Hearing your child read

  Dyslexia Parents Resource

Three descriptions by parents or teachers following the 'Golden Rule':

** If a child cannot read a word within a second, then tell him/her the word and get on with the story.

This technique goes against most parents' instincts, but in hundreds of cases we have found that following this rule produces amazing results. The child begins to follow the story, and there is a noticeable increase in enthusiasm for reading the next day.

The adult can make a mental note of a few words the child could not read, and put them on little cards to practise separately from reading a story. The story can be re-read another day and it will be noticed that the child will be reading with greater fluency.

'I made a point of telling him any word he found difficult'

I listened to GH reading his book ‘Mark Spark in the Dark’ by Jacqueline Wilson. I made a point of telling him any word he found difficult when he had hesitated for one second.

At first I found it quite difficult to just tell him the word as my teacher training has always taught me to encourage the child to ‘sound out the word’ or ‘have a go.’

I soon found that this method was having a positive effect on GH as he was more keen to read on and find out what would happen next in the story.

GH was happy at the end of the story. He told me that he was able to understand the story better than when he usually reads because if he struggles with lots of the words he is unable to make sense of the story.

By just telling him the word he was able to follow the story easily and he did not forget the plot of the story.

I encouraged him to look at the pictures and he was able to make comments about the story and was able to relate to what he was reading about.

When he read about a character in the book who was scared of the dark he commented, “I used to be scared of the dark too.” Usually GH does not enjoy reading and is not able to comment about what he has just read.

GH had started to read the book during the previous week and had read five pages. When I heard him read and told him the difficult words he was able to read to the end of the short story without getting tired or frustrated.

Johanne Rifkin

'. . . the words would just get scrambled up even worse . . .'

I gave a dyslexic student a short story of approximately 300 words to read aloud to me. It was on a topic he enjoyed - soccer. He is improving in his ability to decode phonetically spelled words.

We often read together aloud and he was not hesitant about reading for me. When he came to a word that he could not sound out and hesitated, I told him the word after a second had passed. When he finished, he said that it was a good story. He did not feel frustrated when he didn't know a word because he knew that he could either sound it out or I would help him.

He said he wouldn't be as happy reading it without help "Because the words would just get scrambled up even worse."

I sensed that he was happy at the end and throughout the story. He smiled when the new goalie scored in his own net. He was comprehending well. He said he would have kept reading if the story had been longer.

He related to the story because soccer is one of his favourite sports. I am considering hel! ping him to write an addition to the story since he is a creative writer but needs practise getting his thoughts on paper.

Flora Gillis

'... to my surprise he wanted to continue and was clearly enjoying the book.'

I asked one of the dyslexic children who come to see me to read a book with me.  He chose a book from a range by the publishers Barrington Stoke called “The Two Jacks”. 

At parent’s evening his father had asked me if I could get him more interested in reading and we had agreed to start some books at school and then send them home.  I have told his father the importance of giving him words and not allowing him to struggle working them out. As he started reading I immediately gave him words which he read incorrectly or got stuck on, but I did allow him to sound out simple words himself which he can do well.

At the beginning, I told him we would just read a couple of pages but to my surprise he wanted to continue and was clearly enjoying the book.  He was able to talk about and answer questions on the text and even related some of the character traits of the two boys in the book to himself.

Giving the words to him helped to keep the flow of the story going, improved his comprehension of the book and most importantly made him want to read more than he would normally have.

Susan Bell