What are your visual dyslexic strategies?

[Tabrett]

What strategies or modifications do you use with dc who have visual dyslexia?

 

:lurk5:

[PeterPan]

One, vision therapy. Changed our lives here, getting some of the roadblocks out of the way.

Two, I'm engrossed in reading "Right-Brained Child in a Left-Brained World" by Freed. Also "The Mislabeled Child" is in my pile (started, haven't yet finished). Freed's book has lots of practical ideas.

Three, I'm realizing more and more that the only way we're going to get to where we need to be is for me to injest the material and spit it out a new way. Sort of a take on Freed's giving of the whole before you try the parts. I'm rethinking my whole approach to science, etc. Not that I'm going to change what we're doing but HOW we're doing it. Same stuff, new way of using it. On the writing, I'm toying around with the CW Homer and Aesop skills, going back and doing them a new way that fits her better now that *I* get where it's going. And astoundingly, it's WORKING. I'm actually GETTING the better work out of her that people had said CW would do for their kids. But I couldn't get that doing CW straight. We're hitting it a totally different way. Come to think of it, it's very whole to parts. I wrapped my brain around the whole, so we study the model, analyze it fully for grammar, then imitate using a skill from the list of options (the parts) I offer her. So rather than teaching her the steps one at a time and forcing her to practice them, she's getting to chose, getting to learn how to do the piece she's interested in, then applying it. And somehow that reformulation is working better, MUCH better. (And yes, I just got done reading one of the drafts and am elated.)

 

That's where we're at.

[SonshineMama]

:lurk5:

 

Lurking because I don't have many strategies right now as almost ds' entire "curriculum" is therapy. Someone asked me this week what curriculum I was using. I had nothing to say because with the exception of reading, we do only "therapy" at this point. That is enough for both of us.

 

The only two things we are doing that could be considered "accommodations" are using chisenbop and schoolhouse rock for memorization of digits and multiplication facts :) I am not sure really yet though how much that has to do with visual dyslexia or my ds' memory issues but they are "multisensory" :)

 

I am happy to report that chisenbop has helped ds memorize our zip code and my dh's cell number. My phone number took almost 6 months for him to memorize dh's cell number only took a few days YAY!

 

SHR helped him learn to count by 5's :woohoo:

[peacefully]

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[PeterPan]

Yllek, you do notice the *age difference* between our kids, right? I did some CW Aesop A with my dd but switched her over to WT1. We then did WT2 fully, which was fabulous. I'm not saying it wasn't like pulling teeth with her. I'm just saying the materials themselves are fabulous. WT teaches you how to *teach* and brings so much to the table with discussion, grammar application, analysis, games, etc. CW, for us, has always been more like going to the dentist.

 

So anyways, we did retellings with the Milo Winter versions of the fables (very short) before we tried longer stuff, and I HIGHLY recommend it. You can work through Aesop yourself, figuring out what the skills are and how you analyze models, then apply them to short, easy models. Don't feel compelled to go long. That's my hindsight. Remember what your SLP keeps saying about keeping things EASY? Well that's what I'm saying. Make those models so short they're easy. Move the SKILLS up, but keep the models short. That's what we're going back and doing. See our first pass through was using models that were too long, meaning she did the skills but not completely, if that makes sense. So now I'm revamping it, going way back. We're using utterly short models and using them in fresh ways with higher skills. And you ought to SEE what she's turning out. It's actually working! Today she typed out *4 pages* of her expansion draft!!! For real!!

[Tabrett]

Let me start over. I think did a bad job asking my question. By strategy, I mean what are you doing specifically to modify your curriculum to make it work for a visual dyslexic? For example:

 

1. I use a white bookmark that I move from line to line (my dd can't keep the bookmark in place) and when she starts to get visually tired, I start tracking with my finger above the words. I am slowly trying to wean away from tracking with my finger and then I will wean away from the bookmark. When I start tracking with my finger, she really speeds up!

 

2. I have in the past cut up math problems so she only sees one problem at a time.

 

3. For copywork, I have her write directly beneath the word she is to copy and I highlight the line she is to write on red.

 

What other strategies would help a visual dyslexic?

 

Also, how do you modify the writing programs to teach whole to parts instead of parts to whole? Could you give an example?

[PeterPan]

Those issues for us resolved with vision therapy. http://www.covd.org The dyslexia remains as far as how she processes language, etc. etc. But the tracking, copying, etc. are all vision and correct with vision therapy. You go to a developmental optometrist to get the evaluation.

