year 2 and thinking possible dyslexia again with almost 6 yo

[lulubelle]

Hi,

I was thinking he may have had it last year, but thought he just needed some extra time and help. I have worked with him frequently and in little bouts using lots of tracing letters (he has a very hard time writing letters on his own) and Progressive Phonics. He has a pretty good hold on, but not perfect, for the site of lower case sounds of b, d, p, m, n, a, e, i, o, u, h, and s. It's taken a good year for this! So, the other day I decided he needs more focus on blending sounds together (and not memorizing from Progressive Phonics). I took out Phonics Pathways and reviewed the vowels. I did the first page for blending s with each vowel today. He was able to blend 3 of the 5 vowels, but for the life of him could not do the other 2. He had the sounds by themselves but changed the sound when he blended the e and o with s. Now I am back to thinking he is dyslexic and I need a better program to work with him such as Barton. How do I decide? Isn't it obvious that he needs more? Thanks you!

[LizzyBee]

Some 5 and 6 year olds just aren't ready to read. And even if he is dyslexic, pushing reading too soon can be counter-productive, imo. (I would try to immerse him in a language rich environment without trying to teach him to read just yet.) Have you seen the list of signs and symptoms of dyslexia at http://www.dys-add.com? Look at the preschool/early elementary lists to see what you think.

 

If not reading is the only issue, I wouldn't suspect dyslexia yet. If he has other language processing issues, I would. With my 8 yo, I suspected it by age 4, but she had major language delays.

Edited March 29, 2010 by LizzyBee

[Momofeat]

I agree with LizzyBee. I would also add that at this point, I would be more concerned about phonemic awareness, which is the ability to manipulate sounds in words (without looking at the letters). This is an extremely important pre-reading skill. A simple Google search can help you find all kinds of fun activities to help him with this.

[siloam]

Hi,

I was thinking he may have had it last year, but thought he just needed some extra time and help. I have worked with him frequently and in little bouts using lots of tracing letters (he has a very hard time writing letters on his own) and Progressive Phonics. He has a pretty good hold on, but not perfect, for the site of lower case sounds of b, d, p, m, n, a, e, i, o, u, h, and s. It's taken a good year for this! So, the other day I decided he needs more focus on blending sounds together (and not memorizing from Progressive Phonics). I took out Phonics Pathways and reviewed the vowels. I did the first page for blending s with each vowel today. He was able to blend 3 of the 5 vowels, but for the life of him could not do the other 2. He had the sounds by themselves but changed the sound when he blended the e and o with s. Now I am back to thinking he is dyslexic and I need a better program to work with him such as Barton. How do I decide? Isn't it obvious that he needs more? Thanks you!

 

At this age it could be an LD or it could just be a learning delay that will suddenly go away. Barton would make the exercise you are discussing easier, because it teacher you as the teacher how to deal with mistakes, walk the child through to the right answer, so if you feel you can't wait a moment longer then I would go ahead and take the Barton Tutor screening and give your ds the student screening. You want to make sure that there isn't a problem with hearing the difference between sounds first and the screening will tell you that.

 

But at this point you can just chill and work on phonogram sounds, making letters in playdoh, writing them in sand, playing phonics bingo. All things that reinforce reading, but don't force it.

 

BTW my ds has been working on phonograms and letters sounds since her turned 5, and he still isn't reading. I didn't start him that early to start phonics, but for speech therapy. The program Barton recommends for auditory discrimination if you don't pass the Barton screening (LiPS) is also commonly used for speech therapy.

 

Heather

 

[merry gardens]

Hi,

I was thinking he may have had it last year, but thought he just needed some extra time and help. I have worked with him frequently and in little bouts using lots of tracing letters (he has a very hard time writing letters on his own) and Progressive Phonics. He has a pretty good hold on, but not perfect, for the site of lower case sounds of b, d, p, m, n, a, e, i, o, u, h, and s. It's taken a good year for this! So, the other day I decided he needs more focus on blending sounds together (and not memorizing from Progressive Phonics). I took out Phonics Pathways and reviewed the vowels. I did the first page for blending s with each vowel today. He was able to blend 3 of the 5 vowels, but for the life of him could not do the other 2. He had the sounds by themselves but changed the sound when he blended the e and o with s. Now I am back to thinking he is dyslexic and I need a better program to work with him such as Barton. How do I decide? Isn't it obvious that he needs more? Thanks you!

I don't know if your son has dyslexia or not, but I can share my experience.

 

When my son was 6 1/2, I began to suspect dyslexia. Now he's eight, and I have no doubt that his brain is wired in such a way that makes reading a bit more challenging. We use Bartons now, and we used LiPS before Bartons. Both programs are great and can be used with younger children even if they don't have dyslexia.

 

I'm using Bartons to teach my six year old daughter to read. She shows no signs of dyslexia, but we have the program and she likes the letter tiles so I'm using it to teach her to read. (She could learn faster than Barton's teaches, but I like working it with her before I work with my son.) Bartons teaches blends before it teaches different vowel sounds. Many phonics programs and earlier readers I used previously worked with different vowels sounds before they work with blends. While my six year old has no problems "reading" per se, she has difficulty with pronouncing blends. For her, it's simply the pronounciation. I think many young children have problems with blends. Many of the letters that blend, like "s", "l" and "r" can take longer to master. Mastering a sound alone can come before a child masters blending sounds. http://www.talkingchild.com/speechchart.aspx

 

My son never qualified for speech therapy because he fell within the normal limits, but something wasn't quite right with his speech first and later his reading. I took him for speech, vision and hearing evaluations, but at age six people weren't ready to diagnosis dyslexia. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on. I learned a year and a half later that he could not distinguish the difference between some sounds. Before I learned what was going on with him (and how to fix it) I delayed teaching him to read. I tried various techniques to help both sides of his brain develop. He started music lessons. I read to him. We focussed for a year on letters and the various sounds they represent. He learned the alphabet through various approaches that Heather mentioned above, (sand paper letters, writing letters in pans with corn meal, building letters out of clay & playdough, etc.) Looking back and knowing what I know now, I think the approach was good.

 

If I could go back and do anything differently, the one thing I might do differently is learn the LiPS program sooner. That program taught him to feel the different way sounds are produced and it help distinguish the difference that he could not hear. There is a study I read somewhere that showed LiPS helps re-wire the brain. It's my hope that my son will not always have reading problems, but at the present time he does. He's eight now. He did not pass the Barton's screen earlier in this school year. We worked through LiPS quickly and since then moved onto Bartons. He's making good progress, but he still struggles with reading in a way that most children do not.

Edited March 30, 2010 by merry gardens

[Reya]

I'd used Sidney Ledson's How To Teach You Child To Read in 5 Minutes A Day up through CVC words.

 

It's very low-pressure, and it starts with blending just two letters. It is very incremental and adaptable. Once he can do that, I'd recommend Pollard's Synthetic Method.

 

I'm not that big on just putting reading on the shelf for a few years. It works fine with some kids, but others need every moment of reading intervention that they can get, and you don't find out which yours is until too late.