Mom-ninja. Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 My 4 yr old is showing some signs of dyslexia. I know that there's nothing "wrong" with having dyslexia. I'm not ashamed that my eldest is dyslexic. It's just...when I think about teaching another dyslexic kid how to read and write I feel tired. It is so much work. Yes, it's worth it and I'm happy I'm in a position to be able to do so, but it is also tiring. The good news is that if he is dyslexic I'm not going into teaching him completely blind as I was with my eldest. So, speaking of that, what are some things I can do with him now? Dyslexic or not it can't hurt to try and give him a leg up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyontheFarm Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 A local homeschooler in my town has two sons who are dyslexic, she had some sort of training and is now hired by the local school board to help students with dyslexia. She says she made lemonade with her kids dx. She makes good money too. You might think about doing something like that, if it's up your alley. Her boys are now young teens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tokyomarie Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 Kleine Hexe, I understand the weariness. I have two children with language-based learning challenges. What was really hard was that my younger dyslexic has been the harder by far to teach. Now that he is 18yo and doing well in his current school, I'm starting to breathe a sigh of relief. As for what to do with your 4yo now? Lots of phonemic awareness activities: rhyming books, practice with hearing sounds- What sounds similar? Which one is different? Pulling words apart into their component sounds and putting them back together- all orally, without reference to print as yet. You could try Earobics and/or Hear Builder. I haven't used Hear Builder since it is fairly recent, but my son used Earobics when he was 4-7 years old (somewhere in there. I think we started around 4.5 or maybe early 5). How about making little books of pictures with the same initial sounds, rhyming sounds, and the like? Hopefully, that gives you a few ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RamonaQ Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 As for what to do with your 4yo now? Lots of phonemic awareness activities: rhyming books, practice with hearing sounds- What sounds similar? Which one is different? Pulling words apart into their component sounds and putting them back together- all orally, without reference to print as yet. You could try Earobics and/or Hear Builder. I haven't used Hear Builder since it is fairly recent, but my son used Earobics when he was 4-7 years old (somewhere in there. I think we started around 4.5 or maybe early 5). How about making little books of pictures with the same initial sounds, rhyming sounds, and the like? Hopefully, that gives you a few ideas. This is what I would have suggested. You can also have groups of pictures or objects. Which one starts with /b/ which starts with /t/ etc.... You can also make games, jump to the sounds of cat..../k/.../a/..../t/ Look around for phonemic awareness games.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 I'm with you. My younger ds is on the waitlist to be tested for dyslexia too and I'm exhausted most days from teaching them both. If you can handle the cost, my ds did great with AAR Pre-level 1. It was the one program that got him rhyming and it covers letter sounds in a fun way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted May 2, 2013 Author Share Posted May 2, 2013 I'll look into AAR. I have ABeCeDarian which is I used to teach my older boys to read. It was amazing in catching my dyslexic up to grade level, and my middle ds picked up letter sounds and reading easily. However, it's not for a preschooler imo. I don't have anything for preschool because I got rid of the stuff I tried with my eldest, and my middle ds picked up letter sounds simply by listening to me teaching his brother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celticadea Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 I second AAR-pre. we're using it with my 4.5 year old that i recently starting thinking is dyslexic. the phonemic awareness activities have been great even though she doesn't like coloring the activity sheets (super cute if your dc likes to color and paint) . she really can't rhyme even after 11+ rhyming lesson activities from AAR and countless others on my own before starting it but...I decided to move forward anyway and try out the next phonemic awareness exercises and she's done well with them . lots of good preparation for the little phonemic skills (blending, word counts, syllables etc). I don't know if its the best but it was the most open & go I that I found (Barton recommended doing something to develop phonemic awareness before her level 1). as an added bonus my kids LOVE Ziggy the zebra. he even gets requests for other classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 The stuff Tokyomarie described is what we're doing. We got AAR pre, and while the Ziggy puppet and some of the games are cute, he couldn't even BEGIN to do the activities, especially the rhyming they started with. He's only just now starting to rhyme with some consistency. He'll still miss them, but at least he's hearing them some. Before he heard nothing, no clue, zilch, nada. The order of presentation in AAR pre isn't right (puts the harder stuff first) and it doesn't have enough reinforcement (covers a few examples and assumes the dc will carry it over). Also the language is sometimes odd, at least for my child. We do like the craft pages. The rhyming/poem books are a waste (personal opinion). Like the others though, I don't know of anything better. We just basically do a letter of the week (month, longer, haha) focus and do activities from the mix of stuff I have lying around. Now I've got him building words using jumbo bananagrams and some cute readers I found at the convention. Nothing stellar, and I'm really not seeing a click. He's pleased with himself though and told his grandma I've been teaching him to read. :D Mainly it's just trying to segment and letting him listen to the sounds in words. Yes to Earobics, definitely recommend that. Btw, I started him on metronome work this week. If your dc has any issues with working memory, rhythm, vestibular, etc., might be something to try. Set it to 54 bpm and have them clap. First day he was a total mess, all over the place, lol. Yesterday he was a little closer, but he could only hold it together a short while, maybe 30 seconds. Now we have company. It's just one of those things though, like you're saying, where you've been down that path and know eventually it's something you're going to do. If he can clap with the beat, then I'll start adding in digit spans, crossbody, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted May 4, 2013 Author Share Posted May 4, 2013 Thanks everyone. The metronome is a good idea. I can have my middle ds "teach" him as that ds could use metronome work as well. He loves to color and draw so I think he'd like the activity pages. Are there sample pages of AAR cause I'm not seeing any. I really don't want to buy the puppet. We have puppets. I'm annoyed by puppets. That puppet is not a highlight of the program is it? I know you can buy the basic package without the puppet. Please, tell me I don't have to get the puppet because all kids love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celticadea Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 you don't have to get the puppet. you can use any you have. the directions will reference using the puppet as a surrogate for the kids to learn the game so if you really don't want any puppet, you'll have to adjust your directions. honestly, my daughters both truly love the silly thing and want him to teach other classes or have him listen in on stories. they get very excited for Ziggy class (admittedly, I do a special voice so that may influence them). for the age it's aimed at, I think it is cute and works. he gets to make mistakes and they can teach him the right way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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