11 yr old just diagnosed, dyslexic

[sixglides]

They said moderate to severe...must admit, I'm the overwhelmed, not quite sure what this all means phase. But, glad to have a point to begin again from, and guilt from all the times I've gotten frustrated & asked her things like, 'why can't you get this????'

 

I've been skimming threads. We have an appt with a Barton tutor, as stated in many threads, expensive & sounds slow...3 yrs!!

 

Would love best recommendations, a simple place to start.

[Storm Bay]

About 70 percent of dyslexia can be treated well by good listening therapy, sometimes even reversed (study cited in The Well Balanced Child by Sally Goddard Blythe, for one.) One affordable place to start is an at home therapy from The Listening Centre in Toronto. http://www.listeningcentre.com/064resources.html Ds is going to do this; we bought the book When Listening Comes Alive & the Earobics 2 CD, which should not be confused with this (http://www.earobics.com/) (what they recommended for this age--most of the exercises are in the back of the book.) Shipping was very reasonable to the US. I found it much cheaper to buy the book this way than to try to buy it used on Amazon.

 

 

 

We also own the book they list called The Well Balanced Child as well, but it doesn't include this type of therapy.

 

Ds also did some vision therapy (OT for vision, and has to be well done & is customized to the patient) which helped him develop binocular vision, but I've heard that only 10 percent of dyslexia is vision related (can't cite the source). It helped measurably, but it alone wasn't enough in his case.

[6wishes]

I don't know if you're at the "just getting to know something about dyslexia" stage, but I just watched Susan Barton's seminar on her website Brightsolutions.com. This was highly informative as to what dyslexia is, what it isn't, treatment options etc...not that you have to go with Barton, but 98% focused on dyslexia, and not her program. Then, I headed over to bartonreading.com, and watched the video for homeschooling parents and the Barton curriculum-very helpful as well to know what it covers and what happens at different levels. And now I scour this board for comments/ recommendations. We don't have local Brton tutors, so you're lucky that way. For me, I would do it with them myself because it seems more cost effective-but I know having a tutor is easier for others.

[LizzyBee]

We use Barton Reading for dd11, and I can't say enough good things about it. We do it ourselves instead of using a tutor; the program is scripted, so it's not hard to implement.

 

Before Barton, we used LiPS (Lindamood Bell Phonemic Sequencing from http://www.ganderpublishing.com) to build phonemic awareness. There is a student screening on http://www.bartonreading.com that you can use to assess whether LiPS is needed. There are some other things you can do for phonemic awareness, but LiPS is unique and effective; since your dd is 11 yo, I would use the best programs available rather than trying the cheapest and working up, kwim?

 

Dd11 also had occupational therapy that included sensory and fine motor work, Interactive Metronome, and Therapeutic Listening Program. She had a year off, but is doing a refresher now that we'll finish in a few weeks. By doing these programs through her OT, they were covered by insurance.

[Lecka]

The bright side of the 3 years.... is that maybe that is the estimate to go through the whole program. I just glanced at the website, and the whole program goes through a mid-9th-grade level. It goes farther than reading programs often go (and too bad for kids who need further instruction).

 

I think a good book for informational reading is Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz. I think a good website about reading is readingrockets.org. It is not specifically for dyslexia, but it is great for understanding terminology and background that might come up when you are talking to the tutor.

 

I think also -- remember you are going in a good direction, and that you have done a lot with your daughter, even if it has not been this kind of reading instruction. It is not the most important thing.

Edited October 8, 2012 by Lecka

[RamonaQ]

I. I recommend reading

(1) Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz

(2) The Dyslexic Advantage by Drs. Eide

 

II. I would recommend working with a tutor. We were able to remediate in about 10 month (with once a week appointments) what would normally take about twice times the time (and twice a week appointments!) by finding a tutor that would assign homework, and likely having an older child that we could progress quickly. (If it makes you feel better ds was 11 when we did the reading/ spelling remediation).

 

If you don't work with a tutor, I do highly rec. using Barton, which is highly scripted, research based and very well regarded with measurable outcomes.

 

III. Reading along with audio to increase fluency. I would aim to get that up to 1 hour/ day.

 

All the best....

[sixglides]

THANK YOU, thank you!!! Just the type of info I needed.

[6wishes]

I'm laughing because I just got Overcoming Dyslexia in the mail today (thank you Amazon!), and am excited to dig in after these few recommendations as well. This is also the book that Susan Barton highly recommended in her video seminar.

[Pen]

They said moderate to severe...must admit, I'm the overwhelmed, not quite sure what this all means phase. But, glad to have a point to begin again from, and guilt from all the times I've gotten frustrated & asked her things like, 'why can't you get this????'

 

I've been skimming threads. We have an appt with a Barton tutor, as stated in many threads, expensive & sounds slow...3 yrs!!

 

Would love best recommendations, a simple place to start.

 

I highly recommend the same books everyone else is recommending.

 

We had a really excellent experience using HighNoonBooks.com reading program... The reading intervention plus sound out chapter books instead of Barton.

 

We worked really hard every day (7 days per week) and my ds was reading at his interest level in less than a full year from the time I came to understand what the problem was. (Part way through the HighNoon he became able to read things like Magic Tree House. By May of last year he was reading Rick Riordan's Carter Kane and Percy Jackson books, then Lloyd Alexander books, Harry Potter etc.)

 

I've posted before on what we did if you search my name and threads with dyslexia reading or HighNoon etc. in them. In this forum especially.

[Storm Bay]

If you don't work with a tutor, I do highly rec. using Barton, which is highly scripted, research based and very well regarded with measurable outcomes.

 

All the best....

 

 

My ds who has a dyslexic cluster is left brain dominant, and learns new things primarily as an auditory/kinesthetic learner. Not all dyslexia is found in only one kind of learner. What I have found is that unlike many dc with dyslexia, highly scripted curricula often works well with him in general. In addition, unlike many dyslexic dc (and he really does have a cluster) he did well with the oral repetition involved in things like First Language Lessons when he was 6 & 7. I had actually tested him for phenome awareness and several other things mentioned a book recommended to me on the old WTM boards 7 years ago (I borrowed it from the library so don't remember the title anymore) when he wasn't ready to read at 5, and he passed it with flying colours.

 

Ds is left handed, and we found that Handwriting Without Tears worked well as it has a lot of kinesthetic components in the early levels & is laid out well for lefties (plus is good for some others.)

 

In our case, however, ds was able to decode words & read, albeit at a later age than my dds, but his cluster has become apparent in other areas.