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Our soon to be 6 yr old--current Kindy--has Amblyopia/strombismus--Vision issues


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What phonics or reading program has larger print and is recommended. Because of intense therapy, we have NOT really started Phonics or any school. We are trying to get her eyes to see. ;)

 

So, I need something that will not make her strain to see the print. Very little writing.

 

I want to use Phonics Road, but am fairly sure that is not a good option currently.

 

Thanks.

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Well, from years ago.... books like the Moore's books... (Better Late than Early) would suggest just not doing reading and writing yet.... For any child.... (I don't know what they say to do if the child is crying to read) Spend lots of time farming, coloring if she wants, playing with playdoh, etc.

If you want to do phonics, I would pick up a set of phonics cards that are from Spell to Read and Write http://www.bhibooks.net/home.html or http://www.bhibooks.net/catalog/item/4154895/4031110.htm and http://www.bhibooks.net/swr.html

 

Or similar from whatever company you want. I would just have her write in the air or in sand. NOW, if she insists on writing. I really think that Handwriting Without Tears is an excellent book and the letters aren't too small. We start with cursive for kids, which would be Handwriting Without Tears, 3rd grade. (and get the Teacher's guide, too) If you're into research, you can look and see that students were first taught cursive before printing. You revert to what you were first taught :) So, printing was for mapwork in later years. So, if you want to do that, then you just teach the basic letters on cards, for cursive, too. It's worked really well for us.

 

:)

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My son had the same diagnoses. His issues were corrected by surgery (not possible with therapy). He does have poor vision and bifocals.

 

We found ABeCeDarian to be very helpful. The font is large and nicely spaced. We did not use the workbook, just the student reader and printable flash cards. At the time, he couldn't write on the lines. Also, I had him do all his writing on blank paper and I just made a base line for him with a ruler. At first, his writing was very large but it gradually got smaller and more age appropriate...just with time. I had tried handwriting books and they wouldn't work. Even the kindy book with base, mid and top line just threw him off. I chose the handwriting style I prefer, Zaner Bloser, and just taught it to him without the workbook.

 

HTH,

 

Carolyn

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I would not begin teaching phonics yet. My son had serious vision issues and we ended up having to reteach phonics. His vision was poor enough that he was simply not connecting the correct sounds to the letters he was seeing. Then, when he began seeing correctly, he was totally lost and very frustrated.

 

However, if you must begin, I would do it with a whiteboard where I could write as large as necessary and teach everything from there. You can use a copy machine to greatly enlarge worksheets and cards, but that could be expensive and very time consumming.

 

I would focus on comprehension of stories read orally to her if I did anything with reading. I would also avoid math except for memorization of facts and manipulative based anything. If it seems that she will have long term issues with vision,or that correction techniques will take years, I would look into Services for the Blind. They can take regular textbooks and enlarge the print to whatever size is needed. The downside is that small books then become huge, heavy and user unfriendly. When I was teaching in public schools we often had students with poor vision that received their textbooks this way.

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Wanted to add...I started my ds with simple phonogram cards. I was using the cards from Spell to Write and Read because that's what dd was doing. Later (because I sold Spell to...) I switched ds over to the phonogram cards from AAS. They're pretty much the same. We just drilled first the basic phonograms, then added digraphs and diphthongs.

 

I am SO glad I didn't hold off on the phonics. It gave him a great start while we were waiting for other skills, academic and fine motor, to kick in.

 

Carolyn

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