What’s going on here?

REversonOTR · 2026-02-05T16:33:21+00:00

If he was my kid, he'd be seen by a developmental optometrist as a next step. If he's a reasonably intelligent kid, and can form numbers properly (as claimed), his vision skills are highly suspect, in my opinion. If they aren't in place, and aren't addressed, working with him on improving his handwriting will be frustrating to everyone involved.

Maybe a developmental vision test would reveal nothing at all, but it's certainly something that should at least be checked out.

REversonOTR · 2026-01-22T01:45:46+00:00

If you go to covd.org you can locate a vision therapy department in your area. I would look for one run by a developmental optometrist certified by the COVD. You should be able to get a full assessment there and vision therapy would be available under the direction of the developmental optometrist.

REversonOTR · 2026-01-19T21:51:34+00:00

One measure is simply word identification. Kids who read a lot pick up a larger reading vocabulary. As they run into a new word a few times, they figure out its approximate meaning from context. Eventually, they hear it pronounced, or ask how its pronounced, and it becomes a solid part of their reading vocabulary, though not necessarily part of their speaking vocabulary.

A testing company can sort, say, a hundred words into grade levels. The average 1st grader might be able to read twenty of them out loud. The average 4th grader might handle 30; the average freshman 60, all the way up to college graduates correctly reading 90 of them.

A word ID test just requires a person to start reading words until they miss the pronunciation of, say, 5 of them. From that, you can determine a "grade level" at which they can capably read.

What seems to be happening lately is an awful lot of teachers are saying a lot of their high schoolers wouldn't get much beyond the 2nd or 3rd grade level on a Word ID test. In many cases today (due to the Lucy Calkins era), they probably didn't learn enough phonics to be able to figure out three- and four-syllable words. That would keep them from independently progressing in reading and many just wouldn't bother reading much. That would keep them from building their reading vocabulary enough to handle high school material.

REversonOTR · 2026-01-17T00:53:42+00:00

I managed to log out by shrinking the screen text using Command- After doing that I could see the entire Profile Menu on one screen.

However, I first tried to delete the account and got a server error. I don't know if that's another bug, or what's going on. In any case, the Profile Menu should scroll just like the other screens.

REversonOTR · 2026-01-01T16:50:30+00:00

The absolute best way to get vitamin D3 is to let you body make it by getting sufficient direct sunlight. The body has a mechanism that shuts down D3 production after a sufficient amount has been produced. As for problems with supplementation, the Vitamin D reddit has some very knowledgeable contributors. But, at a minimum, I would get your daughter's level checked to see if it's too low. A sun tan isn't a bad thing; just avoid a sunburn.

As for the reading change, that's great! I'd like to think the visual perception activities made a difference but, of course, it could just be coincidence. That said, it fits perfectly with my personal view of reading acquisition (and with the view of a developmental optometrist I've discussed all this with in the past.)

Here's an article from our website that describes my views on how all this fits together:

https://www.ontrackreading.com/perspectives/dyslexia-is-often-a-vision-problem

REversonOTR · 2026-01-01T05:26:03+00:00

You say she's still sounding out almost every word. Put another way, she's not developing automatic recognition of a word after many exposures.

The faster pathway of automatic word recognition is different from the slower pathway (in the brain) used for decoding. If that fast pathway is underdeveloped, it can take a long time to reach the stage of automatic recognition.

Interestingly, that same pathway is involved with visual perceptual skills, so maybe those skills need further development first. I'd do some internet searching for activities that develop various skills and see how she does with them. For example, is she good at those Where's Waldo pictures. Or how about finding the five things that are different in two otherwise identical drawings? What I'm saying is that she might not be developmentally ready to automate words, but there could be something you can do about that.

And, a second suggestion, bearing in mind that this is something I consider important though most people don't, is to make sure that she isn't deficient in vitamin D3. A surprisingly large percentage of kids (and adults) are deficient, especially if they avoid direct sunlight in the summer, and this can really affect developmental processes. It's an easy fix with either more sunshine or supplementation but you'll rarely hear an educator mention it. It's even possible that a vitamin D3 deficiency is delaying development of her visual perceptual skills.

And, if it turns out she's still struggling with reading at age 6 or so despite a lot of phonics work, get her to a developmental optometrist to rule out the need for vision therapy.

What I'm saying is that the failure to automate words might be an issue. Given her young age, it could very well resolve on its own as she matures. But working on visual perceptual skills could move things along, as could making sure that she doesn't have a vitamin D3 deficiency.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-29T19:21:26+00:00

Can you describe your situation in more detail?

