SandyKC
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Posts posted by SandyKC
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and then I just think we just need to practice more. The NP told me to just let him use spell-check.
If you think he knows the rules well enough, you could use the self-correction method. When I was doing research for my Master's Degree, one of the questions I was seeking to answer was "What works for pervasive spelling difficulties?" That was when I learned about self-correction as a proven strategy **when a child **already has an understanding of standard spelling conventions and can recognize the correct word in a list of possible choices. I've written a description of the "Self Correction Method" and have a link to my son's writing progress on this webpage: http://learningabledkids.com/language_arts/what-works-self-correction-method-for-spelling.htm. Using this method improved my older son's spelling greatly once we started using the method. I thought I'd share it as an option if you want to go to a research-based practice that gets away from formal spelling lessons. ;-)
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Have you checked out Brave Writer? We used it to re-engage my guys with writing after we pulled them out of public school. It's a different, laid back way of thinking of writing. If you don't worry about spelling and structure and help your DD journal her thoughts, feelings, ideas, etc., it can be a great way to help your DD stay engaged with writing (preventing regression) without going heavy-duty into any form of composition. ;-)
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Have you looked at Megawords? We went through the entire series from Megawords and it helped my guys. Check out also Just Words (A Wilson Reading program) – This new program is designed for students who have mastery of basic reading skills, but have difficulty with multisyllable words. And, Advanced Language Toolkit – The Advanced Language Toolkit (ATK) is not a workbook-based program. It is similar to Just Words and is designed for you to work with your child in order to teach him advanced word attack skills. ATK assumes your child has already obtained a 6th grade reading ability.
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For behaviors, you want the school to create a POSITIVE Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP). In order to have your child assessed, you can write to the school and tell them you suspect your child may have a learning disability due to his difficulties with writing. Tell them you are requesting a comprehensive evaluation to determine whether he has a disability. They should take it from there. Once you write them, they have 60 calendar days to evaluate your child.
After the evaluation is complete, you will have an Eligibility meeting to discuss whether your child is eligible for an IEP. At that time, if he is NOT eligible for an IEP, then you can ask for a 504 to support your child since he is struggling.
That is what I would do if I thought my child had an LD in writing. We spent five years in public school dealing with IEPs, special ed, etc. and I completed a year-long Special Education Advocacy training program.. I'd HIGHLY recommend checking out Fetaweb.org and Wrightslaw.com so you will know how to navigate the special education system. ;-)
I created an online "Book" to help parents with the basics of navigating special education. It's really just a write up of resources with links that can help you as you progress through trying to have the needs of your son properly met. You can access it if you'd like: http://learningabledkids.com/learning_disability/special-education-resources-book-for-parents-of-children-with-specific-learning-disabilities
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A friend of mine went ahead and had her son do what was needed for Driver's Ed to get a learning permit at around 16, but then worked with him extensively for the next two + years instead of letting him get a full DL before 18. She felt that the ongoing practice was important compared to what would happen at 18 when he would have more control over applying on his own, but would not have had the long period of practice.
This was our approach with both of our sons. We had to renew their permits after the first year, but it was well worth the time to get the extra driving practice in. Even at age 18 it can be scary when you know your child's processing speed is not as fast as will be beneficial for emergency maneuvers but it's good enough for ordinary situations.
It helped us a LOT that our guys did not have the peer pressure to drive. With the adult relatives, most of the time I think people just ask because it is a societal thing to drive at 16 and they just don't think it through! You can put a bug in their ears and tell them outright you are waiting until your child is cognitively ready to drive. Ask them not to ask your child about it again and most of them will understand.
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CONGRATULATIONS!! IT is SOOOO FULFILLING to finally see progress being made and to know your hard work is paying off. Keep up the GREAT work and eventually your child will soar beyond your expectations! :-D
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Since you say your son has developmental eye issues, that will make reading more difficult (tiring and possibly painful) if he doesn't have corrective vision therapy. I don't know if you can find a COVD doctor near you, but you might want to check on their website to see if you can find one.
