QUESTION: Why is it so hard for my child to stay on the correct line while reading?
ANSWER:
There can be several reasons why children struggle with this aspect of reading, and it’s essential to identify the specific challenges your child may be facing.
Let’s explore 3 common factors that can contribute to difficulty with line tracking and suggest strategies to support your child’s reading development at home.
- Visual Tracking: Visual tracking refers to the ability to smoothly move the eyes from left to right and follow the text on a page. Your child may have difficulty with this skill, which can lead to losing their place or skipping lines while reading.
- To support your child’s visual tracking skills, you can have them use their pointer finger to guide their eyes along the text as they read.
- Motor Skills: Poor fine motor skills can impact your child’s ability to move their eyes along the page at an even pace.
- Engage your child in activities that require them to use their fingers like building with blocks to help improve their motor skills, which can in turn support their line tracking ability.
- Attention Span: Your children may have difficulty maintaining focus and attention while reading, leading to line tracking issues.
- Create a calm and distraction-free reading space for your child. Minimize noise and visual distractions that could disrupt their focus.
Remember, your child is unique, and progress may take time. You can support your child’s reading development with patience, consistency, and lots of encouragement.
If you have ongoing concerns, reach out to me here for a complimentary, personalized Learning Clarity Breakthrough session to work out specific strategies for your child.
I remember doing that a lot as a kid. So I did use the pointer finger approach. My mom read to me and she always pointed at the word that she was reading, so I thought that you were supposed to point at the word. Otherwise, how would you know what line you were on? My eyes jumped all over the page, but it turned out that I needed to wear glasses!
Children are very good at imitating the adults around them.
It’s crucial that the first thing parents do is have their child’s eyes checked when they have reading difficulties.
In a distracting environment, I find that using a finger to track the text helps me focus on what I am reading. I think I am a normal reader, but sometimes, life tries to distrust us all.
If that strategy helps adults who are typical readers, think about how much more it will help children with reading challenges!
I wish this article was around when I was in school. I did this all the time. It wasn’t until I was in high school that I was shown how to use a paper to keep track of where I was reading.
So many of us, adults, had this problem but no one around us knew what to do during the crucial elementary school years. It would have saved us so much pain and embarrassment. Thank God, children today do not need to go through the frustrations we experienced!
Simple pointers that work so well, this is what helped one of my granddaughter’s when she was having this problem.
Many of the tools, techniques and strategies that help struggling readers are simple.
Florence, your advice is awesome as always. I recently asked a Mensa member, a licensed teacher of many years, to read my introduction as a speaker. I was shocked that he was reading with great difficulty, struggling, halting, and making mistakes. More people need your help than many would think.
One of my mentors used to talk a lot about the brilliant children she worked with that struggled to read. Dyslexia isn’t a problem of intellect and so often the people who have significant trouble reading have dyslexia, but do not know it.
A helpful piece for parents and teachers about this common problem for kids. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome, Danwil.