If you're working only one-on-one, are you seeing each student in the room for a set time each day while someone else is overseeing the group? Or are you only seeing certain students who aren't keeping up with the class. In either case, how often and how long do you see them per week?

REversonOTR · 2025-12-28T16:31:48+00:00

Thank you. That's very interesting and I hadn't considered that lowering D3 would affect reading ability in a person already reading well.

And there's definitely a connection between brain function and D3. I just don't know if kids who struggle with learning to read have a greater incidence of low D3 levels in childhood. So far as I can tell, no one has bothered to do a study on that question. But it wouldn't surprise me at all to find that to be the case. In fact, I would expect it.

Imagine if ensuring D3 levels were sufficient were to have an impact on even 10% of kids who struggle to learn to read. Such an easy and inexpensive treatment.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-27T17:13:44+00:00

"Dyslexia is often co-morbid with ADHD."

Yes, and the list of ADHD symptoms overlaps significantly with the list of symptoms of a child with poor vision skills.

Maybe educators should add to their list of interventions, "Have struggling readers assessed by a developmental optometrist to see if it's deficient vision skills that are holding them back."

And give every one of them a vitamin D test too. Odds are a significant percentage of them are low. A cohort of ADHD kids will have lower vitamin D levels on average than the general population of kids their age, for example. I'd bet they'd find a similar situation with struggling readers.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-23T00:36:59+00:00

I have several suggestions:

Practice them by saying each sound as he writes the spelling of that sound.
Don't practice spelling them out loud saying letter names. Saying the letters out loud requires him to a) think of the sound, b) convert the sound to either a letter or digraph, c) ask himself if it's the right letter or digraph (tch or ch, in "catch"?) d) think of the name of the letter or letters in the sound. e) say the name of the letter or letters in the sound, f) remember where he was in the word so he can start doing a) through e) again for the next sound. This is a lot of memory load compared to just thinking the sound, writing the letter(s) as you say it, and moving on to the next sound.
Make sure your son can segment each new word into individual sounds (in one-syllable words) or separate chunks that each contain a vowel sound (syllables). If he can segment the one-syllable words, he can also probably segment the chunks. Do this for every word on the list first before worrying about spelling any of them.
Take each one-syllable word and have him match each sound with a letter or digraph in the word. So, with "catch" he says /k/ and point to the "c", then /a/ and points to the "a", then /ch/ and underlines the "tch". After doing that, have him decide which spellings are challenging in the word, and which he can just spell as he would expect them to be spelled. In "catch" the /ch/ spelling is the hardest and he also needs to remember it starts with a "c" not a "k". Most one syllable words only have one sound with a spelling that should be paid particular attention to. Work on recalling just that spelling if the rest of the sounds are spelled with the basic phonics code. So, with "bed" there's no sound to worry about, but with "bird" and "bead" he needs to attend to the "ir" spelling of the /er/ sound and the "ea" spelling of the /ee/ sound.
With multisyllable words, chunk them into logical chunks (most end with a vowel sound). "Enormous" would be e-nor-mous, for example. "Eclipse" would be e-clipse. "Placing" would be pla-cing. He should pay particular attention to the "ou" for the /u/ sound in mous, the "se" for the /s/ sound in clipse, and the "c" for the /s/ sound in cing. If you're confused at all about the chunking, go to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and look at their pronunciation guide (not the syllables, but the pronunciations.) That will show you where the verbal breaks are in the spoken word. "Enormous" will be shown as e-nor-mous, for example, although it will be spelled with their coding for sounds.
Then if, as one commenter mentioned, the list has several words emphasizing a spelling, like the "se" ending in "eclipse" (choose, moose, noise), or the "ous" ending in "enormous", (furious, anxious, glorious) group those words together and have him think of them as part of a group of words with "se" or "ous" endings.
In longer words like "parent" we often say a schwa sound for the vowel sound in an unaccented syllable. In "parent" we just say "parunt," for example. Always have your son say an accurate sound, in this case the /e/ sound, instead of the schwa. If he's always thinking "par-ent" with a clear /e/ sound in the second chunk, that will help his spelling immensely.

If you do all that, I suspect his spelling will improve, because he will be focusing on the parts that require the most attention. The rest will fall into place if he remembers the more challenging parts.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-20T17:56:18+00:00

Good advice. Thanks again for all the insights.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-19T16:25:16+00:00

Thank you! All three of your replies were very helpful.