My thoughts, based upon the little I know here and personal experience, would lean towards option number 3 for a light-weight approach, and your FIRST number 5 option for an intense program that is likely to bring about measureable benefit over the summer. Whichever way you go, I would highly recommend addressing the saccadic eye movements during the summer because it can affect your son's ability to maintain his place, easily sweep his eyes for reading, etc.
My DS had vision therapy and intensive remediation. It's a lot of work, but the intensity of a program is what ultimately pays off. Something like option number 2 is not likely to bring about much meaningful and lasting benefit as listed. Your DS would likely need daily instruction and more than an hour per day in order to make meaningful progress.
Beishan mentions "Seeing Stars".. It IS doable at home. However, I'm not sure if that would be your best choice. I agree that REWARD intermediate would be great for the multi-syllable word attack, but you would have to gauge that with your DS' basic reading ability. Rewards is usually used after a child has the ability to read one and two syllable words.
Working AFTER a day at school is very difficult because your son is already tired from spending a full day doing what is hard for him. It is both mentally and physically draining, so it is no surprise that you wouldn't be able to manage homework and extra work. Summer is an ideal time to work on intense remediation as much as possible.. Two hours per day each and every week day throughout the summer can bring about some progress... It will also prevent learning regression in your son, and that will keep his learning moving forward.
May I ask if you put your son back into school this spring because of his LD issues and uncertainty about how to work with him? If so, and if you'd like to regroup and consider working with him at home, it can be a good way to meet his needs given you have a solid plan of attack. Do you have a comprehensive report from his diagnostic evaluation? If so, that can provide a lot of insight into how to meet your DS' needs.
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Wise money management.
Cleaning chemicals.. what chemicals NOT to use together.
Medicines.. what NOT to mix.. how to know what to take and when to take it.
Self-defense and basic personal safety practices. I particularly like Whitehawk's note to be scam aware.
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A good tool you can use, if she can recognize a properly spelled word, is a Franklin Speller. It's about the size of a calculator and is designed to interpret phonemically spelled words to determine what word the child may have WANTED to type. Teaching her to use a Franklin Speller as an "always with her" assistive technology device can serve her on those occassions when spell-check is not available.
The Franklin Speller works best when the child can read decently. The Speller has a built-in dictionary, so a child can check the list of possible words' defnitions to be sure she picks the RIGHT word.
We worked on spelling for YEARS, but reached a point where our neuropsychologist told us that spelling is the MOST resistent aspect of dyslexia to remediate. At some point, it is useful to teach a child to use assistive technology as a lifelong coping skill. My son was about the age of your DD when we stopped working directly on spelling and started working on self-correction. Using the self-correction spelling method (link leads to my website explaining the process of self-correction) actually IMPROVED my son's spelling a LOT--far more than his spelling had improved over the prior year or two that we worked directly on spelling.
I don't know if that helps or not, but if you have any questions about how we used the Franklin Speller and word processor, feel free to ask!
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I've wondered if my dd7.5 has stealth dyslexia for a while:
- She had several of the preschool markers for dyslexia (including being left-handed, being slow to start talking, and being slow to develop phonemic awareness, including hearing rhymes).
- She had trouble learning to read, but when it clicked, it clicked, and she went from CVC words (at 6.5yo) to reading at a 3rd-4th level in under six months (before she turned 7). I thought at the time she'd finally learned to blend, but recently I learned that she *still* can't blend - she learned to read in spite of that. Her visual memory is incredible - she only needs to see a word once or twice to remember it.
- She loves to read, but despite working through the entire multi-syllable sections of Reading Pyramids, she still guesses at pretty much all the multi-syllable words (extremely effectively on ones in her oral vocabulary, though, and then she remembers them easily) - her ability to decode one she hasn't heard before is nil - she makes up something that's sometimes almost recognizable but often is way off. And those mispronunciations tend to stick (even just purely oral mispronunciations - she's been adding a syllable to "Alaska" for several years - she's only just now starting to be able to consciously correct that after years of us repeating it correctly back to her). We started REWARDS, and she couldn't blend oral syllables together on new words (words in her vocabulary she did mpstly fine).
