The thing is....any program that truly is going to change their lives is going to take an investment of time. Its like my daughter doing workbooks over the summer. We can either do one workbook that is 100 pages and touches a little on everything, or do the Kumon workbooks that have an 80 page book dedicated to long division, and an 80 page book dedicated to fraction addition/subtraction. My kids need the intensity...my daughter for math, and my son for decoding/spelling. But, his dyslexia is rather severe. So, I appreciate the intensity of each lesson. I am expecting that we will take 2 weeks for every lesson...and that about 25 minutes/day. I have found that we are doing 4-5 pages every day, but have to do them three days in a row to move on confidently. Thats ok...if thats what he needs, so be it. I can't change his mind all in one day, so I will handle the frustration and anger directed at me because he needs the intensity that Barton provides.

I expect to use the tiles at home, but when we are out and about, we can easily do the lesson while driving (while DH drives, of course), away from home etc with just the book and the app. portability means that we can be more efficient with our time. if its easy, its doable.

I had the benefit (or detriment one would say) to pay for a tutor for my son to get through levels 1-3 of Barton in the last 10 months for 4 sessions/week. So, while I am a new tutor for level 4, I've been listening in for quite some time. I ordered level 4, and we easily had 4 mini-sessions thus far, with very little effort being required from me. Yes, I'm reading everything through twice before I waste his time on a lesson, but that is for my own comfort level. Every lesson is scripted out and rather easy to provide. If they truly have the knowledge to move on, this will be obvious to a parent/tutor. There is no guesswork about when to expose someone to new knowledge. I think this was the hardest thing for me to grasp at the beginning of our tutoring adventure. I want to move fast, but not so fast that he is missing vital pieces of information...and just because I may think he knows them, he may really not! How awful that would be for him then. I've been tackling 5-6 pages/session...and we repeat each of those 5-6 pages until he has mastered the answers before moving on to the next pages in the lesson. Extremely easy to know what to do. So, he has done very well with level 3...completed in fact, but when he was doing the review, it was obvious he could read everything with decent fluency and speed, but still had issues spelling with consistency. We decided to still go ahead with level 4, while he works on the spelling of level 3 at school (I've made material for him to do this at school during his reading class time). As for price, I just don't understand why the cost is a deterrent. Its $300 for each level, but that could last a child 3-6 months easily...and you can easily resell each for $200. We went ahead and purchased games, barton tiles app and the level 4...and its still cheaper than a month of tutoring. And, given my sons issues, I expect for him to be on this level for a solid 6 months...so the net out of pocket is fairly cheap on a per month basis. What I really appreciate by Barton is the script....you don't need to be an educator. There are also other various ways to gain support: Barton Tutor Google Groups Barton Tutor Support Forum Barton Tutors PDF Listing (for additional resources) Barton Reading Tools Barton Tutor Training Videos Fluency & Spelling Lists Imagine Games Spelling Success Games Its a rather complete system, and you can gain the knowledge needed with just a small investment of time.

DS is dyslexic, and by using the TimesAlive, multiplication facts have been easier than expected, but the rote memorization of the steps associated with long division frustrates him considerably....is there a resource online that could help? He engages fairly well with TimesAlive, so if there was another visual/electronic medium, I think he would learn it more efficiently.

We trudged through level 3 for 8 months...ugh! But, I see that something has been going on with his brain lately, and he really GETS it so much better. He is just learning everything faster and taking it all in, whereas before he wasn't. We've just chatted about lesson 1 in level 4 (not done the lesson since I don't have it yet), and he already gets it....so I'm hopeful that it won't be as painful as everyone lets on.

Just for comparison, my son took 6 weeks to get through level 1...and that was 4 days/week for an hour/session with a certified barton tutor. The length of time to finish level 1 tends to be a big indicator to determine the severity of their dyslexia. They will all get through it, but some will fly at some steps and others will faulter on some. They are all different. Happy that you had her identified while she was 7!

Just curious...we just started STNR for some mild-moderate ADD. How long was it before you noticed a difference?

You would need the 2+ hour initial evaluation. She would 100% give you exercises to do at home. MNRI requires exercises 5 days/week, so she would instruct you on how to do them. Note that most of the exercises are passive on the child...meaning they just lie/sit there while you do all of the work. So, its easier to get the child to do them while watching a movie or something like that. While I was waiting for a weekly appointment, I did ask if/when she had any availability if we could just get him in for an evaluation and some guidance until they had a recurring appointment available. I don't see why you could not do a monthly or bi-monthly appointment, given the driving distance. Granted, it would only be based on when they had an opening so you wouldn't be guaranteed it...and when you did it, it would probably be another "initial evaluation" type of appointment, but I would think this is reasonable. But again, since the time period would be longer, the price would be more than a regular session. You would just have to indicate that you understand the limitations and that this would be ok to periodically "fill in" her schedule. There are a ton of people that attend the conferences to do the exercises at home, and then they go to another conference 6-12 months later. Given that this is one of their methods for delivering the program, I would think that seeing someone occasionally for a check up would be likewise ok.

