[Iliketophaff]

Sorry, should add, the child who typed his thoughts and read was much older, and it really something that I thought 'we'll good on them for thinking outside the square'. I'm not thinking of teaching him to type yet. Waaaay much more work to do with the speech path.

He was doing PROMPT therapy with the speechy. But she found that he was responding well to imitation when she works with him, so just pulls it out as needed. Next year we will move forward from articulation and tackle pronouns and language use. We were just looking at artic because I was frustrated that my mother couldn't understand his efforts, which must be encouraged.

[0zeKid]

How children learn to read?
If you have time to read a book (which I rarely do with two children!), take a look at Proust and the Squid. It covers the science behind reading. I downloaded the audio version which was very handy.
http://www.amazon.com/Proust-Squid-Story-S...g/dp/0060933844

Also look at this site which explains the most modern type of phonics, synthetic phonics (the synthetic label can be misleading but it has nothing to do with being fake). This method of teaching reading gets kids up and running from day one and sets them up for life.
http://syntheticphonics.com.au

What is indicative of problems?
Comprehension vs ability to read (say) the word
Relevance of pictures in learning to read.
This site has articles, research and white papers which will be useful in answering these three questions. http://www.getreadingright.com.au/synthetic-phonics/. This program is also useful for children with learning challenges so you may want to fish around here in general.

Finally, an Essential Baby article which talks about the benefits of reading daily to children as a way to help them learn to read, understand comprehension and increase their word bank.
http://www.essentialkids.com.au/entertaini...0623-1ggtx.html

And if you want to get tips, downloadables and free reading 'lesson' plan ideas (which I just did at home with my two). Sign up for this newsletter:
http://www.phonicshero.com

Good luck.

[Iliketophaff]

Thanks Ozekid, I've looked at you links. It looks like the book I have is the same sort of stuff synthetic phonics is, perhaps just a little older!

Interestingly enough, even though he was read to heaps as a child he now hates his school readers and I have less trouble getting him to do the lesson plan with '100 easy lessons'. I think it's his style of learning, it is highly structured where as the readers are more unpredictable.

I think, for comprehension I need to find a reason for him to read and give him texts that are outside the prep-level readers. Ideas I have for this are (feel free to add):
Cooking - following the recipe
'Treasure hunt' - hide his toys and he has to find them by reading and following the directions - 'look under the table, open the door'
Work out his interests and get books on those topics

Just as an aside, I read an article of a married couple who both had CP. I recall her saying she felt that too much emphasis had been place on teaching her to speak at the expense of learning for the sake of learning. As much as I want him to learn to speak, I want him to learn, and to love learning.

[0zeKid]

Pleased the links help.

I love the cooking idea! My DD1 had a similar problem with the readers (ADHD child) and comprehension, she just didn't see the point of many of them with random sentences and the ones in the classroom were too easy for her so for a while her reading started slipping. Thankfully for us a local author who happens to write stories about two cats (she looooves cats) did a reading in Dymocks and his has given her a chance to talk about the books with her.

Talking and discussing the books can help with comprehension too. I am trying to encourage DD1 (she is a little older BTW, 8) to write her own stories too and we are discussing the characters, the problem and how it might be solved.

I have purchased a pretty blank drawing pad for her to put her story thoughts on it. Also asked the family to buy books for Christmas on topics she likes. That was hard for some who think the cat obsession should not be encouraged (haha to them)!

Cheers

[Chaos in stereo]

http://www.ucanread.org/

This is a unit of the University of Canberra. I went to a seminar and it was really interesting. They emphasised the importance of "reading for meaning" ie: kids can make little mistakes (which we all do when we read), but it's more important that they engage with the text and comprehend the material rather than get every word perfect.