Will Barton help with fluency?

[CuriculumMom]

My DD8 struggles with reading but has made great strides this school year.  We had her tested in the beginning of the year for dyslexia. The tests showed that she did not have dyslexia, but an SLD in reading fluency.  She is a great decoder and reads well, but she is very slow. We have been working on fluency through repeated and timed readings, and drilling common phrases. She reads at a good rate once she has read a text more than once.  When she does a “cold read†however it is still painfully slow.  Is this just always to be expected? Will using Barton help me address her fluency issues? I have been looking at Barton materials for awhile.  Since we use another Orton-Gillingham program, Susan Barton emailed us their placement tests. While I have not yet given her the tests, I believe she would place around Barton Level 3. Do you have any suggestions in addition to what I have been doing in order to address the fluency issue? Will using Barton help with these issues?

[OneStepAtATime]

Barton can target fluency and has support materials available to tutors to do just that.  However, I have no idea with your particular child if the Barton method will be helpful.  Only way to know that, unfortunately, is to try.

 

Also, a school eval stating that a child has an SLD in reading fluency sounds to me like the child may still have dyslexia.  How well does she decode nonsense words?

 

Give her the Barton test without bias on which level she should be in.  Try hard not to inadvertently influence the results.  If there are nonsense words included pay close attention to how she decodes those.  If she struggles then it is not just fluency that is the issue.  Have you given yourself and your child the Barton tutor and student screenings? I would also do that.  The results may give you additional information and it will confirm whether you and your child can use this program.

 

 

[CuriculumMom]

Barton can target fluency and has support materials available to tutors to do just that.  However, I have no idea with your particular child if the Barton method will be helpful.  Only way to know that, unfortunately, is to try.

 

Also, a school eval stating that a child has an SLD in reading fluency sounds to me like the child may still have dyslexia.  How well does she decode nonsense words?

 

Give her the Barton test without bias on which level she should be in.  Try hard not to inadvertently influence the results.  If there are nonsense words included pay close attention to how she decodes those.  If she struggles then it is not just fluency that is the issue.  Have you given yourself and your child the Barton tutor and student screenings? I would also do that.  The results may give you additional information and it will confirm whether you and your child can use this program.

 

Thanks for your input! I am not sure how well she decodes nonsense words, that is not something we have tried.  The Barton assessments include a lot of nonsense words, so I think I will be able to gain more insight once I give DD those tests. A school psychologist administered DD's test at the beginning of the school year, and the psychologist diagnosed the SLD in fluency.  I do suspect DD has dyslexia despite what the psychologist said.

[MistyMountain]

Has she had an eye exam with a developmental eye doctor? My ds had good phonemic awareness and decoding but has had fluency issues. It was found during his exam that in reading just one paragraph his eyes were out of position 11 times. He also had other eye issues. Working on rapid naming is supposed to help with fluency. I tried with ds but it did not help. If he did not have the eye issue I bet it would have helped more.

Edited May 11, 2017 by MistyMountain

[emmaluv+2more]

I agree with onestep regarding diagnosis. Schools don't/won't diagnose or recognize dyslexia, so anytime I hear SLD-reading as diagnosed via the school system I always suspect dyslexia (though I admit that I'm not always right😉).