Building Reading Stamina...How? Does it force Left Brain Bridging?

Early Learning Teaching Your Child to Read
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A few months ago we made the break through of reading sentences, just 3 or 4 words strung together on some sentence strips I made. Previously, she was resisting reading sentences from a book so I stopped that and stuck to flashcards. The bridge from flashcards to couplets/sentences was slow but I think I just wasn’t presenting it to her in a way that she responded well to. Then I bought some sentence strips and she responded really well to that. I think she is far more comfortable with very large text still, and lots of words on a page are intimidating even if I am only asking her to read a few. After I learned she was capable of reading sentences, she made the breakthrough of phonics/decoding and sounding things out, it all just clicked.

Now, DD is sounding out words and her her ability to decode is progressing in leaps and bounds. However, at at almost 23 months she only speaks in 3-4 word sentence fragments, for example, “Mama, help please” instead of “Mama, I need help please” or “Mama, can you please help me?” Which I know is normal and fine, and that shows she at least partially operating via right brain which is great. She knows a pretty good amount of vocabulary, is capable of repeating/pronouncing just about anything we ask her to and she parrots very frequently (Spanish words as well) she just currently chooses only uses very few words at a time. (Ironic, as I type this I hear her counting to 10 in her bed right now while she should be napping LOL…she CAN speak many words in a row while she does with numbers, she chooses not to I guess)

So, seeing as how she is only SPEAKING in 3-4 word sentence fragments, it seems unnatural that I would encourage her to read entire long sentences (longer than 3-4 words) or page after page of a book (even if I KNOW she knows how to read all the words, especially her sight words easy readers). She doesn’t have the stamina right now. Will reading aloud stamina build gradually as she is able to SPEAK more? I think she can read even more than I am aware of, just not out loud, especially words with multiple syllables that are more difficult for an immature speaker to pronounce. Should I expect that her ability to read aloud is limited by her current level of speaking ability? (it would make sense and seems obvious to me, but I am not trying to underestimate her because I am uninformed on the subject).

The question is, should I and if so, HOW do I build reading stamina? Do I encourage her to read sentences word by word to develop her stamina, (which she will do if I tap my finger under the word and wait) but I don’t think she enjoys that even though she is capable? Sometimes I read the whole sentence and then have her read the ONLY last word, lots of times the last words of the sentences rhyme so she seems to get great satisfaction from that. I borrowed that idea from the cooperative reading books someone shared in a JG presentation. So that seems to be working well.

I don’t want to drill her with words she already knows just for the sake of reading out loud for longer sentences/books but I still want to develop her skills. But some reading decoding and reading aloud skills are really only practiced through repetition, but I am afraid she will get bored and that is the last thing I want. Should I focus on only introducing and encouraging her to pronounce new words, and not bother with the ones she already knows solid? And not bother to get her reading more words strung together because it will come along eventually as her speech further develops into longer sentences?

Should I just keep reading to her only and not worry about her reading to me and she will when she’s ready? (which she already does a little bit). Or should I put two sentence strips together and get her to read two in a row, then later three, etc?

Also, in trying to build her reading stamina and development, is that “forcing” early bridging to left brain dominance???

I feel like I just asked the same questions several times using different phrasing, but I hope what I am trying to convey makes sense.

I know this is a bit rambling, I am just trying to help develop her reading while being careful not to force anything that she doesn’t enjoy, or that will cause her to bridge over to left brain dominance even faster.

Your input is appreciated! Thanks.

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I can tell you what I did to improve reading stamina. Get a bunch of level 1 readers from the library and take turns reading pages with your daughter. That way it is not too exahausting and she can follow along while you read and point to the words and she is increasing her exposure to words.

Once she masters this you can heave her read two page and you one, and soon she will be reading whole books (maybe Bob books?). Then go up to level 2 readers and start again.

I think it is good to have her read longer grammarically correct sentences because then you are subconsciously helping her to be able to create her own longer sentences through repeated exposure. It’s like building vocabulary through reading complex words.

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I have had a lot of difficulty with this with my daughter who is now 3 years old and will still not read books. She was reading sentences before she was two and her speech was always ahead in that she was speaking in 6-8 word sentences before 2 years of age and rattles off paragraphs to me now.

If I leave out words while reading books she will fill in the correct word. She will read recipes to me if we are making something in the kitchen (though only the ingredients and not the instructions). She will read the shopping list to me when out shopping. She pointed out to her teacher that she had left a praticular child’s name off a star chart at school which meant she had read everyone’s name and noticed the missing one. She can sound out words too even some less simple phonetical ones.

