Thanks ElizabethB! I like the idea of introducing 2-syllable words early on. He'll love that I'm sure. OhE, thanks for the encouragement... sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, but it's nice to know that other people think it's ok. :)

Awesome!!!

OneStep, I'm with you - I find LiPS to be pretty easy BUT... I don't do all the steps exactly as they are laid out in the manual. :) The progression is mouth pictures to colored blocks to letter tiles, but for kids that already struggle with working memory, I'm not so sure if the colored blocks step is so helpful. With my last LiPS student, we first built the word with pictures (ap = smile + popper), and then went straight into building the word with tiles. It worked fine, although I don't know if doing the colored blocks would have been even better. We constantly talked about what he was feeling in his mouth which really helped too. We also did the Seeing Stars air-writing at the same time, so it was a big mashup of methods. Because I added/subtracted so many things, it's hard to single out what was the most helpful. Oh well!

I do have LIPS, and have used it before so I'm going to stick with that. I am curious about foundations of sound though - it would be interesting to compare it to LiPS. I like the idea of saying that we need to re-train your brain after all the confusing information it's gotten over the years - no judgement, just that most teachers haven't learned how to teach dyslexic students. Thanks for the reminder of realistic goals - definitely need some short-term (CVC words fluently) and long term - use my skills so I can be like so-and-so. I'm okay with fighting back against reading at first - definitely justified under the circumstances. I personally quit trying to make good cookies because they came out horribly every time - and wasted all my time and ingredients - maybe I should give it another go!

I'm looking for a good way to introduce reading remediation to a 12 year old boy who has had pretty negative experiences with school and is now REALLY emotional about reading. I can do my usual spiel about how having a hard time with reading doesn't mean you're stupid, how people with dyslexia have lots of cool strengths, creative thinking, etc. I was thinking of using the analogy of a foundation of a house - being aware of each sound in a word is like the foundation of the house, and once that's in place we can go on to build the rest of the house...? His phonemic awareness is low, his ability to separate sounds, blend and manipulate sounds is low, so I'm planning on starting with LiPS. It's so unusual that I think he may be on board, and I'm fairly sure it's just what he needs, but I'm still concerned about the emotional buy-in. Has anyone had any good/bad experiences with selling reading remediation to a pre-teen? I'm looking for a good way to introduce the remediation - I can do my usual spiel about how having a hard time with reading doesn't mean you're stupid, how people with dyslexia usually have lots of strengths, etc. I was thinking of using the analogy of a foundation of a house - being aware of each sound in a word is like the foundation of the house...?

I'm not sure about Montessori schools in particular, but if you get serious about possibly going to this school, DEFINITELY get some firm answers about reading instruction. I know a boy who went to a really sweet, fun, awesome private school, and they *said* they individualized learning so they could accommodate his dyslexia. Well, I guess they *accommodated* it, in the sense that they let him do shorter assignments, etc. BUT they also did not teach him to read. Like, at all. It was really disappointing and expensive. Strength-based is kind of a vague term. Make sure they have a qualified person to teach reading! I thought that Montessori schools were kind of "kids will read when they're ready!" type places, which is not going to help a kid with a reading disability... Good luck!!

Hooray! Sounds like you're having a good time, and what a help + moral support to that mother :)

Also, I think you are so informed and educated about best practices for dyslexia, reading comprehension, etc. that you would be BEYOND frustrated with how academics go in school. I mean, really... even if a school has a certified OG tutor, unless that person is SUPER experienced, you're probably better at teaching reading than that person. And like you said, you're the best math tutor in your area! LOL. I love that. I think you just need some confidence in your own skills, like we all do. Maybe you'll feel better if you sit down with a calendar and make a schedule, marking down all the social things he's got planned, like sports. You could see the days where there's a need, and then go find something to fill it. Doesn't have to be crazy involved :)

I work in a school for students with learning differences. A lot of them have autism on top of dyslexia or dysgraphia, or something else entirely. It's a wonderful place with classes of maybe 3-8 kids. That being said, like others have mentioned, it's possible to STILL be alone in a class that size! Picture one teacher with 5 kids. When she's specifically engaging with ONE student, the other four are on their own. MAYBE they are engaging with the lesson, but maybe they are thinking about Pokemon Go. Each student gets MAYBE 1/5 of the teacher's attention, but probably less to be honest, because she is doing other things like writing on the board, reading aloud, etc. Would less than 1/5 of the teacher's attention be enough to draw your boy out? From what I've experienced, kids with autism (or any kids, really!) can sink into their own happy daydreams/ doodling/ falling asleep perfectly well, even in a small class. I think you're right on with your approach. Your son is getting the academic help he needs, and the various therapies you're working on. You can find some social things to do after school and on weekends. You got this!

