Please SPAM me with Dyslexia resources

[MangoMama]

What are your favorite and/or most helpful websites, books, etc. concerning Dyslexia. My gut is telling me that both of my kids are dyslexic. I am dyslexic and I was reading a lot about it in the past.

 

Right now I'm reading the Barton website and I am almost certain that my children are also dyslexic (among other things).

 

So, what I really want, are good tips that might help when it comes to me teaching them at home.

 

My son (age 9) has a Dx Sensory Integration/Processing Dysfunction and he has almost all the symptoms of it. So it's very hard for him to sit still.

 

My daughter (age 12) is also ADHD.

 

Also, do you think it's necessary to have the kids tested for Dyslexia even if I'm nearly 100% sure they have it? Is it worth the testing or should I just go along with my assumptions and treat them / teach them as if they have it?

 

Thanks in advance! :D I appreciate all the input I get from the wise mamas here.

[LizzyBee]

Books:

The Secret Life of the Dyslexic Child

The Mislabeled Child

The Everything Parents Guide to Dyslexia

Upside Down Brilliance

 

Websites:

http://www.dys-add.com

http://www.dyslexia.yale.edu

 

Curriculum:

LiPS (Lindamood Bell Phonemic Sequencing)

Barton Reading

Writing With Ease

Right Start math games

Singapore math

 

Other resources:

StartWrite software for making handwriting sheets

Slant board for writing

http://www.linguisystems.com

http://www.therapyshoppe.com

http://www.active-learner.com (We use the story board almost daily.)

books on CD from the library

exercise ball

chewing gum (cheap way to improve focus)

Edited December 31, 2010 by LizzyBee

[PeterPan]

Have you done OT for the SPD? Have you gotten a vision evaluation by a developmental optometrist? http://www.covd.org to find one. We've done lots of things with curriculum, but *VT* made a huge, huge, huge difference. I'm not saying every dyslexic needs it, but in our house it was an unbelievable change.

 

It's just a process. You can read the threads here and see what ideas people have been following. OT, nutritional stuff (fatty acids to help the brain work and the signals to get through), Verbalizing and Visualizing (or IdeaChain), lots of real life things to build strength and bilaterality... Horse riding, lots of board games for visual processing. But for me, in general, I'm over thinking I can teach it out or teach around it and I'm on a mission to see what can be improved. I anticipate us coming to a point, probably in the next year, when we change from what can we fix to meeting demons head-on and dealing with it. But I didn't want to do that until I improved the things I could in her.

 

OT has been revelatory in giving words to how she feels and helping us put her in a better place. It's just lots of little things like helping her brush her teeth without them hurting, why she woke up so slowly in the morning, etc.

 

Next we're looking at IM (interactive metronome) and maybe a neuropsych evaluation. We'll just see. The price keeps going up, and our wallet isn't growing.

Edited December 31, 2010 by OhElizabeth

[MangoMama]

Thanks so much for the replies!! :D

 

OhElizabeth,

 

He did have OT when we were living in Colorado, but then we moved back to CA and he hasn't done OT since. I am thinking about getting him back into OT, though. I am also thinking about taking him for another speech eval. He had speech therapy when he was 3 y/o after getting PE tubes put in his ears. The only reason we stopped doing that is because the therapist was leaving (moving, I think) and she said that he was doing well enough that we could quit. However, he still is having speech problems, 6 years later. I think I'm in denial because I don't want him to grow up. So his "baby talk" is endearing to me. Also, he is a small 9 year old, so it's hard for me to remember that he should be talking better. Kwim?

 

Also, he has an appointment with a Developmental Optometrist on 1/6 -- next Thursday. I'm not sure what they'll do at the first appointment. From what it sounded like on the phone, we'll begin with a regular annual eye exam. But the receptionist scheduled me for the last appointment of the day, so if the Dr. wants to spend additional time with us, he won't be too constrained with time.

