2ndGrader Needs Help Reading!

Get her evaluated by a neuropsychologist so that you know what is causing her issue, and find her a tutor that can teach her to read in an Orton Gillingham based alphabet phonics program. All children can learn to read with this kind of program, and you need to know exactly what other issues may be contribuiting to her problem so that you are not stabbing in the dark. The window of opportunity for learning to read closes around age 9, and a good alphabet phonics program will take at least a year, an maybe more if being administered outside the school setting.

M.

Have your daughter read to you and see if you notice what she seems to have trouble with..

Is it that she cannot recognize the words? Does she get lost in the sentence? Does she understand what she just read?

When I used to tutor students, I was amazed how many could not follow the words without a guide under each sentence.

Use a blank index card and hold it under each sentence.
Then have your daughter read with it. This may help guide her eyes.

See if there are certain sounds that trip her up.

Kumon!!!!! It's called Kumon Reading and Math Center. They are all over the U.S. My first grader goes there and his reading has greatly improved. I highly recommend it. I think their website is www.kumon.com and find the nearest location to you.

My son is in 2nd grade this year and was also having trouble with his reading. I had a conference with his teacher and we decided to increase his reading aloud at home and she sent an extra reading book home for us to practice nightly with. Also allowing him a choice in reading material has helped greatly. He loves Star Wars and his father has some Star Wars comic books and instead of saving them for when he could read better. They are now reading them together nightly. He wants to read these and is doing so much better because he is interested. Also, after a night or two of listening to him I realized that as he was reading he would see a big "scary" word further on in the sentence and then would skip the rest of the words in between because he was trying to figure out the big word. Reminding him to focus on only the word he was on really helped. Not knowing how your child is having issues, I don't know if any of this might help you but I can say that the best thing we did was just to have him read to us nightly instead of only when he had an assignment. This way we could help figure out the issue and hear whether or not he was improving. Good luck in finding what works for your child. Oh, and I agree. I would hate to have your child lose lunch time to reading. They need all the social time at school to relax that they can get.

I do 2 different things with my daughter daily (pretty much every day-skipping some of course) outside of school in a "structured teaching manner" for just about 20 minutes per day each, and those are French, and practicing piano lessons-she's only 4 so I have to practice with her. I'm amazed how well she progresses by keeping it short but doing it every day with full focus on her. I'm sure you read to her a lot already, but I would find out how long the lunch tutor session is and do a similar length at home with your daughter, keeping it positive and light as your special time together every day(don't brow beat her like my dad did with math- I hate math to this day) but really "working" on reading for a certain set time per day aside from bedtime stories.

My son had some issues with reading 1st thru 3rd grades. In first grade, we got his eyes checked. The eye doc noticed he had problems focusing, so he got a pair of glasses for helping his confidence. He also worked with a reading specialist during class time. This person is an employee of the school district, this no extra cost to us.

In second grade, he just read more. Our school uses the web based program, Accelerated Reader as well as Reading Plus (added when he was in 4th grade). AR helps to see what you are comprehending in your reading and have many different levels. Third grade was really focused on the AR program. He struggled at first but was passing the third grade level by the end of the year.

He also spent his third to fourth grade summer reading a lot. That was when it really clicked for him .It just took him some time for it all to work.

I suggest trying what works best for your child. Even having her read out loud may make a difference.

I've been using the Hooked on Phonics program with my 1st grader and she's doing great! Im not sure to where your child falls, but the program is structured with books that build skills on each other so it builds lots of confidence. Really, the more reading she does the better her skills will become.

Hi, J.:

I think having her lunch time taken up by reading is cutting out your daughter's social time.
I think your idea of helping her at home is a better idea.
Is there any teen agers in the neighborhood that would like to spend and
hour with her 2 or 3 times a week?

Does she have a dictionary to look up words she doesn't know?
What is the problem that reading is causing her?
Just want to know.
D.