Anyone done Read Right online tutoring? Overwhelmed by competing methodologies....

[halibecs]

My almost 9-year-old has recently been given a formal diagnosis of a specific learning disability in reading and in written expression and a provisional diagnosis of a learning disability in math. Last fall we completed Dancing Bears FastTrack AB and C.  We also did some Read Naturally readings.  I ordered High Noon Reading 2, but we ended up putting him back in school this spring and we haven't been able to do homework+extra work (we have been doing choral reading together some, reading to him A LOT). He definitely improved in his reading ability through the Dancing Bears work and is now at low-average or average levels, but his verbal IQ is at the 99th percentile so there is a problem there.  His multi-syllable word attack is still poor, he still reads words out of order, syllables out of order, skips little words, cuts off word endings and does not like to read aloud. He also still miscalls a lot of words or reads them backwards (one/on, was/saw, no/on etc.).  We were told by 2 tutors that he has problems with saccadic eye movements based on his performance on a Developmental Eye Movement test and a Visagraph exam.  We tried Reading Plus (that has eye training plus silent reading flucency) and Lexia (OG online program) for 3 weeks and it was manageable to implement. I just don't know if it's enough on its own.

 

His dyslexia is primarily visual.  He scored well on the WJ Sound Awareness subtest (7.7 grade level) and at the 84^th percentile on the NEPSY-II Phonological Processing subtest). On the WJ Spelling subtest, he scored at the 2^nd grade level; however, on the Spelling of Sounds subtest that only used phonetically regular nonsense or low-frequency words he scored at the 5^th grade level.  He will still spell words he should know incorrectly (wuz for was, cum for come, fone for phone)

 

Summer is almost here and I have been so excited for him to have more time to work on reading; however, I am burned out trying to work with him. He is extremely resistant to doing reading work and I think it will take a lot of pressure off me to put him in a formal remediation program so that I can just focus with him on program homework and reading together with him. 

 

I had thought we'd put him in Lindamood Bell Seeing Stars but 2 weeks ago they decided to not open a summer learning center on our island after all so I am now searching for alternatives.  Here's what I've come up with:

 

1.  Read Right tutoring:  opposite of everything I've done with Dancing Bears, etc.   Program focuses on reading for meaning not reading accuracy. Has anyone tried this?  www.readright.com.  They want us to stop all OG based work while we do the program.  This makes me nervous that we'll lose time where we could try to make progress with OG over the summer. But neither my husband nor I learned anything about phonics or syllable types until we have tried to help our son; I didn't even know the correct letter sound for Q until I volunteered at an elementary school 10 years ago and we are both good readers (and I am a horrible speller!), so maybe there is a different approach that might work for a kid with our genes?

 

2.  Hire a local teacher who has had Lindamood Bell Seeing Stars training do the program 3 hours a week with him (1 hour/3days).  She is nice but has never worked in a center and I'm worried we'll miss the massed practice aspect of LMB.

 

3.  Have him work with an OG tutor 2 hours a week plus Reading Plus and  Lexia online.

 

4.  Have him work with Seeing Stars teacher and OG tutor for a total of 5 tutoring sessions a week ( I'd have to bribe this kid that just wants to be outside all day).

 

5.  Rally and do High Noon 2 and multi-syllable work with him myself plus choral readings, Reading Plus and Lexia

 

5. Going to stay with relatives in continental US and do a LMB program.  But very crowded accommodations, expense of program plus tickets plus rental car etc. Disruption to kids of being away from dad etc.

 

I'm frankly overwhelmed at this point with the competing methodologies and claims of the programs.  My husband is completely distancing himself from the diagnosis, any home-based work on reading, and the decision about what to do.  I am so discouraged and I honestly don't know what to do. Any advice out there? 

 

 

Thank you!

 

[beishan]

Pump it up for you.

 

I am also thinking about summer. My son's school is using Wilson and he is making slow progress with it so I am not going to drop OG. We will continue twice a week OG tutoring during summer and I need to find another program to work with him once we finish Dancing Bear C. I am thinking about REWARD intermediate for multi-syllable word attack or Seeing Stars you mentioned above. Not sure if Seeing Stars is doable at home. If so, you can choose to do Seeing Stars by yourself and have OG tutor does two sessions a week.

[SandyKC]

Since you say your son has developmental eye issues, that will make reading more difficult (tiring and possibly painful) if he doesn't have corrective vision therapy.  I don't know if you can find a COVD doctor near you, but you might want to check on their website to see if you can find one.

 

My thoughts, based upon the little I know here and personal experience, would lean towards option number 3 for a light-weight approach, and your FIRST number 5 option for an intense program that is likely to bring about measureable benefit over the summer.  Whichever way you go, I would highly recommend addressing the saccadic eye movements during the summer because it can affect your son's ability to maintain his place, easily sweep his eyes for reading, etc. 

