I began to teach my DD to read with LR, when she was 11 months old. At almost 2 years she read her first word and then it went very quickly. After a few months she could read over 700 words by sight and also knew the Alphabet.
At 3 years old she began to read books. First, books with many Pictures and few words, but by now, with 4.5 years she also reads longer passages.
Ok, BUT: she reads aloud and very very quickly. She often skips words, but that’s not the Problem. If she doesn’t know a word by sight, she just sais another one, that is similar or reads something else (a word for example, that doesn’t even exist!). Until now, I didn’t correct her often, because she really likes to read and I don’t want to take her joy away. In the last few weeks I said to her sometimes “Please read that word again, but slowly” and then it’s ok, she can read it.
So, my questions:
Do you have similar problems?
What should I do? Always correct, never correct? Tell her to read slower?
I would designate a short time twice a day for careful reading, and gradually extend it.
You could try printing out sentences in 25 pt font, cutting each word and having her arrange them in a sentence and read them. If you don’t want to type and print all of that, then try for some books with large font and ~25 words per page where you read every word together. I would try and see if there was a pattern for the words she skips/misses. Are they the little words like: if, or, but, an, the, etc…
When she replaces is it a synonym for what is really there. I would try and notice what words she was skipping and or misreading and why.
If they are words she knows by sight but she says a synonym, I would begin gently but firmly correcting. She may have memorized the word wrong. For example if she looks at the words “Look at the beautiful woman” but says “Look its a pretty girl” or anything close to that, I would begin doing phonics more extensively and correcting more because while it may mean essentially the same thing, that’s not what the writing says.
Thank you so much for your answer. Today I told her to read a bit more slow (she has difficulties doing that, she reads slow for 1 sentence, then she accelerates again). OK, she read for about 10 minutes. And there were about 5 words, that she didn’t read well. These were long words, that she doesn’t know yet or doesn’t hear often. When I told her to read those words slowly, she could do it, but it wasn’t easy for her.
Yes, I think it is a good idea to do more phonics exercices. Thank you for this suggestion.
You wrote: “For example if she looks at the words “Look at the beautiful woman” but says “Look its a pretty girl” or anything close to that, I would begin doing phonics more extensively and correcting more because while it may mean essentially the same thing, that’s not what the writing says.”
All three of my children can read now and all three of them sometimes get stuck on a word. Pronouncing it wrong, substituting it for a same meaning word or miss reading a word ending. It’s perfectly normal.
I think you need to remember that although your daughter can read and read well she is not finished learning to read yet.
Some ideas that will help. Firstly since she loves reading give her plenty of time to read books of her choice at her own speed.
However she still needs some reading lessons. You need to find a short time (10 mins or less) to teach her. Select a book that is challenging but not frustrating. He her read it to you once, correcting the words she gets wrong. Then demonstrate how to read slowly and with expression, like a good storyteller. Then have her attempt to copy your speed and pretend to read the story to her sibling or favourite toy.
There is nothing wrong with her reading fast ( I would encourage that one!) she will eventually internalise the vocalising she is doing to begin silant reading, but she needs to also learn to read aloud for the benefit of others. They are two separate skills.
I think it would help you both if you set a time each day to do reading lessons and don’t worry about correcting her too much at other times. Find a nice spot and cuddle up for your lessons so they have some positive aspect. My son loves his reading lesson as he gets me all to himself in a cuddle on my lap. He also knows I will help him figure out a word if he gets stuck so its a low pressure learning environment.
Congratulations you have done a super job, keep going!
My dd did this also. What I discovered was that she found read much faster than she could speak so she would skip words so she could go faster. The words she skipped were always the less important ones like the, a, was, etc. so she was still getting the point of the story across.
I didn’t want to slow down her reading so I allowed her to do that a lot but each evening when she read to me I would have her “read clearly so mommy can understand the story”
She is 6 now & I still have to remind her to read slowly to me
My son does it also because he reads faster than he speaks. I let him do it when he reads to himself. But when he is reading to me I want him to practice reading aloud well. More like speech.