- I stopped REWARDS because of her failing the Barton pre-screening (along with dd5.5), and I'm learning LiPS to do with them both.
- Her handwriting's not much better than it was when she taught herself to write at age 4.5, and she can only do copywork if it's spaced exactly as she would write it. She can't space words reliably on her own. And she gets tired of writing before her little sister. Copying from a book is extremely hard, and copying from memory is even harder - she really can't do the latter at all (and she gives up so quickly on the former that I don't know if she can do it in any practical sense). She can dictate stories to me fairly well, and she's slow but not too bad with typing out stories from her head.
- She has an incredible memory, but she still has to figure out her math facts most of the time - she's fairly fast at it most of the time, but it's clear she's reasoning it out instead of having them memorized. Granted, I've never done explicit math fact drill, but she works with them a lot and it's odd given her extremely good memory.
- And for a kid with such a good memory and vocabulary, she's surprisingly slow at word retrieval sometimes.
All that led me to wonder and read up on my own, but I was careful to never mention it to her, because I wasn't sure and because she thinks of reading as something she's good at, and I didn't want to introduce her to the idea that it's something she's supposed to struggle with (although she does, in many ways; she just likes to read in spite of it).
However, today dd7.5 said herself, unprompted, that she thinks she's dyslexic, because she has so much trouble writing and because spelling is hard for her. She also noted the same thing I'd noted, that it's becoming increasingly noticeable that dd5.5 doesn't struggle with writing the way dd7.5 does, that she likes it and is improving in a way that dd7.5 isn't. She was introduced to the idea of dyslexia through a book she read (and it turns out the author of that book series is dyslexic herself), although when she told me about it she clearly didn't include herself in the category of "people who have trouble with reading". In retrospect, the very fact she brought it up to me probably says something. She *has* seen me reading books on dyslexia, and I wondered if she'd make the connection as to *why* I might be doing so, and maybe she has, but not that she's said. But she keeps most things of importance inside her - her actually *saying* something that's clearly important to her is pretty significant.
Anyway, my instinct is to weight her self-diagnosis heavily - any reason not to do that?
And that plus my long standing wonderings/suspicions has tipped the scales toward my thinking we ought to do evaluations (plus seeing how dd5.5, who also has phonological awareness issues, *doesn't* have the writing issues). IDK, we don't have a lot of savings - enough that we *can* do one or two out of pocket evaluations, but not enough to do out-of-pocket therapy - just the copays/coinsurance on in-network therapy would be a stretch tbh. Our insurance is pretty good, but I don't know how much longer we will have it. And I don't even know what to look into first.
I've been planning to do a regular eye exam with both girls on general preventative principles (especially since my entire family has myopia) - should I take dd7.5 to a COVD for it? And what would I ask for? Or is this an expensive neuropsych thing? I suspect giftedness with dd7.5 - does the potential 2E change anything in terms of where to go, who to see? Or should I finish my four dyslexia/learning-disorder books first (Overcoming Dyslexia, The Dyslexic Advantage, The Gift of Dyslexia, and The Mislabeled Child) and that would be helpful in pointing me in particular directions?
Yes, you should trust your gut instincts! It's good to work on remedial efforts as soon as you have a feeling you should because it will help your DD learn more sooner. It doesn't hurt anything to work on the remedial skills either, but an evaluation would help you know for sure what you're dealing with. ;-)
As far as what to do.. I'd skip a "regular" eye exam and go straight to a COVD doctor. He can do a regular eye exam along with the developmental exam. Ask for a developmental eye exam to look for ocular motor or visual perception difficulties.
Neuropsychs are separate from developmental optometrists. Neuropsychologists evaluate the neurological processes as they apply to learning and behaviors. It is highly likely your DD could be 2E and that is something a neuropsych could assess.
