Tress Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 A couple of months ago I made a new friend. She is homeschooling her 7yo son and her 5yo son. She told me about the problems she has with teaching her 7yo son to read and she gave me permission to ask for advice here. Her 7yo is a sweet and intelligent boy. He loves read alouds, loves books and has repeatedly asked to learn to read. She is more or less unschooling her boys, but has spend quiet a lot of time actively teaching her son to read. They have made *no* progress. He can't recognize more than a few letters. Some days he can recognize his name, some days he can't (it's a short name). He also can't recognize numbers. She can spend a whole week on some one syllable word and the next day he doesn't even recognize it. She sometimes buys these cheap workbooks at the supermarket for her 5yo son. Her 5yo can easily do these, the 8yo needs to spend so much time figuring out what is in the pictures that he is not able to do the simple tasks. The mother is dyslexic, but her feeling is that there is something else going on. They did get his eyes checked by the family doctor. The doctor told them that his eyes are fine. I immediately thought about vision problems - tracking or something else-, but I have no experience with vision problems, other than that I have heard it mentioned on homeschool fora/lists I'm on. We would be really grateful if someone here could help us with the best course of action now. He so wants to read and it is affecting his selfesteem. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 A couple of months ago I made a new friend. She is homeschooling her 7yo son and her 5yo son. She told me about the problems she has with teaching her 7yo son to read and she gave me permission to ask for advice here. Her 7yo is a sweet and intelligent boy. He loves read alouds, loves books and has repeatedly asked to learn to read. She is more or less unschooling her boys, but has spend quiet a lot of time actively teaching her son to read. They have made *no* progress. He can't recognize more than a few letters. Some days he can recognize his name, some days he can't (it's a short name). He also can't recognize numbers. She can spend a whole week on some one syllable word and the next day he doesn't even recognize it. She sometimes buys these cheap workbooks at the supermarket for her 5yo son. Her 5yo can easily do these, the 8yo needs to spend so much time figuring out what is in the pictures that he is not able to do the simple tasks. The mother is dyslexic, but her feeling is that there is something else going on. They did get his eyes checked by the family doctor. The doctor told them that his eyes are fine. I immediately thought about vision problems - tracking or something else-, but I have no experience with vision problems, other than that I have heard it mentioned on homeschool fora/lists I'm on. We would be really grateful if someone here could help us with the best course of action now. He so wants to read and it is affecting his selfesteem. Thanks. It could be either, and while I think VT is over diagnosed I would go ahead and start there for this child. The fact that the pictures are a problem are a red flag that makes me wonder if he has problems with focus. I have a fried who's child could pass average vision tests, but who took several seconds to focus on each letter. He had a lot of headaches because of the vision issues. It is possible that he has multiple processing issues, or a combo of both dyslexia and vision issues. If it is dyslexia then he will probably need multi-sensory work, and consistent almost daily exposure. I have been working with my ds for 2 years and he still doesn't remember all the phonograms. He has most of them, but not all. He is just now getting to the point where he can hear the beginning, middle and end sound of a word. Ending he always gets right but about 50% of the time he starts with the end sound for the beginning and when I explain that is the end he often will then come up with the correct beginning sound. He still can't blend. He either knows the word or he doesn't. Sometimes it is just a long road. If she is looking for a program/place to start to teach phonic for dyslexic children I would suggest LiPS. It is what I use with my ds. It works on hearing the difference between sounds and feeling the difference between how the mouth works to make the sounds. The lesson part is scripted. It doesn't have a set schedule. I just cover things to mastery. It has games for reinforcement (card games and bingo). Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 I agree with Heather. www.covd.org is the place to look to find a developmental optometrist. She could be dealing with both dyslexia and vision processing issues. Another book that has been helpful to me is The Mislabeled Child, by Brock & Fernette Eide, because it goes through a number of different types of issues--these, plus auditory processing, working memory, and a whole host of other things. That has been a good place to get a feel for what different types of struggles look like, as well as some things to work on. And it's a good place to start the search, so to speak. I hope your friend can figure out what's going on with her son! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Everson Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 The mother is dyslexic, but her feeling is that there is something else going on. They did get his eyes checked by the family doctor. The doctor told them that his eyes are fine. I immediately thought about vision problems - tracking or something else-, but I have no experience with vision problems, other than that I have heard it mentioned on homeschool fora/lists I'm on. We would be really grateful if someone here could help us with the best course of action now. He so wants to read and it is affecting his self esteem. Thanks. I agree with the others that vision therapy should be investigated. It's not unusual for a family eye doctor to miss the need for vision therapy and failure to pick up phonics is often one of the first indications of a vision problem in a younger child, in my opinion. The page on how to Find a Vision Therapy Provider on my website might also be helpful. You can get to the COVD site from there also. All the best, Rod Everson OnTrack Reading Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeekingSimplicity Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 Sounds a little like my dd who has visual perception problems. No depth perception, scoptic sensitivity (did I spell that right?), and some other little things going on that make reading challenging. I can show her her name in one type of print, but show it to her in another and she has no idea what it is. Her writing is all over the place, and I was told she would probably never have neat handwriting. We don't have a visual therapist in our area, and insurance wouldn't pay for it. But after finding out what all was going on with her, I was able to include activities at home that helped a lot. Simple things that I never thought about being theraputic, like mazes, playing ball, sewing... things that help train her eyes So if they can get a diagnosis, it might help her know what to do for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizzyBee Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Its really wierd what I see. I see from 1st person, and then I see from 3rd person as if someones looking down on me. The wierd thing is, its not like theres a "split screen" - I am looking at two things at once, but only have one vision... If that makes sense. That sounds sort of like the type of dyslexia described in The Gift of Dyslexia. You might enjoy reading it if you haven't already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Its really wierd what I see. I see from 1st person, and then I see from 3rd person as if someones looking down on me. The wierd thing is, its not like theres a "split screen" - I am looking at two things at once, but only have one vision... If that makes sense. I see what is described here as shaky, though what I experience isn't that drastic. The white spaces are more glaring, and the sense of movement is only around the edges, unless I am really tired then I also get the Halo effect, though again not as drastic as the sample. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fivetails Posted December 22, 2009 Share Posted December 22, 2009 Its really wierd what I see. I see from 1st person, and then I see from 3rd person as if someones looking down on me. The wierd thing is, its not like theres a "split screen" - I am looking at two things at once, but only have one vision... If that makes sense. I think you'd best stay off that bike. After-market pipes are the least of your concerns. :laugh: [anyone up for a little spam egg spam spam bacon and spam?] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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