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Our 9 year old son is soooo far behind in school. They have attributed to the abuse and neglect he suffered with his biologic mother. They have done lots of testing and he has no physical reason for his delays. He is super smart in my opinion, learns quickly and is a joy to have around. Everyone loves him. I thought I'd start working with him and we'd get him caught up in school. The thing is he doesn't 'care' about reading and is not motivated to do it. When I use candy or other rewards as a motivator we do make progress but that is so hard to get the school on board with. He is at kindergarten level for reading and math. Any ideas of how to get him up to speed with reading. He is in a CD classroom -totally inappropriate for him but they won't move him into LD (where he should be in my opinion) until he shows progress with reading. We've already had 2 IEP meetings this year with our counselors there as well because they also feel he is underserved. I can't home school or I would do that. Any good ideas of how to help our son read. I think once he got that down all the rest would follow. It's really the only thing holding him back IMO!
Thanks!
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A few things that helped us with our non-reader (who was 5 or 6 at the time, came to us at 3 from severe neglect):
1. continued to read TO our daughter using Hi-Low readers (high interest, low difficulty--age-appropriate, but easier than her chronological age) so that she could follow along beside me. (Books meant for younger readers worked, too.)
2. played age-appropriate audio books (children's, found at library) in car and she'd follow along with the book. A really cute one was "Apple Tree Farm" with great sound effects (and it "dings" when it's time to turn the page), and there are many more options in the kids' section of most libraries.
3. started her playing musical instrument (any instrument will do as long as it's "simple" and taught by an instructor who understands young children, attention spans, abilities, etc.). Learning to follow simple notes, left to right, seemed to help her make the connection for reading. Within just a few months SHE was asking to get books at the library, wanting to try to read some of the simpler ones TO me, etc.
4. All while doing this, we also worked on sight words using Dianne Craft's flashcards (she draws pictures ON the words to help with the child's visual memory). This helped immensely and proved that my child was indeed a visual learner. Once she had most of the sight words memorized (two, too, the, it, there, etc.), reading became fun for her.
Good luck! I hope you get some more suggestions!
P.S. I personally wouldn't go for the sugar as rewards from school teachers. All three of mine had attachment disorder (ages 7, 6, and 3 when they came to us) and we were urged by their therapist to treat AT HOME with sweets as part of therapy to help with bonding and attachment to Mom and Dad.
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I've always heard to motivate children to read -- give them subjects they like. What's he like? Dinosaurs, trains, stars/space, mummies, frogs, dogs... ? Maybe you've tried? Go to library, let him look for books HE likes. Or have him tell the librarian what he likes, (you go to library in advance, and prime the pump, tell the librarian about his reading level, etc.), have the librarian guide him around to look for good books.Do you do the thing where you read a book over and over, then leave out one word for him to fill in, then consecutively more? How about funny, outrageous books: Click Clack, Moo! Cows that Type ... Earthlets: As Explained by Professor Xargle ... Minnie and Moo Save the Earth ... Minnie and Moo: The Night Before Christmas (I Can Read Book 3) ... [all the Minnie and Moo books are simply hilarious] ... That Terrible Halloween Night by James Stevenson ... The Bear's Toothache ... Tacky the Penguin (audio book is a *must*!)....Second the audio CD/cassette/MP3 with book to go along.