Ways to teach reading to a suspected dyslexic?

[rowan25]

Hello all,

 

I haven't been on the forums in a long while, but I find I'm in need of advice.  I suspect that my son may be dyslexic.  I've read many lists of "symptoms" and he has many of them, including some of the more nontraditional ones.  (http://dys-add.com/dyslexia.html#anchorSymptoms   has many of these symptoms across categories).  He is currently 6.5 and is frustrated that he cannot play many computer games because the games he prefers lean text dependent.  Also the phrase "I can't read" is coming too easily to his lips.  We are both frustrated.

 

I'm looking for reading programs that aren't too expensive, but that have a track record of working for dyslexic children.  I don't mind taking my time and going slowly, but I would like to see some sort of progress, no matter how minimal.  We've tried Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and it was a disaster.  Currently we're working through Explode the Code and Bob Books, which is going "well" but with no retention or transference of skills.  I'm looking into programs for next year when he will be 7 and hoping for some help.

 

Please ask if more information is needed; I'm really at my wit's end.

 

Thanks in advance,

Aimee

[MistyMountain]

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[MomatHWTK]

Try to find the book Reading Rescue 1-2-3, it offers lots of good general reading tips that helped me teach my firstborn. 

[OneStepAtATime]

While there will hopefully be lots of responses on different ways to approach teaching a child that may have dyslexia, I would like to recommend, first and foremost, that you consider getting a diagnosis through a neuro-psychologist or educational psychologist (not for a 504/IEP type assessment, but a full evaluation).  As many parents have discovered that post on this board, there are a LOT of reasons that a child may struggle with reading.  And if your child has more than one issue (as MANY do), it may be very difficult for you to help them without outside professional assistance.  Having a full evaluation, possibly even specialized vision screening through a COVD, auditory screening through an audiologist, etc. may give you a more complete picture of what the issues are and where your child's strengths and weaknesses are.  If you only try to remediate reading issues and don't have that complete picture, you may end up spinning your wheels for years without significant progress or make the whole process a lot harder for both you and your child.  You may also be missing some amazing strengths in your child that could remain untapped for years.

 

As for something more specific you can do right now, I highly recommend reading The Dyslexic Advantage and The Mislabeled Child by Brock and Fernette Eide.  Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz may also be helpful.  There are a ton of other books out there, but the first one I listed above may help give you a better perspective on what Dyslexica really is, based on the latest scientific research.  There is a LOT of misinformation out there, including in the medical and educational community, and a lot of people only see the potential deficits of dyslexia, not the potential benefits (yes, there can be benefits).

 

There are several ways to address dyslexia, but the most successful ones are Orton-Gilingham based.  I am certain others will chime in with various recommendations.  There are several that have been successful, including Wilson, Lindamood Bell, Barton Reading and Spelling,etc..  

 

I am currently using Barton Reading and Spelling with both of my dyslexic children with great success, but it took until the end of Level 3 for progress to really be significantly visible (I saw it because I was working with them every day, but others didn't until Level 3 was nearly complete).  Each level increases a child's knowledge base exponentially.  Many have used this program with great success and it provides parents with DVD training as well as a very clearly laid out TM for every level.  Many use it because they cannot find dyslexia tutors in their area or cannot afford dyslexia tutors and needed something they could do themselves.  This system is cheaper than hiring a tutor, since remediation for dyslexia is not a quick fix prospect.  It takes time and patience.  Thankfully, you are starting younger, so hopefully your child has not developed too many bad reading habits yet.  My children were older before we had real answers for what the issues were.

 

Even though it is cheaper than weekly or bi-weekly professional tutoring sessions, the program is not cheap.  Each level is about $250-$300 and the first two levels can be completed very quickly (depending on the child, perhaps within a month or even shorter), so you are looking at a lot of expense up front.  Later levels take much longer, so the system could take 2-3 years to complete, maybe longer, depending on the child and the parent.  However,  the first two levels, while quick, are essential for remediating issues with dyslexia.  I would not recommend trying to skip levels in this program.  And those levels are not equivalent to grade levels.  Each one builds on the one before it.  

 

Cost can be prohibitive.  To offset cost, some share the cost with another family and then take turns using the materials.  Also, Levels can easily be resold for a significant portion of the original purchase price, or you can use them to tutor other children in your own household (or even other people's children if you want to charge money and earn extra income).  They can be used over and over and over again, with many children.  This system would replace all other language arts curriculum through Level 4.  After Level 4, you would also be using a writing program such as IEW alongside Barton.  If you complete the entire program, it actually takes your child through prep for High School and has helped many with increasing SAT scores and advanced language arts learning.  It doesn't just "get your child reading", if you take it all the way through.  Some, though, quit after the early levels are completed and just go with a normal reading program after that.  

 

I love Barton because I have definitely seen results and I can teach this system myself, going at the pace of each child.  It isn't perfect, though, and it is very teacher intensive.  I would hazard that any successful remediation of dyslexia will be teacher intensive, but some are more so than others.  Barton is NOT a system you can expect the child to teach themselves with.  

