This has been VERY helpful everyone. I went ahead and ordered both books today. I am going to go thru the books individually. I guess I was clinging to some miracle that there might be something I could combine! 3 children in Barton was about all I thought I could do!! I told my dh there was no way I could add anything else but then I saw these books. Executive function is an issue in all three of our kids. I just have to find the time. They have the time, it's me that has to find the time to teach another one on one. I'll find the time. I know I will but is anyone else really, I mean REALLY, tired?! Lol Thanks again for all the helpful advice! Sherri

I have read about these here on the boards and I have decided to go ahead with them. Any practical BTDT advice? Also, can I use these with 2 kids at once or is it strictly one-on-one? TIA, Sherri

Our library is rough but they have a great collection of audio books and we request more that are in the system. We use audible and we have a monthly subscrition which cuts the costs. They do use the audio function on the Kindle some but not very often.

We had a lot of success with First Language lessons. I think the key was the frequent drilling of the definitions. Honestly, with our boys I don't think anything else would have worked.

Both of our boys (11 and 9) take 20 mg of extended release. DS 11 started on 10 mg as he weighs just under 80 pounds and had some results but soon went to 20 mg. DS 9 weighs 120 pounds so they started at 20 mg extended and it was a perfect fit.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. It's so good to know that I/we are not alone in this. I was poking around on the Let's Play Math site that Cactus Flower linked earlier in this thread. There was a suggestion on there about "math buddies" and I started that and it is working with AMAZING results. The first day we did Math Buddies 7, 8 and 15. I had my ds9 and dd7 draw pictures of the buddies and we talked about it multiple times through the past two days. Both of them now know 7+8=15, 8+7=15, 15-8=7 and 15-7=8. That is huge for us! I really think this is going to work. My goal now is to take it slow and not overwhelm him. I think we will try for two buddies a week and see how that works. I would rather go slow and build success and confidence as this has been very difficult for him. I have felt all along that he just needed something to "frame" the math facts in or to hang them on. I really hope that after all the solution really is this simple and effective :001_smile:

Please, someone give me some ideas! My ds9 with ADD and dyslexia who has an almost eidetic memory cannot memorize his math facts. He knows a Shaksperean sonnet after hearing it once or twice and has extensive discussions about nuclear fission and black holes, but he has to count on his fingers with 4+3 or 9-5. He is currently in SM 4A. For a long time I slowed him down trying to get the math facts in him. A couple of months ago, I gave up and let him move forward with concepts and I allow him to use a multiplication chart for math. I do make him fill out a new chart once a week. He uses his fingers for addition and subtraction. I feel like I have tried everything flash cards, flash master, wrap ups, RS math games and currently we are using the v/s cards from Diana Waring (with less than good results). I'm not looking for perfection here and I know that he will use a calculator at some point. I just can't wrap my head around where to go next. Does anyone have any thoughts on how I might help him? Since he was 6 he has said that he wants to be a theoretical physicist or an impact physicist. I have this vision of him in a college physics lab and he's adding up his 10 facts on hs fingers!!:eek:

I would have them start with Scratch. Alice is geared more toward middle to high school and is more advanced. That's been our experience. My kids love Scratch and will spend as much time on it as I will allow. HTH

I would be interested in a 2E board as well.

Oh!! The constant talking! I agree with everything that everyone has said! The only other thing that I have to add is to acknowledge to myself that this whole thing is hard, really hard. With that in mind, I find myself needing the grace and forgiveness that I readily give others but am reluctant to give myself. I end up having talks with my kids about being flawed and far from perfect and that I need them to forgive me just like they ask me for forgiveness. Then there is chocolate!! :grouphug:

Okay, thank you so much for your input.

So I should see an increase in the processing speed when we get memory issues (working, long and short term) to a better level? Is this something that a program like FastForword would be good with?

Any ideas on what would be an effective intervention for my ds10?

I'm happy to hear that there is light at the end of the tunnel for someone!!:D Congratulations!!

I loved this part of the lesson. "Note that the comprehension of a written word requires one to call to mind the word's auditory form. A child typically learns to understand written language by associating it with spoken language, which he or she already knows" I have read over and over that reading is an auditory skill. The above comment in addition to the description of the feedback loop was a huge lightbulb moment for me. I get it now. It was a great overview of brain anatomy. It was also helpful for me to get an understanding of the "why" the VAK triangle works. I am really enjoying this course so far.

Thank you for your responses. I think for now we have decided to something different. I don't really know yet what that will be, but certainly something different.

Thanks. I'll look for it there.

I seem to remember someone mentioning something about a group for AAS users that gives specific recommendations about dyslexia. Is there such a group? It's possible that I combined multiple posts in my addled brain and came up with my own hybrid! :lol:

Has anyone used this? I think this is something we are going to use and I was looking for any BTDT advice.

I was just able to reach my family in Chatsworth GA. They are fine but they said there is going to be a large amount of damage up there.

Yes, I think I am going to wait on changing to Barton. I'm going to let the SLP and VT work and see where we are in a month or two. I am just afraid to miss this chance to help him. It's not that we aren't "doing" anything. That pull to do everything at once is more about my guilt than what he needs. Then, the thought that we could be facing the same challenges and back to square one in 2 years...well, it overwhelms me...not to mention my sweet boy. It's hard to trust that I am doing the right thing now when I feel like I have missed so many warning signs. It's just too many changes, too fast. I think we need to take a breathe. Oh, and yes, we got our 9 yo ds evaluated for VT and he will start next week. Thank you everyone for the wisdom, support and encouragement.

