Comments on: Literacy: Five Ways To Help Boys

By: Dana Petko

Dana Petko — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 20:24:01 +0000

My boys are now 14 and 16 and I am on the last few chapters of reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to them. My husband and I have been reading to them all their lives and although it is not as frequent now as it was when they were younger, they still enjoy listening. My older son reads on his own, both fiction and non-fiction. My younger son has a severe Learning Disability and has not been able to read (until this year) so has listened to audio books. He has gone through the local libraries children’s section and most of their teen section. Thankfully, he has attended a specialist school that has brought his reading up from a grade 2 level to a grade 5 level, and he told me he won’t be needing as many audio books anymore, because he’ll be reading on his own. He’s started on comic books because the story lines tend to keep his interest where books of reading level will not.
Great suggestions – they seem to have worked for us!

By: Melissa @ Bright Side Up

Melissa @ Bright Side Up — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 05:23:59 +0000

I was shocked at the difference between my daughter (a bookworm) and my son.
My son is very active, all of the time, so when it came time for him to start school we knew it would be a challenge. He struggled through Kindergarten with the constraints of the classroom and sitting. Now in Prep, he is struggling to read.
After some research on boys and different learning methods, I am inclined to think he would go ahead in leaps and bounds with a more Kinesthetic Learning approach, but his teacher is set in her methods, and whilst I try to help at home, I am limited by work with my time spent with him and I am not confident in my own knowledge.
My hope is that his next teacher is much more flexible and that maybe some tutoring or one-on-one can be organised.

By: Pauline

Pauline — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 12:55:34 +0000

Hi Beverly,

It is hard to see kids struggle, especially when they are trying hard. Keep encouraging him. Keep praising him for his efforts. I think it would also be helpful to talk to his teacher and to continue to dialogue about your son’s reading. There might be some or just one area that your son really needs to consolidate for the penny to drop, so to speak. I would, while reading with him and generally enjoying books, also try and focus on consolidating specific reading skills to help his reading. Another point I would be mindful of, is to pick appropriate books for him when he is doing his individual or guided reading. Select texts that he can read with 95% accuracy. If he can’t read the text with less than 5% errors then the frustration level for him would be too much and can be off putting.

xo P

By: Beverly

Beverly — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 23:04:46 +0000

Interesting reading. I have two boys, both of which i have always made a point of reading to every night near enough before bedtime. We’ve always enjoyed looking at books, reading books together but now my eldest is at school. He is really finding reading and writing really hard! To say that i feel disappointed for him is an understatement. It’s really frustrating because he loves books, i buy him his fishing magazines frequently because he is passionate about fishing (especially as daddy does it!!) and he always see’s me reading something or other. A lot of his friends have the use of an ipad or iphone. We don’t! We only have this cronky falling apart laptop that is about giving up the ghost, we’ve tried flash cards, reading street signs, shopping labels etc. Made up games making silly words and i’ve always tried to encourage him to love words in what ever format they come but to see him struggle with words is so hard to bear. I know he will get it one day but the agony of waiting for the penny to drop for him is heartbreaking. So far, we don’t know how his younger brother is going to fair with the reading but how do you show a chid the joy of reading if everytime they try,it’s extremely hard for them and it puts them off!!