 

There are other systems out there that have been used very successfully.  Something as intense as Barton may not be needed, depending on the severity of the dyslexia issues.  It CAN be used with a neurotypical child, just at a faster pace, but many find it way too slow and intense for that.  If there are other issues as well, or dyslexia issues are significant, a program as intense as Barton may be needed, though.  On the other hand, if the child does have other undiagnosed learning issues, such as an auditory processing issue, Barton may not be usable.  In fact, several programs may end up unusable without remediation of the other issue first.  That is why getting a full evaluation could be really, really helpful.  

 

If there are no other learning issues, you might be able to use something like All About Reading and All About Spelling instead of something as intense as Barton, since AAR/AAS is also OG based.  That system is also not terribly cheap, especially with the purchase of the beginning level, since you have to buy the manipulatives, but it also has a high resale value and a lot of people seem to like it and find it very helpful.  I have not used it personally.  I do know someone who used the first two levels of Barton to go back to the very basic building blocks of reading and solidify those skills, before switching to AAR/AAS and they seem to be doing well.

 

I do not have direct experience with many of the other systems so hopefully someone else will chime in with additional, and hopefully cheaper, suggestions.  There are some great ladies on here that have a lot of experience and knowledge and have taken many different paths to achieve success for their children.

 

Sorry this was so wordy and I hope some of it helped.  Best wishes!

[OneStepAtATime]

Oh, I also recommend getting on the Dyslexic Advantage website, checking out the International Dyslexia Association website, and even the information area of the Barton Reading and Spelling site.  They all have some great resource links and information on dyslexia and other learning issues and you can access them for free, without obligation to pay for membership or buy a product.

 

And Sandra Cook, a poster on this site, has kids that had some learning challenges and has just published a book called How to Homeschool Your Learning Abled Kid.  It might be helpful and you can always ask her questions here on the board or PM her....

[AngieW in Texas]

My youngest is dyslexic.

 

The first program to make a difference for her was Headsprout. It isn't inexpensive, but they did have a 30-day money-back guarantee at the time that I bought it. I saw a big improvement in those 30 days, so I was completely sold on it by that time.

 

I used Headsprout along with the I See Sam readers.

 

After she finished Headsprout and the first four I See Sam reader sets, I moved her into Funnix part 2. Funnix part 2 starts right where Headsprout leaves off.

 

Funnix is very inexpensive. I don't think Funnix would have worked for her without having had Headsprout first. Headsprout worked on visual processing skills that she absolutely had to develop before being able to progress in reading.

 

http://www.headsprout.com/

http://www.3rsplus.com/

http://funnix.com/

 

3rsplus sells the I See Sam readers less expensively than any other source that I have found. They actually have readers that go all the way up to 3rd grade level, but my dd refused to continue with them beyond the 4th set because the stories switched from having animal characters to having people characters and she didn't like that.

 

The I See Sam readers are MUCH better than Bob books. They progress at a much more reasonable rate and have much better stories. BRI sets 1-3 line up nicely with Headsprout part 1 and ARI set 1 lines up nicely with Headsprout part 2.

 

ETA:

I wanted to add that I started off teaching my dd with Reading Reflex. She had no problems with breaking words down into their sounds and then spelling them. She had great difficulty with sounding out words and then saying them. She would sound the word out correctly, but take so long to figure out each sound that she had forgotten what she had already sounded out by the time she got to the end of the word. If you told her a word like camp, she would immediately break it down into c-a-m-p and then pull those letter tiles and spell it or write it on the whiteboard (with half the letters backwards). She could spell the word faster than she could sound out even the first letter of the word. She was a champion rhymer as well. She didn't have the phonemic awareness issues that you typically see with dyslexics. As long as you were starting with sounds, she had no issues. The problems occurred when you started with something visual. I had decided that her brain was filed by sound instead of by sight. If you showed her a sheet of paper with cat typed on it three times in a row, she had no idea that the same word was printed three times. She had to painstakingly sound out each word and had no idea that the second word was the same until she sounded it out and came up with the same word. She had to hear it to be able to compare it to the first word that she had sounded out.

 

At 6.5 yo, she started vision therapy. VT was great for fixing her visual efficiency issues. After VT, she could actually see what was on the page. She no longer had to cover one eye while she attempted to read and she got left/right for the first time. The VT told me that she thought dd was also dyslexic.

 

I took dd for testing when she was 7.5 yo. That testing backed up what I had seen. They diagnosed her as gifted with a severe learning disability affecting all academic areas. I do think testing is very helpful.

[Χά�ων]

Someone on here told me about Scottish Rite Literacy Centers. Best advice ever. Where I live it was $75 for full battery of testing and is $100/semester for treatment. The one near me uses Barton, Linda-Mood Bell and something else that I can never remember. I was quoted $300/week for a dyslexia treatment center. It was closer but the extra driving is well worth it. They also treat Auditory Processing Disorder and other speech and language disorders.

