SonshineMama
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Posts posted by SonshineMama
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We are about to start Rewards Intermediate. A HUGE problem my student is having is the schwa sound. It is inhibiting his over all ability to do any type of decoding of words beyond 2 syllables.
Will Rewards help with this or do I need to pause to try to fix this first?
Thanks,
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I don't know, our problem with REWARDS (like many programs we try) is that it just didn't increase the fluency that much. I love the techniques, but ds just doesn't apply them well without prompting or at all automatically. He just bails on multi-syllable words in context. The REWARDS strategies worked great for us in isolation, but it didn't help that much with overall fluency. One look at the longer passages and he freaked, so I think it depends on your learner and their issues too. Our issues are more fluency than decoding/phonics.
SO how do you fix that? Just curious in case it doesn't work for my ds. SO many curriculum choices haven't worked well. What has worked well -- LiPs, PIcture Me Reading, and Recipe for Reading!
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Thank you that is very helpful and I am realizing it appears that you do either intermediate or secondary and then move into "plus" if desired. It looks awesome. And I believe my son will be ready in just a few weeks which is exciting!!!!
I may look at ABeCedarian again after rewards if I think it is necessary :) Great idea!
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Thank you Lisa! Are you saying you did Rewards intermediate 1st and then Rewards Secondary ? For some reason, I was thinking it was one or another depending on your child's age!!
How do I know for sure if my son is actually ready for Rewards?
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I am really confused. I was going to move into Rewards (by Sopris). We are just finishing up Recipe for Reading and my son needs to continue to have reading instruction, struggles with multi syllable words and fluency. Then in searching on this forum, I realized that ABeCeDarian may be a good fit as well. . . it is said to take kids beyond 5th/6th grade reading.
I would love thoughts and opinions.
Recipe for Reading is said to get a child to about 3rd/4th grade reading level!
If you recommend one of the above (or something else, what exactly do I need to purchase? For example, do I need the training for rewards or can I do without it?
Thank you!
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At 7, She is still so little. I have found that double digits have been significantly better for our LD child. But sometimes he Still has a week here and there when he mixed up b's, d's, p's, and q's. its hard but im learning to hang on and ride along with it. I'm not saying to ignore it but learn to wait it out and keep persisting. Some times it feels like 1 step forward one step back but then it moves to 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Then 3 steps forward 1 step back, etc. it gets better and better.
And i do think,its partly age. Even my advanced neurotypical child still has lots of off days w school work at age 7. Today she had a fit over doing spelling which is usually fun for her. ....
Ack just realized i turned off my autofill and this is sloppy *blush*. I turned off autofill so ds could use the iPad for spelling LOL but I'm not so good at editing in iPad.....
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Asking for a friend! Her 8th grade ds really struggles to read silently. When he does he feels like it takes forever and he has to reread sentences and paragraphs. It is causing frustration for mom and child!
Is this a concern? If so, how should it be addressed?
Thanks!
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Rewards Intermediate is a possibility for us here at some point.
I am not sure how far Recipe for Reading goes, or age, that you would go straight to Rewards Int. though (I am not clear on the difference between Rewards and Rewards Int. --- maybe this is different for Rewards, if it is more for younger kids).
Here is an impression I have:
Rewards Int. is intended for an older child, at least 8 or 9. I think there are developmental reasons that multisyllable words are often recommended for 3rd grade and up, and are normal reading level only in 3rd grade (getting into multisyllable words). I say this b/c the chart in the book Reading Reflex (which I don't have on hand) but it talks about what -syllable words kids should be reading by what grade, and I think it is "most 2-syllable words in 2nd grade, most 3-syllable words in 3rd grade" but it might be that it is a grade later than that.
Also there is a reading level estimate thing, where you look in a page of a book, and count the number of multi-syllable words. If there are less than 4 or so, it is 2nd grade. The more multi-syllable words there are, the higher the grade level.
I know the reading level for Rewards Int. is a solid 2nd-grade reading level. And, a lot of kids could go straight into it. But I am doubtful my son will until he is 8 or 9. I would like him to be fluent and also spelling a lot better prior to moving forward -- and it is just going to take time for him.
