So if you get a diagnosis that says your child has trouble encoding and decoding.

[Stirsmommy]

What sort of curriculum do I look for for him? Is there is something that I should look for in particular? We have been using horizons, flash carders and various readers. Would something else be better?Has anyone used avko?

Thanks

Melissa

[Claire]

In my opinion, it is more important to work on decoding skills first.

 

"A problem with decoding" is too general to be very helpful. Skills involved in decoding at the beginning level (grades 1-3) include segmenting, blending and phoneme manipulation, plus code knowledge. Your first step should be to assess where your child is in each of these areas. For this, I highly recommend getting the book "Reading Reflex" by McGuinness (from your library, or bookstores carry it for about $20). Read the first three chapters, then give the assessments in the book. This will give you a *lot* of information about where exactly your child is in the development of subskills for reading.

 

I would highly recommend ABeCeDarian as your reading program spine (same approach as Reading Reflex, but with better parent support materials). There is an excellent support group for this program here. The people there will be very helpful getting you started. However, I still recommend reading "Reading Reflex" first and using the assessments in that book to become oriented to the approach.

 

In the meantime, I would advise dropping whatever you have been using as the approaches will very likely conflict with ABeCeDarian. Children with decoding problems benefit greatly from an explicit, structured, multi-sensory approach (MSSL). The materials you describe would not meet these criteria. (There are other MSSL programs than ABeCeDarian; it's just that ABeCeDarian is my favorite and IMO the best program available right now.)

 

We used Sequential Spelling from Avko to improve encoding skills -- very successfully, too. However, this program is *not* suitable for a student who is reading on less than a beginning 4th grade level, in part because it starts out right away with multi-syllable words. I know that some parents use it with students at a lower reading level than this; however, they are usually students who have not had difficulty acquiring reading skills.

 

The most common underlying problem associated with difficulty learning to read is phonemic awareness delay. PA skills include segmenting, blending and phoneme manipulation. That is really where you want to start with reading remediation. Both Reading Reflex and ABeCeDarian do a lot of explicit work on these basic skills.

[Stirsmommy]

Abecedarian is something I had been looking at for him before all of this. He is at a below first grade level according to the eye dr although when we do it at home he knows the phonemes with enough time. I just couldn't decide on whether to go with the long version of A or the short one as things with too much writing also cause issues as he is a bit dysgraphic. Which do you think?

Thanks

Melissa

PS He is almost 8 and very stressed about seeming like a baby if this makes a difference?

[Claire]

Abecedarian is something I had been looking at for him before all of this. He is at a below first grade level according to the eye dr although when we do it at home he knows the phonemes with enough time. I just couldn't decide on whether to go with the long version of A or the short one as things with too much writing also cause issues as he is a bit dysgraphic.

 

Ask on the ABeCeDarian support list. They will be able to tell you exactly where to start and what materials you need. (If you don't have a Yahoo! account, you will need to create a handle and password. It's free. Once you have an identity, you can subscribe to the list.)

[Claire]

Also, I would highly recommend that you call the Sound Reading company and ask if you can order their "Intervention" computer CD. They used to sell it for $60 including shipping. I don't know if they still sell it individually or not. If you call, though, do *not* get talked into their other materials. The computer CD is outstanding, but the rest of their materials are not as good.

 

You really want the "Intervention" version of the CD. It contains the same material as the "Primary" version, but most of the babyish graphics have been removed. Most 8yos I have seen do not mind working at all with the "teen" version of this CD, and it is a great supplement to any reading program. You would have your son spend 15 to 20 minutes per day working with the CD. It starts at a pre-K level with individual consonant sounds and gradually works up to a mid-3rd grade level (simple compound words).

[debbiec]

Claire, what is the difference between focusing on Phonemes vs. Phonograms (SWR)? Are these essentially the same? I'm in brain overload right now having spent probably 17 hours on line the last 2 days and reading the entire WRR last night until late trying to figure out the proper phonics tract. I just know we are looking for something to help solidify decoding skills with phonics. I looked at your recommended site and am just trying to see the subtle differences in some of these phonics programs. Thanks, Debbie in Nashville

[Stirsmommy]

Thanks for all of the info, Claire. I really appreciate it.

Melissa

[Stirsmommy]

Claire, what is the difference between focusing on Phonemes vs. Phonograms (SWR)? Are these essentially the same? I'm in brain overload right now having spent probably 17 hours on line the last 2 days and reading the entire WRR last night until late trying to figure out the proper phonics tract. I just know we are looking for something to help solidify decoding skills with phonics. I looked at your recommended site and am just trying to see the subtle differences in some of these phonics programs. Thanks, Debbie in Nashville

 

Not Claire but I do have SWR. I think for my son SWR isn't working for a couple of reasons. First too much writing to get to the reading and then he is having trouble processing what he needs so we need to focus on reading before spelling.

Melissa

[debbiec]

So would you say that SWR is just too much information? I had heard it goes a little fast ~ but I wouldn't know. Did you use the phonogram flashcards and were they helpful at all? I was particularly interested in those and wondered. I wasn't as interested in the writing compoment of SWR but mostly for spelling and phonics/reading.

[Claire]

Claire, what is the difference between focusing on Phonemes vs. Phonograms (SWR)? Are these essentially the same? I'm in brain overload right now having spent probably 17 hours on line the last 2 days and reading the entire WRR last night until late trying to figure out the proper phonics tract. I just know we are looking for something to help solidify decoding skills with phonics. I looked at your recommended site and am just trying to see the subtle differences in some of these phonics programs. Thanks, Debbie in Nashville

 

I'll answer this under your other post a little later tonight, when I have some time. I hesitated to answer your other post right away in hopes someone with more experience of Down Syndrome would answer. There *is* a big difference between phoneme and phonogram approaches, and I will need some time to outline those differences.