 

Google search your area, and areas as far as you are willing to travel 2-3 times a week to see if there is one near you. It's a haul for me but oh so worth it.

[Χά�ων]

FWIW My severely dyslexic son went through Headsprout 5 times and never managed to learn to read. His scores never dropped below 85%. I tried Bob Books, Hooked on Phonics, Reading Eggs, etc etc etc all with no success.  

[OneStepAtATime]

Oh, another source that might be helpful is Groves Academy in Minnesota.  They have outreach programs and sometimes some helpful videos, etc.  We don't live anywhere near there but the kids went there for a summer program a couple of years back and it was wonderful.  The staff is really knowledgeable about learning differences and they are always having conferences, including sometimes over the web, to help spread information....

[PeterPan]

Someone on here told me about Scottish Rite Literacy Centers. Best advice ever. Where I live it was $75 for full battery of testing and is $100/semester for treatment. The one near me uses Barton, Linda-Mood Bell and something else that I can never remember. I was quoted $300/week for a dyslexia treatment center. It was closer but the extra driving is well worth it. They also treat Auditory Processing Disorder and other speech and language disorders.

 

Google search your area, and areas as far as you are willing to travel 2-3 times a week to see if there is one near you. It's a haul for me but oh so worth it.

I'll ditto OneStep and QGD that a bit of testing can be helpful.  Dyslexia is no longer in the DSM and a lot of the symptom lists floating around include symptoms that overlap with a number of other diagnoses.  You can make an assumption and be TOTALLY incorrect.  There are reasons the symptoms and labels overlap, which is a whole other discussion.  

 

I'd definitely get his eyes checked by a developmental optometrist, simply because it's good for everyone to have their eyes checked. I get my ds's eyes checked every year and started when he was 3.  A developmental optometrist can do a regular exam that costs no more than any other eye doc, but they can they screen for some of the extra things (convergence, tracking, etc.) that affect their ability to read and do school work.  We're talking triage, and that's the easiest, simplest thing to eliminate as part of the concern.  

 

During a full developmental vision exam, they'll look in-depth at vision and also screen for retained primitive reflexes, do an EF survey (something your ped can do as well), look at visual processing (things like visual memory, which obviously affect his ability to learn to read), screen for other OT issues to refer off for, etc.  I would never accept a diagnosis off that executive function (EF) screening, nevertheless it is another explanation for your reading symptoms. (working up the ladder of options, starting with simpler explanations)  

 

Next, I would look at age norms to see where he actually is.  You've been teaching him this year as a K5er or 1st?  When is his birthday?  Did he have any speech issues?  There is a good phonemic awareness developmental chart online, and unfortunately, I lost the link.  Have the printouts, just no link, oops!  Anyways, that chart is going to hit things like clapping syllables, hearing rhymes, hearing initial and final consonants, etc.  That's where a psych would hone in (CTOPP=test of phonological processing) as part of a reading disorder label (what dyslexia is now called, google DSM 5).  

 

My ds5 has a fall birthday, so I call him K4 but teach him.  He had *no* ability to hear rhyme and now can somewhat, though with difficulty, because we've been working on it using the Earobics software.  He also has verbal apraxia (motor control-based speech problem, not a developmental delay).  It's a pretty big shock, frankly, going from a girl to a boy.  They're generally going to be 6 months apart anyway, and then if you have any SN issues at all it just goes through the roof.  But the lack of phonemic awareness is very clear in my boy.  My dd struggled, but she still heard rhyming, heard end and initial consonants, etc. etc.  Even when you eliminate the speech issue and just go for response, my ds literally doesn't hear them.  This is really easy to check by going through a list and just trying some simple, quick games  (rhyming, tell me the sound this starts with, etc.).  

 

After you look at that phonological awareness list and see what of that he has and whether he has significant holes, then I would do the Barton pre-test.  Sorry, I also don't have that link handy.  Search there till you're blue in the face or search the board here for the link, as I posted it a couple weeks ago.  Your ds should pass, and if he doesn't, Barton advises going back and doing LIPS from Gander Publishing/Lindamood Bell.

 

You know, I'm a do it yourself kinda woman, but I think QGD's experience with the Scottish Rite is FABULOUS.  If you have a resource available like that, definitely check into it.  All the feedback on the boards has been good with them, both with their testing and their tutoring.  Even Barton admitted some of these programs (like LIPS) can be really hard for parents to implement at home.  I'll observe however that you haven't tried ANY programs that are OG-based.  You've done really traditional stuff and he's not learning to read.  I do the Barton pre-test, go through these steps, see what you're dealing with.  My dd would not have learned to read with traditional sound it out methods, because she couldn't sound out words.  However she learned to read with SWR just fine, and SWR is $100 for a kit for all the grades.  You want to go with the simplest solution for your problem.  In her case, she didn't need Barton.  My ds on the other hand, he's going to be a different story.   :svengo: 

 