I'd recommend reading a lot.. I would suggest you read the negative reviews of "Overcoming Dyslexia" before spending a lot of time reading the book to see if you're going to get out of it what you want to get out of it. The negative reviews primarily say the book should be titled "About Dyslexia" since it doesn't include a lot of viable info about how to actually overcome dyslexia. The Gift is MOST helpful if your DD's dyslexia is visual-perception based. The Mislabeled child is good for understanding LD issues.. I haven't read the Dyslexic Advantage, but I imagine it will help you understand the strengths kids with dyslexia have... I probably OUGHT to read it because it is one of the popular books I haven't read!
If you'd like to know the steps we took in remediating my DS' dyslexia, I have the process I took listed in a first year, second year, third year format on my website. My son was different than your DD because he couldn't learn to read at all by whole word, so our process for overcoming dyslexia may be overkill with your DD. It would give you an idea of the process and programs we used. He did have ocular motor issues and had vision therapy, speech-language therapy, and lots of help in learning to read... AND we were very successful with his outcome. He's similarly STRONG visually and a gifted learner. ;-)
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Any tips on vowels? Right now my ds is starting to get /a/ vs. /e/ by looking at how the speaker forms it, but he can't hear the difference at all. He'll try to figure it out by saying it and feeling his mouth, but if his own production isn't accurate (which it often isn't with apraxia), then he's sunk. He's definitely not hearing it. From talking with some people on an apraxia list, it turns out vowels are a huge, huge bugaboo with these kids.
And vowels are one of the most critical elements since they are few in number and are part of every word! The main way we worked with my son on his articulation of the sounds was through strong, exagerated, drawn-out differentiation.... I still hear myself drilling the five short vowel sounds!! Funny thing.. I was even thinking about them as I was driving today even though my DS just graduated from college!! It was so MUCH drill and practice, lots of soap in a pan, finger paints, etc. It's both fun and frustrating while progress is made one successful practice at a time.
:thumbup:
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At what age do you make the ramp-up to that kind of intensity?
My son was 11 when we started working two hours per day on reading remediation. We had 30-45 minutes of one-on-one instruction, 30-45 minutes of Lexia Reading, Earobics, and Simon Sounds It Out (whichever we were working through at the time), and 30-45 minutes of side-by-side directed reading practice.
We had daily math lessons, handwriting practice, cognitive enhancement programs and vision therapy we did each day.
Most of our reading practice was non-fiction science or history-based. We often had project-based science activities or videos, and History Channel or National Geographic videos for some social studies.
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BTDT!! It'll be important to address EACH area of deficit your DD has based upon the neuropsych report. With my instructional design Master's degree and all the research I did for that, I built a program for my son based upon his neuropsych report and meticulously addressed each of his deficit areas.
It helps to go work through the cognitive deficit areas (working memory, processing speed, visual perception, etc.) as well as the academic skills areas. Also, research shows that working both one-on-one and using a computer-based review program is the most effective means for making meaningful progress. We used both direct instruction and daily computer-based practice.
Auditorily, your DD would probably benefit from Lindamood Bell's LiPS program along with HearBuilder, Fast ForWord, or a similar computer-based program.
Visually, you'll want to work on visual perception corrections. Depending upon the nature of her visual deficits, you might need a variety of programs. For my DS, we used the Davis Method "Focal Point" activities, DS had vision therapy, and we used Lexia's Cross-Trainer visual perception program.
I've listed all of the programs we used when we remediated my son's dyslexia at: http://learningabledkids.com/reading/how_we_remediated_dyslexia.htm.
Another research tidbit is that it takes about two hours per day of direct instruction for three school years to overcome severe dyslexia. Seldom does tutoring allow a child to make enough meaningful progress because the child needs intense one-on-one instruction each and every day. It's a lot of work, but it is not difficult work. It's just highly repetitive.. teaching the letter-sound associations over and over using multisensory methods until the child reaches mastery. It's like Plink says.. You'll have to go over every thing a thousand times, patiently, lovingly, with compassion and understanding that this is very DIFFICULT for your DD.
