I work everyday with my son on his reading, he seems to have the hardest time with small words, or he will say them and then later not know them. A lot of them are his spelling words that he got 100% on—I don’t understand. Also, when he reads, he does not know what he has read. He has glasses now. He is farsighted in both eyes and this seemed to help for a while, but now he seems to be struggling again. He is in the first grade and, as of right now, will not go to the second grade unless I can get him to read and understand. He hates to read. I have tried everything and I have phonics, nothing seems to be helping. I have always read to them every night since they were babies and he enjoys that but does not want to read himself. He hates it and says he can’t read, he tries but can’t.

It sounds like he’s having trouble with retaining what he’s learned. He learns it, but then quickly forgets it (i.e., the spelling test that he got 100% on, and then a week later, can’t remember the words on the test). Retention can be a learned skill like any other academic skill. Some children seem to be able to retain almost everything, while others struggle with keeping it. But even if they’re not great natural retainers of information, there are a few things you can do to help him remember things a bit longer. You are right in noticing that the more he has to stop and correct words, the comprehension level drops dramatically. If he misreads a word, and can’t figure it out the second time, tell him the word and have him move on with the story. It can become so frustrating for a child to have to ponder and attack every word. Work on attacking words during the game, not during the story. Have him sound it out once, and if he can’t get it, you tell him the word and move on.

While reading a story, have him stop every few pages and tell you what’s going on with the characters in the story. Ask him questions about what is happening. This will help him retain and comprehend what he’s reading. Some beginning readers are working so hard on just figuring out the words that the plot is totally lost on them. A good tool here is to have them only read a few short pages, tell you what’s happening and stop. Later, read a few more pages, talk about it and stop. Breaking the story down into short bits is a good way to help a beginning reader still feel good about being able to work through the words, and still remember what they read.

Another tip that might help is to keep your work time very short—10 minutes or so. Work on a concept, reading, spelling, whatever the homework is, and then stop. Let him go do something else for a while. Then bring him back, review, then tackle something new, but again, keeping each session short. It takes longer to get through the work, but breaking down into manageable sessions might help him not feel overwhelmed with that task. I also use incentives and rewards to help with undesirable tasks: “Johnny, if you read these three pages for me, I’ll play (a game of choice) with you.” Setting and reaching small goals will help you accomplish bigger ones in the long run. Good luck, enjoy the process of working with your child.