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Okay... now that VT seems to be helping, do I start over with teaching how to read??


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So, my girls are 6 months into VT. Excellent results so far. The dd I have a question about is my 7 y/o dd. Her eyes were horrible. She had so much trouble with reading and writing. Cried with the littlest copywork. Now, she is writing FOR FUN!!! She has spaces where she should have spaces (not perfect, but much better). Her reading, well, I haven't pushed it much at all (same with writing). I had her read a book to me today and I realized that she makes no attempt to sound out words. She is/was a heavy sight reader. Do I start all over and try to teach her how to read now that she can see better? I had bought LIPS, but then stopped because she was SOOOOO frustrated. I am also realizing she is a heavy kinesthetic learner, so just sitting at the table doing LIPS isn't going to work, I am going to have to make a game out of it or something.

 

Any suggestions? Any advice?

 

I was planning on teaching her penmanship, again. I stopped when I realized how horrible her vision was. I will have her do the oral part of WWE 2. She did well with that part on WWE 1, just not the copywork. That way I can have both my girls do history, science, and WWE together.

Read alouds of course will keep continuing here.

Thanks!!

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I would start reading again. My son responded the same way as your child. We hire an O-G tutor and had him start at the beginning. It was AMAZING how many gaps he really had thanks to his vision. He had also developed the habit of guessing. His VT told me that before he had probably never seen the same letter the same way twice which meant that he really didn't know which sounds matched those letters and combinations of letters. Once he began making that phonetic connection, his reading skyrocketed. If you have not tried LiPS since beginning VT I would certainly try it again.

Edited by Dobela
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I'd look at AAR for her. Start with the pre level and fly through it. My ds is very kinesthetic like that (tests as dominantly kinesthetic with the SLP). What we do is keep a trampoline (mini-rebounder actually) beside his table. He works a little with me and then bounces or swings on the swing (yes, in our basement) or throws some things, then he comes back and works some more.

 

Anyways, AAR pre is going to go through your basic phonograms, syllabication, etc. It uses the Ziggy puppet and is very fun. It's going to be light and something you can actually get done along with your VT. How much longer do you have in VT?

 

Yes, doing full OG with a tutor would be awesome. The rough equivalent at home would be jumping all the way in with SWR or a regular AAR level. Do you feel like you have time for that? My dd's brain continued to change how she was seeing things all through VT. If you're nearing the end, I'd just find something you can do for a while that's good, starts into the process, but doesn't stress you out. Then jump in whole hog when you're done.

 

If you do the AAR pre, make sure you go ahead and teach *all* the sounds for the letters, not just the first sounds, mercy. She's plenty old enough to learn all the sounds. Yes you can kick up the kinesthetic. I use the Lauri alphabet puzzles, magnatabs (probably she's too old for that??), etc. and have him trace with his finger while he says the sound. The more he moves while he says it, the better it sticks. I would also suggest you rearrange the AAR pre (if you decide to do it) and cover the upper case, lower case, and sound pages altogether for the letter, not spread out like she has it. For an older dc there's no need to have it spread out like that.

 

There are other ways to do it. You could do two phonograms a week. We're using the MFW K5 lessons to give us sort of a unit study effect to go along with the letters, one a week. You could just pick out a banger activity and alternate introductory worksheets and learning the sounds one day, craft and theme activities the next. That way you'd cover the letters all in 13 weeks and be ready to move on to a full level of SWR or whatever as your VT hopefully winds up. Or you could do it faster (3 letters a week, etc.). Main thing is to teach all the sounds.

 

If there are things not happening there like she really can't hear rhyming and syllables, can't distinguish vowel sounds, etc., then you'll know to back up farther. However it might be those things aren't even issues. It will all turn up as you work with her.

 

What I'm essentially saying is you can take what woudl be the first 2 weeks in a program like SWR, where they just learn all the basic phonograms and sounds, and you can stretch it out to fill the rest of your VT. That way you're doing *something* but not being stresses. AAR pre covers a lot of good basic skills and is easy to adapt to be more kinesthetic if you give her the puppet to do the stuff.

 

Whatever you do, congrats on the progress! That's awesome to hear!! :)

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OhElizabeth - I seriouslyam so grateful to all of your wonderful advice. Truly, you (and many others) have helped me soooo much. Yes, we have about 3 more months of VT. They base it on 36 visits, we just finished the 6 month eval. My younger dd, who had more problems, is about 1 month behind of my other dd in VT (or maybe my other one is 1 month ahead). I wouldn't be surprised if they ask to do 1 more month with her.

 

Okay, I do have AAR 1, but we stopped when we hit a wall with blends. It was bad. Then I went and bought LIPS, but she was soooo frustrated with it. She couldn't just sit there and go through the monotony of which letter makes whch sound, which lip picture goes with which letter, setting up the board, etc. I really want to make both AAR and LIPS work. I think I just need to do some major tweeking with them, especially LIPS, to suit her needs.

