Am I on track with my son?

[Lecka]

Hi! I have just registered here but I have read many of the threads about reading difficulties.

 

I was on the AAS forum previously and I remember Merry Gardens :)

 

Here is my situation:

 

My son is 6 and in 1st grade. It is better for our family for him to go to school, BUT we will not let him fail at reading at school and feel bad about himself.

Over the summer he worked very hard. He had a poor grasp of phonemic awareness (he was failing Dibels) and he left K unable to blend two-letter VC words. He started 1st able to pass Dibels, and able to blend and segment! He is making steady progress.

 

He started private speech (articulation was 5th percentile as of June but surely is better now) over the summer and is making good progress.

 

We do a little AAS (after being immensely helped by AAS over the summer, and with explaining all kinds of things, but right now we are not doing it formally) but mostly we are focusing on the I See Sam readers. Recently I had him go too fast and then he needed to back up several books. Well, as of tonight he is back to where he was, and sounding out everything correctly.

 

I have read the Sally Shaywitz book about dyslexia and looked at Susan Barton's website. My husband fits it a lot. Now that my son's phonemic awareness is improved, he doesn't really fit it. He has the late speech and articulation errors, and he is good at Legos, but he does not reverse syllables in words (something my husband does) and he has no problem hearing vowels or telling vowels apart (my husband was held back in 1st grade over reading, so this is kind-of a fraught issue for him, but he is very impressed that our son can know what vowel is in a word, so that is very heartening).

 

I am definitely continuing I See Sam. In the summer I will do AAS again -- I own through level 2 and think that we will do things from level 1 and 2. I am looking at Abecedarian Level B for him to work on in the summer, too.

 

He is very slow to learn phonograms (very, very slow) and really has to go over them, and he has to re-read many times before he sounds fluent, but other than that I think he is doing well. I think with what we are doing he will continue to make progress. He is reading aloud to me every night, mainly, but we keep our magnetic board with tiles out all the time, and do use it.

 

What I want is for him to be able to decode, and to be able to read fluently. That is my biggest goal and concern.

 

I am wondering if people think I should be doing more, to reach that goal? He is in Level E right now at school, and he started at Level A. He needs to be at Level I at the end of the year. He seems like he is on track to be able to do that.

 

Thanks, Lesley

[sixpence1978]

I think you are doing a great job with your son!

 

In all honesty, I don't think that Shaywitz and Susan Barton completely nail down what dyslexia is. They really tend to focus on the phonemic awareness problem, which, honestly, I don't think all dyslexics have. My DD is a whiz at phonemic awareness activities, but she still has dyslexia.

 

Given that your DH fits the model, and your son seems to have a lot of symptoms, I think you shouldn't dismiss the possibility yet. Since your DS is in school, you may want to get him tested anyway so that any accommodations could be made. You may also want to look into auditory processing problems.

 

Until you pick things up again in the summer, I think going through the I See Sam books and continuing to work on the phonograms is fantastic. You could drill those phonograms with flashcards, or have him write them in a tray of sand, or play games with them, etc. Be consistent and patient and he will get there.

[Lecka]

I know just what you mean -- I can tell phonemic awarenesss is important for my son, but now that he has got it, I don't see him having no problems at all. Unlike in the Shaywitz book where she says kids who learn phonemic awareness early will have no problems.

 

He does really good at tracing letters onto carpet. I have forgotten about that a little lately but I think it is still important.

[wapiti]

Have you already ruled out vision with a developmental optometrist?

 

FWIW, one of my kids had a lot of trouble learning to read when she was in first grade. She was a late talker and had trouble with blending. She still has lingering language processing issues. However, she is not dyslexic. She improved greatly after we fixed some vision issues she was having (tracking problems) and now, years later, we're following up with a little more VT for focus and visual memory issues.

 

Since dyslexia and vision problems can coexist, even if you already had an actual diagnosis of dyslexia, it may make sense to rule out vision problems. Without professional help, it's pretty difficult to tease apart these issues. I agree with the PP that you may want to consider testing for dyslexia.

Edited November 23, 2011 by wapiti

[merry gardens]

Hi! I have just registered here but I have read many of the threads about reading difficulties.

 

I was on the AAS forum previously and I remember Merry Gardens :)

 

Here is my situation:

 

My son is 6 and in 1st grade. It is better for our family for him to go to school, BUT we will not let him fail at reading at school and feel bad about himself.

Over the summer he worked very hard. He had a poor grasp of phonemic awareness (he was failing Dibels) and he left K unable to blend two-letter VC words. He started 1st able to pass Dibels, and able to blend and segment! He is making steady progress.

 

He started private speech (articulation was 5th percentile as of June but surely is better now) over the summer and is making good progress.

 

We do a little AAS (after being immensely helped by AAS over the summer, and with explaining all kinds of things, but right now we are not doing it formally) but mostly we are focusing on the I See Sam readers. Recently I had him go too fast and then he needed to back up several books. Well, as of tonight he is back to where he was, and sounding out everything correctly.