But she will not read even the simplest of readers in full - I am wondering if they bore her or if she feels on show or what is going on. And if that is the case then maybe it is not a stamina issue at all, but rather something else as she has enough concentration and I can read chapter books to her where she concentrates perfectly well even though there are no pictures and even asks questions about the story - she did ask me why the book had no pictures so we taught her about imagination and I asked her what she was seeing in her head when I read the words and she did well with that.

I am considering giving her a rest time when nothing but reading is allowed and just leaving books with her that she should be able to cope with and leaving it up to her - maybe she is just too independent.

Sorry don’t think I answered your question, but I think there is more involved than just a speech issue even in your child’s case.

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I have a sneaking suspicion that asking too much of her would deter her from the whole process and may force left brain dominance (but I am no doctor or expert). Early Learning is meant to lay ground work. It isn’t neccessarily tailored to get results. If she doesn’t want to read all the words, I wouldn’t force her to. I might even make a game out of it. Show her a sentence that you have gone over several times before and which you believe she is comfortable with. Ask her if she wants to read it. If she says no then you can ask her if she wants to read any of the words and let her pick which ones to read if she wants. This way she doesn’t feel pressured to try at reading words she doesn’t feel ready for. She may look at a sentence and see many words that she is comfortable with, but there may be one or two she isn’t sure of yet. She may fear the pressure of reading the whole sentence and failing. Little ones know about failure, even if mommy and daddy don’t react to it. It’s intuitive. Over time, she may pick out more words and eventually read a whole sentence, when she is ready.

Another thing I would emphasize is that you just read to her lots of books with big font, but without any real lesson in it. I would point to the words, but leave out sounding them out and explanations and such. Just read. I also think it’s important to have books that mimick flashcards in style: Books where you see a sentence in large font on one page and then a related picture following. I made my own by scanning photos of the pictures of little readers from the library and typing up the words myself. I leave these out for my little guy to play with. And occassionally, I catch him reading a whole sentence on his own… when he thinks I am not watching. My theory is that he is practicing by himself, where there is no one to disappoint, He will show me when he is ready.

Hope this helps. :slight_smile:

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Someone told me when I was having this problem that they might not want to read out of books because they fear if they do that you may not read to them anymore.

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Since reading this post I have changed what I do with Laurana now - she is older though and ready for it, but we have reading time now right before story time - she reads a page or two of a book I select and then I ask her if she wants to read more - last night she read half a book simply cause she chose to. Some days one page is enough.

I then read her a few stories afetrwards. This has worked well for the last few days and while her stamina at reading varies from day to day it does seem to be increasing. She does still make up words sometimes though especially when she can see the picture at the same time as read the words. Some of this I leave and some of it I correct.
My child is 3 years old though and so can handle more formal reading sessions whereas she could never had done this a year ago when we just had to play games and read only a few words at a time.

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Yay! I’m happy to hear that she’s doing well! I like the way you do it- having reading time right before story time makes for an easy transition and a reward! Good thinking!

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Since reading this post I have wondered about the left and right brain issues and how much it matters when it comes to reading - speed reading may be a right brain issue and sure we would like our children to be speed readers, but apparently even this can be taught later.

Laurana has read a full 5 books in the last week and that was without pressing - I am still doing it all with her and will be for a while and obviously we are still reading a lot to her - both easy and more advanced books. I have found that over the last week her reading has improved greatly and she reads with more confidence and less pausing before words - I think she really just needed to be told and shown that she could as she did come home from school a few months back telling me she was too little to read - now where did she hear that from?
I did play a memory game with her today that had very rapid flashing (the cards turned over very very fast so she barely saw the picture before it turned back over) and she could play the game almost better than she does when the cards remain turned over for a while so maybe there is something to the right brain thing then. I do not know as reading a book cannot be done by flashing the words fast and no one can read out loud without some left brain dominance since speech is also involved - speed reading must always be silent but then initial reading is usually out loud so that the teacher/parent knows what is going on. I think getting both sides of the brain to work would be ideal though.

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Thanks for all the input, I appreciate it. I think I need to head down the road of making some homemade books. I have just been loathing to do so to be honest!

And funny what a difference 2 weeks can make…she is not speaking in 5-6 word sentences, not 3-4. I had to go and check the date on the post because I was wondering how long ago I wrote it.

OK, my first attempt at a home made book. I’m the next best selling author. HA :biggrin:

Tomorrow I am going to take pictures during our night time routine and print it all on full size A4 pages with big font on seperate pages. Here’s the text in case anyone wants to use it.

Good Night Lily

Lily eats dinner.
Lily takes a bath.
Lily brushes her teeth.
Daddy brushes Lily’s hair.
Mommy puts on Lily’s pajamas.
Daddy brings Lily some milk.
Mommy rocks Lily in her chair.
Lily says her prayers.
Mommy kisses Lily and tucks her in.
It is time for Lily to go to sleep.
Goodnight, Lily.