Hello everyone - I've scoured the forum looking for an answer to my question, but I haven't found exactly what I'm looking for. I am going to be homeschooling my severely dyslexic middleschooler in the Spring so that we can address some cognitive issues that we just don't have time for with him in school full-time. He is in 8th grade and is taking pre-algebra through his private school right now. They use Connections Academy at his school. He hates it! It is clunky and doesn't give enough practice problems for him. He is doing ok with it, but I'd like to find something that he really likes (or at least can tolerate). I am looking for something that allows him to be independent, has an algebra curriculum so he can use the same thing next fall and has a live online component. He plans to return to his current school in the fall but he can use any curriculum he wants so I'm looking for something that he likes and can do independently (mostly). Even though he hates Connections Academy, he does love having access to an online tutor at his discretion. He is able to take advantage of the fact that very few people use them and basically gets 1-1 help any time he wants it. Since we aren't going to be paying tuition in the Spring, I can pay quite a bit for any curriculum that satisfies these requirements. I have considered the following or some combination of the following: Teaching Texbooks, Unlock Math, Adaptive Math, CTC, and Verticy. He is working at about a 7th grade level, but I would not say he is far behind where he should be. He had pre-algebra last year as well, but I wanted him to solidify some things before moving on. Thank you in advance!

I'm not a clinical or neuro psych, but I'd have to guess some kind of Agnosia - possibly integrative agnosia. http://www.psych.ucalgary.ca/pace/va-lab/Visual%20Agnosias/types%20of%20agnosias.html

I hardly ever post here because I'm not a homeschooler yet, but I frequent these boards because I am always looking for ways to held DS (9) who is dyslexic and I am still hoping to homeschool one day. I just met with a psych last week who specializes in 2E kids. DS has already been diagnosed, but he encouraged me to get him tested through the school system so that it will be on record for when DS is older specifically for accommodations. He said that the sooner he is tested, the better because the longer I wait the harder it will be to pinpoint his issues because of all of the interventions he is receiving. However, once he has been diagnosed with a learning disability, it will follow him (for good or bad) all the way through high school so he can get accommodations even if they say he doesn't qualify because he is reading on level. I was given the same advice by the reading tutor at his private school (who he does not work with as he gets outside tutoring). And, I heard the lady where DS does tutoring talking to a homeschooled child on the phone last week about this very thing. The student was trying to get diagnosed (never had been before) so she could get accommodations for taking the SAT. I am going to pursue testing when school resumes so that things can get on record because I fully expect he will want to go to college. Also, I am trying to get him into the G&T program in the district. He took the test, and scored a 96th percentile in Science - this a kids who can hardly read - and a 69th percentile in reading. His other scores were all over the board, but he had no accommodations for the test. So he basically has to be tested, diagnosed with a LD that is recognized by the district, then retested with accommodations to see if he qualifies. It is a pain, but then he won't have to be tested again until college (I hope). Michelle

In response to the issue with memorizing multiplication tables, working memory could be the problem, but it kind of depends. It is hard to say, even with extensive testing, whether the problem is an encoding issue or a retrieval issue. Since she is trying basically memorize rote information that has no meaning to her, she is unable to integrate it into her long-term memory in any meaningful way. OR once it is in her long-term memory, she is unable to retrieve it because there are not enough cues for her to be able to access it. There is really no way to know this from a parent's perspective. Rehearsal is one way of keeping something in working memory continually. Low working memory may mean that she is unable to rehearse the information in WM long enough to properly encode it into long-term memory There was a famous paper on working memory (probably the most famous cognitive psych paper on working memory) about Miller's magical number 7. The gist is that people can keep about 7 + or - 2 (so 5-9 items) items in working memory at a time. That can be individual items, or chunks. For experts, it might be very large chunks of information. For kids/people with low working memory it might be 5 chunks/items or fewer. This can either be new information from the environment or information retrieved from long-term memory. As far as I know there is really no way to increase working memory capacity. People can learn how to chunk information more efficiently which can effectively increase capacity, but nor really. It is still limited to that 5-7 pieces of information at any one time. I have found that my son, who can remember anything that is read to him that has some sort of meaning, can't memorize things like multiplication tables either. I used that program that gives each multiplication problem a story. DS is so much better at remembering the story that I am. It worked really well for him. Now he just has to remember which items have stories and which don't because there are only story for about half of the problems. I really think that he is just about to encode and integrate information efficiently and then he is able to retrieve it very effectively. However, if there are not enough relevant cues for encoding and retrieving, as in multiplication tables, the information is lost. Michelle

Working memory is really just what people used to call short-term memory. It's where the information goes between being perceived by the senses (phonological loop and visiospatial sketchpad) and being endcoded in long-term memory. It can also be information that is pulled from long-term memory if needed. It's basically where information resides while you are using it. Low working memory (from a cognitive psychology perspective) could make doing pretty much anything more difficult. Basically if the thing that is trying to be done requires a large amount of mental workload, low working memory could make those things more difficult because you basically run out of resources. If your daughter has some great skill for encoding, she may be able to rely on her long-term memory to play music from memory. Low working memory may mean that she has to work harder at things where she needs to continually process the information like if she had to keep track of a telephone number while she crossed the room. Since playing the violin really probably only requires her to keep one or two notes in memory at a time right now while she is playing from the page or from memory, you are probably not seeing any issues. Only if she was required to think about the first measure of notes while she is also playing another measure would you see a problem. This may mean that as she progresses, she may become less adept at sight reading which requires you to look further and further ahead as the music difficulty increases. However, with playing and memorizing music in general you may see no issues. I know I am probably rambling, but I hope this clears things up a bit. Let me know if you have more questions. I hardly ever post here, but I lurk a lot. My DS was recently diagnosed with dyslexia and low working memory as well. And for what it is worth, he has a phenomenal long-term memory. Which basically means that he can hear anything one time and remember it forever as long as nothing interferes with the encoding process. I think he is just really good at filtering and encoding. Michelle

This is the first time I am posting here, but I have been reading these forums for a long time. I am not a homeschooler, but I have been doing a lot of work with my son at home over the past few months. DS (7) is in first grade and was recently diagnosed with dyslexia. He goes to a wonderful little montessori school that we just love. His reading teacher is getting OG trained over the summer just to work with the handful of dyslexic children at the school. I am also considering outside tutoring as I am in school myself and am overwhelmed by what it is taking to tutor DS afterschool right now. His teacher (who he will have for 2 more years) is basically willing to do anything in the class that will help him out. I have read lots of things about accommodations for dyslexia, many of them are already being done in his classroom just by the fact it's montessori (no tests/grades, no time limit on work, teacher doesn't count things wrong that are written backwards or misspelled, etc.). I am looking for anything else that we can do to support his learning in a montessori classroom. I have done tons of web searches but I can't find anything that is specific to montessori. I was wondering if anyone here had any suggestions. I would like to work through the summer to come up with some kind of plan that she can implement in the Fall. Thank you so much, Michelle