Also we have done Abecedarian, and they recommend that you take time off between Level B and Level C to work on fluency-type stuff.
However -- my Abecedarian is decoding only, not a full language arts program, and doesn't include spelling and vocabulary development and other things like that.
I have an impression like Rewards Int. is a short, very good program, mainly focusing on decoding and not a full program... the purpose is to help with decoding multisyllable words (I think there is some fluency practice also, but I am not sure).
So it is really possible that this is a good next step, but it is also possible you could wait a little to start it. And, I think you might also look at Rewards Int. as a supplement and not a main or full language arts program.
With that said, it is supposed to be very good! I think I might do it instead of Abecedarian Level C, or I might do them both. But I think it would be okay here if either of those came in 4th grade. Though I might start as early as age 8, if it was too hard, I would hold off another year.
But I have read of other posters going straight into Rewards or Rewards Int. with a 7-year-old and doing very well! It is also that Rewards Int. is more famous (aka the one mentioned and recommended in Overcoming Dyslexia) and so maybe Rewards is more appropriate for a younger child. I don't know.
Here is the FCRR report -- it has a lot I have forgotten.
http://www.fcrr.org/FCRRReports/PDF/Rewards_Intermediate_Secondary92507.pdf
edit: glancing back it says the reading passages are appropriate for 4th- 6th grade for Rewards Int. So I do think I would hold off on it until 4th grade, to be honest. But I think I will be working on some of the skills in it in other ways. I am also sure that I could adapt it to 3rd grade and save the reading passages or something like that. But I think at this point, there are 2-syllable words in the near future, and learning about the most common prefixes and suffixes (and my son already knows re and dis very well!).
This is GREAT info. Confirms for me that my son is ready - he's 10.5 and I love the idea of reworking mulitsyllable words which is a continued struggle for him!
I am interested in this as well, but not because we were considering Barton specifically; I was told (by an admin at a school for dyslexics) that if a child has auditory processing problems, O/G in all its "true form" may not be a good fit, because it relies a lot on auditory processing.I can speak about this. We started Recipe for reading (an O/G program) and I didn't know this but I learned it pretty quickly.
I don't know about Barton though. We did LiPS through his SLP and then when I felt he was REALLY moving along well we added back in Recipe for Reading. At a certain point, we dropped LiPS --when I realized that his auditory skills were far enough along and LiPS wasn't working anymore because his visual skills were lacking - it was a juggling act for a while of the two programs as we worked on both his visual and auditory skills. I still have all the LiPS materials that they helped us with so that if I get to the point that his auditory holds him up again, I can return to it. It's looking pretty doubtful that he will need them but I like knowing that they are there if he hits another wall.
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Hmmm, I already have AAR 1 and LIPS, so that is why I was thinking that. But, I will look into Recipe for Reading too :). My problem, honestly, is I need to find something, and stick with it. Or not. Maybe this particular dd's needs are just more unique and I may have to combine a few programs. My oldest dd basically taught herself to read - so I am in new territory. I don't know if I know "enough" to make something into an O-G program - wait - I know I don't enough. It is only my second year hsing. Thanks for the suggestion - off to google it.
Hey :) This is old but popped up when I was searching for something else LOL!
I use recipe for reading amongst a few other things :P. NOw, it is actually our primary "reading instruction". Everything else is either fluency practice or reinforcement of skills learned in recipe for reading :) If you want I can bring it on Thursday night and you can look at it during Spotlight. I can also bring a few of ds' old workbooks for you to see what it's like. I use it daily so I can't spare it right now; however, it's possible ds will be done by Christmas if he doesn't slow down (he may slow down and that's okay too). If so, you can borrow it then :) Or if you want to start earlier, you can buy the manual and I can just loan you the readers we are done with. I think we are done with the first 25 books. Either way, I have your AAR stuff in my bag for thursday!
