Making gains, but falling further behind

[Annette]

First a little back ground. My daughter is 8 and in the 2nd grade. I had her tested at the end of fist grade. Her reading level was K-9. So I had her repeat first grade. I had her privately tested at the beginning of Second grade. Her reading level was 1-3. I just got her report card her reading level is now a 1-9. So in the last two years she has made a one year gain, also falling behind 2 years. She should be at a 3-9. It goes by age not grade.
What should I do now?

[Jorgy]

I had the same problem and hired my niece, a teaching student, to tutor my son one day a week after school. He really improved just from the one on one and the additional practice of reading. Now in the 2cd grade he is starting to pick up books and read them on his own! I also for all my kids have gotten them bedside tables and lamps. I have them go to bed 1/2 hour early. They have a choice they can read or shut the lights out and sleep. As my kids HATE going to bed. They all end up reading. The rule is NO other playing allowed.
I have found that just plain practice is what made the difference in all of them.
Another suggestion is that I took them to the book store or library and let them pick out the book in their reading level. My interests in books are not theirs. If you hit the right books their curiosity will get the better of them! Good luck, Sue

[AustinsMom]

The thing you need to identify is WHY is she falling behind. A good school eval, or a private evaluation can help you figure that out. Is it because she has weak phonological skills, is it poor fluency, is her comprehension weak? You need to work on the specific skills she is having difficulty with.

Some things you can work on at home; like we work on fluency with the Great Leaps program and it is easy to do, not too time consuming. But some things need more assistance. The thing you need to remember is that if they keep on teaching her the exact same way, she's going to keep on falling behind. It's not being successful for her. Many kids need multisensory reading instruction to catch up.

You can get alot of great information from parents at www.schwablearning.org website. I think this is one of those areas you need to do some intensive work on now, while she is still "learning to read" as opposed to "reading to learn." Good luck!