointment;
2. Meet with them;
3. Follow a customized plan.

You can schedule a free 20-minute consult with us now: https://calendly.com/readerdetective/30min

Even before her son began working with her interventionist, she was given three practical action steps that she could initiate immediately. She followed these steps:   

1. Chunking/Segmenting to Sound Out Hard Words:  Pull out 5-10 longer words from the chapter. Write them out, but segment each word into syllables, so they are easier to read. Have your child practice reading them this way, and then as a regular word with no spacing between syllables.  

Ex. Cer/e/brum tra/di/tion por/cu/pine cap/y/bar/a
2.  Building Comprehension:   Read the passage to your child so they can concentrate on listening and remembering what they heard.  Have him re-tell as much as he can remember. Highlight the parts that were retold to see how much was remembered. Was he able to retell very many facts? Have him read the passage this time and retell it again. Highlight what was remembered in another color. Was the retelling more detailed?  

3.  Ways to Remember Meanings for Tricky Words:  After reading, talk about the tricky vocabulary words in the passage.  Write those words on flashcards to review later, at dinner, or while driving somewhere. Have them draw a picture on the card to help them remember the meaning and a page number where the word was used in the chapter.

These were just a few of the techniques she learned.  What she loved the most was being able to have someone else model teaching different techniques with her own child.  Not only was Rick more receptive to her doing them with him, but she got to see how to correct or redirect her child in ways that de-escalated frustration, lowering both of their anxiety. She loved that he was learning strategies to help himself and was looking forward to seeing how much Rick had grown by the end of the school year. Already, his motivation in all subjects had perked up and he had a cheerful and relaxed manner around the home.

Her worst nightmare would be for Rick to continue to believe he was a failure. The thought of watching him struggle through the rest of high school, inevitably affecting how he saw himself as an adult, motivated her to take action.

We believe that you have the best intentions for your struggling child and we are passionate to see youth succeed. If your child knows how to read, but finds reading laborious, if he tries to find answers to questions by skipping around looking for the right word instead of reading for meaning, and he is exasperated with the mechanics of writing, Confident Kids Academy might be just what you are looking for.

It's easy to let procrastination or hesitancy hold your child back.  Your child deserves to have the best advantages that take her the furthest in life. Schedule a call: https://calendly.com/readerdetective/30min