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I have my son do two different types daily
1. reading for fluency (easier for him to read and I want to see signs of fluency - speed, expression, etc)
2. instructional reading (this is the reading that enforces the days lesson - we do both books and word lists for instructional reading)
During reading for fluency, I don't stop him at all
During instructional reading, I stop him and make him go back when he makes errors. . BUT I use small little cues
"hmm. . . " "oops." for those small words he reads mistakenly
for vowel corrections I say
"check the vowel"
I keep the corrections light and easy or if he doesn't know how to correct himself, I fix it myself.
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Some of you posted you used recipe for reading and then rewards. If you did recipe for reading first, where did you start in rewards?
I just posted asking what to do after recipe for reading in another thread. I was looking at rewards and not sure where to start???
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Oops. . . ignore this
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We work on fluency alongside phonics/decoding - every day 10 minutes of fluency practice ;) . His fluency has been increasing rapidly and is part of what has made me realize I need to look for something more. I originally thought we were going to have to continue to reuse and recycle the books we have right now so that he'd build speed and expression in his decoding.
One thing I recently did was purchase some more word lists because what he struggles with most is reading words in isolation (not context). I need to start using them more.
I almost forgot to hit post because I am lost in readingrockets. Thank you for those ideas. You post hit home because really when he's done with the O/G program he's ready for a regular language arts program - albeit somewhat altered for his unique situation but this is such a shocking and also liberating though.
One thing I think is slowly sinking-- when he's done with this book, he'll be done with phonics :mrgreen and then we will need to do vocabulary and continual fluency practice. And gradually increase his reading difficulty while getting him all the way through All About Spelling. If All About Reading would come out with readers for all the levels, that would be awesome LOL.
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We have been using Recipe for Reading - it's VERY reasonably priced for an O/G reading program. We have only purchased workbooks ($10/each - 8 total), the manual ($18) and readers ($112 for 39 readers). I DID not do spelling alongside reading. I tried but it got too frustrating for him. Recipe for Reading can be purchased through EPS school specialty or Christian book amongst other vendors. I have been using Christian book because it's cheapest :)
However, we are also using AAS. I waited until my son was decoding at about 2nd grade level to start AAS. I wanted to make sure he was REALLY ready for spelling. He's breezing through it. A year ago it would have been painstakingly difficult for him :) Now it's clicking :)
All that said, we had to stop Recipe for Reading briefly to address significant auditory issues and we did LiPS through his SLP. We also did Picture Me Reading first for the dolch 220 sight words.
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My son has finished LiPs and is now well past 1/2way through recipe for reading (O/G based reading program). He's moving so fast that I'd like some time to research the next step before he gets there! He's almost in workbook 5 of 8 and I tend to be indecisive so I would like to research even though he's a few months away from needing something.
He's also doing AAS and he read through the AAR books (level 1). I use a lot of extra supplemental decoadable readers :)
I have some high noon books and considered just starting him there and teaching him to the book but other than what I"ve learned doing both LiPS and Recipe for Reading with him, I have no way of knowing how to do that
Thanks!
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My son has benefited a lot from brain gym. My first read was Smart Moves as well.
We own the following
Brain Integration Therapy (Dianne Craft)
Hands on: How to use Brain Gym in the classroom
Both have been invaluable but I think I could start with just "Hands on" if finances were an issue. Hands on includes the majority of the information that Dianne Craft presents plus more including vision gym exercises which my son needs. Plus, hands on lists the exercises in a really useful manner - which exercises help which areas of struggle!
here is some of our testimony - I have more but could write a book about how much it's helped!
My son, age 9 when he started Brain Gym/Brain Integration Therapy, started skipping about a month into starting Brain Integration Therapy. I had worked with him off and on over the years to try to help him skip and he NEVER COULD. I am a dance teacher and I KNEW that this was a brain issue. His writing has significantly improved after using the writing 8 and his tracking skills and decoding skills have improved from some of the other exercises. Overall, his retention is improved and when he needs to memorize something to music he does cross crawl and that seems to help him retain information much more rapidly (he has working memory issues and learning disabilities).
