Dyslexia & Curriculums?

[mamaof2an2]

I am wondering if anyone has experiences with homeschooling dyslexics and what types (or specific names) of curriculum worked with your child(ren)? I have 3 at home w/dyslexia (dd 12, dd 9 & ds 8). Would greatly enjoy any help/advice on what worked for you... Thank you! :001_smile:

[merry gardens]

Welcome to the sn board. We discuss dyslexia and various things related to dyslexia quite a bit here.

 

I hardly know where to begin in answering your question. Right now, I primarily use Barton Reading and Spelling. It's an Orton-Gillingham influenced reading program, and we've used it for three years with success. I've also used materials by Lindamood-Bell, in addition to resources from the Landmark School, LinguaSystems, and goodness knows how many others! We've had good results from many of them. For subjects beyond Reading and Spelling, I try to use techniques and teaching styles recommended for people with dyslexia. There are some really wonderful materials available for working with people who have dyslexia.:)

[FLDebbie]

I also use Barton with my son and it's great. For math I use SM and make sure to have plenty of manipulatives (we use Legos whenever possible) around. I have found that working with actual objects rather than the representation of those objects in numbers is the key for him.

[mamaof2an2]

Thank you both! My older dd seems to struggle most in math and math concepts, younger dd w/reading comprehension, and youngest w/reading in general. I will look into your suggestions and see what will work for us. :)

[Tokyomarie]

Another welcome to the board from a mom of a dyslexic student.

 

Could you tell us more about what levels your children are working on as well as what curriculum you've already tried? Have they always been homeschooled or have you recently pulled them out of school? What have you already learned about what works or doesn't work? I have two children with language-based learning challenges but while they have some similarities, there have also been differences so that affected my curriculum choices.

[herekittykitty]

We are new homeschoolers. DS7 has dyslexia. We are using Math U See for math and it is going very well. I know others who like Right Start Math. DS does not like the abacas or card games much, so we went with MUS. He loves using the blocks. I like that we can work on math without a lot of worksheets and writing. I also like that it is mastery program as opposed to the spiral program he was getting at public school.

[Pen]

Thank you both! My older dd seems to struggle most in math and math concepts, younger dd w/reading comprehension, and youngest w/reading in general. I will look into your suggestions and see what will work for us. :)

 

For math Math U See has been helpful as fitting well with the dyslexia type learning style.

 

At the early stages High Noon Reading Intervention (an Orton-Gillingham based program) helped a lot. My son had decoding problems, but he was good at comprehension. So I cannot say how it is for comprension, however, they do address comprehension. We also have a program called Language! which is for grade 3 and up--and works both with decoding and fluency and comprehension, and also grammar, spelling and much of the whole spectrum of language arts. Sopris West who publishes Language! also publishes a recommended (for dyslexia) writing program called step up to writing, but we have not tried that. My son is now mostly using regular books to read from. On writing you can see what is in my sig. --I may add in some of a program called Writing Skills to see if it will help at a level more basic than paragraphs. (We tried Kilgallon sentences, but that was too advanced as of now.)

 

Story of the World done on audio was a big hit.

 

ETA: Real Science for Kids and Seymour Rosen's science books have a reading level that tends to be low for the level of science presented, however, at the moment my son is doing better learning science from DVD's rather than reading.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Pen

[cherylw]

Hello and welcome,

One thing I've been using is Apples and Pears spelling...although I can't say at this point how much it has helped because we haven't been into that long. But it gets rave reviews on this board. They also have a reading program that I have not used.

I have Recipe for Reading which is Orton-Gillingham based but he we have taken a break from it and phonics in general and have just been working on fluency which is his biggest problem. I can tell from his reading which is slow and laborious that we haven't been reviewing them so I need to get back on it. It's a really inexpensive and easy to use program.

But I will also add that what works for family and may be the best thing since sliced bread will not work for another. :001_smile: And you will find this board very helpful as I have. I don't post very often but READ a lot and gather boat loads of good info. Good luck!

[mamaof2an2]

Another welcome to the board from a mom of a dyslexic student.

 

Could you tell us more about what levels your children are working on as well as what curriculum you've already tried? Have they always been homeschooled or have you recently pulled them out of school? What have you already learned about what works or doesn't work? I have two children with language-based learning challenges but while they have some similarities, there have also been differences so that affected my curriculum choices.

