Jenn in CA Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 I'm in level 4 of Barton with one of my girls And level 3 with the other. They are making pretty good progress.The one in level 4 I do not think is dyslexic. She is catching on quickly, starting to have a better visual memory, and spontaneously started reading easy readers etc about halfway thru level 3.The one in level 3 is for sure dyslexic. She goes to Scottish Rite and had a bunch of testing that confirmed dyslexia. She's doing better for reading but not really fluent yet. She's going to have an auditory processing eval next month.I used Sanseri with my older kids so I'm much more familiar with those rules than with the Barton system. Something that bothers me about Barton is the extensive use of sight words. Sanseri has almost no sight word and uses "think to spell." To me this seems a lot easier to remember than having so many sight words.Is "think to spell" too confusing for dyslexic students? Has anyone had success with Sanseri with their dyslexics?I think at least my more advanced student could transition over to it sometime in the near future. She had a lot of trouble at first and Barton was really helpful but now I'm wondering if it's still necessary. And my dyslexic student ... I am looking at all the unit syllables coming in level 3 , which are basically just memorized , and she hasn't been able to memorize any of the sight words (she can read them but not spell them) so we stopped that part... I think Barton's going to get real hard real soon. Whereas Sanseri does not seem to be rote (ie meaningless) memorization. But I could be wrong.I would love to hear your thoughts comparing these two programs. ETA: I searched "Barton SWR" and found another thread started by *me* on this topic. This made me laugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 I don't know anything about Sanseri so I really can't address that part of your question. Hopefully someone else can. Your post about searching for threads and finding an old one of your own made me laugh. BTDT. :laugh: I do have some comments and questions, and perhaps I can help with the Barton side of the equation. 1. I wouldn't use Barton with a NT kid unless I was already using it with dyslexic kids and Barton ended up being a good fit for the NT kid, too (just at a faster pace). If Barton is a bad fit for an NT kid I would drop it and move to something designed for NT kids. My question is, was your child that is in Level 4 exhibiting any signs of dyslexia? Since you don't believe this child is dyslexic I am wondering why you are using Barton with her. Did you use it with her because you were using it with her dyslexic sibling and it just seemed easier to keep them in the same program? Has she had any evaluations? FWIW, my kids are not going at the same pace in Barton. They are both dyslexic but they each have different strengths and weaknesses so they surge forward and slow down in different parts of each lesson and with different areas altogether. 2. My second set of questions is in regards to your reference about the extensive use of site words in Barton and rote memorization of those site words. This actually confuses me, but I come at this from the perspective of a parent whose children were in brick and mortar school for many years. They were given 25 word "site word" lists every Friday to rote memorize and take a test on the following Friday. That meant 100 words a month, every month, for years. It was a disaster. In Barton, the student is introduced to only 3 site words at a time. There are specific methods for helping the child learn those 3 site words (not just raw rote memorization) and they don't move on to more site words until those 3 are mastered. Are you only introducing 3 words at a time? Are you using the methods recommended in the TM, both inside the lesson and at the back? FWIW, DD surged forward with this and is actually learning site words a Level ahead of where she is for normal lessons in Barton. DS is struggling more with this so he is still working on site words from a Level below where his lessons are. The beauty of Barton is that I don't have to keep the site words on pace with the lessons. It is customizable to each child, unlike the awful lists we were forced to spend hours daily trying to memorize in school. 3. As for "think to spell" I guess I am uncertain what you mean by that, but if you mean just hearing sounds and being able to think through what those sounds must represent in the way of spelling a word, then no, dyslexics don't usually do well at all with that unless they have had specific instruction. With a dyslexic child they frequently need very systematic instruction that breaks everything down into tiny pieces then teaches them how to reassemble those pieces. They have poor phonemic awareness so without that exposure and detailed instruction they guess at words, sometimes based on the first letter they see or a group of letters they see. Once they have that down, then yes they can think to spell because they understand the reasons behind spelling. Before that, no, most cannot just "think" their way through spelling. 4. If you are using the Barton methods for learning the site words and only introducing 3 at a time but spelling the site words is not sticking after many exposures using the techniques recommended in the back and the front, that may be more than the dyslexia causing issues. What about the spelling in the lesson itself, not the site words? Is she o.k. with that? 5. What are their ages? As some here will tell you, Barton doesn't always work terribly well with very young children. I assume, though, that you are not talking about a very young child? 6. Barton is not a good fit for all dyslexics, either, by the way. If you are dealing with dyslexia, though, there are going to be hard periods no matter what program you use. That makes it difficult to know when you need to just keep going, when you need to tweak or revamp, and when you need to dump it and move on. I hope you get some helpful responses here. Best wishes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lecka Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 For your daughter who is doing very well, I would feel free to change her over. For the one who is going to Scottish Rite -- I would talk to them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Lecka has an excellent point. What does Scottish Rite say? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 We do Barton sight words using SWR techniques, never ever as sight words. No need to leave Barton if that is the only issue. Barton is way more thorough and does a better job on multi syllable words, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenn in CA Posted October 9, 2015 Author Share Posted October 9, 2015 Well Scottish Rite is a whole nother story. They day they are O G trained. But our SLP is doing a word families approach. I should ask her about it. OhE I was thinking of that same thing so maybe I'll do that. My girls are young. Both 7 now but one is almost 8. I do feel like that's part of it. My non dyslexic girl I saw a lot of symptoms early on but she is doing a loooot better now. I don't feel like its overkill for her. The pace is just right. It's just time consuming for me to do both of them daily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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