Sorry if that's very confusing.  The DSM tries to break every little thing into a separate label, so that's part of it, that you actually have to take the time and sift out what things are going on.  The other thing is that it really is that complex.  When my dd couldn't sound out words, it turned out it was connected to working memory and visual memory.  When she was 12 we finally did VT, and within a couple months she started sounding out words spontaneously.  She had a vision problem and a working memory problem that made it LOOK like what you'll see symptom lists for on the web as dyslexia.  My ds is struggling with phonemic awareness, and there's a known correlation between apraxia and reading disorders.  I'm proceeding with him much more aggressively (have been doing Earobics, now starting LIPS, then will move on to Barton or whatever it takes).  With dd, a different methodology (spelling your way in, using flashcards for automaticity, etc.) and LOTS of repetition finally got her there.  For ds, it's just plain glitchy.  (reads time off as numbers, struggles with phonemic awareness, etc.)  

 

No matter what his label or underlying cause, adding in more kinesthetic may help.  Might be something to try with whatever you're currently using.

 

ETA: The eye doc wants to see them before 1 yo.  I was only being informative when I said I started ds at 3, not prescriptive or suggesting anyone wait until three.  They doc would have happily checked him earlier, and they do infant checks for free at our practice.  There are things they can catch that early, and early is better than later.  Happily with ds so far, his parameters all balance out for the developmental stuff, meaning, at least as of the last time we checked, there's no developmental vision reason behind his quirks.  I'm not equating developmental vision and dyslexia issues, only saying the dev. vision is something to get checked as it can look like it and dramatically interfere with reading progress in some kids.  

[Soror]

I'd recommend looking at the phonemic awareness and testing as well. I'd second or third the COVD testing. I did that w/ ds around that age due to similar concerns. Ds has many, many symptoms but as the ladies said lots of things overlap and different labels can cause the same issues. We recently did testing for ds and it was a negative for dyslexia. Fwiw I'm getting ready to do COVD testing again as his testing revealed some difficulties here so I'm concerned our previous eval wasn't thorough enough.

 

I taught ds to read w/ the I See Sam books mentioned up-thread as I had read it was used a lot w/ kids who had difficulty, a big bonus is you can find the first books online for free. I would like to say that just not reading at that age is not a huge concern, as many aren't, especially boys but I'd be looking at the phonemic awareness and other details.

[wapiti]

Ditto what the others said - this can be difficult to tease apart without professional testing of some type, often more than one type (vision, speech and language, etc.).  (e.g., my dd12 "looked" dyslexic but is not.  She was unable to blend 3-letter words in first grade when we discovered a vision problem with tracking; oddly enough, we fixed that and she could read.  She has no phonemic issues though she does have a different language processing glitch, with making inferences, and a history of speech delay, mild low muscle tone and sensory stuff.  Her speed of reading is still on the slower side, and we think there might be a lingering vision issue having to do with accommodative dysfunction.)

[Lecka]

It does not include everything, but you need to find out about the "phonemic awareness" model.  This is explained in the book Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz.  She is a professor at Yale with years of experience. 

 

Unfortunately this book I think has two flaws, one I don't think it recommends a really good path for reading programs, two I don't think it gives enough credibility to vision issues.

 

But I think the main point is solid -- that if there is a problem with phonemic awareness, then that HAS to be addressed.  And I think it gives a good explanation.(Edit:  really, probably a free preview to a book about phonemic awareness that is available on Amazon is probably good enough, and there is probably an explanation about phonemics awareness on the Bright Solutions website ------- just, you need to educate yourself about phonemic awareness, and whether or not this is an issue.... even if you go for testing, you will want to know what they are talking about in this area.) 

 

Funnix, as far as I know, is very similar to How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  My younger son is doing Reading Mastery, which is also similar to these two, and he is doing well with it. (Edit -- I think these are solid, but if he is not doing well with 100 Easy Lessons, I would not necessarily expect Funnix to be better -- b/c they are already similar programs, I am pretty sure they are all from the same Direct Instruction people.) 

 

My older son is one who had a lot of failures with reading programs, unfortunately including Headsprout, and he hit a wall with the I See Sam readers, although he did very well with the first set and it was a very good deal for him.  The second set was a nightmare unfortunately, we had to quit it. 

 

The website you linked is very reputable imo.  It is the website associated with the Barton reading program.  The Barton reading program has a very good reputation, and because it has DVDs, and is designed for parents to be able to do it, it is a really possible thing.  It can be cheaper than it looks, b/c the re-sale value is good, and b/c you only need one level at a time. 

 

My advice is to take a little time and do some research.  Read things.  Investigate.  He is already getting down about it, and that is going to make it harder.  You do NOT want to put him in a situation where he does not have success, because he will just further internalize that he is not good at reading. 

