How can I teach my child to read? He memorizes the stories!

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Flashcards are a good idea, mix them up and make a game out of it. If this doesn't work, try reading only half of a story, and urge him to finish it if he wants to know the ending. Don't overdo it though, make it into a chore and he'll never want to read.

I leanred to read by memorizing the books; I learned the books first, then began to tie the narrations to the words on the page.

I seem to remember, while taking the classes in "how to teach reading" that they bandied about a stat that was something like half of the kids will do well with phonics, and half won't - they are sight learners.

Each kid is different - for some, phonics is just a pointless exercise. I know that I was reading well by age 3, as was my daughter when she happened along. I remember being hit with phonics when I got to grade school. As was the kid, 30 years later. Both of us were reading years beyond our "age" level at any given time, so sitting through phonics class was just deadly. (By reading well I mean that at age 3 the kid tested out as 1st grade reading, and the earliest test scores I have for me were for fourth grade, when I was doing sophomore in college level reading, with excellent comprehension scores.) So, try a little of both, see what works. Or mix them around. See what works and go with that. Its the end you're looking for here, not the means.

Good luck!

Nan, thanks for the advice...Yes, I'm now trying both...Have some flash cards...it's kind of funny because he can sound out some words with the phonics, but then there are so many exceptions that he says...NO! That's blah, blah...whatever...So, then I go back to just teaching him the words...Of course, always reading...

When I teach reading in the schools, the kids who are struggling are encouraged to read along even if they have memorized it. Memorizing is a great start, then break the story down into parts, like" he went to the barn." Hey you said barn, what sound does barn start with? yes BBBBBBB. lets find the letter B in the book. or lets find the word barn. Actually my kids taught themselves to read by playing on the computer. They had some "games" that are story books by LIVING BOOKS. they had The cat in the Hat and Arther books. It was great because as the story is read, the words are highlighted. The boys had fun going back and re-reading the story and just highlighting crazy word combinations to make up silly sentences. There are lots of resources out there to teach reading, you can go to a "teacher store" and look at the materials. They usually have great sections on homeschooling too. Just trust your instincts. Yes, kids need to be guided and sometimes pushed to read, but it is so much easier for them when they are ready to just get it.

MrsSubb

I learned to read by memorizing. I can still remember the day when I was four years old that I realized that I could actually tell which word was which: I was actually reading! This was The Little Engine That Could (which I recently glanced at, and it has some very complex words). After that, it was like a switch had been thrown: I could read anything. When I got to phonics in school I felt like I was just jumping through hoops. They considered having me skip grade one, but I think I wasn't well enough behaved (I was fidgety and talked a lot in class: maybe because I already knew all the material?).
That said, the little bit of reading I have done on this seems to say that most people learn by a combination of sight-reading and phonics. So mix it up and see what works.
As for home schooling: I think it depends entirely on the kid and the parents. I would have hated home schooling: I thrived on the structure (the desks in rows, the schedule, etc.). But my 22-month-old daughter is already reading several words (sight reading, not sounding out!), so I think our decision to homeschool her will turn out to be the appropriate one.
In fact, the fact that she can already recognize certain words freaks me out a little bit: This does not seem neurotypical to me. Not that I want her to be neurotypical (far from it!). And her social skills are good, and she's very coordinated, so even if she is AS, I know I shouldn't worry about her. But is it possible to be too smart?

That's weird, Mrs Subb, you are the first person I have seen using the same avatar as me on here, and we both post on this thread.

My AS/PDD son learned to read aged seven and a half. I had begun to worry for exactly the same reasons as you, whatamess; He was good at maths, brilliant at drawing, and understood a lot, but reading, no way. He looked at a lot of cartoon books, like Tintin and the Smurfs, etc, but other books I had to read to him.

My son also home-unschools. And apparently a lot of homeschoolers learn late, perhaps because don't need to as much as at school. My son also had/has speech problems.

And then suddenly he started reading, and was able to read almost everything, just like that. Which is also the experience of many homeschoolers; that when the child does start they read like an adult already, and with real enjoyment too.

He reads a lot, and writes now too, and a big plus was that his speech suddenly got much better too at the same time.

