We used a Fast Forward type program to help with reading comprehension. It was administered by a private educational therapist, and was paid for by the school district as part of our mediation settlement. We used it for the entire 5th grade school year, and it helped tremendously.
Hello... Just had a meeting with Ryan's teacher and ST this morning. They said he is doing alot better and starting to be more social.
He is doing great with the reading program, they are teaching phonics and Ryan doesn't learn that way he won't soung out words he just memorizes them and just says the word..do any of your children learn words that way?
Getting to comprehension..they say he can read good BUT he doesn't comprehend what he reads
Oh... found out he has a crush on his teacher
I hope your son makes a breakthrough, too. He's pretty young yet, isn't he? (I know kids are under a lot of pressure to read early in the US. I'm glad we don't have that pressure here).
Good luck with everything.
Hello, Ryans Mom. The reading program Eric's teacher used when he was five was the EDMARK program for sight reading. Eric learned to read very quickly and his spelling was great, too. Comprehension was the problem. Having Eric read the same simple, picture book over and over again, then asking him questions (what, where, who, which type questions are helpful in encouraging your child to think about what he is reading) after reading each page helped him learn to focus on the story and not just the individual words.
He is still behind his grade level in reading comprehension (yet at grade level or above grade level in spelling and sight reading), but he really enjoys reading books and is finally starting to read short chapter books. Also, when your child is ready, have him write his own stories using the four square method to formulate a Title, with four related ideas. Writing their own short stories fosters creativity and they enjoy reading them!
Reading comprehension is tied to language and to the degree that language issues are there, even for Asperger's kids whose "speech" is normal, reading comprehension will be negatively effected. IDEA 2004 gives parents the right to insist that the school use a research-based, peer-reviewed reading program that is designed for THEIR child's reading issues. Bring this up to the school. Ask them about your son's current reading program and to show you the research on it. DEMAND a research based reading program. There are MANY that help kids for whom phonics is not the way to go. Most of US don't sound out each word we read. Phonics is just a way to attack new words. The truth is that, eventually, children all become sight readers. Good readers ARE sight readers, even if they started out with phonics. Over time, we ALL simply recognize the words we read. For kids who have difficulty with phonics, two classic multisensory reading programs are Orton-Gillingham and Wilson. They both have research behind them. But WHAT reading program is best for you child can only be determined using a lot of standardized testing. Ask for that now, before the Annual Review of his IEP.