Lest you second guess your ability to help your DD too.. She would NOT get the kind of help and intensity of instruction she'll need in school. You'll have people tell you that you should put her in school and let the school do it.. Take heed of our story.. Things did NOT go well for my DS in public school. They were neither trained nor equipped to handle his needs.
Homeschooling to overcome his LDs was the BEST decision we ever made!! AND.. He graduated from college Magna Cum Laude this past weekend, earning his Bachelor of Science degree wtih high honors! :-D It CAN be done! It just takes focused, daily instruction in reading for as long as it takes for the skills to emerge!
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I always find it very interesting to learn more about the profile of a child when Davis DOES work for the child. I've known many along the way for whom Davis didn't work very well, and a scant few where it was THE KEY. Given that I consult with people a LOT, I'd love to be able to nail down the neurological profile for the set of conditions where Davis is *the* solution.
It's interesting here too because my DS is highly visual spatial in his capabilities--a very 3-dimensional thinker. He can build amazing creations out of his mind with Legos or Ki'nex without any kind of instructions whatsoever. He had a lot of reversals of his letters (and I mean a LOT - scroll down and see the writing sample at: http://learningabledkids.com/reading/symptoms_of_dyslexia.htm). When I first read The Gift of Dyslexia, I had HIGH hopes that the Davis Method would be THE key for my DS. It wasn't. Did the method help some? Maybe, but not noticeably while using it such that after a period of time we moved on to other methods and programs.
My son is a HIGHLY visual learner. On the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure test my DS missed only one stroke on the short-delay and I think it was two strokes on the long-delay. That coupled with his 3-D abilities makes him very strong visually, which I've always believed are the root of his reversals in writing. If you haven't ever watched the F.A.T. City Video "How Hard Can This Be?" segment about the watch.. and reversals, it's an awesome demonstration of how this type of 3-D visual processing affects letter orientation.
In any case, I'd find it helpful on behalf of coaching other parents to know more about your DD's evaluated strengths and weaknesses. IF you don't mind emailing privately about that, I'd LOVE to do so as it will help me better coach parents in finding and landing the RIGHT solution for their kids the FIRST time instead of traveling down several branches before figuring out THE solution. ;-)
Always loving learning more!
SandyShe has had tests for visual processing. This was not her weakness according to the evaluation.
She is a very visual spatial learner. I think that is the key as to why Davis worked for her. I don't think it would work well for every child, and I have a hard time recommending it, as there are no evidence based studies proving its worth. It is simply what worked best for us. I felt like Davis brought out her strengths and allowed her to use them, whereas the O-G was trying to work on her weaknesses and was taking longer for her to grasp anything. We still work on general phonemic awareness at home- but we do it with a Davis approach. The O-G people would say we are doing it wrong,but all that matters is she is learning the best this way.
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I truly do not know what about my post makes me "come across as a shill to people who read you recommendations." No one else has ever indicated that to me. Even when I reread, I don't understand where that perception comes from given what I wrote. I really would like to understand.
I write like I talk -- I'm wondering if your mindset might be quite different from mine since my advice makes you think it's spammy. Was it just the link that made it seem spammy?I link that way simply because it's a resource page about the topic and people can click on it if they want to know more about it... To me, it's like a "definition" link you see on some pages. For example, I thought your child could benefit from cognitive enhancement, but a lot of people don't even know what that is. So I just made a link for the term so readers can go to the page of explanation and resource listings if they want to. Didn't realize at all that it's a "spammy" way to link because it leads directly to the topic I was talking about--never thought there was a need to explain the link.
Question: Perhaps does my site look very commercial because it's "professional" versus "personal" (not a "personal" blog)? Its information and resources, and the google ads to help pay for the site's hosting. Like you say, the only products I have are my books.
Yep.. No "catch" and I really was taken aback by your response.. Still baffles me to a degree because I've never had anyone react that way before. :-(
I do appreciate you sharing your hard work. I wrote my post quickly, but my main points were to 1) help you keep from violating TOS, and 2) help you to not come across as a shill to people who read you recommendations and assume (like I first did) that you are trolling the boards looking for people to pitch your products. Your actual website is definitely worth sharing, but I assumed it was an advertisement and only clicked on it to verify before I reported it as spam. I was honestly surprised to see so much free info, and kept looking for a catch. All I saw was your book, though. Your site does look very commercial.