 

Do you have any thoughts on questions I should ask or questions I should be prepared to answer? I started writing out a list of things that I notice with him visually:

 

· Gets letters b/d/p/q mixed up

· Confuses plus and minus signs (+ / -)

· Writes letters and numbers backwards – numbers more than letters

· Difficulty writing within lines on a paper

· Difficulty copying from the board or a book

· Doesn’t put any spaces between words

 

 

I know there's more, and some of it may have more to do with his SPD... just not sure.

[PeterPan]

You're right on track! I went into the VT eval with things I wanted to say, but they asked me SO many questions, my head was spinning by the end. Don't worry, they'll pull it out of you, lol. We did talk about reading level, spelling, headaches, catching balls, falling or running into things. Yes, the issues you cited are all important. It's not going to be JUST spd or JUST his eyes. Say he's low tone connected with his spd. Well the eyes use muscles, and the tone there is low. So it's not one or the other. It's both. So when he falls or walks into doors, objects, corners, etc., is he walking into them (this was my dd, don't know about your dc) because he's not seeing with proper depth perception or because he has no spatial awareness? Both. So basically ANYTHING oddball in his life you mention. They take it all and form a picture.

 

Oh, at our place they had these fabulous infrared goggles to track eye movement while reading. Really nifty. They did some bilaterality testing. They weren't worried about retained primitive reflexes in her (your OT would have caught these).

 

So you're right on track! Don't worry. Go make yourself a nice big pan of brownies and enjoy your New Years. :)

[peacefully]

.

[AngieW in Texas]

I highly recommend these two email loops:

 

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/dyslexiasupport2/

This is mostly ps folks, but hs folks are well-represented as well. Quite a few professional tutors are on the loop too. Most of them became tutors after teaching their own dyslexic kids. The most common advice is to pull your kids from ps for 1-2 years to hs so you can work on their reading.

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartofReading/

This group is just for hsers.

 

These two loops are the best information sources I've found for dyslexia.

[MangoMama]

You're right on track! I went into the VT eval with things I wanted to say, but they asked me SO many questions, my head was spinning by the end. Don't worry, they'll pull it out of you, lol. We did talk about reading level, spelling, headaches, catching balls, falling or running into things. Yes, the issues you cited are all important. It's not going to be JUST spd or JUST his eyes. Say he's low tone connected with his spd. Well the eyes use muscles, and the tone there is low. So it's not one or the other. It's both. So when he falls or walks into doors, objects, corners, etc., is he walking into them (this was my dd, don't know about your dc) because he's not seeing with proper depth perception or because he has no spatial awareness? Both. So basically ANYTHING oddball in his life you mention. They take it all and form a picture.

 

Oh, at our place they had these fabulous infrared goggles to track eye movement while reading. Really nifty. They did some bilaterality testing. They weren't worried about retained primitive reflexes in her (your OT would have caught these).

 

So you're right on track! Don't worry. Go make yourself a nice big pan of brownies and enjoy your New Years. :)

 

Thanks so much for the encouragement, OhElizabeth!

 

It is so frustrating that so many of these symptoms overlap. When I'm reading about a "disorder" wondering if it's just another thing he has, I often say to myself, "Yeah, but that's because he's SPD, right? Or does he have this, too?" Ugh! I wonder how all the experts separate everything?

[PeterPan]

Mango-Unfortunately, it seems the reality is people who have one of these issues usually have a typical list of issues, a profile. I don't even worry about all the little labels any more, as to me they're all just naming parts of a whole. But the nice thing is as you WORK on the parts you get improvement! My dd now only whams into things if she's really tired or out of sorts (out of sync). As I think back, it seems to me VT got us 80% of the way there and the OT the other 20%. It's not one or the other, because it's not just one cause for the given problem we're seeing.

 

Just take your time. It's only uphill and improvement from here! :)

[MangoMama]

yllek ~

 

Thank you for those additional book rec's. I think I checked out Overcoming Dyslexia from my library before, but I was too busy to read it before I had to return it. :001_unsure: I'll try to check it out again, though.

