Dyslexia, where to start?

[FairProspects]

Ds is still having reading problems despite graduating from VT after 18 months. His eyes were last checked a couple of weeks ago and according to the VT, they are vastly improved and any problems are no longer related to his eyes. He is however, still reversing letters & numbers, reading "saw" instead of "was", and inserting sounds that aren't there - "sling" instead of "sing" when reading. He basically shows about 90% of the symptoms here with the exception of speech (although he does have word retrieval problems): AAS Dyslexia.

 

I've spoken with Dh and we are going to go for the full neuropsych eval, despite the crazy cost, but the waitlist is 4-6 months long. What can I do in the meantime to prepare? I have ordered The Dyslexic Advantage book.

 

Also, what has dyslexia meant for your WTM journey? What did you change in terms of expectations and/or curriculum?

Edited October 6, 2011 by FairProspects

[PeterPan]

1-watch the free videos on the Barton website, including the pretest one to make sure you don't have preliminary issues to deal with

2-get an OG-based program for reading. WRTR is at your library, free, and something you could start reading immediately. I'm not saying it's the best or even ideal, just that it's a place to start learning. After you read it, you'll have a better sense of what you want/need. Like I said, my dd never could sound out to read. Since traditional phonics and sounding out isn't working, an OG-spinoff would be a change. AAS isn't quite right for getting them reading.

3-search youtube to watch videos on the Davis claying technique

 

What has it meant for the journey? Well personally I think the principles of WTM still apply and especially apply to a dyslexic. The WTM wants you to focus on skills and use content as a foil to work on skills. This skills focus in the early years, when others were saying not to worry, wait till 3rd grade, blah blah, worked out really well for us.

 

Different curriculum? Well mercy, I started with the 1st edition of WTM. Back then it recommended R&S. After our blow-up with that, I think I stopped looking at what SWB recommends for grammar, lol. I had to learn to take the concept and do it our way, in a way that would fit her better. Later I had to learn to take the concept and change the FLAVOR. Even the flavor of recs misfits with a dyslexic (at least mine). The more she comes into her own, the harder I find it to find something that REALLY FITS her. There's nothing off the shelf that's just right. When she was younger we could at least tweak. Now I find myself blazing off in new ways, applying the *principles* of WTM but having to put them into new materials, new contexts. She's just not happy in a box.

 

I don't find the approach of WTM contradictory, because by high school customization is where it's headed anyway. It's just that anything that's an actual, specific textbook, source, whatever probably isn't going to fit. But the *vision* works, the idea that you read about something, synthesize, output, are accountable. The principles.

 

I'm saying that where dyslexia seems like this thing or a label on a young child, when they get older it's just more like of course, who they are. It's so intrinsic that it's not a separate thing you tacked on or wish to remove, like the common cold. It's just who they are. And as you see who they are (age 10+ this starts to become more obvious, they blossom), then the label just drifts into the background.

 

So of course you modify the method, because that's just who they are.

 

Focus on the most important things. Anything you do now (like that Barton pre-test, like looking at the Gander Publishing materials to see if you need anything from there, like trying WRTR/SWR/Wilson/Barton, etc.) is useful in the evaluation process because it's one more piece that either works or doesn't work.

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[Hikin' Mama]

because they've given great advice. Do your research while you're waiting for testing, but don't spend much money on resources until you're sure what you're dealing with.