 

If you're radically opposed to VT, sorry to offend you. If you haven't checked into it, you might like to.

[Tabrett]

Those issues for us resolved with vision therapy. http://www.covd.org The dyslexia remains as far as how she processes language, etc. etc. But the tracking, copying, etc. are all vision and correct with vision therapy. You go to a developmental optometrist to get the evaluation.

 

If you're radically opposed to VT, sorry to offend you. If you haven't checked into it, you might like to.

 

I did vision therapy with my oldest and didn't see any results.:confused: My oldest has to have a prism in her glasses to keep her eyes tracking properly. No therapy can correct the problem. My 2nd dd is having the same problems, but not as bad. The eye doc did give her corrective lenses and a prism to help her eyes focus, but I am afraid this is a heredity problem that won't be fixed with vision therapy and I don't have the $ to pay for the therapy. So...I am looking for strategies.

[PeterPan]

Now just to ask (because of course I'm always fascinated by people's stories), was it an opthamologist or developmental optometrist who did the VT? Because so far it's the opthamologists doing VT where I've seen oddball results (just from talking to people, nothing statistical).

 

And if you decide you'd like to try some VT stuff without the expense, Kenneth Lane has a book Developing Ocular Motor and Visual Perception... that, even at $40, wouldn't be as bad as VT.

 

So does that mean they have convergence excess? We didn't need the prisms, because we had convergence insufficiency. If you know exactly what their diagnosis is, you might try googling it along with terms like tracking and see if you find any additional suggestions.

[Tabrett]

Now just to ask (because of course I'm always fascinated by people's stories), was it an opthamologist or developmental optometrist who did the VT? Because so far it's the opthamologists doing VT where I've seen oddball results (just from talking to people, nothing statistical).

 

And if you decide you'd like to try some VT stuff without the expense, Kenneth Lane has a book Developing Ocular Motor and Visual Perception... that, even at $40, wouldn't be as bad as VT.

 

So does that mean they have convergence excess? We didn't need the prisms, because we had convergence insufficiency. If you know exactly what their diagnosis is, you might try googling it along with terms like tracking and see if you find any additional suggestions.

 

It was 10 years ago and I had to drive an hour to the only person in the area that did the therapy. My oldest dd's has a slight astigmatism, and her eyes have to work very hard to stay focused while reading. The prism helps her keep focus. My younger dd has astigmatisms in both eyes and slight convergence problems. The doc thinks she might out grow the convergence problems by 8. Actually, my doc was glad I homeschooled. She said that a regular classroom teacher would not have caught the problem. My dd is very bright and her problem would appear, in a classroom setting, as a dc who was goofing off and not trying.

[PeterPan]

Very interesting! I have astigmatism in my left eye and usually have headaches by the end of the day. I've known my reading (and computer use, oy) aggravate it. I've been doing my dd's VT notebook of exercises myself, just to see what it would do. As you say though, it's not like VT is a cure-all. In my case I had some depth perception and peripheral vision issues. The peripheral vision especially was an issue with driving. I've been flying through most of the activities, since of course only a few of them really hit my issues. But the ones that do hit, wow do they hit.

 

My plan, when I'm done, is to go to the developmental optometrist (rather than the regular I've always used) and get new glasses. It hadn't occurred to me they might have more tricks up their sleeve, so that's really fascinating. I just assumed they would tell me to have separate glasses for computer use.

 

It's a shame there aren't easier options for people who want to do some VT at home. I've seen some things advertised online, but really don't know about them. That Kenneth Lane book would be interesting. I'm really not sure why my peripheral vision was off and whether it is connected to the astigmatism or not. It was pretty obvious though, because I would have to TURN my head to see the blind spot on my vehicle while driving, where my dh could see it with his peripheral vision. I'm suggesting that the VT with your oldest could have changed things you didn't even realize. Or it might have done nothing.

 

Well now I'm glad I asked you that. That way I won't be surprised if they toss out an idea like prisms in the lenses!

[peacefully]

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[peacefully]

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[SonshineMama]

We use readinghelpers (http://www.readinghelpers.com) which look almost exactly like EZC reader strips but cheaper :tongue_smilie: I have found blue to be best for my ds - when he's using the helper, he usually doesn't mix up tiny words like he does w/o it!