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Terri from Virginia asks about
Fluency, Fatigue, and an Advanced Reader
" My 8-year-old son recently tested at a 4th grade
reading level and his comprehension was advanced also. However,
he struggles with fluency when reading a passage and he does not
like to read. It is "too much work" for him. He has no trouble
reading a list of words (reading level test), but he has difficulty
reading stories and tires easily. I am concerned that he has a
problem that I can't identify - do you have any suggestions or help?
Thank you for your question, Terri, and I understand your concern. A high-performing student like your son is most often an eager reader who's always looking for his next book. I'm going to assume that he has access to plenty of books related to his interests. (If not, please see Mission Impossible? 8-year-old boys and independent reading; Tips and tricks in our Answers Library). I'll also assume that he's not dealing with any other attention issues, like ADD, (or please check our answer to ADD. ADHD, and Reading Fun).
So given those two assumptions, I'd suggest taking a close look at undetected vision problems. The fact that he tires easily, and that he does better with isolated words rather than connected text makes me wonder if a subtle vision problem could be the cause. By this I'm not referring to routine distance and close-up vision testing. Rather I'm thinking of more vision issues such as eye teaming, tracking, or focusing. Have you observed any symptoms like the following....
- Turning head to use only one eye
- Covering or closing one eye while reading
- Moving head back and forth, rather than eyes, while reading
- Omitting letters, words or phrases
- Mistakes words with similar beginnings
- Miscalls or omits "small" words
- Losing place while reading
- Using a finger or marker to keep place
- Headaches during or after reading
- Misaligns digits in columns of numbers
- Rereads or skips words while reading
We all can do some of these when we are tired, but when a child with advanced reading skills complains that reading is too much work, then an exam by an ophthalmologist would be wise.
One of the issues they would test for would be eye teaming problems. About ten percent of school-aged children have eye teaming problems-- technically, called convergence insufficiency or convergence excess. At the close up distances required for reading, children with eye teaming problems are only able to aim their eyes together correctly for short periods of time. As their ability to accurately aim their eyes breaks down, their eyes end up pointing at slightly different places on the page. The result is a great deal of visual strain and eventually blurred, scrambled, or subtle double print. All of these would make a reader tire quickly.
Another issue an ophthalmologist would look for is eye tracking. Tracking skills, or the ability to control the fine eye movements required to follow a line of print, are especially important in reading. When this is an issue, children may use their fingers to follow the line because their eyes can't.
A third vision area that could explain why your son feels like reading is too much work is focusing, technically known as accommodation. For children with accommodation problems, print will become progressively blurry as they read for longer periods of time, and their eyes will fatigue from the strain of trying to keep the print clear. Sometimes children with focusing problems will hold their books very closely or lay their heads down. Headaches are very common.
If an ophthalmologist found that your son struggles with any of these vision problem, they would be able to recommend a treatment plan. Reading glasses are often prescribed, but sometimes therapy is needed to improve a child's abilities and stamina. There are therapists who specialize in working with children like this, and a good place to ask for recommendations could be your nearest children's hospital. These issues are common, respond to treatment, and if your son does have vision issues, my hope is that he will be reading with ease and joy very soon.