 

So definitely, whatever you use, make sure you go slow enough and with enough modeling and with short enough sessions (or whatever combination works) that he can have success in every session, and try very hard to end every session with him being successful.  If you end a session with him frustrated and burned out, that is going to be what sticks with him.  If you can end with saying "good job, you are getting this" then that is what will stick with him.  My son is one who did well with short, frequent sessions, and advice I have now for my younger son, is that it is good to schedule the day so that after something where I am making a high demand of him, when it is over, then something he likes will happen (aka snack, park, tv).  That way we are set up to say "as soon as this is over, it will be time for the park" instead of "we have to quit the thing you like and do reading."  Also -- no reason not to try with making an inviting area and having some special snack or markers to use or something, that is for reading time.  Also -- do what you need to do, to be positive, calm, encouraging, and patient.  It may be normal for him to need a huge amount of repetition.  If that is how it is -- make that what is normal, not "why haven't you go this?"  These are all things I wish someone had said to me.  At the same time -- with practice you should feel like there is some progress.  If the problem is with phonemic awareness, that may be foundational to what you are doing now -- he may need to be working on phonemic awareness instead.  But it is possible to find this out ---- by seeing if he can do some oral blending exercises, or by seeing if he can hear the first sounds in words, and seeing if he can segment a word into sounds, things like that.  If he can do this stuff orally -- then that would make it seem like that is not part of the problem.  That is why -- it is good to investigate. 

 

Another thing I have not seen mentioned, is that for some children the teaching method is very important. Multisensory instruction is very important for a lot of children.  My understanding is, if phonemic awareness is a weaker skill, then just hearing and seeing may not be enough, because hearing the sounds in words is not a strength.  So -- add in moving things around and having the child move and using different writing surfaces, etc etc, to bring in different senses to supplement the teaching, so that the child can have an easier time having things click.  You can add that to anything, and it can make it less boring if you are repeating things in different ways.  I think letter tiles (or letter cards) are a must, and then it is worth trying a lot of things.  I did not pay enough attention to tracing in different surfaces or air-writing, I thought my son was too old for it, and then low and behold, he benefited at age 8, when I thought it was for younger kids than him when he was 6.  So I would try anything from the lists of multisensory teaching methods.  I personally am extremely partial to the AAS thing, of magnetic dry erase board, dry erase markers, and slidy laminated letter tiles.  This was so good for my son.  I have heard the Barton tiles are good also, and that people have gotten tiles from educational supply companies or found letter manipulatives they liked at Wal-Mart. (Of course some kids do not like the tiles, that is okay, too.)

 

Another book I liked from my library was Phonics A-Z by Wiley Blevins. 

 

Also ----- if you do not have time to read Overcoming Dyslexia, there is a free preview of a book on Amazon that tells about phonemic awareness, and why it is important for reading.  Phonemic Awareness in Young Children has a free preview, and the introduction talks about phonemic awareness.  Probably any of the books about phonemic awareness would be informative, my library does not carry any of them though.

 

However these books and their activities are all intended for children who do not necessarily have dyslexia.  My son actually went through public school K with a phonemic awareness program, but he had a greater need than what the program was designed for, so it was useless for him.  So I think -- if this kind of book is not targeted enough, it is better to look at things like Barton, the first two levels of Barton are about phonemic awareness (iirc).   

 

 

 

[Lecka]

Also -- I don't know why my cut and paste is not working ----

 

But if you go to readingrockets.org, and then "reading topics a-z," and then "phonemic awareness," it looks like it is pretty informational.  I think the videos might be pretty good.  It is re-organized since I have used that website, but some of the videos of how tutors worked with kids were helpful to me. 

 

 

[Lecka]

Okay, I found a video.... this is the kind of thing that helped my son.  

 

It is from:  readingrockets.org, helping struggling readers, finding help, then go down to videos, and it is the video "helping struggling readers." 

 

The video shows a boy sounding out a word with the teacher, and sliding down the letters one at a time.  So that is an example of multisensory instruction, because he is seeing, saying, and moving the letter. 

 

Anyway -- it is good information. 

 

[OneStepAtATime]

I agree with Lecka. method may also be critical.  Barton and several other systems approach reading through many different paths to try and help the child tie it all together visually, auditorily, kinesthetically, etc.  Without the multiple approaches, long-term retention just wasn't there for my kids....

[Lecka]

There is a thing with programs that schools use.... they design programs to be Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3.

 

A Tier 1 program is designed for a general classroom, for kids who are going to be able to pick things up pretty well.  I would put several of the programs mentioned in this category -- Funnix, Headsprout, I See Sam.  All of these are absolutely quality programs, but they are also Tier 1.

 

Tier 2 programs are for children who are not doing as well with Tier 1 instruction, so they would have supplemental instruction with a Tier 2 program.  With public school reading programs -- right now many are designed, with a Tier 2 program that goes along with the Tier 1 program, and students who need the little extra help spend an extra block of time every day doing the Tier 2 program....so they would be getting Tier 1 in the large group plus Tier 2 in the small group (or possibly just Tier 2 in the small group, it could be either way). 