Good luck!! A change might be just what you need! Maybe you can recharge a little during the day too :)

What are you working on with this child currently? I'd base your games on whatever you're doing at the moment. When I tutored my (favorite ever) student with an IQ right around there, he could not rhyme for MONTHS. It took a lot of phonological awareness improvement before he could rhyme - one day it was just like.... boom! Rhyming! But until then, trying to play a rhyming game would have made no sense to him. Some ideas: 1. Counting words in a sentence. You print out sentences of varying lengths and cut them into strips, one sentence per strip. The child has to count the number of words in the sentence. To make it a "game," you can take a few plastic cups and label them 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. with the number of words. The child counts the words, then puts the sentence into the corresponding cup. You could also do counting sounds in a word (harder). FOX = f-o-x.... into the 3 cup! Yeah! 2. Same sound game! Print out a bunch of pictures (or buy picture cards) of different things. Spread out an array of cards and give the child one card (say, a fish). The child has to find other pictures that also start with /f/. Or you could do it where the child has to separate the cards into piles (f here, d there, etc.). To make the cards, you could start with just a couple letters that you're working on at the time, not the whole alphabet. You could repeat with finding the last sound (harder) and the middle sound (really hard!). Maybe save those last two for later on. 3. These games seem great to me! http://www.readingrockets.org/article/phonemic-activities-preschool-or-elementary-classroom I'm interested to hear what you're working on.... how are things going? :)

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I definitely agree with OneStep, she does not have to graduate "on time"! From what you say, it sounds like your daughter is very interested in medical things, and is good at gathering information and enjoys it... that is a great skill. Maybe she could start learning a little about the history of education here & around the world... she might start to feel more in control of her education, and feel good about completing her schooling on her own timetable. I don't know why, but your post made me thing of a GREAT book I read last year. It's called "The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way" by Amanda Ripley. It follows three highschoolers who each spend a year in Finland, South Korea, and Poland. It's really fascinating, and it also talks about the struggles of the American public school system. If I were a kid on a rather unconventional path, I might feel comforted by knowing that American public education is all screwed up anyway :P You would probably like this book too... it's awesome! One of the comforting takeaways is that it doesn't matter how well off or wealthy a family is, a child from a family like that can still struggle with education. Those with challenges are often surprising with their success. Anyway - that book just popped into my head. Good luck with your daughter, it sounds like the school is causing more stress than it is worth! https://www.amazon.com/Smartest-Kids-World-They-That/dp/145165443X

Yayyyyyyy!!!! So glad it worked out!! :)

Just chiming in to say that yes, dyslexics can love reading! I tutored a wonderful boy a few years ago, starting when he was 7. We did intense tutoring for about six months, and then went to 2-3 times a week. I said to him later on, "wow, you love books now!" and he replied, "I ALWAYS loved books. I just couldn't read them!" So, yes. Dyslexics can love books as much as anyone :) You don't know the extent of her reading ability yet, so you may be surprised with the pace of her progress... it maybe faster or slower than what you're expecting. Whatever you do, make sure you have lots of fun library books around the house :) You sound like you're going to be a GREAT reading teacher. Once you learn about it some more, I think you'll find that it's really fascinating and fun. I hope your husband can become familiar with the materials too, and books/articles about dyslexia. Could you leave them in a prime reading spot (like.... the bathroom? LOL :laugh:

What about the Dragonbox Algebra app on the iPad? It's a fun game that teaches algebra with no numbers at first. It looks so fun, I'd like to play it! http://dragonbox.com/algebra Here is a video trailer for it: :)

Don't the Visualizing and Verbalizing workbooks have questions in the teacher manual? I think they're questions you're supposed to use to prompt the student, but you could print those out and she could answer them.. and then maybe illustrate the scene? I could see that whole sequence taking half an hour or more. At the end of the year you could have a really nice notebook with all of the work, and she could see her improvement over the year :) I also love the idea of helping out with jobs at school. When I was a kid, I LOVED doing stuff like that.

What about... Color by number (but the kind where it's math problems) Word searches (or she could make word searches for other kids using whatever they're learning in class) She could help you prepare things for the other kids (work on following directions, sequencing, etc) Tangrams? The soft foam ones wouldn't be distracting to the other kids Puzzles Short reading passages/comprehension questions from Teachers Pay Teachers Illustrate something from a book/reading passage A kind of observation journal where she writes down X number of things she notices in the classroom You could make a different kind of journal - I've seen the kind that have a page for each day, with questions like: I'm feeling _____ today because _______. For lunch, I'm having ______. After school, I'm going to ________. I feel _______ about this because_______ :)

My husband just got these Olukai shoes from REI and he LOVES THEM. Luckily they have a kid version! Sturdy mesh, slip on, you can definitely run in them, and roomy. AND (yay), they have a special feature where you can push down on the heel flap, and wear them as slip-on clogs! Your son might love that. Then, when he wants to run, he just adjusts the flap and he's off. Plus they're cool looking :) https://www.olukai.com/nohea-mesh-boys.html?color=grey-scuba