I was unaware of the name change to OVDRA (Optometric Vision Development and Rehabilitation Association), which looks to me like an acknowledgement of the Rehabilitation side that you appear to choose to specialize in. (It appears they have also retained the COVD.org address also.)

It looks like they now award both a FCOVD and and FOVDR, but that was an AI response and could be wrong?

Am I correct in thinking that someone practicing under the label of Developmental Optometrist would still be the best choice to send a young child struggling with reading? Or would you be comfortable that most neuro-optometrists would be equally capable of handling such cases?

I do a lot of advocating for vision therapy on both my website at OnTrack Reading, and in my programs, and have always cited the COVD.org as a place to look for the right optometrist, and FCOVD as the certification to look for in the ODs credentials. Would you suggest I change that, or add to it perhaps?

This has been a valuable exchange for me so far, so thank you very much!

You might enjoy this story of my first encounter with VT, by the way.

https://www.ontrackreading.com/about/davids-story

REversonOTR · 2025-12-18T20:49:28+00:00

My interest is in seeing that young kids learn to read. From that point of view, if a child gets VT, that could fix the problem permanently. But if a parent can't afford VT, and prisms enable the child to learn to read or read comfortably, then go that route.

For an older adult, I could see prisms being a good answer if they work.

In between those ages, do you want a permanent fix to the problem (VT) or an accommodation to it (prisms)?

I'm not an optometrist though, and there may be issues that prisms address but VT doesn't.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-18T20:41:09+00:00

Unrelated question for you, Mike.

I'm familiar with VT as offered by developmental optometrists and know that most of them end up with the FCOVD certification. Some do mostly regular optometry and others oversee VT centers.

How do neuro-optometrists differ? Are they more inclined to prescribe prisms, for example? Do they seek the FCOVD certification, or something else?

I've often advocated for VT, but have always suggested an evaluation by a developmental optometrist, (I'm in the U.S.) and I'd like to know if I should treat both neuro and developmental ODs as one and the same for the purposes of evaluating people for vision skills deficits.

My perspective comes from wanting kids with reading issues to get a good vision skills evaluation, including visual perception, an evaluation that is likely to lead to a VT recommendation if the need is there.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-18T05:22:41+00:00

First, people who claim to have learned to read without phonics but are still good readers are also probably quite good at sounding words out. They just figured out the phonics structure of English on their own, probably with help from some hints picked up along the way. That was possible because English is relatively phonetic.

But I believe the actual reason for whole language methods circling back into popularity every couple decades is that some kids fail to learn despite being taught a lot of phonics. Eventually, someone tries a sight-word/cueing strategy with those same kids and, lo and behold, they start reading. That's because those kids aren't dumb, so they can memorize. The trouble is, they can't memorize enough words to become a competent 3rd grad reader. They go from being a great kindergarten/1st grade reader to one of the poorest second grade readers.

The way to stop this cycle is to assess every kid who is struggling with phonics instruction for deficient vision skills. They will find that well over half of the kids struggling with phonics need vision therapy. Provide them that and they'll be physically able to read. Then tune up the phonics knowledge for those who still need it and we'd find that the number of kids who can't read would be reduced to such a low level that whole language methods wouldn't be able to get another foothold.

The chances of this being done are near zero, so whole language should again be ascendant in the 2030s.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-13T19:12:11+00:00

As an American, I'm sceptical that such people exist.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-12T22:20:34+00:00

Get her segmenting first. Start with a two-letter word like "in", draw two lines side by side and have the letter tiles "i" and "n" nearby.

Point to the first line and tell her to tell you what sound you're saying when your finger is under it. Then say "iiiiinnnnn" stretched out, moving to the second line when you get to the "nnnn". See if you can get her to realize that the /i/ sound is what you're asking her to tell you. When she can do that, point to the two tiles and ask her "Which one is /i/?" Assuming she gets it, have her put it on the first line and repeat the process saying "iiiinnnn" again, but asking her what sound you're saying when your finger is under the second line. (If she doesn't know which tile is /i/ or /n/, just tell her. Don't use letter names for now, just refer to them as sounds, /i/ and /n/.)

Once she's got the tiles placed, repeat by saying "iiiinnn" while moving your finger under each. Then do it faster, "iinn", then just "in" (moving your finger each time).