 

My DS had vision therapy and intensive remediation.  It's a lot of work, but the intensity of a program is what ultimately pays off.  Something like option number 2 is not likely to bring about much meaningful and lasting benefit as listed.  Your DS would likely need daily instruction and more than an hour per day in order to make meaningful progress.

 

Beishan mentions "Seeing Stars".. It IS doable at home. However, I'm not sure if that would be your best choice.  I agree that REWARD intermediate would be great for the multi-syllable word attack, but you would have to gauge that with your DS' basic reading ability.  Rewards is usually used after a child has the ability to read one and two syllable words.

 

Working AFTER a day at school is very difficult because your son is already tired from spending a full day doing what is hard for him.  It is both mentally and physically draining, so it is no surprise that you wouldn't be able to manage homework and extra work.  Summer is an ideal time to work on intense remediation as much as possible.. Two hours per day each and every week day throughout the summer can bring about some progress... It will also prevent learning regression in your son, and that will keep his learning moving forward.

 

May I ask if you put your son back into school this spring because of his LD issues and uncertainty about how to work with him?  If so, and if you'd like to regroup and consider working with him at home, it can be a good way to meet his needs given you have a solid plan of attack.  Do you have a comprehensive report from his diagnostic evaluation?  If so, that can provide a lot of insight into how to meet your DS' needs.  

[ElizabethB]

I would get a good COVD doctor evaluation and vision therapy first.

 

Then, work through the things on my how to tutor program, writing the words and syllables in large letters on a white board, try different color markers and use all uppercase to help see what works best with the vision issues. It includes a lot of multi syllable work and there is a fun nonsense word game to help the guessing problems.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/howtotutor.html

 

You could also try my online lessons, but the print might not be large enough. I used green font because that is the color that works best with the majority of my students.

 

Sight word and whole word based methods make guessing problems worse and are hard to remediate. Here is a bit of an explanation why and also explains some of the spelling patterns like was:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html

[halibecs]

Thank you both for the feedback.  Yes, part of our decision to go back to school was because of figuring out the LD piece (although we didn't get the official diagnosis until April).  We thought maybe the parts of school he is good at and really likes:  friends, PE, Art, Garden, Botany were even more important to him as we address the areas that are hard for him and the responsibility of homeschooling a child with learning disabilities made me feel even more out of my depth. My husband really wants him to attend the same academically competitive  middle/high school he attended and the confidence I felt having a well qualified homeschooling child apply withered when I realized many parts of his application may be less strong (the testing).  His attributes: his work ethic, his empathy, ability to get along with others etc. are real strengths but somehow I thought it would sound more believable in a recommendation coming from someone other than his mom. The other piece was that my husband wasn't completely comfortable with homeschooling, was traveling a lot, and wanted no part of teaching or reinforcing material with the children, which was upsetting to me since I was working from home 20-30 hours a week. So marital harmony trumped homeschooling for now.  However, the perfect fit for him would be a program that let us work at home and just go to "school" for sports, art, playtime a few times a week.  

 

We unfortunately don't have a COVD where we live.  I found some vision training apps and we've used Reading Plus that does some VT, but we haven't been to a COVD.  We have also considered this: http://www.brightstar-learning.com/programs/brightstar-reader/. 

 

I completely hear you on the phonics...I was totally sold on doing just phonics last year when I pulled him out and Dancing Bears definitely helped; however, I know I have many dyslexic traits, had zero knowledge of phonics until about 5 years ago and I'm an excellent reader.  My younger child COULD NOT do Dancing Bears and he can read beautifully and can spell better than the older boy.  I'm wondering if I passed on some crazy brain pattern to both of my kids where prediction and limited visual sampling are the right path to developing reading fluency and then we can come back through with Apples and Pears  to learn spelling.  But I don't want to waste a summer if Read Right is a mistake so I decided we are going to do 8 tutoring sessions before school gets out and see if it seems to be helping in a dramatic way (they swear it will).  I listened in on the first tutoring session today and it is a lot about reading fluency and pacing (they reread the same sentences over and over trying to develop a concept of what "excellent" reading sounds like and he did get very fluid).  The reading level of the material seems to be around 2nd grade.  It is not sight word memorization as a big part of LMB Seeing Stars is (and these are all words he "knows" fast anyway because the reading level is so low).  The OG tutor we were going to use has decided not to tutor this summer, but I bet a I could find another one.  Worse case, 1 week into summer I'll go with the plan of High Noon Reading 2, multi-syllable word work, choral reading, Lexia (O/G) and Reading Plus.

 

I will share our Read Right results (or lack of results) in a couple of weeks.

 

Thanks!

 

 

[cindydanleo]

Hi, I know this is a very old post but...How did High Noon work out for you?

[Lecka]

Pen is a poster here who used High Noon with her son and had a great experience with her.  You might search for her old posts about High Noon, too. :)

Edited January 5, 2016 by Lecka