If you read enough spam on these boards, they often have a similar style and include an embedded link that doesn't clearly say where it's going, like your post. It raised the red flag big time for me. -
CONGRATULATIONS!! It's an awesome feeling to see the scores go up! :-D
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But does she also have visual perception or visual processing problems? Given she's had a comprehensive evaluation, there should be some testng for visual perception and/or visual processing. Those tend to be the hallmarks or keys for Davis to be a good solution.
Sandy KC-- I may be misunderstanding your post.
My DD has an official diagnosis of dyslexia- a diagnosis made by the 'purists'- not just me reading the Davis book. This includes difficulty in phonemic awareness and working memory deficits. She had the diagnosis and we tried other options before I even read the Davis book, so I had no preconceived notions of what she might have according to a book.
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GOOD LUCK!! We used CLEP exams instead of AP when I realized that delay in studying until the AP test date meant that my DS was much less likely to remember everything for the test. With CLEP, they could finish the subject, take the test, and move on. Given that the CLEPs they took were mostly in subjects they are NOT majoring in in college and have no interest in further, it worked well for us as an option. They got the college credit for the courses and didn't have to take those as core classes when they got to college. My boys are appreciating the ability to jump right into studies that pertain to their majors. ;-) JUST thought I'd mention CLEPs in case they may work better for you in the future. Best Wishes!
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I see you're interested in the electives.. Wondered if you have used SOS before. We liked SOS for math in middle school when my sons needed IMMEDIATE feedback on the accuracy of their answers, wanted to work independently, and I didn't want to be the "bad guy" for marking things wrong. We didn't like SOS for many of the text-type answers for subjects because it can be difficult to have it grade things correctly when there is a spelling error. There are settings for overlooking spelling to a degree, but with my guys having dyslexia, the spelling meant virtually everything was marked incorrect. That was frustrating and discouraging. We didn't like it for science (used it once) because my guys needed more interactive programming and more experiments (hands-on). The science has a lot of text and some pictures, but it is not visually rich as is best for my visual learners.
That's our experience for what it's worth. ;-)
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We used therapy putty a lot and did treasure hunts with it like one of the earlier posters suggested. My guys LOVED making Beady Buddies too and we made TONS of them during our O/T years. They LOVED making them and giving to their friends. We bought huge buckets of beads at Hobby Lobby and the buckets usually include patterns. We made lizards, snakes, frogs, crosses, fish, and all kinds of things. It's a great way to help with fine motor skills and have fun at the same time!
We also used the peanut shaped pencil grips, did finger exercises, finger plays, etc. Since you'll be going to an OT for an eval, I'm sure they'll give you some other good ideas. ;-)
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I wholeheartedly agree with this. I had no clue it costs that much either!! (Which is good to know because I was considering putting a forum on my own site.. definitely going to have to rethink that!). That said, I"m with Mom31257 that I have no problem seeing advertising--especially if it won't include annoying pop-ups or pop-outs (the kind that fill part of the screen when you accidentally mouse over them).
I had no idea it would cost that much to maintain the boards, so I believe you should do it. This site has been an invaluable part of my homeschooling experience, so advertising even after signing in would be fine with me.
Thank you for the sacrifice you've been making in order for these boards to be here.
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Writing compositions is a more advanced skill in many ways, so I think it does tend to lag behind (to a degree). In order to hand write sophisticated compositions, a child has to already have the underlying reading, vocabulary, and spelling skills. If a child is allowed to use speech-to-text dictation, then the child is more likely to create compositions on the same level that he expresses himself verbally. So, I think in the elementary grades--and maybe even up into middle school for some gifted kids--their writing skills seem to "lag behind" their other abilities. Once they have the foundational reading, vocab, and spelling skills in place though--then they can focus solely on creating their great compositions! :-D
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Sounds like you've gotten a lot of good advice otherwise here. The one thing that comes to mind to me, which we used in managing my DS ADHD, is an hour of VIGOROUS exercise right before or shortly before class. We used to swim laps at the pool or jump on the trampoline. Anything that is highly active can really get a lot of the need to move out of him. That said, it can also "drain" him and make him more tolerable for the other students in the class, but then the class isn't of as much benefit to him if he zones out because he's tired. That's my main thought though for having just a few classes left if you feel you MUST finish them.