Love. Love. Love this! :D

Merry and Dobela, thank you both for your thoughtful replies. I hope that the therapies that we have chosen will provide gains. It's comforting to see that things have worked for your children. Merry, I looked at the course you linked and I am going to sign up for it. Thank you. I am really struggling with this decision about ASS vs Barton. He had difficulty with nonsense words on the test and I know that they are included in Barton. Also, I understand Barton has more review. I keep reading that AAS is a O-G based spelling program but Barton is a full O-G language program. My other concern is my 9 year old son. I think we are starting to see some of the same issues with him but more as stealth dyslexia. I think for now, I am going to take the O-G intro course, let the therapies continue, and just give it some time. It's true, I don't want to be hopping from one program to the next. This is just a lot to think about. I am thankful to all of you who have posted on this forum. There is much wisdom here.

We are paying $1440 or 12 treatments which would be 3 months. There are discounts if you pay upfront (15% off) or two equal payments within the first month of VT (10%). The base rate is $120/hour. The price he quoted seems high. I live in a rural area and we are traveling just under 2 hours each way for VT. Our DO/VT is the only one in our region and her location is in a extremely affluent area. HTH

Last week we got the report from the psychologist who did the testing on our ds 10. Since that point, we have made some decisions and moved forward but I still have a lot of questions. As background, he was a late reader. I really struggled to teach him and we had little to no success until we went thru 100EZ Lessons. He took off from there and has become an avid reader. He says his favorite thing to do is read. He had fairly good reading comprehension for me but his spelling was terrible. After annual testing last year, I switched to AAS. In the past year, he has completed Books 1-3 in AAS. His spelling has greatly improved but he still gets many words wrong when he writes. As for writing, we had been using WWE. Something wasn't right because his history and science narrations weren't advancing the was they should. It was like he was stuck a year or two back and not advancing so several months ago I started using Student Writing A with him. He likes this much better than in writing he has done previously. He says he "gets" writing more now. His memory has always been less than the other kids, I just had no idea that it was abnormally low. First, I started off with a huge mistake. Huge! We got a highly recommended psych in our area. She is an educational psych and by her own account is highly trained in neuro psych. I see now that is not the same thing as a neuro psych. I think she did a good job in identifying the educational issues but I see that much was lost. Oh well. If we ever need to test again, I will travel to get a better eval. Okay, he was identified as having dyslexia and mixed dysgraphia. Among other things, she did the WJIII with sub-tests. His overall IQ was drastically lower than expected. From what I have read, his score is not really valid because some of the huge differences in subset scores. Is that accurate? His working memory, long term retrieval and short-term memory were very low. Yet, he had high auditory processing. His executive processes were ranked average to advanced but his cognitive fluency, cognitive efffeciency and processing speed were very low. Actually his cognitive fluency was only 1st percentile rank. His thinking ability was well above average with strength in fluid reasoning. Her comments on reading: "Despite his wonderful improvements on some of the tasks that make up phonological awareness, he continues to present with difficulty decoding. He demonstrated limited proficiency reading familiar words (letter-word identification) and limited to average proficiency decoding nonsense words (word attack)...Children with phonological dyslexia will sound out the first letter and then guess the word bade on its structure or shape. Children with surface dyslexia will painstakingly sound out each letter and not process larger parts of the word. His reading errors were all dysphonetic, suggesting he has phonological dyslexia. As can be seen in the examples below, he was not using what he knows about the sounds letters make to decode words. It appears that he was using a primary orthographic approach, sounding out the first letter and then guessing the work based on its shape." Her comments on writing: "His ability to spell nonwords is limited, which means he may struggle when attempting to spell new words because he is not proficient in applying phonics, not aware of common irregularities in words, and does not have a solid understanding about certain letter combinations...He made phonological and surface errors in addition to several more serious errors suggesting that he has mixed dysgraphia." She listed the errors and several of them were words that we had done in AAS. So, my first step was to find a developmental optometrist. We went for an evaluation last week and have started vision therapy. He was found to have poor accommodation, poor binocularity and poor ocular motility. He is doing weekly vision therapy in the office and daily homework. We have scheduled an appointment/evaluation with a SLP for later this week. She said that she feels she can help him with processing and memory issues. She uses, among other things, Brain Gym and Interactive Metronome. In the meantime, he has been working daily with Jungle Memory and appears to be making progress. SO, the question is where from here. I was told in the psych eval that he needed aggressive and immediate intervention since he is 10 and his phonemic awareness "window" will be closing soon due to his age. I have heard some say to wait until VT is over before beginning a language program such as Barton. I'm not sure what to do at this point. Should we stick with AAS, which he loves and is eager to do, but has frequent errors on words he has passed? Should I go ahead and switch to Barton now? Should I just wait 2 months and see what happens? I've already got book 4 of AAS, we could just go ahead and work knowing we may change in a couple of months. Speaking of Barton, I gave him the pre-test and he did fine. I gave him the tests for Levels 1 and 2 and he also passed them with a 95% or greater. I haven't given him the test for Level 3 or 4 yet. Is there anything else that I need to look into as far as intervention or teaching methods? I would love some BTDT advice on where to go from here.