 

We LOVE All About Spelling. We are currently using level one for him and in fact, I'm about to post another question regarding that, but it's a whole other topic, so I'm not even going to being that here. :tongue_smilie:

 

There is a a Susan Barton trained dyslexic tester about an hour and a half away that I'd be willing to drive to. I'm just trying to figure out if it's necessary and if our insurance will cover it. (I haven't found anything on our insurance's website that says whether they do or not -- I think I'm just going to have to call on Monday.)

 

What kind of testing did you do to determine that your son had motor planning and visual perception issues rather than dyslexia?

 

My son's music teacher has implied on several occasions that my son's "issues" seem very similar to another student of her's that has visual perception disorder. And I'm really curious about that... that's one of the main reasons I made an appointment with the developmental optometrist. Well... that and the fact that he's 9 and not reading yet.

 

Also on Monday, I'm going to try to see if my son's pediatrician recommends any speech language pathologists or OTs. I really think he needs to at least be evaluated again. I found some using Google, but I want to see if his doc prefers anyone in particular.

 

 

___________________________________________________

 

Angie,

 

Thank for linking to those two Yahoo groups! I hadn't heard of those before and I will definitely be requesting a membership. I think I'm a bit of a Yahoo group junkie. :001_huh: :lol:

Edited January 2, 2011 by MangoMama

[PeterPan]

It's a developmental optometrist that checks the visual processing and visual perception stuff. http://www.covd.org

 

Why do you want the Susan Barton testing? Is that for purposes of enrolling in a program?

[MangoMama]

Elizabeth ~ I was thinking about doing the SB testing to determine if he truly is dyslexic. In your opinion, is it necessary?

[peacefully]

.

[PeterPan]

Mango, I've only heard of using the neuropsych for this. I don't know what the SB place does or how helpful that would be. Like Yllek, we're doing a lot of therapies right there and have the neuropsych eval as an option for later. I pretty much want to do everything we KNOW how to do at this point, then let the eval build on that. Formal testing can open up doors later for modifications on tests, access to tutoring in college, and just generally having an explainable label for things, so I think a formal evaluation can be a good thing. I'm not sure if the SB eval would open the same doors as a neuropsych. I just don't know anything about it.

[LizzyBee]

Elizabeth ~ I was thinking about doing the SB testing to determine if he truly is dyslexic. In your opinion, is it necessary?

 

A Barton tutor will do testing that is targeted to dyslexia. A neuropsych or Educational Psychologist will do broader testing, but they won't diagnose dyslexia since it's technically a medical diagnosis. A psychologist will diagnose a reading disability instead.

 

An occupational therapist can do some visual perception tests and therapy. There are certain things a COVD can do and evaluate that an OT can't, so if you have a child with severe or certain types of vp deficits, you would need a COVD. If your child has dyslexia, vision therapy won't cure it, but some kids do have both dyslexia and vp deficits.

 

A speech therapist can do some evaluation for motor planning deficits. The classic sign as related to speech is saying syllables or sounds in the wrong order re: hostipal for hospital.

[MangoMama]

The classic sign as related to speech is saying syllables or sounds in the wrong order re: hostipal for hospital.

 

Yes, he does this with many many words. And while I find it quite endearing :001_wub: I know it's something I should actually be concerned about. :001_huh:

[PeterPan]

Lizzy-That explains why every person I visit skirts around it! So why in the world can't the neuropsych diagnose it??? I thought that was the whole point, that this dude could give you some formal labels. Who do they expect to, the pediatrician?????

 

Well I'm just disgusted now. I get so tired of the compartmentalization and not saying things to cover your butt for liability.

[LizzyBee]

Lizzy-That explains why every person I visit skirts around it! So why in the world can't the neuropsych diagnose it??? I thought that was the whole point, that this dude could give you some formal labels. Who do they expect to, the pediatrician?????

 

Well I'm just disgusted now. I get so tired of the compartmentalization and not saying things to cover your butt for liability.

 

It = dyslexia?

 

A medical diagnosis for dyslexia is obtained by having working brain scans to see which parts of the brain light up when the person performs language tasks. I've heard that it's pretty grueling for kids, so I haven't pursued it.