Interesting...it sounds like it could be related, but then again it could be something completely different! Wouldn't it be worthwhile to schedule an overview with a proper OT who specializes in this therapy for a full evaluation? Seems worthwhile to me if it was my money/time.

Here is also another source. These are 10-12 minute videos that summarize the reflex's downstream issues, as well as how to remediate. While they are $40 each, its cheaper than one OT appointment. Something to consider if you know which reflex is the issue. If you want to reduce costs, you could simply see an OT once/month to get a snapshot of where they are, and then work on these in your downtime until the next snapshot to see if you have made progress. http://masgutovamethod.com/shop/estore?c=26

From what I understand, yes, it dissipates with normal development....but most reflexes normally integrate under 12 months of age. Maybe the child didn't crawl for long enough before standing? Maybe they scooted instead of crawling? Maybe they didn't spend enough time sitting before moving on to the next challenge? My son went through all of the stages, but some very fast and some normally. the thing is....even though he walked at just under 9 months, he was always one to watch the world, rather than do things. i always thought it even then...and many people commented on it. of course, i was comparing this to my daughter who always was DOING....but then, you know you shouldn't compare. I suppose I should have more!

I would love him to have intrinsic motivation....with that, the whole world will open up. Can't exactly test for that though :)

Watered down testing at home: http://www.retainedneonatalreflexes.com.au/test-at-hom/ Keep in mind that obvious issues you may be able to identify with the above, but most are just not obvious to a parent. You just know that something is wrong....the way they do a "military crawl" for example. The way the shoot a basketball. Those are physical abnormalities that were obvious to me, but with more research, its obvious it affects much more than that....learning style, anxiety, sensitivity to food/clothing/emotions, ability to make connections with classmates, intrinsic motivation and perseverance, as well as cognitive effectiveness (for us, it was language) and mild ADD. Please note that we did not give the OT a history of the above. She tested and identified some with huge discrepancies and some that were there, but not off the charts. All the ones that were significantly different than the norm had a direct impact on the issues that we believe were causing an issue for him. So yes, there is a terribly high correlation...does that mean its causation? Not necessarily, but the more I understand, the more I trust that the reflexes are hindering the neural connections which make his traits more of an issue than a typical child. Dysfunction Related reflex Percent of children demonstrating an aberrant reflex Poor memory ATNR 78% Poor transition from concrete operations to logic & abstract thinking STNR 57% ADD, ADHD STNR, ATNR, Spinal Galant, Spinal Pereze 58% Allergies & food hypersensitivity Spinal Pereze 54% Enuresis, poor bladder control Spinal Galant 72% We are currently working on perez, ATNR, STNR and galant.

I wholeheartedly agree that there is a placebo effect. But then again, with Brain Balance and MNRI, because of the cost, these parents have probably already invested thousands of dollars on other therapies and have been invested in them....so with these two, I don't think placebo is a good argument. While a lot of these theories are considered skeptical (brain integration/reflexes/etc), they have been used for 30+ years on persons with head injuries/stroke/etc. We are talking about a neural issue with these kids in their brain....there is a significant similarity in effect. Likewise, when I was a 4 year old and went to speech therapy, the therapists actually had me revert to crawling and other infant behaviors because the theory was already there that they were related...and that was over 40 years old. A lot of development has occurred simply due to time in this area. Of course, not all kids have a neural issue and those kids are probably the ones that will not benefit significantly with these programs. Also, the therapist and/or parent doing the exercises may simply not be competent in the nuances of some of the exercises. Our OT will show me how to do most of them, but there are some that she cannot because of the exactness needed. Of course, she is less than 40 MNRI Core Specialists in the country with 20+ years of experience in this specific therapy. I belief the 8-month wait list is worth it. As for guesswork....with a competent OT, they can determine which reflexes are intact. You can also find tests online that you can do at home, but these I fear would only identify those reflexes that are seriously intact, something thats obvious once you know what you are looking for.

I did set up spelling city...but I really like the idea of mapping the rule to the word. i'll do this! thank you.