 

Tier 3 programs are designed to be one-on-one, they are designed to be very in-depth for someone who needs much more than is provided in the Tier 1 program.  Barton would be a Tier 3 program. 

 

So to some extent -- you need to decide -- do you need a better/different Tier 1 program?  Do you need to supplement a Tier 1 program?  Or do you truly need to just go to Tier 3?  For a while at least? 

 

I have an opinion, that what you are doing right now is a fine Tier 1 approach.  Nothing wrong with it at all.  So I don't think it makes sense to try another Tier 1 program (as written, no supplements).  If you were using a Tier 1 program that was not very good, that would be different, but I don't think that is the case. 

 

I think you can do things to supplement a Tier 1 program (games, extra practice, multisensory) and see how that goes.  Or, I think you can go ahead and go to Tier 3, and just say you are going to go with a program designed for the kids having the most difficult time, and that has the additional practice and stuff built in to the program. 

 

There are also differences in the sequence of the curriculum.  We had to quit one when they introduced consonant clusters at the beginning and end of a word, and then every page had multiple words like this.  There was no way for me to adapt it.  But my son was still able to make progress, just not so quickly in that direction.

 

Similarly to that, but not a problem for my son so much.... some programs are very fast to introduce that one letter can make multiple sounds.  That is something that can be difficult for many kids, and once that is in a program, I think it would be hard to adapt, when so many words are not "regular" in a way that makes sense to the child.  I did only introduce one new sound at a time to my son, and used a program that had a lot of practice with just one new sound at a time.  So there would be a long time of just having "ow" like "cow," and not just "okay, ow can be like cow, or like tow," all at once.  So that is another thing that may be an issue with the actual sequence. 

 

So those are some more differences between a Tier 1 and Tier 3 program.  Tier 3 programs will usually say things like "dyslexia" or "struggling reader" or "for students who have not had success in the past."  Things like that. 

 

But a lot of students do very well with supplementing a Tier 1 program, too. 

 

(And that is all just arbitrary levels for reading programs used in public schools.... but I think it is still a good point.)

[EKS]

What worked here:  Reading Reflex followed by Primary Phonics (workbooks and readers) followed by lots of practice followed by vision therapy followed by more practice followed by REWARDS Secondary. 

[Lecka]

Reading Reflex has good phonemic awareness games/exercises, but I made a big mistake, I did not use quality letter tiles.  I cut out the tiles from the book, but didn't laminate them or anything, and they were too hard to work with.  I would definitely say to get a qualify letter tile of some kind or at least laminate the tiles.  Duh, but I didn't know to do that. 

 

I used Abecedarian Level B with  my son, which is related to the Reading Reflex book, and it was a good fit for him. 

[Ottakee]

I agree with seeking out the evaluations--esp. vision therapy ones.

 

We used the I See Sam readers as our Tier 3 intervention. I have a degree in special education and still couldn't teach 2 of mine to read until we found these readers. I have one with a low IQ (55) who also has LDs so it is a double whammy for her.

 

I would also suggest that after the first 2-3 sets of the I See Sam readers you look at the Dancing Bears/Bear Necessities program which is from England and designed for dyslexic students. It pairs up well. Then after about set 4 of the I See Sam readers, add in Apples and Pears spelling and go as slowly as needed (we took 2-3 days per lesson). Apples and Pears teaches spelling but also really reinforces the reading, etc.

[rowan25]

Ladies,

 

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!  You have given me much to read and think over.  My special education degree isn't helping me at all here and my oldest didn't need my help learning to read.  I've really felt all at sea and lost in the volume of information that is available.  Thank you for taking the time to break things down and offering concrete suggestions.  It is greatly appreciated.

 

Aimee

[PeterPan]

Let us know what you try and how it goes!  :)

[NASDAQ]

I taught my dyslexic-ish daughter to read with Saxon.

 

If I had a true dyslexic, I'd use Barton.

[OneStepAtATime]

Ladies,

 

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!  You have given me much to read and think over.  My special education degree isn't helping me at all here and my oldest didn't need my help learning to read.  I've really felt all at sea and lost in the volume of information that is available.  Thank you for taking the time to break things down and offering concrete suggestions.  It is greatly appreciated.

 

Aimee

 As OhElizabeth said, let us know what's happening and how it is going.  We're all trying to muddle through similar paths in one way or another here and the journey isn't always easy but it is definitely worth the effort.

 

Best wishes always to you and your family!   :grouphug: :)

[ElizabethB]

Cheapest OG method:  Recipe for Reading, all you need is instruction manual, you can make your own lessons on whiteboard.

 

http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/products/details.cfm?seriesonly=491M

 

For my students who need 1,000 repetitions for each sound, I have enjoyed switching from saying "ou" says "ow" to pointing at the chart.  

 

https://www.phonovisual.com/products.php?id=207

 

Some students may also need the consonant charts, I mainly need the vowel charts.

 

My students with underlying speech/language problems do well with marked print, for example the 1879 McGuffey readers and the 1908 Webster's Speller.  My students with underlying vision problems do better with large uppercase unmarked print and may eventually need vision therapy.