You could get started by googling "Brain Gym: PACE" and using the youtube videos. We do PACE first thing when we start our brain gym exercises.
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Thank you for this. Great encouragement
And congrats :party:
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Hi! :grouphug:
Abby is two years OT , Abby is struggling with reading, visual/lanaguge expression...I am not sure the technical terms for all this. She just seem to have a difficult time expressing her thoughts about what is on the page right now, sometimes she remembers what words mean, and sometimes not. For example: Sometimes she can say cold, and sometimes she will mean cold, but still say hot. - Since she is on her way to second grade I would assume we would be past this stage? - I could be wrong.
If it was happening infrequently, I wouldn't be concerned, but she has a hard time tagging things.
On the other hand she is lightening fast at math, verbal expression of the concepts are slow, but she gets it completely.
Her thoughts are deep and complex, she thinks a lot...most of the issues she has seem to center around language and reading. :confused:
I would LOVE any insight. We are fortunate that we do live in a college town and every Master level student that comes in is interested in working with her. I am praying she will be home by 4th grade, but for now I am just letting her enjoy the scenery.
I agree with "wise beyond years" . Abby is so amazing. Sarah too...sometimes I believe god gave me these two amazing gifts...I want to say I am not worthy, not in a self-defeating way, just in an "I am in awe of how incredible they are :001_wub: and how blessed I am to be on the planet at the same time they are" sort of way.
I totally understand what you mean - this whole thing. We also have a SLEW of people interested in offering services and a lot offer for free because of research and experience with a cancer child being good on a resume, etc.
Have you gone to neuropsych (one with cancer experience)? My advice would be to get a neuropsych eval right away. We had many people with great intentions offering therapy and NONE helped. 1 actually led us so far off track, we had 8 months of grueling, difficult therapy that actually set us back :( It was very hard because it was free and a friend with very GOOD intentions. She just had no experience with this.
My son's issues are almost entirely due to cancer from what we can tell. Hard to say when he was only 3 at diagnosis BUT he digressed and DEVELOPED language issues, a limp, a droopy mouth, and muscular issues on one side of the body so it seemed pretty apparent that it was either neurological damage from chemo or that he had a TIA like stroke on chemo. Hard to say since they didn't have a baseline MRI.
I don't necessarily think PS is bad for your dd but our neuropsych feels that ds would end up pulled from the classes he excels in (math, science, history) to get help in the areas he's SIGNIFICANTLY behind in because he is SO behind. That is why he feels ds is better suited to HSing. This way, he can get help in language skills and still be on track in those other areas (actually thanks to audiobooks and read alouds, he's ahead in science and history).
Our ds is great in math conceptually but his working memory is such that facts are HORRIBLE. But the neuropsych has helped us tailor our curriculum that he's staying on track and getting close to FINALLY having his multiplication facts about 1/2 memorized by using lots of songs to memorize.
What's funny about ds is that his language skills are weird. He has GREAT expressive and comprehensive language skills but his enunciation skills are affected (although he may be finally done after almost done with 4 years of speech therapy). He is SEVERELY dyslexic which may be acquired dyslexia and has visual perceptual and spatial issues as well as audiological processing disorder which they are calling phonological dyslexia.
All of that was FINALLY determined through neuropsych which is why I highly recommend it.
AND I do understand what you are saying about being in awe - I feel SO amazed at my children. All 3 of them have gained SO much wisdom beyond their years due to ds' treatment. We have been blessed beyond belief that God gave us these amazing little ones :D
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We have a cancer survivor (middle child, boy, now 10 -- in Dec, he's 5 years off chemo). Also ALL, 32 month protocol.
We have always homeschooled and I feel fiercely protective of our HSing adventure.
Honestly, 6 months after treatment ended, we spent a good 6 months gone A LOT and doing TONS OF field trips. (couldn't do the first 6 months cuz he was still low ANC and other issues). It was SUPER freeing to be able to go to the grocery store during that time and I remember crawling the walls.
I cannot imagine my ds will ever go to school. He has significant after affects from chemo (physical and learning not to mention the anxiety and other issues).
