The child with an attention disorder may struggle with reading too, but her errors are quite different and include difficulties with reading fluency:
- She omits and adds words when reading.
- She loses her place when reading.
- She substitutes words with similar meanings based on context.
- She repeats phrases and self-corrects.
- Her reading fluency sounds “uneven” due to numerous self-corrections.
If your child with attention challenges struggles with hesitant, choppy, or uneven reading fluency, consider repeated reading instruction:
- Multiple readings of single words and phrases.
- Multiple readings of continuous text. The student should read text that he or she can accurately decode. Material should be selected so that reading text that is too difficult does not frustrate him or her. Material should be read three to four times for optimal benefit. The goal is to make his or her reading sound like he or she is talking.
Consider downloading the University of Texas Center for Reading and Language Arts (UTCRLA) Fluency Instruction Guides for either elementary or middle school students.