[PeterPan]

Well I guess dd will have to stay without a formal diagnosis, mercy. I had thought the neuropsych would do that for us. Well if he won't, then spit sputter...

 

Argh.

[peacefully]

.

[PeterPan]

Yllek-See that makes more sense to me. I mean what's the point of paying $1-2K+ for a NEUROpsych (ie. somebody purporting to understand the brain) if they can't actually tell you anything definitively??? To say only a scan can diagnose dyslexia for reasonable purposes (accomodations on tests, access to tutoring, etc.) is to put it out of the reach of most people. It's like the overkill they wanted for us with the low tone: go to a neurologist so we can stick 8,000 pins in you and quantify it. Well OF COURSE they can do all these fancy tests and quantify exactly what's happening. But to me that's the guinea pig side of it, them learning off my kid. All I need is the basic version.

Edited January 3, 2011 by OhElizabeth

[Tokyomarie]

It = dyslexia?

 

A medical diagnosis for dyslexia is obtained by having working brain scans to see which parts of the brain light up when the person performs language tasks. I've heard that it's pretty grueling for kids, so I haven't pursued it.

 

I doubt there are many people having these kinds of scans as a routine procedure for diagnosing dyslexia. My understanding is that this type of scanning is still primarily confined to the folks that are researching dyslexia.

 

Dyslexia is one of the diagnoses given to our son by the neuropsych who evaluated him based on quite a number of tests that evaluate different aspects of the tasks of reading and writing.

 

Educational psychologists will usually attach a label of "reading disability" because that is the label that gets students services in the public school system.

[LizzyBee]

Yllek-See that makes more sense to me. I mean what's the point of paying $1-2K+ for a NEUROpsych (ie. somebody purporting to understand the brain) if they can't actually tell you anything definitively??? To say only a scan can diagnose dyslexia for reasonable purposes (accomodations on tests, access to tutoring, etc.) is to put it out of the reach of most people. It's like the overkill they wanted for us with the low tone: go to a neurologist so we can stick 8,000 pins in you and quantify it. Well OF COURSE they can do all these fancy tests and quantify exactly what's happening. But to me that's the guinea pig side of it, them learning off my kid. All I need is the basic version.

 

The same services are available whether the diagnosis is dyslexia or reading disability. In NC, you can't get a dx of dyslexia from a psychologist, whether NP or EP. Most people say they're the same thing, but in my opinion, they're not. Not all dyslexics have a reading disability, and not all reading disabilities are caused by dyslexia.

[LizzyBee]

Well, this is news to me. I never knew that dyslexia was considered a medical diagnosis. Dh has had a formal psychological diagnosis for dyslexia since he was in 2nd grade (this was diagnosed by a psychologist). He's been tested numerous times by neuropsychs — once before college, again before med school (I think), and most recently just two years ago, when he had to sit for boards again. They've all been different psychologists, and they all come to the same diagnosis. He's never had a brain scan that I'm aware of.

 

Interesting... Every time I think I have firm understanding about learning disabilities, I come to find out I have so much more to learn.

 

There have been discussions here about it before. Psychologists use the DSM manual, and the label in the current DSM is reading disabilty.

 

My sister in TX got a dyslexia dx for her son from an NP, and TX has a law that forces the schools to recognize dyslexia and provide OG instruction in schools. However, it is my understanding from previous discussions here that in most states, both EPs and NPs use the reading disability label instead.

[LizzyBee]

I doubt there are many people having these kinds of scans as a routine procedure for diagnosing dyslexia. My understanding is that this type of scanning is still primarily confined to the folks that are researching dyslexia.

 

Dyslexia is one of the diagnoses given to our son by the neuropsych who evaluated him based on quite a number of tests that evaluate different aspects of the tasks of reading and writing.

 

Educational psychologists will usually attach a label of "reading disability" because that is the label that gets students services in the public school system.

 

Maybe the scans are a little more common here because there are two major research hospitals in the area. It's definitely not routine, though.

[PeterPan]

Then do you think there's sort of a political motivation in how it's being labeled?

