jibaker103 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 My 12 yr old nephew struggles tremendously with spelling and reading to the point it effected all of his grades in public school. He is now living with me and my 16 yr old son for the school year for me to homeschool. I suspect learning disabilities play a major factor in all of this and plan to get him evaluated. He has trouble focusing as he daydreams a great deal, is easily distracted by anything that catches his eye, and fidgets a great deal. He must tap, hum, move after 15 min of sitting in his chair. At the beginning of the school year I bought WRTR and he started learning the first 26 sounds but I found myself being lost and short on time when reading the book. My goal is to find something open and go for me as well as hands-on and visual for him. Will AAS fit the bill? Will it seem to babyish to a middle school aged child? I think I read somewhere that this program has seven levels but IEW only provides the first three. Should I go through all seven levels and then switch to Phonetic Zoo? Jennifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilly Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Have you looked into Megawords. My 7th grade son struggles with spelling, and he and I both like this program. It is for older students who struggle, so it is not babyish at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanvan Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) Have you looked into Megawords. My 7th grade son struggles with spelling, and he and I both like this program. It is for older students who struggle, so it is not babyish at all. This was going to be my suggestion. It is what I use for my Ds who struggles with spelling. The TE outlines how to use it to improve reading too. I haven't focused so much on the reading aspect b/c my Ds has always been advanced in reading, but a mess in spelling. I read the info and was impressed by Megawords methods for reading improvement. ETA: I tried Phonetic Zoo and it was not a help for my Ds. Not enough of the whys behind which phonograms are used and why a sound is spelled differently in different words. Edited January 8, 2012 by shanvan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 My 12 yr old nephew struggles tremendously with spelling and reading to the point it effected all of his grades in public school. He is now living with me and my 16 yr old son for the school year for me to homeschool. I suspect learning disabilities play a major factor in all of this and plan to get him evaluated. He has trouble focusing as he daydreams a great deal, is easily distracted by anything that catches his eye, and fidgets a great deal. He must tap, hum, move after 15 min of sitting in his chair. At the beginning of the school year I bought WRTR and he started learning the first 26 sounds but I found myself being lost and short on time when reading the book. My goal is to find something open and go for me as well as hands-on and visual for him. Will AAS fit the bill? Will it seem to babyish to a middle school aged child? I think I read somewhere that this program has seven levels but IEW only provides the first three. Should I go through all seven levels and then switch to Phonetic Zoo? Jennifer Jennifer, Yes AAS is open and go, all you have to do ahead of time is prep the cards (all numbered and perforated so it doesn't take extensive time). AAS is based on O/G methods like WRTR is, the difference being WRTR was created for students without learning issues, to get the up and reading quickly, so it covers all the phonograms and spelling rules up front. More traditional O/G is sequential and mastery based. You start with short vowels, add blends, cover letters doubling at the end of a word, move to long vowels....covering rules in isolation till mastery then reviewing with a mix of rules/letter sounds already mastered. AAS is organized like a more traditional O/G program and I find I have to actually slow it down for my dyslexic kiddos. Other options you can investigate is if he can hear the difference between sounds. The third portion of this student test will tell you that. If he can't pass it he really needs to back up and do LiPS to develop the ability to hear sounds. LiPS works on how sounds look, feel and sound, using multiple senses to help the child learn to hear the differences where hearing is weak (very common to dyslexics). Also you can ask him if he can see words in his mind. See if he can take a word like lot, then change the letters in his mind so that is is backwards and read it, tol. Then see if he can change one letter and still read it. If he can't he might also lack visual memory of letters needed for the "it just doesn't look right" aspect of spelling. Seeing Stars (you only need the manual here) is a good program to develop that ability. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trilliums Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 This was going to be my suggestion. It is what I use for my Ds who struggles with spelling. The TE outlines how to use it to improve reading too. I haven't focused so much on the reading aspect b/c my Ds has always been advanced in reading, but a mess in spelling. I read the info and was impressed by Megawords methods for reading improvement. ETA: I tried Phonetic Zoo and it was not a help for my Ds. Not enough of the whys behind which phonograms are used and why a sound is spelled differently in different words. :iagree: Same experience here with megawords and phonetic zoo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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