How long has your dd been off chemo? I remember the "I don't care, he's alive" stage. It is A VERY hard place to be. I actually think being that grateful for your child making it through is really important. BUT I do think that you should talk to her about how SHE feels at being behind. That is a regret I have. I was SO grateful for so long that I didn't realize how crushed my ds was that he was struggling academically. This was at home just from seeing homeschooled peers, friends at church, etc.
About age 8 was when my ds began to vocalize frustration at how behind he was compared to his peers. I wish we had jumped on getting him help faster instead of adopting the "better late than early" philosophy.
I went from "I'm so grateful he is to be alive" to "I'm still grateful but now I am angry because cancer sometimes still rules his life and causes HIM huge frustrations" to "I am so grateful he is alive and have accepted that he will struggle and fight and claw his way through school".
In fact, last week out of the blue, ds looked at me and said "I'm so grateful I'm alive" and just went about his business.
Please don't think I am telling you not to keep her in school but I do think you may want to talk to her about how she's feeling about school. If she is falling behind, I'd ask her how she is feeling about it. These children that fight cancer at a young age are wise beyond their years.
:grouphug:
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I am interested in looking into it. We use Dianne Craft's Brain integration therapy and we do the supplements on the GAPS diet :)
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How old a child?
10.5 severe dyslexia and other delays.
We tried reading A to Z a few years before getting dyslexia diagnosis. . . not sure if I should try again or not.. . . I don't recall them being phonetic and unless it's very phonetic, the books aren't helpful for ds. - he just guesses .
Merrill. . . I was looking into those since starting this. Hmm. . . wondering about the boredom factor. DS is at a point that he's so happy to be reading "real" books that he's happy with boredom LOL. I like the Merrill because they look REALLY thick like chapter books and he doesn't complain about them being "baby books"
I can read it. . . books. . . I tend to think those aren't phonetic. But I will look at Sonlight's lists :)
Thanks for all the ideas. I am
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Is this link of 52 books of I See Sam the first two sets for free?http://www.marriottmd.com/sam/index.html
Because looking at them I can tell ds is beyond level 2. It's REALLY hard to jump into a new set of books in the middle and be unsure where to start someone. . . . . i usually go with REALLY easy to build speed and confidence but it costs a lot to homeschool a special needs child. . . . so I don't want to spend more than I have to *blush*
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All about reading are some animal/some people. The people seem more "fun" than others though - the circus (the big top), about "the west" (cowboys). At least my ds likes them. . we actually borrowed them and I am probably going to give them back soon because we have the same trouble. He's read everything once and the second read appears to be mostly memorized.
We are struggling with the go between stage too.
I am looking at I see Sam too - he'd be about level 4 I think . . . the scope and sequence we've used is slightly different which makes me unsure where to start . . .
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Anyone use go phonics? Or the word list book? Seems like it would be good for building fluency?
Working Memory and Math facts.
in Special Needs Board
Posted
Our son, 11.5yo has several issues that affect his school work: dyslexia, dysgraphia, working memory, processing speed. His dyslexia is SO severe that his math issues have taken a little bit of a back burner although we've worked on accommodations.
His conceptual math skills are really really good (although he cannot grasp sequencing).
Primarily due to working memory issues, he really struggles with memorizing of math facts so here is what we've done so far
*finger abacus so that he can add/subtract
*0-9 multiples to music so he can multiply by 1 digit.
Due to these accommodations, while it takes him a long time, he's on grade level in math but has hit a brick wall with double digit division specifically. The past week or so, I've begun to allow him to use a calculator as long as he shows his work on paper. BUT I'm not feeling confident in this solution. His occupational therapist recommended it a long long long time ago but I feel very odd about not requiring he learn all his facts.
I was actually considering contacting his neuropsych and getting advice but thought I'd start here as you often has as much or more helpful info as his neuropsych. His neuropsych has been PHENOMENAL with diagnosis and recommending outside therapy but we haven't found that he's been super helpful in regards to helping us work with him at home :)
ANy advice/tips or even curriculum ideas would be appreciated!!!