On the thought line of not wanting him to think he can get out of things due to behavior... If you just quit going and don't say anything, will he even know it's due to his difficulty coping with the class? Can you just tell him the class is over for the school year?
I second the poster that pointed out there are lots of great programs for learning Spanish at home. It might enable him to function and concentrate better if he is not in the classroom environment.
I don't know if that helps, but it's my input for what it's worth! ;-)
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The main difference IS what works. David Method is more for visual perception problems than true diagnosable dyslexia--which is, from a 'purist' standpoint a lack of phonemic awareness and deficits in working memory. The problem comes in when people use the definition of dyslexia versus the diagnosis of dyslexia (which DOES require the Orton-Gillingham method). Then there's colored overlays and colored glasses (scotopic sensitivity--not dyslexia), vision therapy (ocular motor deficits--not dyslexia), etc. That's what confuses the marketplace and solutions so much.
Davis is a GREAT program for kids who have reading problems primarily due to visual perception deficits and need that "mind's eye" training. It tends not to be strong enough on the phonemic awareness instruction to work for kids who only have diagnosable dyslexia (lack of phonemic awareness), so I think Davis gets a bad rap more often than not because people don't know the foundational differences in various types of reading disabilities. Marketers like to use the definition of the word "dyslexia" to cover all sorts of reading disabilities, but by diagnosis, dyslexia is a very specific diagnosable condition involving a lack of phonemic awareness that is not corrected by glasses, vision therapy, nor the Davis Method alone.. That's why it doesn't work for so many people and the evidence behind it is lacking. It has to be applied to the RIGHT problem in order to be the right solution, and thank heaven you found the right one for your child!!
To make matters even worse, any given child can have one or more of the conditions which means a child may need an Orton-Gillingham program, the Davis program, vision therapy AND colored overlays!! It's a LOT to sort out!
Definitely figure out what works for you. I was super skeptical about Davis- there isn't any REAL scienctific evidence behind it. But, Orton Gullingham was not working. We decided to give Davis a try and be open minded. His book did describe my daughter fairly well. A year later, we are happy we did Davis. The instruction helps her focus and has come in handy for noisy places.I know many people who love other methods too. I kind of chuckle at how the purists hate the Davis method and vice versa- I personally don't care- just wanted what was best for my child.
Would it be to her detriment? (writing, dyslexia related)
in The Learning Challenges Board
Posted
LOL, Aimee!! We called our youngest "The Human Tornado" when he was a toddler.. He didn't enter a room without leaving chaos behind. He LITERALLY climbed windows and doorways, and similarly escaped containment measures. He put his bottom teeth through his bottom lip (it was gruesome), flipped over the handle bars of his Big Wheel and we felt like we needed a "Frequent Visitor's" card for the hospital!! We survived! HE survived!
May it be encouragement to you: He is a LOT more "chillaxed" as a teen.. He did learn there are consequences and pain for many actions. We were just looking at our "full set" of crutches from small to six-foot adult yesterday. DS is using the tallest set right now (just had knee surgery), but I think we can get rid of the smaller sizes!! LOL!
I was going to say too.. Having that quiet office space for your DD may be just what she needs to be able to cope with writing too. If she can be in a relaxed environment, then it may ease her feelings enough to be mentally able to cope with writing. Given it is stressful for her, eliminating all of the other stress around her that you can seems like a solid plan of attack. When we shifted my older son's learning environment to his bedroom (mid-teens), he really was able to focus on his work better. It's a challenge to balance each child's needs--that's for sure!