Reading Comprehension

I’ve written previously about some issues we were concerned about with our oldest child at the beginning of the school year. We had her evaluated by a Vision Therapy Professional to see if something between her eyes and her brain was causing her to have more trouble learning than she should. While we ended up not pursuing vision therapy at this time, we were very glad we had the testing done.

One of the things I was really concerned about was her reading – or lack of desire and ability in this area. In the spring of 2008, she was reading on second grade level (while at the end of her first grade year). In the fall of 2008, she had regressed to reading very little on her own and tested at a comprehension level equal to a beginning first grader. She struggled. She hated reading.

Fast forward four months to today. It has been a fast and amazing ride with this child. Twice a week, we use McCall-Crabbs Standard Test Lessons for Reading. Per the instructions, we average every ten tests to see where her reading comprehension is. Here is a summary of her results after thirty selections.

First set of 10:             Average 2.7
Second set of 10:         Average 3.4
Third set of 10:            Average 4.1

I have been having a hard time making sure she has appropriate level reading material because of her amazing progress in the past four months. It is a good problem to have!

We can definitely thank our wonderful local eye doctor for helping us make sure she has clear vision. My spouse and I have discussed how we might have attributed this zooming progress to the vision therapy had we done it. I’m not knocking Vision Therapy – I have heard WAY too many success stories and encouraging words since we embarked on this path to say it isn’t worth it. But, I am content in our decision – at this time – not to pursue it.

In the spirit of full disclosure, Child #1′s spelling hasn’t improved very much in the same time period. It has improved – but not by a huge amount. Her coloring (in the lines) has greatly improved to where we have a hard time telling the difference between her coloring sheets and those of her younger (artistically-inclined) sibling. And she still hates to use a pencil to write anything.

Why Did I Ask about Vision Therapy?

What caused me to bring up vision therapy in the first place?

Honestly, if I wasn’t working with my child daily as part of homeschooling, I don’t think I would have. Child #1 might be referred to as an “auditory” learner. She loves to be read to, but complains bitterly at having to read anything herself. It is “too hard.” She can read at a second grade level, but her comprehension is very low. I have been known to ‘bait’ her by reading to the end of a chapter that completely leaves one hanging. Then, I will carefully close the book while she BEGS for me to read “just one more page.” I hand it to her and tell her she can read the next page herself. She desperately wants to know what happens next, but appears to be more than she can get herself to trudge through to find out.

If she were in “regular” school, I would probably say she was lazy.

Her (manuscript) handwriting is horrid. She can’t color within the lines without giving herself a headache. She absolutely hates writing anything with a pencil on paper. (I have started calling this her “pencil phobia.”) She will write using markers on the white board, however. She loves to use side walk chalk outside.

Compared to her peers, she is only about half as accurate at hitting a ball with a bat.

So, I questioned. Is there anything we can do to help her learning be smoother? Is she having issues totally unrelated to motivation or ability – something physical or mental (related to her eyes) – that is causing her to have to work harder to achieve the same results as other children her age?

An Evaluation for Possible Vision Therapy

As I have written about previously, my oldest child has strabismus. She recently received progressive lenses which were hopefully going to help her see more clearly close up as well as continue to correct her eye alignment for farther away viewing. After getting the lenses installed over two weeks ago and a special educational and instructional session for us parents (so that we could help with tips on how to use them as needed), my evaluation is that she is doing the same as with the previous (single-vision) lenses.

In a candid conversation with my spouse several nights ago, our daughter asked, “Do you like to read?” When told that the answer was definitely “YES!“, she asked why. She then went on to explain that she no longer liked to read because she didn’t have the “patience” to try to read. This was a girl who was reading at a 2.8 reading level eight months ago.

Due to a question on a questionnaire for a doctor’s office, I tested her a few days ago with her new lenses to find that she was at the very minimum of the scale (1.2 grade level). We use the McCall-Crabbs book and I used Lesson A4. I gave her three minutes to read the small selection and answer as many questions as possible. She answered three of the eleven in the time allotted and I let her answer the rest without stopping her. She answered only one question correctly out of eleven (number four - past the time deadline). Zero correct is indicated at a 1.2 grade level – the lowest on the chart.

To further my knowledge-gathering, I had her sit back, close her eyes, and listen to me read the SAME selection again out loud. I asked her the very same eleven questions out loud and she got nine of them correct.

I repeated this test a couple days later with test A41 with similar results. Her coloring, despite how much time and patience she puts into it, is not getting any closer to being “in the lines.” When taking her turn at hitting the softball with her cousins at the farm, she was barely able to connect with even half the balls her next younger sibling did. I just can’t help but wonder if she is having trouble processing the signals her eyes are sending her and matching them to her movements.

After a consultation with our wonderful local eye doctor, we have an appointment in mid-September for an evaluation with a specialist to see if Child #1 would benefit from vision therapy. This doctor, whose office is about an hour and a half from our home, deals specifically with younger people, strabismus, and vision therapy. We have a myriad of forms to fill out and bring with us and it looks like it will be an expensive ordeal. But we both would like our child to have the bumps smoothed out of the road. We are disappointed that it takes so long to get in for the evaluation appointment, but time will fly by quickly enough. It could take up to four visits to determine a path to take and then up to a year for the therapy. I will write about it again when we have more information.