[Lecka]

For background -- OG is short for Orton Gillingham.  Orton was a reading tutor, and Gillingham was a reading tutor, who worked with him.  They started multisensory instruction and using phonograms in (I think) the early 1900s.  This is terminology used with more private dyslexia programs.

 

For public school-oriented things, they talk about being "a scientific research-based reading program" and then the Tier levels. 

 

But they are talking about the same thing (to some extent...  OG definitely should mean those things).  They are both talking about phonemic awareness, multisensory instruction, a carefully controlled sequence of instruction, etc, that kind of thing. 

 

I want to say that I read a book by Susan Moats that really went into the characteristics of a reading program that would be good for dyslexia, I think it was that book.  It was at my library, and then that is how I found out about the readingrockets website I like. 

 

All of this is going to be focused on the language/speech/phonemic awareness side, and/or the "needs a huge number of repetitions" side.  It is not going to have anything with vision.   

[alisoncooks]

I strongly suspect that my oldest is dyslexic.  She's very bright... and very BUSY.  But she struggles mightily with reading.

 

We used Dancing Bears A (we're about 2/3 through) and it helped immensely.  But, sadly, I got tired of the weird stories and unfamiliar British words (quiff?) ... and looking ahead at the scope & sequence, I wanted DD exposed to MORE sooner (like long vowels). 

So we're currently using Recipe for Reading.  I don't love the manual but the workbooks are nice and don't have as much writing as Explode the Code (ETC was like pulling teeth -- DD does NOT like to write.  At all.)  And Recipe for Reading has accompanying readers.  So we're hitting those for a while (then we'll probably go back to Dancing Bears b/c it *was* effective!)

 

We tried I See Sam (I bought the WHOLE set, sheesh, and haven't really used them except for a few weeks).  I still don't understand the fuss about them.  They seem very whole language/sight word based.  IDK, I might be missing something with them, but I tried starting my youngest out with them and we regressed in ability (she went to lots of guessing). 

[OneStepAtATime]

  My special education degree isn't helping me at all here and my oldest didn't need my help learning to read.  I've really felt all at sea and lost in the volume of information that is available.  

I completely understand and I bet a lot of others do, too.  

 

My mother taught school in language arts for years and pursued her higher education degrees in being a reading specialist, which she also taught, at both the middle school and high school level.  She did not know that my children were dyslexic, although she realized that they were struggling in unusual ways.  She tried to help, but to no avail.

 

I had gone back to school to become a teacher when my husband and I got married and decided to stay in Broadcast television.  Language Arts was my best subject throughout school and I scored near perfect in that area on my SAT.  And yet, I really struggled to teach my kids to read and the school they were at, with mostly very caring and experienced teachers, was also unhelpful.

 

When we finally had the diganosis of dyslexia, years into their education, my mom, with all her training, admitted none of her degrees and training really were of use in teaching my kids.  We had to start over, with Barton, and were grateful that there are systems out there that are completely scripted and laid out since so much of what both of us had been taught as the right way to learn to read just didn't apply with my kids, at least not in any effective way.  We had to unlearn and relearn how to teach a subject that we both loved and did well at.

 

My kids had a specialized tutor for about a month and a half right after the diagnosis.  She was a C.A.L.T. specialist, highly recommended by several people in the area and CLAIMED she knew a lot about dyslexia.  However, when I started sitting in on the sessions (because my kids were coming out of them confused, frustrated and demoralized), I realized that she really didn't have a clue.  Long lists of words in tiny print on one sheet of paper that they had to rote memorize by reading them over and over...little flimsy pieces of paper with site words that they had to move around on the table for sensory input....I could go on.  We wasted $800 and a month and a half before I finally pulled them (after tears and depression were beginning to set in...wish I had gone with my mommy instincts and done it sooner).  Was she a bad person?  No, I think she just had some really bad info on how to deal with dyslexia...

 

Thankfully, now, there IS information out there to help.  That wasn't always true.  It just isn't always easy to sift through everything, as you said, which can make the process overwhelming for parents.  If only the educational, medical and scientific communities could get together with the parents and find a more collaborative way to address these issues on a global scale....

[Tokyomarie]

For background -- OG is short for Orton Gillingham.  Orton was a reading tutor, and Gillingham was a reading tutor, who worked with him. 

 

Just some corrections: Samuel Orton was a physician; Anna Gillingham was an educator and psychologist.

 

I want to say that I read a book by Susan Moats that really went into the characteristics of a reading program that would be good for dyslexia, I think it was that book.  It was at my library, and then that is how I found out about the readingrockets website I like. 

 

 Another correction: the name is Louisa Moats. She has written a number of books on reading. The one I have, written for educators, is Speech to Print.

 

[Lecka]

Thanks -- I do like what I have read by Lousia Moats.  I have read two books by her that are for parents. 

