[dforest]

Start by teaching the child to read. Schools only do Social Justice horse crap anymore.

[smalltownslick]

Buy a book and teach him.

[Da Coyote]

Step 1 is ALWAYS get them out of publik skools.

[COBOL2Java]

Just a suggestion

Worked with my daughter. She's now a nurse. Graduated with a 3.8 GPA.

[Noamie]

Parentin iz soo hard

[Inyo-Mono]

I started grade school in 1955 and we were taught reading using phonics, not sight words. Same with my son and daughter in the early ‘90s. When did sight words in school become common place?

[abclily]

Buy some phonics workbooks for your children. Teach them yourself.

[BradyLS]

Yeah. Break out the phonics books and teach ‘em. Run some simple tests and flash cards to get an idea of how far along they are and what gaps in fundamental knowledge they may have. Then go to work.

[spacejunkie2001]

I can’t believe you posted this. I was JUST about to pull up youtube’s on teaching reading. I am teaching a 25 year old guy right now and the sight word problem is EXACTLY the problem. He comes to a word that starts with, say, P and just guesses at words he memorized that start with P and usually aren’t even close to the word at hand.

I’m starting to get the notion that I’m not going to be successful but I refuse to quit. I will review the resources in this article.

[Salvavida]

Beautiful opportunity for the church. Of course, we’ll screw it up and won’t do anything.

[Beautiful_Gracious_Skies]

PHonics

Earobics

OrtonGillingham Approach

[blondiegoodbadugly]

I am 7 years older than my sister and I taught her to read. The kindergarten teacher would have her read to her classmates. She also knew how to print her name and simple math.

[JudyinCanada]

Whole language is at fault. I was very involved in this years ago. I did many radio shows, ran a tutoring business and schooled my kids and others. I have written my own reading/spelling program and have taught many kids of all ages to read. It’s life changing. The problem is whole language and the almost religious adherence to it.

[dhs12345]

Facts:

1. Only the parents can make a difference. Only the parents love their child. Do not rely on the schools.

2. Micromanage like heck. Know your kids abilities or lack of and work to help them. Tutors, one on ones with the teachers, (parent/teacher) etc.

3. Boys and girls learn to read and write differently. Girls learn to read and write faster than boys. Something that seems to be unknown to educators.

The public school system looks at your kids as little guinea pigs. They will experiment on them like lab mice with this goofy program and that. You have to be smart and know what is useful and what is a waste of time and fill in the gaps when important time is lost.

[\/\/ayne]

I learned how to read by phonics in a public school in the '60s. My joke is that it was an experiment that worked so well they immediately dropped the program. Not really a joke, though.

Blendphonics.org has a free textbook which can be used at home or at a school.

[yarddog]

I could read pretty well by the time I was in the second grade. This would have been around 1953.

I would often read signs as we drove. Having learned to sound out words, I would sometimes make some pretty bad pronunciations. My parents and siblings thought it was funny.

[Mariner]

“”My kid can’t read. What should I do?”

One should have asked that question before birthing a child with bad genes.

[Zirondelle76]

Use the Explode the Code phonics system. Taught both my children to read by age five.

[Fireone]

“See Spot run! Run Spot run!”

[Disambiguator]

I blame sight-word teaching for a common error I see, even on this forum.

People use the word “defiantly” when the correct term is “definitely.”

(Argh)