Heidi Said:

Fifth grade trouble with reading?

We Answered:

It is possible that the kid is 'special' or probably is suffering some sort of dyslexia. I am no expert on this subject(I'm only 18 :P). Maybe books with a lot of images would be good.

Leroy Said:

Is there any way to improve my comprehension?

We Answered:

Yes, you can improve your reading comprehension.

The answer given by anothersaying "practice" is the WRONG answer. Practicing reading the wrong way will never help you improve your comprehension. First, learn the right way, then practice that.
You may also want to work on improving your responses by taking an Improv class, it really teaches you to think on your feet when talking to people.

Many people have trouble with reading comprehension even if they read well. It is commonly believed that if you read more your reading comprehension will improve but that is not true at all. Reading the wrong way more will never improve your reading skills anymore than playing tennis badly for years will make you into a great tennis player.

There are methods for improving reading comprehension. Unfortunately these are only taught in early grades of school. If a student does not grasp these ideas in the third to fifth grade, the student usually never hears about them again. Sometimes students never know there is such a thing as reading comprehension, it all depends on the school system and the teacher who may only spend a day or two on the subject while spending the rest of class time doing reading exercises which are supposed to improve comprehension, but students are just reading in their old and wrong ways so they gain nothing but frustration from the so called reading comprehension exercises teachers spent so much time on.

If you want to improve your comprehension then a book is not a good choice. If you were good at understanding what you read then you would not need the book and if you have poor comprehension then reading a book is not going to be helpful so it seems silly to read a book on comprehension. Those books are for teachers who teach comprehension, not people who want to improve their own comprehension. Even then, there are few books on comprehension. The one course I know of on improving comprehension that is good is the UltraMind Improvement Studio which is a video course that covers some of the best comprehension improvement methods in detail. The course is available online or on CD, I went for the CD because it has more material than the online version.

Bascially, it explains how to read with purpose and avoid what they call rubber-stamp reading which is reading a word just to move on to the next without understanding the meaning of the sentence. It also explains why people become bored during reading and how this destroys comprehension plus how to be more engaged with reading so you do not become bored.

I think reading comprehension should be taught as a refresher in middle and high school levels. It would really help people with their reading.

Dale Said:

Fifth grade trouble with reading?

We Answered:

I'm just going to give you some general tips so you can make a start.

If she is badly lacking skill/confidence, then there is no real point giving her 'assignments' yet. You need to build up her confidence before doing that, which may take months.

She has probably experienced some humiliation in class, and might be embarrassed, but you have to get her reading out loud. You need to have a room where you can be private - where she feels secure that no one can hear her but you. Reasure her that you are not going to tell her off if she gets things wrong.

Start by 'modelling' good reading - this means you read aloud to her, following the words with your finger for her to see. You read a paragraph out loud, then she reads the next.

If she stumbles/can't read certain words, tell her what they are, or encourage her to read the rest of the sentence, to see if she can then work out what the troublesome word is.

It's important that there is some early success to kep her motivate, so if she's struggling with nearly every word, get an easier book to read from and start again. As to what book you read from, well that will depend on her interests.

Lorraine Said:

Fifth grade trouble with reading?

We Answered:

The best way to encourage someone to read more, and thus get better at it, is for them to have reading material that interest them. Comic books are a great thing for beginning readers, they are generally written on a six grade level. They are short, so less intimidating than a book. And you should encourage the use of a dictionary while reading, to look up words they don't know. A trip to a comic store or a book store, can be a used book store and let them pick put books they find interesting. Just doing more reading is key. As for assignments, let her read a comic or short book on her on for a few days using the dictionary. Tell her to read it at least three times. Then ask her questions about the story. Have her create a comic or story of her own, doesn't have to be a huge thing a couple of sentences to start.
If you can make reading a fun and enjoyable thing for her she will read better quickly.

Ivan Said:

How do you tell if you have a learning disability, I feel like I could have one.?

We Answered:

There are some online checklists taht you can do that are not accurate but can give you a lot of guidance a good idea is to tell your school learning support team about your worrys but if you don't want to do that you can go to your doctor as Dyslexia is your mental health too and he may be able to arrange a test for you. I would really suggest telling your parents or writing a letter to them if you don't want to tell them face to face you need to get this sorted out if you are struggling.

You have like all the symptoms there is that you have described. I wish you all the luck in the world I really do x