[SandyKC]

I couldn't agree more with all OneStep shared in her first response here.. A diagnosis is critical for making sure you are addressing all of your child's needs.  Since you indicate your child has most of the symptoms, even the more uncommon symptoms, I will say it is more likely he has some of the accompanying issues with executive functioning, memory, processing speed, etc.

 

Addressing only his reading problem will be an exercise in frustration if you have not identified any additional cognitive deficits and addressed them accordingly.  If he's not retaining what he's being taught, there is a HIGH likelihood he has deficits with memory or recall, and you won't know which it is unless you have him tested. How you work on strengthening his cognitive skills will depend upon where the deficits exist.

 

So basically you have a choice of taking a pin-point approach or a scatter approach.  With a pinpoint approach, you can have your child evaluated by a neuropsychologist, and find out precisely what your son's learning issues are.  When you do that, you can address the specific problem areas with programs designed to meet his specific needs, and you will be taking a more efficient route to meeting his needs.

 

With the scatter approach, you can treat everything and hope your DS gets enough of what he needs to improve.  You can use a comprehensive cognitive enhancement program like Brainware Safari and figure you'll be strengthening the cognitive processes.

 

Similarly, for reading, you can use one of the programs designed for a child with dyslexia and figure it will provide some benefit.  Selecting an online, interactive program designed specifically for remediating reading difficulties can help. Until or unless you're addressing all of the cognitive issues that cause your son's learning difficulties, his reading achievement will be slower in coming, but it will come along if you continue with a program to the point of mastery.  The big key is to insure mastery where your son can quickly and automatically recall letter sounds, sight words, etc.

 

There are several other conditions which can affect reading, which can be present in addition to or instead of true dyslexia.  You'll want to consider symptoms your son may show which may point to the OTHER areas of difficulty which may be layered on top of true dyslexia.  For example, my son also had ocular motor deficiencies in addition to true dyslexia, so he needed both vision therapy and reading remediation.  I have this page about the symptoms of true dyslexia, which involves deficits in phonemic awareness, working memory, and processing speed. It's worth a read, particularly to make yourself aware of other closely related conditions that may require different remediation.

 

Feel free to ask any questions or to email me off list if you want to talk about any specifics.  My mom and MIL are both having health issues right now, so my coming on the board is sporadic, but I will be checking in.. I'm more likely to see a personal message at this time because I get far fewer of those than notifications of posts on the boards.  I had 58 notifications when I logged in today, and admittedly, I'm not going to look at all of them! :-O 

 

Let me add too.. You are wise to be concerned, asking questions, and seeking solutions!  It's better to start early before that "I can't read" translates into "I'm dumb" or "I can't learn".. we had a very difficult time overcoming my son's perception that he couldn't LEARN (which he picked up through his awful public school experience).   Let me know if I can be of help!

Hello all,

 

I haven't been on the forums in a long while, but I find I'm in need of advice.  I suspect that my son may be dyslexic.  I've read many lists of "symptoms" and he has many of them, including some of the more nontraditional ones.  (http://dys-add.com/dyslexia.html#anchorSymptoms   has many of these symptoms across categories).  He is currently 6.5 and is frustrated that he cannot play many computer games because the games he prefers lean text dependent.  Also the phrase "I can't read" is coming too easily to his lips.  We are both frustrated.

 

I'm looking for reading programs that aren't too expensive, but that have a track record of working for dyslexic children.  I don't mind taking my time and going slowly, but I would like to see some sort of progress, no matter how minimal.  We've tried Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and it was a disaster.  Currently we're working through Explode the Code and Bob Books, which is going "well" but with no retention or transference of skills.  I'm looking into programs for next year when he will be 7 and hoping for some help.

 

Please ask if more information is needed; I'm really at my wit's end.

 

Thanks in advance,

Aimee

 

[SandyKC]

THANKS, OneStep!

 

My guys have dyslexia and my oldest's was severe.  I also went back to school and got my Master's Degree in Instructional Design with a focus on Universal Design for Learning, completed Orton-Gillingham training, etc.

 

I posted a response to the OP's question, and like OneStep says here.. I'm willing to help anyone who has questions and needs answers.  MANY of the common questions and answers I have put in my book...  How-To Homeschool Your Learning Abled Kid: 75 Questions Answered For Parents of Children with Learning Disabilities or Twice Exceptional Abilities (Learning Abled Kids' Guidebooks). 

 

One commenter pointed out the book was better if your child has dyslexia than it is if your child has a math disability, and that was a valid criticism.. Since my guys have dyslexia and a much larger number of families I've helped have kids with dyslexia, I'm more knowledgeable in that area. 

 

The primary issues I deal with are dyslexia and ADHD, so the book is better for those areas of difficulty, but there is a LOT in the book that pertains to any child who struggles with learning. ;-)

 

And Sandra Cook, a poster on this site, has kids that had some learning challenges and has just published a book called How to Homeschool Your Learning Abled Kid.  It might be helpful and you can always ask her questions here on the board or PM her....