[PeterPan]

But what does the scan actually TELL you or accomplish, besides confirming what you already more or less knew?

[peacefully]

.

[LizzyBee]

But what does the scan actually TELL you or accomplish, besides confirming what you already more or less knew?

 

The same question can be asked of any evaluation. I knew my kids had APD before they were diagnosed. I knew that my middle child struggled with writing. I knew that my youngest couldn't read, couldn't write, and has ADHD. I could have spent the money on curriculum instead of evaluations, but the evaluations gave me some peace of mind that I was on the right track. For those who choose to have the scans, I would think they serve the same purpose. Confirmation of dyslexia as opposed to a different cause for the LDs, peace of mind that the correct treatment and curriculum have been or will be chosen.

 

The really valuable evaluations for us were speech and OT, because of the therapy provided. The psych and APD evaluations would have been more useful if my kids were in school. I don't regret having them, though, because they let me know I was doing the right things for my kids.

[PeterPan]

Yllek-That's what is totally weird too. If we TEACH them and work with them till they HAVE the phonemic awareness and sound/written correlation, then they no longer qualify? That's bizarre. My dd reads outlandishly better than dh BECAUSE I taught her, BECAUSE she wasn't in school with a word family approach.

 

I don't know, the whole thing is bizarre to me. They're changing labels, redefining them. Whatever. One less label to worry about! I'm not going to give her a stinkin' "reading disability" label, that's for sure. That actually sounds bad. She doesn't have a reading disability. She just thinks differently.

[PeterPan]

Lizzy, so your NP didn't give you valuable feedback that radically affected or improved the way you homeschool them? Our OT said it would affirm what we're already doing and give me confidence. I was hoping he'd actually enlighten me beyond what I've already figured out. Maybe I'm over-hopeful?

[LizzyBee]

That makes sense to me. I talked with dh, and he said that the nomenclature is changing. And his most recent evals stated that he had a past dx of dyslexia, gave a very comprehensive run-down of his current tests, and has a current dx of reading disability with a recommendation for extra time on tests — so there you go. I was mistaken about how the specific language on dh's evaluation.

 

Even so, the neuropsych was very specific that ds did not meet the diagnostic criteria for dyslexia, based on his high scores in phonemic awareness and phonological processing. It's all very confusing. :confused: I'm just staying away from the D-word whenever I can these days. I don't even know what it means anymore. It's a word that's so overused that it's lost any specific meaning for me these days.

 

It's an interesting dilemma. As parents of dyslexic kids, we use very specific curriculum to remediate their LDs. My 9 yo had all 4 subsets of APD when she was evaluated at age 7, but last month at her 2 year follow-up, she only had deficits remaining in 2 subsets. She scored 100% on the phonemic awareness portion of the test. (Woo-hoo!!!!!!!) I don't think that makes her not dyslexic. It just means that particular weakness has been remediated.

 

My 14 yo, who is mildly dyslexic, went back to school this year. She has all A's and B's for her first semester grades. If she had an updated comprehensive evaluation, she would probably not be diagnosed with any LDs. But she works twice as hard as her older sister, who had straight A's for the first semester. That's dyslexia, even though it's not as obvious as it was when she was younger.

 

I've explained dyslexia to my kids as the way God made them, because different people have different strengths and weaknesses, and we need people with all kinds of different gifts. Because of the way they're wired, they will struggle more academically, but as adults, they will find a career that fits their giftings and they will no longer be expected to be good at everything.

 

In a twist of irony, I am extremely left-brained and very unlike my kids. I got straight A's in school and went on to be a CPA, which I love. But a few years ago, our office moved, and we had to pack our own offices. I tried to put together a packing box, but no matter what I did, the box would not stay together. I read the directions and tried to follow the arrows, but I couldn't figure it out. I went to another CPA's office and asked if she'd started packing yet. She said no, but I'm sure we can figure it out. We couldn't. We had to go find someone else to show us both how to put the boxes together. :lol::lol: I can do corporate tax returns for a company doing business in 42 states and 3 countries, but I have NO visual-spatial skills whatsoever. Anyway, that's my favorite illustration that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, and we all struggle in some areas and excel in others.