 

 

THANK YOU!! You are all so helpful. My oldest is in PS (by his choice, and he seems happy there). My younger three are all at home, they have each tried PS very briefly and found that they really do not like it and will never go back (they are very animate about that fact, and will do almost anything not to have to go back, so I have to be careful w/my over pleasers and watch closely at times). My dd 12 reads/comprehends around upper7th / lower 8th grade levels. However her math is around 5th grade at the moment. She struggles w/severe dyslexia, an anxiety disorder, sensory processing, auditory issues and vision issues. She has been through VT and although at the time they said she was doing well, we just found out her eyes are starting to revert a little (which they are watching and may redo some VT). She has had 5 sets of PE ear tubes. We tried MUS for two years, but she really never liked it and started crying through lessons (time for a change here). We were thinking Saxon because of all the constant review from previous lessons (but I'm unsure). My younger two (dd 9 & ds 8) really struggle with the reading but do well in math (actually they are about on the same math level, mult. & div.) and they seem to like Khan Academy w/some workbook pages as review/practice. I'm planning to start Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading with ds (who currently does not read much other than the one word easy readers at this time), sometime next month. I am also planning to start First Language Lessons with all three around the same time. dd12 although reads very well and loves to write, her spelling is improving but still poor and she does not use (or recognize when reading out loud) any sort of punctuation. I've also heard that "Speed Reading 4 Kids" is a great program for children with dyslexia, but have not tried it yet (it just sits on my radar at the moment).

 

I greatly appreciate any/all help that you all have offered :001_smile:. I am truly struggling to plan out my 2012/2013 school year.

[fiddle]

Welcome! We also pulled our kids out of ps this year and is our 1st year homeschooling. My youngest (8yo) is dyslexic and has dysgraphia. The great thing about homeschooling is that you can tailor your programs/curriculum to the learning style of your child/ren.

 

We did Barton for the 1st 4 levels with my daughter, but discontinued for various reasons. She struggles with spelling and keeping the "rules" straight, so we switched to AVKO Sequential Spelling and it is going well! Spelling is learned through reptition of word "families"- no memorizing of the "rules." If you don't end up doing Barton, I hear that All About Spelling and/or All About Reading. Since my daughter just needs a little help with reading longer words, this summer we are going to use the Sopris REWARDS reading program to help with attacking/decoding multisyllable words. But she has always read above grade level, and her issues are always the output (writing, spelling, sequencing, math facts, etc.) We have her in MUS for math and she's doing well with it. We're also doing some of the exercises suggested by Dianne Craft- so you may want to check out some of her materials on right brain learners. In other areas (history, science, etc.) we've lightened her load and let her do most things orally. I've also just started these past months doing the IEW method for writing since I am doing that with my oldest, and I modify the expectations and scribe for her. I'd also heard good things about Step up to Writing, but it was expensive and so is IEW so I just went with IEW b/c we're already using it with my oldest.

 

So my advice for language arts would be to check out and review things like:

*Barton

*AVKO materials

*REWARDS

*All About Spelling/Reading

*Dianne Craft materials

*IEW

*Easy Grammar (for grammar)- not as much writing, and has been good for my dyslexic kiddo

 

For math, I do like MUS, but you can also check out:

*Moving with Math

*right brain learning things

 

For things like cognitive therapies, etc. you might try

*PACES, etc.

Good luck in your adventure!

 

Paula

[mamaof2an2]

We are currently using SOTW and they all 3 really enjoy it. I have been reading the chapter in SOTW to them, then they do the workbook pages and we all head to the library and find more book on the topic we are learning about.

 

For math we are using Khan Academy w/some worksheet supplements. And playing around with Saxon to see if it will work. It seems to me that Khan leaves gaps in their learning so I doubt I will ever be able to use that solely, but I really think it's a great resource.

 

I have just purchased the Real Science 4 Kids and am looking it over to see what I think, then will present a few sample lessons to the kids to see what they think. We usually do much of our science outdoors in nice weather (so we have not done much, if any, science during the winter months).

 

We are all out of doors type people, so when the weather is nice we will do school work at a park, or the front yard, or wherever feels nice to us. :) So books/activities/etc. are nice to find that can be toted around.

 

We have a variety of vision games; block by block, brick by brick, tangoes, rush hour, rush hour w/trains, flash focus, and several apps that they are allowed to use occasionally.