My 22 month old doesn't show me that she can recognise words after using LR

[Hippche]

Help!

My oldest daughter now 3.5 years old had picked up reading very well through using YBCR and LR and is now reading books independently.
My youngest daughter however has been using LR with me since she was 4 months old, but doesn't show me any signs of recognising words. I always breastfed her while using the program and she enjoyed it that way. Without that however she would not sit still to watch it.
The girls are growing up with 3 languages, English being their first.
Has anyone had similar experiences with their children?

[MamaOfWill]

I asked this question about a year ago, and I'm still asking it (to myself.)  I've done lots and lots of whole words, fast flash and slow, full sentences, fast and slow, sounding out, fridge magnets, flashcards, and hours and hours of reading dragging my finger along.  I always follow my son's lead, he enjoys he's learning times with me, loves Little Reader and we use it for all kinds of stuff all the time, but he's not reading.  Only occasionally showing me something amazing, but ask him to read any word and 99% of the time, he refuses or gives a silly answer.  Worst of all he sometimes seems to really make and effort and he still can't read.  He knows his phonics, he can blend when I sound out, he even sounds out correctly sometimes, but actually read a word? - no way!  He read his first word out loud 2 years ago, and it was a word I didn't teach him (or even tell him once,) but these accidental readings are extremely rare.

So maybe he'll mysteriously start to read fantastically well sometime in the next couple of years, or maybe he'll just never be a strong reader, who knows?  But I bet he's better off with all we've done so far (and what I plan on continuing) than what he would have been without it.  Also, if I assume that he has not learned a thing about reading, he's learned a lot about language and many other things.

I very nicely asked him the other day, why he can't read and what I could do to help him learn (even though he's 2.5 years, he sometimes gives me good answers if I approach him in this way.)  He plainly answered, "I can read Mama, I have a mouth... so I CAN read."  Who am I to even question that? 

Anyhow, answers I got last year were along these lines:
Your child already can read, she's just not showing it, maybe because she does not know it, maybe because she chooses to hide it (for the attention she gets when you're reading to her.)
Start on phonics.
Shift your attention to some other learning area.
Change to or supplement with other reading software and DVD's.
Don't focus on output, she's still very young, focus only on input, some kids just hate to be tested.

Something else that you brought to my attention is the breastfeeding.  I also gave Wilhelm a sippy cup to drink from, then we'll do LR (between the age of 12 months to about 24), that kept him (I'm ashamed to say it) quiet and still so we could do a bunch of lessons in a row (math, music, extra LR bits.)  This died out and I now enjoy having him an active learner instead.  Maybe the relaxed receptive state of nursing (or sucking on a sippy cup) brings the association that reading (being read to) is a passive activity from their point of view, so they only receive but their response doesn't count, why do they ever have to respond then.  This is the first time I think about it in this way - Yikes!  Is that where I went wrong?

[Hippche]

Thank you so much MamaofWill for your response and all the detail you went into. I really appreciate it!!!
It shows me that I should use this forum so much more. You have given me my motivation back and also with your comment about all the other things your son has learnt from your reading sessions, you give it more purpose. My little daughter knows all the images from little reader by name (wild animals...), so I know she has learnt. Now instead of repetition, which I have started, I will go back into continuing our program!
Yes the breastfeeding is not ideal and makes it quite passive, but she is just starting to get actively involved now without it. It was just the only way to get her to focus

After my first daughter I thought I know it all. Haha, my second keeps me learning

[teachingmykids]

I didn't start as early as others here but I still have two non readers. I started doing stuff with my youngest at 18 months and eventually got LR and aside from every once in a while surprising me she doesn't read at all nearly 3. My ds who is now almost 5 is still not reading. He picked up blending over a year ago and has made no progress since then. I don't regret starting earlier with them. I see signs of a LD in ds so having more time to try figure out how to help him isn't a bad thing. I really hope to get him reading in the next year. Sometimes I get very discouraged coming here.

