Barton and writing

[Minerva]

 For those of you that have used Barton, did you also use other writing programs?

 

We used HWOT and LOE last year and it was a good intro, but he is far from having mastered his letters. I don't think he has any fine motor skill problems, but he does get an astounding number of letters and numbers backwards and inside out. We are about to buy Barton level one (YAY!) and I can't tell if this will be enough writing for my ds or if we need to add another program. 

 

Thanks.

[OneStepAtATime]

Do you mean just the physical act of forming letters or writing out thoughts and ideas?

 

For the physical act of writing, you could always continue working on letter formation separately. As for reversals, that will be addressed with the Barton program. Level one is going to seem really basic. There is no physical writing IIRC. Letter reversal is tackled in Level 2, I believe.

 

Don't worry that you will have to wait too long to address writing issues. If there are no other issues that could cause your child to struggle with this program your child might make it through Level one in a week. It is a huge, critical level for many kids. It is frequently the missing component for many kids. It just is very short.

 

Did your child pass the screening test?

[OneStepAtATime]

How old is your child? Has he ever had his vision evaluated by a COVD eye doctor?

 

Oh, and as for a formal writing program for getting thoughts on paper, the Barton program strongly urges parents to wait on implementing a separate writing program until during or preferrably after Level 4. She suggests IEW but others could work just as well. There IS gentle writing and grammar in Level 2-4 of Barton (and beyond) but Susan Barton feels that an outside writing program introduced too early could slow down progress in reading and spelling until the child has reached a certain level of mastery in those areas. In fact, Barton is supposed to replace ALL other language arts instruction until the student has passed level 4. At that point they should have a solid enough base to branch out.

 

That is not the same thing as the physical act of writing letters. If your child is struggling with that, you might need an OT eval, depending on the age and how explicitly it has been addressed. And yes, working on the physical act of writing could be done alongside Barton. Since the reversals are addressed in Barton I might slow down on letter formation though until you reach Level 2 if it is causing frustration.

[City Mouse]

How old is he? If he is still having a lot of letter reversals with HWOT, I would back up and have him work more with the slate and the paper with the boxes. If he uses the slate properly (staring at the smiley face) it is difficult to make the letters backwards, but with HWOT that really only works for capital letters and numerals.

 

Barton does teach a great strategy for d-b-p confusion. My DS13 is in level 6 of Barton, and I still ocassionaly see him check his b and d.

[Minerva]

We have had no evaluations for my son since we live in a country where evaluations are worse than nothing. Sadly, there is no such thing as OT or COVD here.  I am basing our need for Barton on my experiences with his sister who is dyslexic and his father who is also dyslexic. I don't want to do what I did with my dd and buy several different highly touted programs, spend hours upon hours reinventing the wheel, years pulling our hair out, and then spending a zillion dollars on tutoring through LMB (which was amazing, but oh so expensive and far far away). The happy ending is that she is nine and is becoming a reader!

 

We started my son with AAR since I already had it. It was a total failure. We moved onto LOE which was an improvement and we were able to make slow progress through level A. Once we hit level B (beyond CVC) all learning stopped. We have been stalled out at the beginning of level B for six months. 

 

I am not at all concerned about having him write down thoughts and ideas at this point. I just really want to keep us practicing letters and numbers. He reverses and confuses many of his letters and is becoming more allergic to his pencil daily. I really feel like his grip is fine and his motor skills are pretty good. He just can't remember the order that many letters and all of his numbers go in despite working on this with HWOT. I was just wondering what other printing programs people have used (if any) in conjunction with Barton. 

 

My son did pass the Barton Screening. I have been using a lot of Lips techniques with him for a long time since we have some experience and materials left over from my daughters days at LMB. 

 

Thank you, OneStepAtATime for mentioning how fast Level one of Barton goes. It makes me think I should order both Level one and Two at the same time. Shipping is tricky here. 

 

I will keep going with HWOT but I do feel like he needs more practice and am open to other suggestions.

 

Thank you!

[OneStepAtATime]

Definitely if shipping is tricky ordering both Level 1 and Level 2 at the same time might be a very good idea. Level 2 will also usually go much quicker than any higher level of Barton. It took my daughter a few weeks, maybe a couple of months. I can't remember clearly. It took my son about 2 weeks. Level 3 took several months for both of them. Level 4 is long and it has a LOT of challenging lessons. Honestly it is usually one of the most challenging. Whatever you do, I highly recommend you not take a long break between Level 3 and Level 4 or you may have to repeat Level 3.

 

There are some EXCELLENT resources on the Barton site for tutors/parents teaching Barton. If you find yourself between levels waiting for one to come in you can easily use those resources to review until the next level arrives.

 

Also, I highly recommend the card games designed specifically for Barton on the Spelling Success website. They are especially useful for Level 3 and above.

[PeterPan]

One of the OTs we've seen uses EZ Write, so I went with their methodology.  You can figure it out adequately from youtube videos and don't need to buy anything.  He may have dysgraphia.  I would ditch the pencil writing and stick with gross motor until you get the formation automatic. You can also do Barton exclusively with tiles and skip the writing.  (Shh, I didn't say that.)  Can you get an OT eval where you are?  If you can't, look for youtube videos or info on reflexes like the STNR, ATNR, and spinal galant, to see if he has any retained.  Retained neonatal/infant/primitive reflexes will glitch up development of gross motor and fine motor.  

 

I'm not saying we don't write.  I'm just saying Barton wants them to write more than my ds is going to get out.  My goal is to get him reading, and the writing will have to match an amount that fits where he's at.  We do those lessons with tiles and move on.  My assumption is we'll go back and do them at some point when writing is going better.  I don't know how old your ds is, but he might not be too old for basics like sandpaper letters, air writing, chalkboard, and other multi-sensory methods.  We like to write our words for Barton in a salt tray.  If you do that, you're writing, just not with pencil.  Get a bigger salt tray and you can even write sentences in it.  :)

[OneStepAtATime]

What OhE said... LOL

[merry gardens]

Yes, we did a writing program while working Barton. My ds started Barton in 3rd-ish grade and finished level 10 in eighth grade. In the earliest levels, we did Callirobics, (which works on shapes with proportion found in writing rather than letters.)  Another thing we used was a Lindamood-Bell Seeing Stars book--which is another special needs reading program, but the workbooks we involved writing simple, common words, (many were either covered through phonics or as sight words in Barton's early levels too.) We later did more advanced levels of Callirobics and some copy-work handwriting books using a handwriting style of my son's choosing. After level 4, Barton suggests using Excellence in Writing. I delayed that, using instead a "Brave Writer" approach with some of BW's online classes. Last year we used Excellence in Writing--and I wish I hadn't waited so long before using it.

 

As far as the physical act of writing with Barton, the writing doesn't have to be on paper. In the earlier levels 2 and 3, I sometimes pulled out a salt tray to write in instead of paper. (Not exactly a salt tray--we used corn meal in a big pan instead but same idea.)  Sometimes when the weather was nice, we went outside for that section and wrote with chalk on the sidewalk. We often used a small white board with colored markers. We tried other writing tools too. In the sections that call for writing, the writing doesn't have to be limited to pen and paper. Various other tools of writing (beyond pencils and pens) may help involve other senses and/or larger muscles make both write and learning letter shapes easier. Plus, they add a bit of fun.