Friday, July 29, 2011

Super Reader

Josh started showing interest and ability in reading rather young. Right after he turned 4 years old we started learning our letters, letter sounds and then sight words. He picked it all up so fast I figured he would be independently reading in no time. But after he started kindergarten and he was learning SO much, his reading definitely slowed, if not stalled, for quite some time. It was like it just wasn't clicking with him, and that with all the other school work he was doing there just wasn't room in that 5 year old brain to fit in excelling reading.

Then we started to notice some things that started to concern us a little bit. He would be able to read certain words with no problem, but then simple words, like "we" he would stumble on and just couldn't figure them out. That with a few other red flags had me researching symptoms of dyslexia or other learning disabilities. Not that I was convinced he had any of them, but figured a little due diligence wouldn't hurt anything. My main concern was that he wouldn't be up to par with the rest of the kids in the reading department when he started 1st grade at his new school in August. I talked to his doctor about it at his well check after his 6th birthday, and she gave me some suggestions and some other things to look out for, but didn't seem too concerned about it, so that encouraged me.

Then over the summer, something has happened. It's like the little reading switch has all of a sudden been turned on. The man is a reading machine! He is reading everything in sight. He still needs help with some of the larger words, but he is now to the point where he reads by himself. It's too cute, because he doesn't yet read silently, so whenever he's reading a book, even if he's all alone, he reads it out loud to himself. I love it! I feel like any concerns I did have are totally gone and I'm confident he'll definitely be able to hold his own in 1st grade!

1 comment:

Jen said...

Wow, that is so great! Go JOSH! :)

It is crazy to me to think that in only 2 or 3 years time, Alex will be trying to read! How do they grow up this fast??!!!!