I called the school today about my dd

[Crystal in VA]

I wasn't too thrilled with what she told me. Basically it can take 2-3 months before we may know anything. I didn't like her attitude either. She described a long, drawn out process and then let me know that depending on her test results, she'd need to go to public school for special education. All this scares me!:(

 

My dh thinks we should give dd till the end of the school year and if her reading hasn't improved, then we'll pay for private testing. I have checked out the book Reading Reflex from the library today and want to give that a try. I have studied everything that I can think of about my dd and I keep coming back to dyslexia. Are there things that a specialist would do to teach her that I can't do?

[Laurie4b]

Chris,

 

What a specialist has is experience with a method that works. Mothers can implement programs that work, but sometimes run into difficulties due to inexperience.

 

Here are some pitfalls to avoid:

 

1) Not judging if adequate progress is being made. I see a lot of moms feel some progress is enough. What you want to see is your child closing the gap with her peers, not just moving along to the next step.

 

2) Jumping ship too fast. Moving from one method to another just because someone else is using method B successfully. There are a few methods with very good track records, but you've got to stick with them.

 

3) Both the above are related to lack of experience. You need to be able to interpret dd's MISTAKES to design the next day's lesson. This is not to focus on mistakes with dd, but the mistakes made show what the child is not getting. A good tutor uses mistakes to guide the next day's lesson.

 

4) Not teaching to automaticity. A good tutor will work with the child until the new thing being taught is automatic--the child no longer has to stop and think about it. Only then will the tutor add a new step. Sometimes you stay on something a long time, and when it comes "unstuck" it's like breaking a logjam.

 

5) Not incorporating fluency readings.

 

One thing that can be ideal is to find a tutor who will work with you to train and supervise you as the parent. You can let the tutor do an assessment, and a few lessons while you watch, then pay for consultations as you move along. This saves money but gives you the benefit of that experience.

 

 

Dyslexia simply means "difficulty with language" and specifically reading. It is not a specific diagnosis beyond that.

 

The book Overcoming Dyslexia is a good compilation of research on overcoming dyslexia specifically, and just solid reading practices.

 

Reading Reflex is a good program to start with. If that approach is going to work, you will usually see leaps of progress within a few months. I have read (though have no experience with it) that ABCDarian (sp?) spells things out well for parents and uses similar methodology. The Sound Reading CD is also excellent. A computer does phonemic awareness exercises with the child. You can watch and see how they're done and do them with letter tiles.

 

I tutor with Wilson and I like that program a lot. It tends to move a bit slower than Reading Reflex, but for kids who do not get the leap with RR, it's what I would recommend. A parent could do it, but I think it would be hard to do it right without some training first, or oversight by a trained tutor. HTH

[Myrtle]

I don't know all specialists so there may be something that I have missed. A teacher friend of mine gave me all the materials from a special training seminar she had attended and it amounted to huge binders of instruction on how to teach phonics! Another useful resource for me was Earobics which is software. It was designed by speech therapists (so they say) and our school system does actually include it as official therapy with some of their spec ed kids according to my neighbor with one in the system.

 

It involves no reading at all, colors or shapes represent sounds and the child has to remember, reorder or classify the sounds in the words depending on the activity. It automatically adjusts to the level that the child is performing at. Two mistakes in a row and you are moved down to the lower level, three correct answers in a row and it moves the child up a level. The differences between the levels are tiny, tiny and hard to even notice sometimes so it's very gentle.

 

It really, really helped my son with spelling and I'm about to get the adult version for him since he's starting to revert back to making many more mistakes than he should. He still is dyslexic. He was never "cured" of that. He never grew out of that. Not only does he still mess up on simple short words but he's still reversing b/dand reversing digits when writing or saying double digit numbers! However, he is literate and I'd say that he can read at grade level. He's eleven and is coming pretty darn close to being able to read adult-level books.

 

It will sound hackneyed, yet it's true, that the single biggest improvement to his reading skill happened within the past 12 months when he found books that he liked to read that he picked out for himself (knock knock joke books, transformers, fluff) rather than me picking out didicatic, educational books (DK science readers) for him to read. He is definitely over the hump.

[Claire]

Most schools do not have very well-trained staff to teach reading. In most cases, if a child is cooperative about working with a parent, the parent can do a better job *if* using a good curriculum (meaning one that is a good match for the individual child) and *if* the parent takes care of any problems which may be contributing to the difficulty learning to read.

 

Reading Reflex is a great place to start. Read the first three chapters, then give the assessments in the book. Instead of cutting up the manipulatives, get a set of alphabet letters from Walmart, a small whiteboard, and a marker. Use those while working through "Fat Cat Sat" using the exercises in the book, then move on to the next section ("Bug on Rug"?), etc. You should see significant improvements after working one-on-one with your child for a total of 20 hours or less. By significant, I mean enough so that both you and your child can tell he is finally "getting" it.

 

If you don't see that kind of progress, then I highly recommend that you join the ABeCeDarian group on http://groups.yahoo.com and consider switching to ABCD. ABCD uses the same approach but provides more exercises, fluency drills, benchmarks, etc. and the people on the support list can give you individualized advice.

 

There are fundamental evaluations you can get privately that can either identify or rule out certain types of problems. The major evals are a complete speech and language eval, an occupational therapy eval, and a developmental vision eval. These usually produce a lot more useful information than the traditional educational psych evals that test IQ and achievement.

 

But, start with Reading Reflex and take it one step at a time.

[Crystal in VA]

I picked up Reading Reflex from the library and plan on reading that. I have magnatic word tiles that I bought to use with dd so I'll pull those out to use.

 

I have called to make an appt. with our ped. to get a referral for testing. I know my in-laws have to have that confirmation from a professional as to what is going on with dd....and I guess would feel better about everything if I knew for sure.

 

Thank you guys for your help.