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                                                                  Ann from Vermont asks....

       How do I help my second grader?

                                  I'm writing to you for your thoughts and suggestions
regarding my 2nd grader's reading.  We're trying to dedicate
more time to helping him with his homework and reading together
and we've noticed him struggling.  Perhaps this is normal, but
some of our concerns are:

1.  He dreads reading and declares that he hates it (it does make him tense)
2.  He guesses at pronouns and skips prepositions
3.  He still inverts words like 'on' and letters like 'b' & 'd'
4.  He skips pages and jumps lines.
5.  We're finding books at level 2 from the library (which seems about right) but they say that it is for grades k-1. Does this mean he's behind where he should be?

Can you please let us know what we can do to help?


Dear Ann,
    If this makes you feel better, your concerns are not uncommon. Let’s look at your questions…

1.   Dreads Reading: A lot of things could be going on with this – the books are too hard, he doesn’t want to read aloud, he’d rather be playing,  he’s tired from working at school, etc., etc.

Do any of these seem like possibilities, or a combination of them?  Regarding books at his level, I recommend the “5 Finger Rule.”  To do this, the child reads the first page and puts up a finger when he comes to a word he doesn’t know/can’t figure out.  If all five fingers are up by the time the page is over, then it’s too hard.  It’s impossible to confidently determine a book’s level by the publisher’s designations on the front/back covers.  Each publisher designates reading levels differently, and one company’s Level 2, is another company’s Level 1, or 3.  Using something like the “5 Finger Rule” can give Aidan a tool for self-selecting books at his level.  

Another tip for combating the "I hate reading" problem is to increase his engagement with the text.  Ask more questions of him, such as "What do you think _____should do next?"  "Who is your favorite character; your favorite part?"  "Have you ever felt like _________?  When?"  "What do you think will happen next?"  Interacting with the story in this way can bring more interest in the story.  Be sure to share your answers to the questions, too, so that it's a shared-reading experience and doesn't feel like you're testing him continually.  Also, change the way you two read together...taking turns page for page, or paragraph for paragraph; read one page out-loud to him, then both of you make a prediction and then read the next page silently to yourselves followed by talking about what happened.  Feel free to be creative and fun.

Keep reading sessions short .  Two short sessions are better than one, long and painful one.  Give these a try and see what happens.  One caveat, however.  NOTHING will work if he's reading an uninteresting book.  Check out our OUR FAVORITE BOOKS on this site for great ideas.  Also, consult your local children's librarian, or the children's department at a nearby bookstore.  Ask for suggestions for second grade boys, especially series books so he'll, hopefully get hooked on the characters and want more, such as The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne.  Kids love them!

2.    Guessing at pronouns and skipping prepositions:  When he guesses or skips, say something like, “Oops, let’s check that,” and have him reread it.  Most pronouns are pretty common sight words which I think he actually can read.  He may benefit  from running his finger under the words as he reads to help him track.  A marker can help, too.  Without one or the other, young readers can lose their attention, lose their place, skip or misread words easily because they aren’t concentrating their focus on the correct spot.  A marker/finger can help that.


3.     on/no and b/d reversals:  Is he recognizing that he’s pronouncing the word incorrectly when he does that?  Is he struggling to  figure a word out because he’s reading the b as a d?  Two things to try:  he may need a tool for helping himself figure out b from d.   The "bed" trick is an easy one for most kids.  Hold your hands in front of you and make fists, with your thumbs sticking upright, pointed to the ceiling.  When you do this your left hand resembles a b, and your right hand resembles a d.  Move your fists together so your knuckles are touching and when your hands are together like this they roughly resemble a bed.  Say "bed" and wiggle the left hand when you say the b, and wiggle the left hand when you say the d part of bed. Once kids get the hang of this they will independently make a "bed" with their fists whenever they want to determine whether a letter is a b or a d.

For on/no reversals have your son go back to the beginning of the sentence and see if rereading the context will help him self-correct the word.

4.     Skips pages and jumps lines:  Using a finger/marker can help that.  Skipping pages sounds like he’s rushing to get the reading time over.  Maybe moving homework time to a different time of day, using different books as we mentioned, and interacting more with the text 
usually do the trick!


I’m hoping these ideas will help.  I suspect, with a few tweaks like those mentioned above, he’s going to do great. 

Let me know of I can be of additional assistance.

Take care,
Deborah