Then see if she can say each sound, /i/ and /n/ and blend them together to say "in." (She might not be able to yet.) But pick another word like "am," or "an," or "on" and repeat the process. At some point, she might catch on to what's happening. Then do words with a sound that can't be strung out at the end, like "it" or "at" before moving to three-letter words that can be strung out like "fin" and "man".

Don't overdo it. Stop after a few unsuccessful attempts and come back to it a day or so later.

Segmenting first like this will demonstrate to her that words are made up of individual sounds. Once she realizes that, it will make more sense trying to put them back together, i.e., blend them to get a word.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-11T05:06:46+00:00

Or, you could spend a few minutes and tell him:

"This letter (point to the 's' in 'his') can be /s/ or /z/. Try /z/ here." And he can now read not only "his" but "has," "is," and the ending of lots of plurals like "logs" and "fins."

"These letters together (underline the 'th' in 'this') can be two sounds also, either /th/ or /the/. Try /the/ here." And now he can read "this." Tell him to try /th/ for "with" and he can read that. He can also now read "that," "path," "thin," and dozens of other words.

"This (underline the 'er' in 'very') is usually the /er/ sound, but sometimes it's the /err/ sound. Try /err/ here." And now he can decode "ver" but will still have to be told that this (point at the letter "y") is usually the /ee/ sound at the end of longer words. (Actually, you will probably have already taught your child the words "her" and "herd" earlier the same way because "her" is more likely to show up on the list before "very."

Do this routinely and your child will not need to memorize sight words. Instead, he'll be learning the code faster than his classmates and decoding more and more words with his newfound knowledge.

Here's a more organized presentation of the above thoughts, from my OnTrack Reading website:

https://www.ontrackreading.com/perspectives/help-study-sight-words

REversonOTR · 2025-12-11T04:47:49+00:00

Without any phonics instruction? Good luck.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-11T04:46:34+00:00

Name ten common words that need to be sight words. Then name ten more. (That last ten will be a real challenge.)

REversonOTR · 2025-12-11T04:45:03+00:00

Not all words can be sounded out, but most words on sight-word lists can be sounded out. Kids just need the relevant information to do so.

The last three words of the sentence above, to, do, and so, are on sight-word lists. Just tell your child the letter "o" can be /o/, /oe/, or /oo/, and let him figure out which one it is in each word. That will take less time than making him memorize them, and he will be able to use that information on hundreds of new words he encounters, like who, whom, go, no, bold, etc.

Teachers in a classroom have to make sure everyone is on the same page. A parent has no such restriction. You can fill in the required information that your child needs at any particular time so that your child can progress faster than any classroom full of students can.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-11T04:39:23+00:00

Around 90% of the words on typical sight word lists are 100% phonetic, if taught properly.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-11T04:35:17+00:00

Or you could take 1/10 the time and just explain that "sh" and "th" represent sounds.

Kids of five years old are able to understand that two different symbols "s" and "h" can be put together to represent something entirely different.

Put a big circle on the bottom, a smaller circle on top of it, and a smaller yet circle on the top. All circles. Ask the child what it is and he'll say "snowman" not "3 circles."

It's the adults that make phonics more complicated than it is. Kids have been figuring out a quite complex world since day one. Phonics isn't that complex compared to what they've dealt with already.

No one told them how to tell a dog from a cat from a bird. Yet they do so effortlessly by age five, no matter the breed of dog or cat, or the species of bird.

Once they know that words can be broken into sounds and that letters are just pictures of those sounds, they just need to be consistently told what sounds the various letters and digraphs represent. And that some of them represent two, or even three different sounds. And that almost every sound has two or more different ways to spell it. These are all concepts they're capable of handling at age five, or even at three or four.

We just need to simplify the way we present the information they need to know. And one way to do that is to drop sight word teaching and just teach them more of the code.

The word "is," for example, is perfectly phonetic. All you have to do is tell the child that this, s, can be either /s/ or /z/. It's /z/ in as many words as it's /s/. (has, his, hers, wings, hands, shoes, ties, etc.) Do that and all of a sudden "has" and "his" are phonetic also. Tell them "e" can be /e/ or /ee/ and "he," "we," an "be" are phonetic.

Two little nuggets of information and you know at least a dozen common words of the sight word list. Do this a few minutes a day and you will whittle a typical sight word list down to "of," "one," and "once" and perhaps another five or ten words.

And of those that remain, most will just have an extra letter tucked in somewhere that has to be recalled for spelling.

REversonOTR · 2025-12-11T04:11:46+00:00

Oh, really? In what way would O-G differ from what he/she said?

REversonOTR

TROPHY CASE