Edited January 3, 2011 by LizzyBee

[LizzyBee]

Lizzy, so your NP didn't give you valuable feedback that radically affected or improved the way you homeschool them? Our OT said it would affirm what we're already doing and give me confidence. I was hoping he'd actually enlighten me beyond what I've already figured out. Maybe I'm over-hopeful?

 

There were a few things that could only be determined with testing. My 9 yo has low working memory and my 14 yo has slow processing speed. But overall, the testing was confidence-building moreso than informational. I think a lot of parents go to their EP or NP feeling lost and confused, but I didn't even know where to begin with testing until after I'd already figured most of it out. I think you're probably going to be in that category, too, because you've already done so much research.

[PeterPan]

So my dd has a disappearing diagnosis and the NP will be less valuable to me, the farther I go along? And eventually I'll be able to just skip the expensive dude altogether? Wowsers. Now I feel enlightened. I'm sort of annoyed because our OT wants the NP evaluation (eventually) to specify to her which parts of the brain aren't working well in order to pinpoint the IM better. But couldn't she figure that out WITHOUT the NP and save me a ton of money??

 

And btw, is it possible for us to get the IM stuff and do it at home, sans OT? Maybe see her once a month or something?

 

Well I feel shellshocked and jaded here. I had so much hope that an NP eval would be the fount of enlightenment for me with teaching dd. Oh well. Another month and I may toss the whole lot of them in disgust.

[Sevilla]

http://www.diannecraft.com/

 

Several hs'ing moms I know whose kids struggle with these issues have raved about her seminars and web resources.

[LizzyBee]

So my dd has a disappearing diagnosis and the NP will be less valuable to me, the farther I go along? And eventually I'll be able to just skip the expensive dude altogether? Wowsers. Now I feel enlightened. I'm sort of annoyed because our OT wants the NP evaluation (eventually) to specify to her which parts of the brain aren't working well in order to pinpoint the IM better. But couldn't she figure that out WITHOUT the NP and save me a ton of money??

 

And btw, is it possible for us to get the IM stuff and do it at home, sans OT? Maybe see her once a month or something?

 

Well I feel shellshocked and jaded here. I had so much hope that an NP eval would be the fount of enlightenment for me with teaching dd. Oh well. Another month and I may toss the whole lot of them in disgust.

 

But your experience might be totally different than mine. I would hate for you to ditch the NP eval if it might indeed be helpful.

 

Our OT had a copy of dd's psych eval, but I don't know that it was used in a specific way to guide her IM therapy. From the things they said, I think her IM therapy was tweaked and fine-tuned based on their clinical observations during therapy. My dd wasn't a typical IM patient though. They initially told us they do IM for 3 sessions per week for about 12 weeks. Then they met dd and realized she couldn't tolerate 3 sessions per week. She had therapy weekly for a year instead.

 

I don't think IM therapy can be done at home. Our OT would do IM for 10-15 minutes, then take dd in the sensory room and do exercises that used what she did on the IM machine, then back to the IM room, followed by another stint in the sensory room unless they ran out of time. They said if they just did IM, they'd end up with a kid who could tap out a rhythm, but so what? By immediately applying what she did on the IM, it would carry over to her activities and be useful in real life. The most dramatic demonstration of this occurred last winter during basketball season. She was a mediocre bb player at the beginning of the season. About halfway through, she had a game where she was constantly stealing the ball and shooting baskets. And she played like that for the rest of the season.

[peacefully]

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[PeterPan]

Yllek, that's funny because my dh says the same thing about music. In defense of your MIL, I don't think whole word is that bad. I don't think you should STOP there, but I think she was right. I taught dd to read with SWR, so we made flashcards of the words we spelled. We practiced reading those flashcards, per the explicit instructions in SWR, every day, multiple times a day. In other words, we did whole word plus working on phonemic analysis on the side. She could read quite well, but she couldn't sound out words at all. If I had waited for her to sound out words to learn to read, well, who knows when she would have gotten there. Instead, by using those flashcards, I had a child who LOVED to read and read prolifically, thanks to hours listening to audiobooks. Her spelling was going to be crunchy no matter what. We're now going back through AAS to fix that. It wasn't a function of the program but that she didn't have the visual processing to make spelling work. I haven't tested her lately, but her emails are SO much more accurate than her peers', I would definitely say her spelling is on the uptick from VT.