 

I have read the Sally Shaywitz book about dyslexia and looked at Susan Barton's website. My husband fits it a lot. Now that my son's phonemic awareness is improved, he doesn't really fit it. He has the late speech and articulation errors, and he is good at Legos, but he does not reverse syllables in words (something my husband does) and he has no problem hearing vowels or telling vowels apart (my husband was held back in 1st grade over reading, so this is kind-of a fraught issue for him, but he is very impressed that our son can know what vowel is in a word, so that is very heartening).

 

I am definitely continuing I See Sam. In the summer I will do AAS again -- I own through level 2 and think that we will do things from level 1 and 2. I am looking at Abecedarian Level B for him to work on in the summer, too.

 

He is very slow to learn phonograms (very, very slow) and really has to go over them, and he has to re-read many times before he sounds fluent, but other than that I think he is doing well. I think with what we are doing he will continue to make progress. He is reading aloud to me every night, mainly, but we keep our magnetic board with tiles out all the time, and do use it.

 

What I want is for him to be able to decode, and to be able to read fluently. That is my biggest goal and concern.

 

I am wondering if people think I should be doing more, to reach that goal? He is in Level E right now at school, and he started at Level A. He needs to be at Level I at the end of the year. He seems like he is on track to be able to do that.

 

Thanks, Lesley

Hi Lecka!

Hello and Welcome. Just to clarify, I'm not the same Merry Gardens from AAS. But it's nice to meet you here. :)

 

You wrote several time that your son is making progress. Honestly, I don't know the answer to your question for your child--or my own child for that matter! Progress is good. Sometimes the progress goes really slow, but it's still progress.

 

I've been on this journey for a few years now. I really thought that once my son started reading fluently, everything would be fine and I'd be satisfied. Nope. I raised the bar. Now I want him spelling and writing better too. :tongue_smilie:

 

As sixpence aluded to, there's more to dyslexia than simply phonemic awareness and reading problems. I had thought everything would clear up once my son was reading. Nope. But it's not neccesarily a bad thing. People with dyslexia are often very creative--and if you don't believe me, just look at their spelling!

 

It sounds from what you wrote like you are doing several things with your son and he's making steady progress. That's great. A couple of months ago I heard an expert speak about dyslexia and she said something along the lines of, "More is not always better; more can be overwhelming."

[sixpence1978]

Hi Lecka!

I heard an expert speak about dyslexia and she said something along the lines of, "More is not always better; more can be overwhelming."

 

:iagree:

I find that when I spend less time fumbling around with too much or complex things and more time interacting with my DD, we connect so much better and she gets so much more out of our lessons.

[PeterPan]

Lesley, is he newly 6, almost 7, right in the middle? I only ask because, in reality, even though I taught dd from the beginning with SWR/WRTR methods, lots of phonograms, blah blah, her reading didn't take off until she was 2 months shy of 6. Given that boy brains develop differently than girls', I think you could add 6 months to that and not be shocking or hopeless, if that makes sense. And yes, I'm waiting for our np results which, I think, may show something like sixpence where you have remediated phonemic awareness but all the OTHER things that go along with the pattern of reading disorder/dyslexia. And like Merry said, once you get the gift of the reading disorder part of dyslexia, glory be, you also get the written expression part. It just never ends, lol. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

 

I must be in a jolly mood about it today, as usually it just leaves me with a knot in my stomach.

 

If you haven't done the np eval, do that and see if there's anything more they can direct you to. There certainly are aspects of it that *can* be worked on like working memory. There are parts of it that you'd like to be aware of like executive function and processing speed so you can be more attentive in how you work with him to structure things in ways that will give the best success.

 

Now as far as the sounding out, I'll say my dd couldn't/wouldn't (the line is really fine with her) until we did VT (vision therapy). Now she *can*. That doesn't mean she's accurate, lol, but she can. (I'm sitting here trying to remember the odd word she said to me today, something she had read and therefore mispronounced. Sigh.) Anyways, it's definitely something to consider. The way it works, you find a developmental optometrist --since of course EVERYONE should get their dc's eyes checked-- and you let the do a regular exam. At that regular exam they can *screen* for the other issues they check that a regular optometrist misses. So it's not costing you more, but you're getting screened to make sure you're not missing something. Or if you research VT and realize you have obvious symptoms (covering eyes, issues with catching balls, reversals, bumping into things, issues with depth perception, whatever), then go ahead and get the full eval through them. Like I said, VT allowed my dd to start actually attempting to sound out words. She was, um, 10 or 11 at the time, I'm losing track. She was newly 11 when we started VT. Still dyslexic (or whatever label this np puts on her), but now she can actually attempt to sound out a word. You can have visual memory, tracking, focusing, all sorts of issues going on that you don't realize, that the dc doesn't realize (because of course he's never seen any differently) that would show up affecting school work. And that developmental optometrist is the one that looks for them.

 

Hmm, what else? Well see I'm no longer a fan of fix-it-yourself and buy more curriculum approaches. I've bought curriculum out the wazoo. I should have bought a np eval instead. Yes you can get burnt. I waited an entire year because I couldn't find one I thought would be right. I consider dd 2E (gifted plus LDs). We'll see if this np agrees. In any case, he didn't blanch with everything I told him and has been very respectful, both respectful of our homeschooling and respectful of dd as a person. He's on the board of a dyslexia association in our state, so I figured I had as good a chance with him as anyone of getting it sorted out.

