Hello and welcome. I'm relatively new to the board too and was also thrilled to see discussion about homeschooling children with dyslexia. I suspect my 8 yo son has dyslexia. I recently began teaching his younger sister to read. The difference is night and day.

Yes, thanks for that link also. :) I wondered about how brain re-wiring and remediation fit in with this study too. I know that many people with dyslexia are very bright and can manage to get by with using other skills to compensate for their reading difficulty. I'm not surprised that their IQ's don't correlate with reading for people with dyslexia. (Think about it--many education professional look at the discrepancy between IQ and reading ability to diagnose dyslexia in the first place!) What's not clear to me from the article if any remediation for reading was attempted. I am glad that scientists are documenting that dyslexia isn't caused by a lack of intelligence on the part of the person with dyslexia, and I'm glad to read that their IQ's continue to rise even if their reading skills don't improve. Still, I hold out hope that my 8 yo's reading and word processing can improve.

Just a thought, but if your only reason for attending school is for "socialization" think about the "socialization" he learning in school: behavioral problems related to being bored in class!

I get your point. The author (a child psychologist) of a book I was recently thumbing through expressed his own concern about the frequent labeling of children and the narrowing understanding of what's considered "normal". Looking back at my own childhood, I can recognize a quite few children I knew who would likely be labeled (today) with various learning disabilities and other diagnosis, but back then labels seemed reserved for only the more extremes. I do see that it can be helpful to better address the specific behavior or learning pattern if we can identify it, but I definately get your point that none of us work at 100% at all times. None of us are perfect and no one should have to be perfect to be considered "normal". It's simply not "normal" to be perfect. ;)

Your post had me thinking about "cures". I suspect there may be a number of reasons for the reading problems. Dyslexia means difficulty reading. While studies show brain scans different in dyslexic readers, that doesn't neccesarily mean the problem lies within the brain alone. Some children may have problems with vision or tracking, others may have problems with auditory processing, some may have simply never been taught to read (like that approach that encouraged children to guess the words based on pictures, which resulting with a large number of children who read very poorly) some may have something else or a combination of several problems. The "cure" for dyslexia likely depends on what the underlying problem that causes the difficulty with reading is. If the underlying problem can be resolved, then perhaps the reading problems might resolve.

I wouldn't eat it. If anyone gets sick, the cost of the medicine and medical care would be far more than the cost of the meat you threw away. If I had a dog, I might give it to the dog, but I would say meat leftout over-night is unfit for human consumption.

I think you're idea is great! My son's only eight so I haven't bought these yet but I've thought about it for when he's older. (edit--if the reading problems persist) Cornerstone Classics and Classics Then and Now have classic literature and great authors written at a third grade level but appropriate for older students. I remember here are other titles in this catolog too, so if there's a specific book you can do a search. Some have workbooks available too. http://www.ganderpublishing.com/Cornerstone-Classics.html http://www.ganderpublishing.com/Classics-Then-and-Now.html

Yes. I give my childen one minute per year of age for time-out. I'd love to be left alone to be by myself without interuption for that long! When I over-react, I'm usually overly tired and feeling overwhelmed. Time to myself would be nice....We should send ourselves to time-out before we misbehave.

Did she have severe trouble with rapid naming of all things or was it primarily rapid naming of letters? As basic as alphabet letter names may seem, some dyslexic children really don't know the alphabet well. She may still have problems recalling names of various other things, but if she's particularly slow with the letters alphabet, you might want to explore how well she knows the alphabet. Perhaps more important than the names of letters are the sounds they make. People with phonemic awareness issues may also have some confusion recognizing if some phenomes are different or the same. Since she's working with an O-G tutor, does the tutor have any advice? Can the tutor do some remedial work to help her recall letter names quickly? Has the tutor checked (or can he check) to determine if your daughter recognizes the difference between various phonome sounds?

