Dyslexia questions

[Zinnia]

I have a 6.5 year old that is struggling.

 

This year, my 8.5 year old was diagnosed with dyslexia, and we've been working with Barton with him. He is on Level 2 and making progress. I don't have a diagnosis for the younger one, but I see many of the same struggles.

 

My 6 (almost 7 year old) did not have as many pressing needs, so I haven't focused on him as much. I attempted AAR level 1 with him in the fall. Every single day, it was like teaching a new lesson. Nothing ever stuck. We spent the winter playing a lot of phonics games, playing with sounds and rhyming and hearing the first or last sounds of words.

 

In January, I started Barton with him. He did pass the initial screening at that point.

 

However.

 

Four months later, and he is not making much progress. When we break words apart, he tells me the correct sounds in the wrong order about 95% of the time. So "ak" turns into "k" and "a." I can't figure out why the sounds are so reliably flipped in order. When we do a lesson, usually the first word is in the correct order, and all of the others are flipped.

 

Any ideas on what might cause this? Or how to correct?

[Storygirl]

Is he looking at the whole word when trying to sound it out? You might try covering the word with a card and only revealing the sound you want him to say. Move the card as slowly or quickly as you can, so that he can move on to the next sound. That way he can't see or guess what the next sound will be and will only be working on one sound at a time.

 

You may also consider whether there are auditory processing difficulties or visual issues.

[Storygirl]

As far as what might be causing it.....there is a good chance that he also has dyslexia. It can run in families.

[OneStepAtATime]

Agree this may be more than dyslexia or other than dyslexia. He could have APD and developmental vision issues in the mix as well or maybe something else comorbid. One thing private evals did for me was help fill in the details on which strengths and weaknesses we were dealing with. Both of my kids are dyslexic but they had different underlying strengths and weaknesses in some areas and they had similar strengths and weaknesses in other areas but in different percentages/balances. It meant that they function vastly differently when learning and I needed to adapt my approach with each.

[Zinnia]

We will do evals for him in the fall. We just paid for the evals for the 8 year old, so we need to wait a bit for the younger one because of the cost.

 

I do suspect that he is dyslexic. My dh is as well, and 5 of 8 first cousins.

[Zinnia]

This is doing level one of Barton. No letters, only sounds, in CV and VC nonsense words. "ak," "op," "mi." It does use tiles, but level one has no letters on them.

 

He does not struggle with pronunciation of words, and he doesn't mix up words that he wants to say. This isn't something that comes into play unless I am asking him to break apart sounds.

[Storygirl]

I haven't used Barton, other than doing the pre-testing with one child.

 

Does he have to remember which color tile makes which sound? Perhaps it is a working memory problem?

[Lecka]

I wouldn't pass him on doing this, but as an intemediary step you can use visual cues.

 

Your mouth is open for vowels and closed for consonants. That is a way to identify vowels. You can touch your mouth to model while he watches you, he can touch his own mouth, or you can use a mirror.

 

So you can try to have him copy the word (part) doing one of these first, and then segment.

 

Just something to try.

[Lecka]

You can also email Susan Barton. You can also think about going back to the pre-test.

[Lecka]

You also might look at Elkonin boxes -- this is the same segmenting but there are boxes or ____ to slide the squares into.

 

It might help visually show you want to go left-to-right and start with the first sound.

 

Another thought ---- practice with "easier consonants" and see how that goes. Easier consonants can be held like ssss, mmmmm, ffffff, etc.

 

Harder consonants are short like c, t, b, d.

[emmaluv+2more]

You can also email Susan Barton. You can also think about going back to the pre-test.

This. Susan Barton is extremely helpful.

[PeterPan]

You might want to go back to LIPS or the other new program (FIS?) that Barton recommends. I carried that methodology on through B1, B2, etc. Some kids really benefit from that. He also might need some work on his working memory.

 

If he hasn't had his eyes checked by a dev. optom, it's good to get done. 

[mamashark]

You might want to go back to LIPS or the other new program (FIS?) that Barton recommends. I carried that methodology on through B1, B2, etc. Some kids really benefit from that. He also might need some work on his working memory.

 

If he hasn't had his eyes checked by a dev. optom, it's good to get done. 

 

Hope this isn't too far off topic, but what are your top recommendations for working on working memory? I'm just reading along to glean as much as I can and am sure I've read about this already on the forums but since it came up again, could you refresh my memory?