I need some remediation for DD (10)

[delaney]

She is discouraged:(. Her reading is not smooth when she reads aloud, her comprehension seems to be okay, her narrations tend to ramble, spelling is VERY inconsistent......sigh. She gets so frustrated when DD(6) spells words that she can't. She has always seemed just a touch behind in reading and lacks confidence. I backed her up to 4th grade spelling even though in Spelling Power she placed at 5.2. I had gotten SWO level E and NO WAY is she ready for that. I also put her in R&S English for 4th grade since it was heavily suggested by SWB as being a very strong base. What can I do to boost her? Is she just not a great reader and speller? I know my dad can't spell to save his life yet I have never struggled with that area. I am thinking maybe she has gaps somewhere? I am planning to use a phonics program with DS(4) next year for K and let her help me with teaching him so I thought that maybe she would pick up some stuff through the teaching process? Please ladies help me get this child moving so she doesn't keep beating herself up!

[thowell]

Dd11 is alot like this. She was in PS and did ok until she hit 4th grade. She struggled through that year. After trying alot of programs I can tell you what seems to be working. SWR, WWE2, and written narrations. When I decided to go with the Spalding method for spelling I was amazed to find that she did not know 1/4 of the phonograms. A Spalding consultant explained to me that this will affect their, writing, spelling, reading, and comprehension. They spend so much effort trying to decode the words that they are not able to hold the info in their minds. Her spelling is slowly improving and along with it, her reading and comprehension. It is a slow process. With WWE2 we normally have to discuss the readings after each few sentences and I have to allow her to read it outloud. I also allow her to take notes or make drawings while we are reading aloud for Bible or history. When she has a written narration for Bible or history we look over it together. I only look for punctuation and capitalization and help her with the organizations of her thoughts. I do not correct spelling in these. She has a word bank in her spelling where she will list any words she misspells from her writing. Then when we have spelling time we will discuss how and why the word should be spelled. I can tell you that even though in PS she could study for a spelling test on Friday and make a good grade, by Monday she was misspelling the same words. Again for dd11 it is a slow process but she is making progress and this alone helps to boost her self confidence. Good luck to you I know how much of a struggle it can be.

[EKS]

Google "stealth dyslexia" and see if it fits.

 

Also, has she had a developmental vision exam? This is done by a developmental optometrist and is a standard vision exam that also checks for things like tracking. If a problem is found, vision therapy can help.

 

Also, some things that helped my (dyslexic) son:

 

Fluency readings: We did this two ways. We used a formal program called The Six Minute Solution (by Sopris West). This has leveled passages that the student reads aloud several times until they achieve a certain speed. The other thing we did was that I had him read aloud from regular books every single day for 20-30 minutes. We started with books that he could read fluently (he was in 4th grade at the time and they were 1st grade "chapter" books). I gradually increased the difficulty level over the span of a year.

 

REWARDS: This program by Sopris West explicitly teaches how to sound out long words. My son's comprehension jumped several grade levels after using it.

 

Spelling: We used All About Spelling with good results. I use Spelling Power with my younger son (a natural speller) and I would not recommend it for a struggling speller.

 

Grammar: If she is struggling in language arts, R&S English may be a little heavy duty. There are other programs that will offer a strong base. My son finally understood grammar when we used MCT's Voyage materials last year.

 

Keyboarding: Using a word processor for virtually all of his written work has vastly improved my son's writing ability as well as his attitude about writing. If she hasn't learned to type, now would be a great time to start.

[siloam]

Google "stealth dyslexia" and see if it fits.

 

Also, has she had a developmental vision exam? This is done by a developmental optometrist and is a standard vision exam that also checks for things like tracking. If a problem is found, vision therapy can help.

 

Also, some things that helped my (dyslexic) son:

 

Fluency readings: We did this two ways. We used a formal program called The Six Minute Solution (by Sopris West). This has leveled passages that the student reads aloud several times until they achieve a certain speed. The other thing we did was that I had him read aloud from regular books every single day for 20-30 minutes. We started with books that he could read fluently (he was in 4th grade at the time and they were 1st grade "chapter" books). I gradually increased the difficulty level over the span of a year.

 

REWARDS: This program by Sopris West explicitly teaches how to sound out long words. My son's comprehension jumped several grade levels after using it.

 

Spelling: We used All About Spelling with good results. I use Spelling Power with my younger son (a natural speller) and I would not recommend it for a struggling speller.