I hope there is. I don't think there's exactly any magic cure, and it may not be possible for everyone with dyslexia, but I do have hope. Brain imaging scans show people with dyslexia activate different parts of the brain when reading, and some studies give me hope that perhaps there are ways to help form the more typical connections found in non-dyslexic readers. Here's one such study: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/04/040420011157.htm

For those of you using Barton--or anyone else familiar with their stand alone books--can you tell me what you think? Which of their books might be most interesting to an 8 yo boy?

First, you're not a failure! :) (I have to say that because if you're a failure so am I--and I am not a failure! My 8 yo son and I are through the Barton Reading and Spelling System.) Since your son is already working with a speech therapist, ask the therapist to check his phonemic awareness. That's the ability to hear individual sounds within words, and it's a skill needed to read phonically. Readers without this skill may simply memorize whole words-but it takes a very good memory to memorize a large vocabulary. If your son's phonemic awareness skills are low, there are things that can be done to improve those. His speech therapist might be able to help you with that, but if not there are things you can do to help. (Some speech therapists are trained in the LiPS program which works on this.) Don't take it personally! He's only six, you know there's a problem and you are working to correct it. A number of children struggle with learning to read. If it makes you feel any better as a homeschooler, the rate of dyslexia/reading problems in public schools is estimated at around 15-20%.

Thanks. I'm happy to share if your willing to read. I hope our story might help someone else. My son had speech problems that were never severe enough to qualify for speech therapy. I knew something wasn't right way back then. We did things at home recommended by a speech therapist from the school district when he was 5. I also did Speechercise with him. At age 6 1/2 his reading struggles seemed significant enough that I began looking at information about dyslexia and I looked at his speech problems again since he still was very difficult to understand. I took him to a private speech therapist, who again said he didn't need speech therapy, but she noted he had some problem with phonemic awareness or processing. She didn't seem overly concerned about that--looking back I don't think she knew fully what she had discovered and neither did I. We did the Listening Program at her recommendation. We worked with phonograms and phonics extensively, but he still couldn't put them together into reading well. I stopped pushing him to read because I could see he was mostly guessing words--and didn't want to encourage that habit. He made some progress, but not much. At age eight his reading struggles continued and I finally broke down and bought an expensive reading program for dyslexia, (Barton). Before beginning the program I gave him the pre-test. He failed the section on phonemic awareness. At the recommendation of Barton, we did part of the LiPS program. Since I couldn't afford the private LiPS tutoring, I learned the program and administered it myself. Finally! His speech problems made sense! My son could not distinguish the difference between some sounds! That accounted for his being able to say the sounds adequately enough that he didn't qualify for thereapy while still misprouncing many words. Vowels were particularly difficult for him--and every word has at least one vowel. Within a short time after beginning LiPS my son's speech became easier to understand. LiPs taught him to distinguish the difference in similar sounds based on what his mouth/lips/tongue etc. do to create the sounds. He can figure out the difference now. He still has problems with reading--but he now has enough phonemic awareness to make progress that he previously wasn't making. BTW from what I've learned about dyslexia, third grade is often the year that reading problems such as dyslexia show up. The amount of reading required often exceeds a child's ability to memorize words and 3rd grade texts offer fewer pictures and visual clues for guessing. Some children can still manage to read well enough (often by memorizing entire words), but spelling and writing may push their skills to the limits. Reading and spelling problems in a child whose has been taught phonics may relate to an individuals inability to hear the individual sounds within words. I hope this helps.

I have some of the other material for different sounds from this company. I also used the Lindamood LiPS program (which is more expensive but very, very good.) http://www.sayitright.org/EWSH-010.html

(((Mamasheep)))) I could use a hug today too.

I know you asked about for your daughter, but getting back to your son... If you got nowhere using phonics with a child you suspect may have dyslexia, check his phonemic awareness. (If he's undergoing testing for dyslexia, they may already check that but ask.) Some children don't naturally hear the individual sounds within words or may confuse some sounds with others without realizing they aren't the same sound.

Thanks for sharing. I had never seen it before. My husband could use this!