I had tried once or twice to "teach" reading but he hated it, and so I hung on, despite gnawing worry, to confidence in his natural desire to learn what I do, to learn what is useful/enjoyable, as children learn most things. And it worked.

It'll happen. Have faith in him. As it sounds like you have.

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He actually can probably read but doesn't need it at this stage of life. A good memory especially for the writen word and actual reading usually go hand in hand. The key is if he asks for books on his own with out your intervention. If he does then he is reading. If he doesn't then you have to do it for him/her.
I was reading grade school material before I was 5 but the drawback comes later when there are problems with speech and pronunciation so it can be a two-edged sword.

My son memorized books too. At first I thought he was reading until I noticed that he would sometimes "read" pages that he hadn't turned to yet.

I made a lot of progress with him by having him learn sight words. His visual memory is excellent so he quickly learned a lot of them. Then I would have him practice "sounding out" words. I started with simple two letter combinations, even if they weren't words: "up, og, ug, ag, ad, du...." Then I had him sound out three letter words.

I soon found that I could type novel sentences of my own that were composed of combinations of sight words and words that were easy to sound out. Within a few months he was doing that well so I bought him some of the Dick and Jane books (the ones that are 140 - 150 pages long). Those books were simply too long for him to quickly memorize so he learned to read them.

It's an issue with my son's school more than me. My son can read...I have AS, so when the TV is on, so is subtitling (closed captions), I have more books around than a small library...as a result he spontaneously has read words and phrases of interest to him from an early age..but short story books. Nope. He memorises them, he will give a performance of them (and I mean a performance, stood, holding the book like a script, demanding a silent audience)
But enforced, sit down reading does not happen. We can take turns...reading a page each aloud, discussing the pictures. He is 9, and diagnosed autism not AS, although intellectually he can manage age appropriate books they do not engage his attention.

He is in a specialist unit in a mainstream school, they are introducing "homework reading"...His latest strategy is to sing the story. Or recite a different one to the actual book.

What I am trying to get at is rather than force an involvement with fiction which may not happen, I feel being able to identify and apply written language is more important to my son, and may be a useful approach to literacy for other children with ASD. He would rather flick through my molecular biology books than read stories. (I can't blame him, some of those Magic Key books are sooo dulll) He will also read the social stories we make for him ...these are more like instruction manuals on what we are going to do/what will happen etc

Now if I could just get him to stop the jargon dysphasia I would be happy:-)

http://www.amazon.com/endangered-wildli ... 1559131616

It's a deck of cards. It makes a silly run-on sentance story no matter how you shuffle them and lay them out. Of course, he will memorize them by the pictures, but once you've got the idea you won't have any trouble making new ones with no pictures.

What about a memory game, if he's good at memorizing breaking them down might work as well. Remember the one with the pictures of things with the name of what they are underneath?

Also, they have those words on magnets. Use them to make silly sentences.

What I have done with my boys is read to them but stop and point to a word maybe mid sentence and let them guess what word comes next. I started with the little words like "I" "a" "and" "the" and they got to read the same word every time through the entire book, the next time I would pick a different word for them to read.

My sons both really liked the Reader Rabbit computer games when they were learning to read. They are made up of simple, amusing mini games that are focused on phonics. We also had some Disney workbooks that came with flash cards, which we "worked" on for a little while each day. (note: these didn't feel like work, but were a fun activity that we enjoyed doing together!)

BTW My sons used to "read" me books by memorizing them too. So cute! Those skills will evolve into proper reading, and that fantastic memory will serve your son well in all his future learning.

Oh, how FUN! Singing the story! Taking a boring old story and making it entertaining to ones-self.... Too bad the outside world frowns on that.


I used to read the dictionary and encyclopedia, loved it. But when the school made me read those godawful reading primers... well, there was a lot of head-butting with authority involved. Sadly. What a waste of time and energy that could have been focused into something much more productive with a desirable outcome (from both perspectives)....

Good luck!
I know! He does plainsong style, a bit like a gregorian chant. I'm more impressed by that and with his knowledge of the solar system....unfortunately it isnt in the "curriculum"....