[Quiver0f10]

No advice, but I do have Abecedarian level A teacher's and student book for sale if you are interested.

[debbiec]

Well, the only thing about Down Syndrome, is they generally CAN learn typical academics, but it justs takes more reinforcement, more repitition and therefore, longer time. They have good short term memory, but long memory is more challenging. The chromosone for Trisomy 21 (the most common form of DS) has similar markers as Altziemers (how do you spell that?). There is currently significant research going on betweent the two.

 

IN fact, there is only one very popular book on the market for Down Syndrome Families: TEaching REading to Children with Down Syndrome. But after buying the book, she is very keen on whole word memorization, no decoding for phonics at all. Basically it's a flash card program for sight words. We did some of that in elementary (home and school), which he was successful at, but he stalled out in reading, because he could not decode words. He is 11 years old (12 in two weeks) and has extensive phonics this year for the first time in public school with his resource teacher. His reading and spelling has really taken off. So, I know he CAN learn this correctly. We will just have to review more often and go a little slower. But, I can't afford with him to go down the wrong road. I need to get it right with the best phonics method from the beginning. He can get confused with changes. So consistant methodology is important.

 

Phonemes and Phonograms. OK, from what I can tell, phonemes are the individual sounds of letters, and phonograms are the individual sounds of groups of letters. Is that right?

[siloam]

Not Claire but I do have SWR. I think for my son SWR isn't working for a couple of reasons. First too much writing to get to the reading and then he is having trouble processing what he needs so we need to focus on reading before spelling.

Melissa

 

Melissa,

 

All About Spelling is similar to SWR but has phonogram tiles the child can use to spell with. It also goes slower, from what I hear.

 

Or you can make your own tiles or use scrabble pieces with SWR.

 

To be honest I spend a year covering the phonograms while they write their alphabet in sand or trace sand letter cards (I also continue this well after the year, till mastery of both phonograms and letter formation/handwriting). At that time I have them work with CVC words a lot, in word families, so they can start to read early readers. After that year I start spelling, but also continue work with word families.

 

I also use Explode the Code (and the pre-texts). If you have time these can be done orally (did so for my writing phobic oldest).

 

By my kids show dyslexic tendencies, so a different LD.

 

Heather

[JFSinIL]

http://www.readamerica.net/

 

It was the only way to get three of my four kids to read.

[Jackie in AR]

Also, I would highly recommend that you call the Sound Reading company and ask if you can order their "Intervention" computer CD. They used to sell it for $60 including shipping. I don't know if they still sell it individually or not. If you call, though, do *not* get talked into their other materials. The computer CD is outstanding, but the rest of their materials are not as good.

 

You really want the "Intervention" version of the CD. It contains the same material as the "Primary" version, but most of the babyish graphics have been removed. Most 8yos I have seen do not mind working at all with the "teen" version of this CD, and it is a great supplement to any reading program. You would have your son spend 15 to 20 minutes per day working with the CD. It starts at a pre-K level with individual consonant sounds and gradually works up to a mid-3rd grade level (simple compound words).

 

I just called the Sound Reading Solutions company and learned that the Reading Improvement and Intervention Software (computer CD) is now priced at $100, plus $6 shipping. The CD supports 2 students. There is another option for more students.

 

You must call to order; they are restructuring their sales and aren't allowing online orders at this time.

 

Just wanted to post what I learned. I'm trying to decide whether to order this or not.

[Rod Everson]

Phonemes and Phonograms. OK, from what I can tell, phonemes are the individual sounds of letters, and phonograms are the individual sounds of groups of letters. Is that right?

 

Hi Debbie,

 

This question keeps hanging out there so I'll try to answer it for you.

 

Phonemes are sounds. They have nothing to do with letters at all. For example there are three sounds, or phonemes, in the word "cheese", the /ch/ sound, the /ee/ sound and the /z/ sound. When designing a curriculum, we have to decide exactly how we are going to break words down into phonemes and there are some challenges when making those decisions.

 

One example would be the word "cow." Most reading curricula teach it as two sounds: /k/+/ow/ and treat /ow/ as a single vowel sound. Some curricula, however, have "cow" represented as three sounds: /k/+/o/+/oo/. (As an aside, I would not use a curriculum that did this, as I believe it's a poor decision and would wonder about other decisions that were made in design.)

 

Phonograms are letters of the alphabet which we use to represent the phonemes that we hear in words. A phonogram can have one letter, or two, or three or even four. For instance, the word "dough" has two sounds, or phonemes, (/d/ and /oe/) which we spell with the two phonograms "d" and "ough".

 

Reading is a process of looking at a word, recognizing the phonograms within it, and decoding them into the phonemes (sounds) they are meant to represent.

 

Spelling is the reverse process of mentally saying the phonemes (sounds), recalling the phonograms we use in a particular word (doe versus dough) and encoding the phonemes into print by writing the appropriate phonogram for each phoneme in the word.

 

Hope this helps clear up the issue.

 

Rod Everson

OnTrack Reading

[Claire]

It used to be $54 plus $6 shipping. I'm glad they're at least still selling it as a standalone. I found this CD very helpful for older students reading on less than a mid-3rd grade level (especially 1st and 2nd grade levels). It does not help with fluency, but it helps a lot to cement basic sounds and it teaches simple multi-syllable word attack skills pretty well. A student who does not do well with this CD may benefit from doing Earobics first. However, Earobics is usually too boring for anyone over the age of 7 or 8. Younger kids handle Earobics better than older kids.