Gander publishing sells it here: http://www.ganderpublishing.com/LiPS/ They also sell kit components separate for the whole kits. Without all the other training, the DVDs and tapes and stuff, it might take you some time to get comfortable with the program. I felt a bit overwhelmed at first because the manual is thick. (I did buy one training dvd, which helped me feel more comfortable after seeing the demonstration.) I studied the manual for quite a while before working through the program with my son. The scripting is very good. Most of the speech stuff with how the mouth, lips and tongue form sounds is in the front of the manual. I hope this next point doesn't insult you, but before you begin working with your child, be EXTRA SURE you can pronounce and hear the sounds accurately! Many people, (including many teachers), add the "uh" sounds onto consonants. Some people don't hear the sounds accurately either. For a quick screening of your own ability to hear sounds accurately, you might check out the Barton tutor's screening. http://www.bartonreading.com/tutors.html#screen Good luck!

I know the whole LiPS is expensive, but can you afford to buy just the manual for LiPS? A new manual costs $112 plus s/h, and you can sometimes find it available used for less. While the other LiPS materials in the kits are great, you can make or find many of the manipulatives for much less. I've also found and bought other speech materials, but the cost for those varies, depending on how many and what specific sounds you need to work with.

First a disclaimer: I can't believe I'm giving spelling advice! Seriously! I'm not a very good speller. But with all the research I have done on dyslexia I might know something that may be of use to someone. Looking at the types of spelling mistakes can give a clue about where the problem lies--and therefore help correct it. Mixing up sounds can indicate an underlying problem with phonemic awareness. You might want to explore that a little further if you find your child mixing up sounds within words. Many people with dyslexia have difficulty fully understanding the individual sounds within words. Very bright children can sometimes memorize large vocabularies for reading, making it difficult to even discover they have dyslexia until farther into their education. The Seeing Stars manual addressed children who spell phonetically correct but ultimately wrong. Just because a child knows phonics doesn't mean he will be a good speller. The Seeing Stars program works a bit with phonemic awareness, but it also works on helping children to picture the words spelled correctly in the mind. Form a picture clear enough that they can spell the word backwords--then they may remember it. Seeing Stars is primarily a reading program, but the techniques can be used with other spelling programs too. There are also books with mneumonic devices to remember a variety of information. (One on my Amazon wish list is "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge.") I remember the spelling of a couple of words from childhood because someone gave me mneumonic clues to the words spelling--like the word "committee"--2 m's 2 t's and 2 e's because committee have too many members. I hope that helps a little. I recently began Barton's with my 8 yo. He didn't pass the Barton Screening so before starting Barton's he did the Lindamood-Bell LiPS program--and that's where I learned about Seeing Stars. Barton's first level is entirely devoted to phonemic awareness.

I suggest you look closely at what her spelling mistakes are to help determine which type of program to use. Does she spell word phonemically correct but with the incorrect letters? (ie maybe writing bred instead of bread? Mix up ph with f, etc.?) Or does she omit and reverse entire sounds within words? Or both? If she spells phonemically correct, then choose a program with emphasis on spelling rules and memory cues. If she's omitting or reversing sounds, then choose a program that also works on phonemic awareness. Some programs do both.

Don't forget to make a pot of tea! Mmm, lemon curd on scones--or anything--needs a cup of tea.

Not neccesarily racism. In most movies and classical fairy tales, witches are presented as evil. It's clear that they aren't the "good guys". The danger--as I see it--comes when witch-craft is presented as something good or morally neutral. For instance, I don't like the Harry Potter series because the "hero" (a white British guy) uses witchcraft. That's why I asked earlier if voo-doo is presented as a positive or negative in Disney's Princess and the Frog?

The original Princess and the Frog story is one of my daughter's favorite stories. We haven't seen (or read) Disney's version yet. Is voo-doo in this movie presented as a positive or a negative?

:hurray: No advice but as a mom with a child with dyslexia I wanted to congratulate you and your son on his progress!:thumbup1: