Newly diagnosed dyslexic/dysgraphic

[diokos]

Son, 10.  He's in 5th grade, and reading at a 5th grade level.  I well remember the struggle to teach this boy to read, but he's doing well now.  His evaluator strongly reccommended that I cut off his outside reading and start him very soon on the Barton system, allowing only controlled readers when we get to that point.  He is doing a lot of guessing with his words-using context clues and guessing pretty well in a story or paragraph format, but the guessing becomes apparent when he sees isolated words.  I understand her desire to curb the guessing, and that will probably be difficult when he's mastered it so well. :huh:   I worry, though that I'm shooting myself in the foot to take away the reading skill that he has finally acquired, and begun to at least tolerate, if not actually like (though he'd not admit that, yet!)  For those who have been there, done that, what are your thoughts?  I do know that he stalled out for quite awhile around a late 3rd grade level, and only gained this ground through recent Vision Therapy.  It's also a concern that he may stall again well before a high school or college reading level if I don't work to diligently get rid of the guessing game.  And probably the sooner, the better.  What to do?

 

I'm looking at the AAR/AAS combo.  He's used the AAS before with some success, so I'm looking at picking that back up and adding in AAR.  I'm just really wondering about outside reading!  Also, am I wise to ignore our evaluator's advice toward Barton and look at this, instead?  She had never heard of AAS/AAR, only had used Barton in tutoring others with success.

 

Someone had mentioned The Write Foundation as a good writing program for dyslexics, but I've not heard of it before.  Anyone else use that?  And, is writing something I should even be concerned with continuing until we've completed a remediation program of some sort for his spelling, etc?

 

Now that we finally have the official diagnosis, I'm finding that I just don't really know where to start! 

[VinNY]

REWARDS by Sopris West. I really like the strategies taught for decoding multisyllabic words. I still use it with my 13 yr old for review purposes. I combine that with the Six minute Solution http://haslett.k12.mi.us/education/dept/dept.php?sectionid=745 .

 

[geodob]

You wrote that he guesses pretty well, in a story or paragraph format.

Where the problem is that he is understanding what he is reading, well enough to predict what a new word is.

So that he is learning this new word, in context.

As opposed to learning a word in a list, with no context.

 

 

[OneStepAtATime]

I would go with Barton. You only limit or eliminate outside reading until the end of Level 4. Level 1-3 can go pretty quickly for many (weeks to months). Level 4 is harder and might take several months by itself. Still, since each level is not a grade level, just a level, you aren't looking at 4 years of no outside reading. He might be able to make it through the first 4 levels in a year to a year and a half, maybe sooner.

 

Honestly, doing it that way may finally help your child unlearn the inefficient reading processes he has in place now and put in place much more effective ones for reading/spelling etc.

 

And to clarify, after Level 2 if he chooses ON HIS OWN to pick up a book or whatever and read silently that's fine. Barton just recommends no reading out loud (student reading out loud) or assigned outside readings, except for controlled text, until after level 4 so the new and more efficient reading processes can take hold.

 

I realize that sounds like a questionable practice if a student is already reading, but from your post it sounds like he has a lot of very inefficient practices in place. He's really bright so he has found ways to work with his weaknesses. Trust me when I say that stopping all outside reading for a bit while you help him relearn how to read actually speeds up the process. It genuinely speeds up the process of learning to read and spell words correctly.

 

Think of it this way. Suppose you were taught how to swim using a particular stroke a particular way and you did it that way for years. Then you learn that what you were taught was a poor way to do that stroke. You want to swim with the big boys. You want to compete. Only your stroke is poor. You are going to have to unlearn the years of muscle memory and brain connections that are now automatic so you can learn the proper stroke. If you stop the old stroke altogether and work really hard using only the new stroke you will have a much greater chance of being successful and in a much shorter period of time than of you do your old stroke some days and your new stroke on other days. Does that make sense?

 

As for AAR/AAS some parents have had great success with that program. It is a solid program. But it isn't designed for a dyslexic. Many dyslexic students find it makes too many leaps too quickly. They struggle and get frustrated and don't make the same kind of progress that they might have made with something designed for dyslexics specifically.

 

Good luck with your decisions. I know this is a challenging place to be (my DD was diagnosed in 5th).