Hi T.,
I too, have a seven year old daughter. Also, I am a reading instructor who taught her to read at 3 years of age. She was reading Dr. Suess series and Dick and Jane books. Midway in her kindergarten year her teacher says to me, "I am stumped, she just is not performing and progressing in reading." Her personality change towards reading and she started to say she didn't like reading. I was very frustrated as this is what I do for a living. In the end we found out two very important factors. FIRST,during one of her reading sessions at school her classmates giggled when another child was trying to read and sound out a word, secondly, the students participated in a reading program that quizzed them on a computer after they read a story and would grade their comprehension. One day some of the same classmates ridiculed a student because he failed the quiz. Both of these incidences made a lasting impression on my daughter and she refused to participate in the reading program or reading aloud in front of other children. We tried many different options to encourage her to read again some worked,but she still was not progressing in school. The teacher would say she never raised her hand to participate or read aloud. I was beside myself and very frustrated. I help students every year who come through my reading classes, but I was at a loss with my own child.
In the end, after we discovered what the issues were because of the above mentioned issues we realized her self confidence in her reading ability was very low.
My husband and I met with the teacher and got permission to preview the reading lesson ahead of time before she introduced them to the class. We reviewed the lessons with my daughter so she was confident to participate with the rest of the class during instruction.
We also did many of the other activities mentioned by other moms. LIbrary , reading together at night, computer games with reading , taking reading quizzes online, taking her after school to school library to take quizzes, rewards , etc...
I am happy to say with a lot of patience and perservance she is on grade level , participating with classmates and loves reading again. Now, she even writes her own stories and says she wants to be an author someday.
I guess my point of sharing this story with everyone is to have everyone consider what their child is thinking and may feel about what is expected of them. Try talking with your child and asking them exactly what it is they don't like about reading or what they think is expected of them. This will help you to figure out what is the best way to help them to overcome their anxiety.
one tip for the b and d is a visual( big dog )you ask them to hold up their index fingers and fold the other fingers down to create a circle this creates the letters b and d. b is created on the left hand and d is created on the right hand you name them big dog this an easy pneumonic for them to remember and to use as a visual cue when they want reassurance.
Reading can be fun!!!
One last thing, I did not find out this information from my daughter from one conversation. I had many discussions with her before she shared what exactly was causing her anxiety about reading.