What if you start writing the story by yourself, and don't even say anything about it to her? For example, I'm picturing you sitting at your kitchen table, maybe eating a delicious snack :) and writing a little story about the turtle. Maybe even comic-book style, where you draw little illustrations along with the text. You could even "get frustrated" a little, like, "bah, this turtle looks like a hippopotamus! Dang it, I REALLY wanted it to look good. SIGH!" and then... "Haha, oh well! It's good enough for now, it actually looks kinda cute!" and then move on. Do you think she would be intrigued and watch you? You could just continue on and not even suggest that she join you unless she asks. You could model a way to deal with frustrated behavior. My DH actually sounds a lot like your daughter :) He is a perfectionist, and he is concerned about what people *might* think about him - bosses, other colleagues, etc. He doesn't even like to send an email asking a question because the recipient might think he's "dumb." I used to get pretty frustrated with him and try to reason with him - like "Why are you getting so upset? This is such a small, insignificant problem! Of COURSE so-and-so won't care if you ask for a new copy of the schedule because you misplaced yours!" etc. It REALLY did not work. In fact, it was awful. Every single time, my reasoning/comforting/etc. backfired and he got even more upset. Over the years, as I've kind of ignored/left the room/sat there and said nothing, I've noticed his perfectionism get a little bit better. It's a lot better when he doesn't have too much stress, when he's feeling healthy (eating well, sleeping well) and seeing friends. He is extremely intelligent (PhD, professor) and does amazing work, probably as a result of his perfectionism, but it's a double-edged sword for sure. Successful people seem very put-together on the outside, but I think many creative/smart/amazing people probably have anxiety around being perfect. All this to say, it sounds like your daughter is very smart and will probably be very good at many things... and it's good that you're discovering possible perfectionism/anxiety now, when she's little, so she can grow up and have tools to help manage it! :) Oh, one more thing - I was just listening to an NPR thing about praising kids. The expert on the show (maybe a professor, a researcher?) was talking about how if you praise a kid for doing something well - like "you're so smart, wow, you're really good at drawing" - that kind of praise actually has a negative effect and makes the kid think they are naturally good at some things, and bad at others. In other words, they think that ability is fixed. You either have it... or you don't. If you praise more abstract things like effort, patience, perseverance, kids develop a more flexible mindset. They think that they may not be good at everything YET, but that it's possible. You can even specifically say, "Wow, you didn't handle your frustration perfectly YET, but I can tell you were really trying!" Kids will get the message that while they didn't succeed at the moment, success is possible with hard work.

Sorry you and your daughter are having such a rough time :grouphug: I agree with OneStep that academics are small potatoes compared to her emotional needs - from what you wrote, it sounds like she's very smart and capable of working/learning quickly! Good luck with everything, and keep us updated! I'm curious to see what you come up with on your journey.

Well, before you jump into buying something expensive, you could always DIY phonological awareness practice for a few months. There are so many good ideas for games and such online. Off the top of my head, a few fun ideas are: You say a sentence, kid hops across the floor for each word in the sentence Ditto, but for sounds in a word Draw three (or only two) vertical lines on a paper, one column for each sound. Kid drops a peanut (or whatever treat) for each SOUND they hear... and then eat peanuts! :) Clap for each word, then for each sound within a word Say the sounds in words in silly voices, veeerrrrry loudly and slowly :) Print out pictures of 3-4 sound words (frog, cup, etc) and play 'finding the sounds' I think you could easily google and find the "bones" of LiPS on people's blog and such. You need to understand the nicknames for the sounds in the Vowel Circle, and for consonants, you could google Consonant Brothers. I bet you can find enough to DIY it for all the single vowel sounds and consonants. :) If your kid doesn't need the whole shebang, it could work.

This is probably too easy for him, but the American Chemical Society has an AMAZING (!!!) FREE, complete chemistry course for middle-schoolers. There are lesson plans, reading pages, experiments, worksheets, all that you can download for free. The material is really clear, simple but not dumbed-down, and the experiments are super fun. :laugh: http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/ If it's too easy for him, maybe he could go through the chapters/experiments this summer so when he does HS chemistry, he'll feel more prepared. The experiments in this program are so cool, maybe he would enjoy working them out on his own, and then sharing them with his family :) I am also science challenged, and I could handle this one :D

Melvin Beederman, Superhero has a grade level of 3.3. It's about a hapless superhero kid who has some troubles being a superhero (namely, flying :). The evil villains are funny and overall the books are just great! This series got one of my very ADHD, anti-paragraph readers to read. There are lots of pages with just a few sentences and a big picture. You could buddy read and do the longer pages (3 paragraphs) if he's okay with that :) https://www.amazon.com/Bologna-Sandwich-Melvin-Beederman-Superhero/dp/0805078363

Hi again! Yes, I use the Recipe for Reading as a framework. I add so much stuff to it, though, that it's not much more than a framework. I've never used Barton, but that seems like a super complete system. For ANY really struggling kid, though, it would be wise to check on the pre-Barton, pre-Recipe, phonological awareness skills. Without those, NO reading program will work. You'll just be banging your head against the wall wondering why on earth they're not learning. I think a lot of schools are too pressed for time to spend as long as they need to on those pre-reading skills. Considering kids are expected to read by the end of kindergarten now... when do they have time to play lots and lots and LOTS of phonological awareness games? Your new student is lucky to have you! Have fun!