 

I was looking at Kids Soup.com. I bought their membership about 6 months ago. They have an alphabet program with crafts for each letter, etc. My dd is 7, but I agree with you about adding in things like that. I was going to have her trace the letter, do a craft with the letter, etc.

 

Yes, Dobala, I agree, I think my dd has many, many gaps that she has been trying to hide due to her vision. I told her tonight that I was going to start teaching her to read all over again, since she can now see better.

 

I also have AAS too. I did have her do AAS 1, but I stopped when I knew something was up.

 

Thanks all - I soooo appreciate it - any other advice?

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Honestly, I think that AAR is a bit youngish for a 7 y.o. I would probably get Recipe for Reading and put together my own O-G program. It has all the shaving cream/craft suggestions in the manual and is customizable. I think AAR is very expensive for what you get.

 

 

Hmmm, I already have AAR 1 and LIPS, so that is why I was thinking that. But, I will look into Recipe for Reading too :). My problem, honestly, is I need to find something, and stick with it. Or not. Maybe this particular dd's needs are just more unique and I may have to combine a few programs. My oldest dd basically taught herself to read - so I am in new territory. I don't know if I know "enough" to make something into an O-G program - wait - I know I don't enough. It is only my second year hsing. Thanks for the suggestion - off to google it.

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http://phonologicalawareness.org/ Have you seen this? Someone posted it a while back. The list is solid and in a logical order. If you do this and teach her the basic phonograms and their sounds, she's going to be in a strong position to go into any program. And if she can't do those things, even when you work on them, then you're finding things you need to work on more specifically via Earobics or whatever.
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So, my girls are 6 months into VT. Excellent results so far. The dd I have a question about is my 7 y/o dd. Her eyes were horrible. She had so much trouble with reading and writing. Cried with the littlest copywork. Now, she is writing FOR FUN!!! She has spaces where she should have spaces (not perfect, but much better). Her reading, well, I haven't pushed it much at all (same with writing). I had her read a book to me today and I realized that she makes no attempt to sound out words. She is/was a heavy sight reader. Do I start all over and try to teach her how to read now that she can see better? I had bought LIPS, but then stopped because she was SOOOOO frustrated. I am also realizing she is a heavy kinesthetic learner, so just sitting at the table doing LIPS isn't going to work, I am going to have to make a game out of it or something.

 

Any suggestions? Any advice?

 

I was planning on teaching her penmanship, again. I stopped when I realized how horrible her vision was. I will have her do the oral part of WWE 2. She did well with that part on WWE 1, just not the copywork. That way I can have both my girls do history, science, and WWE together.

Read alouds of course will keep continuing here.

Thanks!!

If I remember right, the slp or neuropsych or someone recommended LiPs for your dd. I'd suggest you try it again now that her eye issues have mostly resolved.

 

Make LiPS fun! Sitting at a table?? We sat on the floor by a coffee table. We used big felts for the vowel circle and spread them out all over the living room floor on a big pink blanket to represent the mouth. We sometimes used different colored M&M's to represent the sounds and if he worked hard, he could eat them when we were done. I bribed my ds with rewards to work with me on LiPS. It was hard work for my ds and I don't think he ever really enjoyed it the way I would have liked, but he didn't hate it and he got through it. I bet your vision therapist made the tasks somewhat fun and gave rewards to your dd for her progress. You can do something similar with LiPS.

 

btw, good work on the vt! :hurray:

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  • 3 weeks later...
Hmmm, I already have AAR 1 and LIPS, so that is why I was thinking that. But, I will look into Recipe for Reading too :). My problem, honestly, is I need to find something, and stick with it. Or not. Maybe this particular dd's needs are just more unique and I may have to combine a few programs. My oldest dd basically taught herself to read - so I am in new territory. I don't know if I know "enough" to make something into an O-G program - wait - I know I don't enough. It is only my second year hsing. Thanks for the suggestion - off to google it.

 

Hey :) This is old but popped up when I was searching for something else LOL!

 

I use recipe for reading amongst a few other things :P. NOw, it is actually our primary "reading instruction". Everything else is either fluency practice or reinforcement of skills learned in recipe for reading :) If you want I can bring it on Thursday night and you can look at it during Spotlight. I can also bring a few of ds' old workbooks for you to see what it's like. I use it daily so I can't spare it right now; however, it's possible ds will be done by Christmas if he doesn't slow down (he may slow down and that's okay too). If so, you can borrow it then :) Or if you want to start earlier, you can buy the manual and I can just loan you the readers we are done with. I think we are done with the first 25 books. Either way, I have your AAR stuff in my bag for thursday!

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