[mybabyian]

I asked the same question when my son was the same age here too.   We switched methods.  I started focusing on phonological awareness and then phonics with readingbear and daddudes flashcards.  For phonological awareness We sang the name song a lot. "Molly, bolly, bo bolly, fanana fana fo folly...." And " Willowby walloby, wolly...an elephant sat on Molly...".  We had lots of belly laughs! 

When I saw he was learning to blend I just decided he was not a whole word learner.  We then tried preschool prep meet the sight words and he learned the words from the series.  I still didn't think he was much of a whole word learner as this program is different.  The words are pictures.  . How could he not learn the words? I decided to then try Monkisee because I heard good things about the program and I thought maybe dvds were more entertaining and therefor he might absorb more. we did the flashcards with the dvds and he learned the words so so fast I was shocked.  I felt like we had zero success for almost 2 years then little by little we had more, and when we started monkisee he was learning so fast!  We moved on to flash cards from the dollar store and have continued phonics.  I write him short stoies about spiderman or whatever he is interested in and I read them to him with my finger under the words.  There are no pictures so he has nowhere else to look!  We have done a lot of different things according to his interest.

I guess my point is to try something else.  Relax about it and focus on making the learning quality time between the two of you and you can't go wrong.  I also nursed my guy while watching LR.  I don't know if that affected it or not.  I have a new two week old little baby.  I can't wait to see how things go with her! 

Good luck!  Let us know how things go.

[Rivi]

Perhaps you should try to entice your child with books of her favorite topics, whatever that might be. She will want to know what the words say, and then you can hold back on reading them yourself to motivate her to do it. I feel that she probably can read, she is just not showing it and that it will come all of a sudden, the same way some kids are late speaking, then do it in full sentences. It must be frustrating, but switching gear and trying something different (approach or program) will help keep you sane and will help her as well.

Carole
acceleratededucation.blogspot.com or http://tinyurl.com/giftedboy

[queriquita]

What a great thread!  I think all of the suggestions are so helpful. 

As for the nursing while teaching ... granted one can read with and without the sound of the word (whether in one's head or voiced out loud), but I wonder if by occupying the child with nursing, this somehow removed the active pairing that is made when the child voices the written word.  In other words, what I notice with little ones, whether they can enunciate well or not, is often an attempt to repeat the words when presented to them (or sign, act out, or point to the word ... but actively engage to create a meaningful association between the written form and its meaning).  I think that the child being free to add meaning to the written word in this way helps tremendously in making some necessary connections that lead to reading aloud.  So, I wonder if without this practice, perhaps a 'delay' (from what was initially expected) may have been set into play.  Even when children aren't repeating the words for us to hear, I wouldn't be surprised if they are subvocalizing, too, or at the very least creating a mental association between what is being seen and what it represents. 

Of course ... all this 'said' ... the possibility does exist that perhaps your child isn't 'reading' as you expect him/her to do (with voice) because they already internalize the meaning of the words and do not feel the need to add audio.  Is it possible that they do not subvocalize, yet read?  After all, subvocalizing is a habit, not a requirement for reading, right.  Have you tested for this?  If you do a matching game between the printed word and its image, are they better than chance to get it right?  If they don't subvocalize, maybe it doesn't make sense to vocalize (aloud) the words that they read.  This would be pretty interesting if it were the case, and a bit contrary to my first paragraph, but I'd be curious to know if there are children who fall into this category.  For those who don't read, I still think it may be that they need more time pairing the audio/signed/image form of the (meaning of the) word to its written form, if that process were somehow 'interrupted'/'suspended' by nursing (or anything else, for that matter).  *shrug*.

Either way, I know it may be difficult not to stress, but remember what an amazing job you're already doing with your kids and that they WILL get there! ;-)

[Hippche]

Dear Queriquita,

Thank you so much for your analyses!! I think you might be right there, as she knows all the images and their names, but not the words.
I put it also down to her being an auditory and kinaesthetic learner, but the written words are not really different to images, so your explanation makes perfect sense to me and has given me knew motivation 
We have started little reader again and now she does it without nursing. I used to do the nursing, because she wasn't really interested and maybe children need to have the interest to learn?!
Well we will see what happens in the next 6 months

Thanks again!

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