 

Just for your trivia, the reason we waited so long for the eval is because we could. When she was younger we could get by, adapting, working harder, tweaking, blah blah. But like Merry said, we were only dealing with facets. There were MORE facets, more aspects that were creeping up on us. Come junior high, it's no longer good enough that they read or that they can spell adequately. You get them writing and suddenly realize it wears them out (like unbelievably) to write their papers. You realize they can read but that they don't have the comprehension when they're not connected to the material. And all your little tricks that got you by in elementary can't carry you through into high school. :( So it's the gift that keeps on giving...

 

PS. Her reading took off when I started putting the words onto flashcards to build automaticity. Read "The Dyslexic Advantage" by the Eides. The dyslexic processing is so slow, you don't want them to have to do it every time they read a word. You have to build automaticity. I'm not saying whole word without understanding or guessing. We spelled the words (clap syllables, identify phonograms, SWR) and wrote them and then put the on flashcards. That's what it took.

Edited November 24, 2011 by OhElizabeth

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[Lecka]

Sorry -- I thought you were the same Merry Gardens!

 

My husband is a lot like my son, and my husband is smart! And doing well in the adult world! He cannot spell and he reads very slowly, but his job plays to all his strengths. But, he had a hard, hard time in school outside of math and sports.

 

My son is 6 1/2 now, he will be 7 in April. Now that he is making progress, I don't know if he is catching up, or if he will still have problems. Right now he is in the normal ranges -- but it took way more than the normal amount of work to get him here. There is a part of me thinking it is just the phonemic awareness and his young age. I am not thinking of the evaluation yet... partly b/c he is very tired out by his private speech. I wouldn't add much right now. But I am hoping he will be out of speech soon.

 

I do need to talk to his teacher. I like his teacher this year, as far as her attitude towards my son. It helps that he is doing really well in math. She has mostly said keep doing what you are doing. I don't expect her to know what will work for him... I just don't. I can see what he is doing in school by what comes home with him, and we do work on that, too.

 

I am going slow on introducing phongrams -- and really have given it a break a little. He has done "ay" and "ou" and "ow" (just the sounds like out and now) in the past maybe 2 months, and I am still focusing just on them. I think there is no point in going faster than that, b/c he will forget them otherwise. I do them as they come up in I See Sam, but then I use the AAS materials. I would like to move faster but it has backfired... and at this rate I think he might know most of the phonograms by the end of summer.

 

Flashcards are a good idea -- they would help him get more words automatically. He is not a huge fan of flashcards so I will have to think of a way to make it kind-of fun.

 

edit: We took him to an optometrist last year. He was not a full specialty developmental optometrist, but he did many tests to see how my son's eyes were tracking. This was b/c we were referred from a screening at his school. What he said was that his eyes were having a hard time converging to see things at a close distance -- the distance of his head from a book most of the time. He said for his age it was okay, and that it was kind-of a learned skill for many children, that would develop as they started doing more reading and writing at school. He said the thing we would notice would be him looking close at a book (or something that distance) and then pulling his head back. I am not noticing that anymore, and he can look and focus on things pretty well I think. I will take him back when his appointment time comes along again, but I don't think this is an issue.

Edited November 28, 2011 by Lecka

[PeterPan]

Lecka, I wouldn't stop at that on the convergence. The developmental optometrist doesn't just view convergence, etc. as either/or. They can quantify how quickly they can cycle, how easily they fatigue, etc. etc. There are lots of parameters. They can tell you whether he's in the normal range or not. You're in this prime window where visual perception is developing (which includes visual memory of all those phonograms), and the visual perception doesn't develop right when the actual function of the eyes (convergence, etc.) isn't right. So, mercy, if even a regular optometrist is seeing he has convergence issues, I would get him into a developmental optometrist and get it quantified using their tools, just to make sure it's actually ok.

 

With my ds3 they said one of his eyes does drift slightly, but that for right now another parameter (how well he recovers) is sort of covering for it and balancing it out. That's what I'm saying that they fine-tune it. They have lots of tools to break down each step and measure it all. I wouldn't leave it to chance or your observations.

[ElizabethB]

:grouphug:

 

I would personally want a specifically trained doctor to rule out a vision problem, http://www.covd.org.

 

For a fun way to sneak in more practice instead of flashcards, you can use my phonics concentration game, selecting cards that you currently need to practice for a game.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html

 

If you have an iPod type device, I also like the app abc Pocket Phonics for fun phonics/phonogram practice.

 

To get to that level of books, you will need to teach most of the sight words, but I highly recommend teaching them phonetically instead, it's hard to remediate if they are taught as wholes by sight. Here is why and how to teach all but 2 of the 220 Dolch sight words phonetically:

 

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

Edited November 29, 2011 by ElizabethB

[Lecka]

Thanks for the game ideas!

 

There is a certified optometrist in Wichita -- we're about 2 hours from there. I will think about it. I read the list of symptoms -- and I don't tend to think he has them, but I don't always notice things if I am not paying attention, or know to look for them.