[peacefully]

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[HeidiD]

What are your favorite and/or most helpful websites, books, etc. concerning Dyslexia. My gut is telling me that both of my kids are dyslexic. I am dyslexic and I was reading a lot about it in the past.

 

Right now I'm reading the Barton website and I am almost certain that my children are also dyslexic (among other things).

 

So, what I really want, are good tips that might help when it comes to me teaching them at home.

 

My son (age 9) has a Dx Sensory Integration/Processing Dysfunction and he has almost all the symptoms of it. So it's very hard for him to sit still.

 

My daughter (age 12) is also ADHD.

 

Also, do you think it's necessary to have the kids tested for Dyslexia even if I'm nearly 100% sure they have it? Is it worth the testing or should I just go along with my assumptions and treat them / teach them as if they have it?

 

Thanks in advance! :D I appreciate all the input I get from the wise mamas here.

 

 

Here are some publishers we've used for homeschooling with good results:

 

EPS http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/

 

Linguisystems http://www.linguisystems.com/

 

Gander Publishing http://www.ganderpublishing.com/

 

Lexia reading software http://lexialearning.com/

 

Teacher Created Resources (their materials aren't designed with dyslexics in mind, but the formats of some of their workbooks dovetail very well with our curriculum because the lesson are short and don't require much handwriting. :) http://www.teachercreated.com/?AID=3083373&PID=3875436&SID=m1K2

 

 

Regarding formal diagnoses....

 

There is a constellation of neurologial weaknesses that can contribute to dyslexia (weaknesses in working memory, auditory and visual processing, physical coordination). These weaknesses can exist in varying degrees, and a neuropsychologist can theoretically determine the impact in each area (except for CAPD, which can only be identified by an audiologist). It seems as though the labels and descriptions for neurological disorders are in a constant state of flux, but it's still useful to identify the underlying weaknesses through an official evaluation (or through informed observation).

 

When it became apparent that our younger "dyslexic" child was so severely affected that he would never learn to read without specialized intervention, we worked with him at home using Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, LiPS etc. for several years before we pursued a diagnosis and discovered he had CAPD. By then, the reading problems had been conquered, but I thought it was really important to formally identify the CAPD since it impacts so many other aspects of life.

 

We have another child who is similarly effected, but to a less severe degree. He was just tested at 15, once again because of CAPD concerns, and his remediation has been so complete that none of the testing indicated a problem until he finally got to the audiologist (neuropsychologist and speech therapists have evolved as the gatekeepers for CAPD testing, so these evaluations must be supplied in advance) who was the only one with the capability to discern that he does, in fact, have CAPD. The neuropsychologist said there was no evidence of dyslexia or CAPD and didn't recommend CAPD testing.

 

So, as far as testing goes, I think it's only helpful if you need the information. If you already have a handle on what you're dealing with, and are seeing remediation occur with the approach/materials you're using, the testing isn't essential. Good luck. :)

[Dobela]

Scottish Rite Hospitals and Clinics will diagnosis dyslexia, and provide the parents with their reading program for free. After taking Susan Barton's screening test for her program she said my son would not be able to learn to read using her program. He had errors in all the wrong places. We eventually hired a tutor using the Scottish Rite program and my son is now reading on grade level. It was a long hard road, but oh so worth it. In my state a psychologist will diagnose dyslexia - but only those specifically trained in whatever evals are used to determine dyslexia. I think there are 2 or 3 in our whole state. Our VT also had a screening she used to screen for dyslexia as part of vision therapy. If the child screened positive for dyslexia, there were professionals attached to the children's hospital she would refer to for further evaluation.