 

Grammar: If she is struggling in language arts, R&S English may be a little heavy duty. There are other programs that will offer a strong base. My son finally understood grammar when we used MCT's Voyage materials last year.

 

Keyboarding: Using a word processor for virtually all of his written work has vastly improved my son's writing ability as well as his attitude about writing. If she hasn't learned to type, now would be a great time to start.

 

 

I will second this. Though I prefer Junior Analytical Grammar and Analytical Grammar becuase of the unusual sequence for grammar, but I haven't even seen MCT's grammar.

 

There could also be foundational pieces missing.

 

Barton Reading has a student screening which can be used by anyone. This would give you a good idea if there is a phonological awareness problem. In other words, is she hearing the different sounds correctly? My 3rd dd couldn't hear the difference between short I and short E, nor could she hear both sounds in blends. She had to memorize how words were spelled. LiPS is a great program that taught her to hear the difference between sounds, so now she can spell by what she hears and not by memorization.

 

My oldest two who can spell well, do so by seeing the word in their mind and spelling from that. It is an ability that my 3rd dd and myself, who can't spell, lack. Seeing Stars develops that ability for those who lack it. Both of us have seen an improvement in our spelling. Seeing Stars can be used as a stand alone reading program, or you can buy the manual and add it to any spelling program. We are adding the exercises to All About Spelling. I highly recommend All About Spelling.

 

Last if she needs help with comprehension both Visualizing and Verbalizing, and Idea Chain work on improving comprehension and organization through using detailed pictures in the mind to record the information and use it later for recall.

 

Given all these can be a little spendy, I listed them in order of importance. You wouldn't want to do them all at once (assuming they were even all needed), but you would start with LiPS to get that foundational reading/spelling piece in, then work on Seeing Stars then VV or Idea Chain.

 

You can also build fluency by reading with books on tape. There are a some good fluency building programs like Great Leaps you could look at as well, but I would do them after you were sure their vision is fine, and they have the above foundational abilities.

 

Heather

[delaney]

I will second this. Though I prefer Junior Analytical Grammar and Analytical Grammar becuase of the unusual sequence for grammar, but I haven't even seen MCT's grammar.

 

There could also be foundational pieces missing.

 

Barton Reading has a student screening which can be used by anyone. This would give you a good idea if there is a phonological awareness problem. In other words, is she hearing the different sounds correctly? My 3rd dd couldn't hear the difference between short I and short E, nor could she hear both sounds in blends. She had to memorize how words were spelled. LiPS is a great program that taught her to hear the difference between sounds, so now she can spell by what she hears and not by memorization.

 

My oldest two who can spell well, do so by seeing the word in their mind and spelling from that. It is an ability that my 3rd dd and myself, who can't spell, lack. Seeing Stars develops that ability for those who lack it. Both of us have seen an improvement in our spelling. Seeing Stars can be used as a stand alone reading program, or you can buy the manual and add it to any spelling program. We are adding the exercises to All About Spelling. I highly recommend All About Spelling.

 

Last if she needs help with comprehension both Visualizing and Verbalizing, and Idea Chain work on improving comprehension and organization through using detailed pictures in the mind to record the information and use it later for recall.

 

Given all these can be a little spendy, I listed them in order of importance. You wouldn't want to do them all at once (assuming they were even all needed), but you would start with LiPS to get that foundational reading/spelling piece in, then work on Seeing Stars then VV or Idea Chain.

 

You can also build fluency by reading with books on tape. There are a some good fluency building programs like Great Leaps you could look at as well, but I would do them after you were sure their vision is fine, and they have the above foundational abilities.

 

Heather

 

I see the whole sound in the head thing! I did the tutor test and I can piece down the to the smallest sound and hold it in my head. If she can't do that then she will have spelling issues! I am going to give her the student test and see what happens. I am not in a position to shell out the money for a new program but I think I can help her pull apart words better to get her spelling in line.

[ElizabethB]

:grouphug:

 

You can try my online phonics lessons (linked below) and the program on my how to tutor page.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/howtotutor.html

 

If you give the MWIA and go into more detail about the kinds of things that are a problem for her, I could give you ideas about specific programs that would be more likely to be most helpful. (Although Webster's Speller and nonsense words are helpful for most of my students, depending on the cause of the problem, different programs are more useful. There are free and cheap options for many things; for example, while most OG programs are several hundred dollars, there is a $25 manual to make your own complete OG program.)

 

The MWIA and some other tests are here:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/readinggradeleve.html