Who has used Reading Horizons Online?

[queen620]

 

Hello, I posted a thread around Christmas time about my 12 year old who is

dyslexic. We have been seeing a Barton Method tutor twice a week for nearly 2

years. My son has spent the last year stuck on level 4. My tutor told me

before Christmas it might be time to consider having formal testing done to

rule out any other problems. She also suggested I should consider buying Barton

Method and doing it at home, b/c it was going to be a long haul and she knew it was getting very costly. So after going over the many excellent responses I

followed the advice of our tutor and my son had the testing done Monday & today. The Dr. will sit down w/ my husband & I on Friday to go over all the results

and his formal recommendations. (YEAH)

 

Anyway-- I don't have all the pieces to the puzzle yet, but I've been searching a

lot for various OG reading programs. I think Barton is good, but it is mind

numbingly boring. My son is burnt out. I found Reading Horizons and have been very intrigued. We signed up for the 7 day trial and I have been rather

pleased. I guess my real question is has anyone here used it? Did you use it

with a profoundly dyslexic student? Or mildly dyslexic? I like the way grammar is built in. I also like that my son can see his progress. My son is highly

distractible so I would be sitting with him helping him. I was also planning to

buy the whole "kit" not just the online subscription. I want to have options if our computer isn't working or we don't have internet. I also like have another

layer for the senses. My son has been using Teaching Textbooks for math and has really liked that. I guess I just wonder if this is a good long term program. It has a 60 day money back guarantee. Does anyone have experience using it

while still seeing an OG tutor, but a different method like Barton or Wilson?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Queen620

 

PS

 

Also-- my 8 year old is in our local public school, b/c I couldn't keep up w/ his educational needs. I am also looking for info on Reading Horizons lower level. Would it be good for my 8 year old during summer break? I am really not happy

w/ how things are likely to go for him. If he doesn't pass his EOGs-- first real tests ever, b/c he was always home schooled-- he can either go to summer school for reading or be held back. I'm not completely opposed to summer school IF and

only IF the school will be working w/ him based on his IEP goals, not just the

other 3rd graders who are almost at grade level and need a little extra help. He is currently reading at a beginning K level in 3rd grade.

 

I have 6 kids--

*14 yr old (likely mildly dyslexic &

dysgraphic),

*12 year old profoundly dyslexic--reads at a 2nd grade level;

*almost 9 year old in PS-- testing showed Central Auditory Processing Disorder. He is being pulled 2 hr a day for EC plus additional time pulled for reading & ST once a week.

* almost 5 yr old Undx ASD (waiting for diagnosis), in DD PS preK, also has severe speech delays;

* 2 1/2 yr old busy little boy keeping our school day exciting!

* 11 mo old baby girl.

[OneStepAtATime]

I intend to respond to this but I have limited time today.   I will try to get back to this thread tomorrow...sorry....

[SandyKC]

I'd recommend going with Lexia Reading over Reading Horizons. Lexia was BUILT for students with dyslexia, has a long proven track record, and was proven to work for kids with LDs. My recommendation is based upon research I did reading studies that evaluated the effectiveness of various programs.. Lexia is what I chose for my own sons.

[queen620]

 

Thanks for the input. We got the results back from the psychologist today. Not what I had hoped for. The Dr. said he rarely diagnosis anyone as being severely dyslexic, but felt it was the appropriate

classification for my son. He said that my son needs consistent reading tutoring, preferably in a

special educational school or private tutor. He also said w/ his severe delays and lack of short term me memory it could take up to 10 years to get him reading at a 6th grade level. A level needed to function as an adult. I'm really torn what to do now. I can't afford to keep seeing our Barton Method tutor

twice a week for 10 years. I also can't afford to pay up front for a Sp Ed school @ $20,000 banking

on writing his tuition off my taxes.

 

I'm really frustrated and upset. I knew it was bad, but to hear that less than 5% of kids have dyslexia as severe as him is really hard to know. The Dr. had a lot of good suggestions, but still hard to hear over the huge issues.

 

Thanks, for any input.

[OneStepAtATime]

Thanks for the input. We got the results back from the psychologist today. Not what I had hoped for. The Dr. said he rarely diagnosis anyone as being severely dyslexic, but felt it was the appropriate

classification for my son. He said that my son needs consistent reading tutoring, preferably in a

special educational school or private tutor. He also said w/ his severe delays and lack of short term me memory it could take up to 10 years to get him reading at a 6th grade level. A level needed to function as an adult. I'm really torn what to do now. I can't afford to keep seeing our Barton Method tutor

twice a week for 10 years. I also can't afford to pay up front for a Sp Ed school @ $20,000 banking

on writing his tuition off my taxes.

 

I'm really frustrated and upset. I knew it was bad, but to hear that less than 5% of kids have dyslexia as severe as him is really hard to know. The Dr. had a lot of good suggestions, but still hard to hear over the huge issues.

 

Thanks, for any input.

Instead of a Barton tutor or a special ed school, if you tutored him yourself, daily, in Barton, doing shorter lessons, instead of what I assume were probably hour long plus lessons with a tutor, it would be a lot cheaper, probably more effective and less exhausting (at least it was with my kids when we switched from hour long sessions twice a week to half hour daily sessions) and Susan Barton provides a lot of support.  

 

Plus, there are a lot of free support materials on line, too, and there are card games from Spelling Success that are not that expensive, etc.  The manual and the DVD's walk you through everything, and if you have an I-Pad you can use it for the tiles if you or your son get tired of the physical tiles, plus there are repeat lessons and fluency lessons and spelling tests all available for free, along with a lot of extra practice pages.  There are several other games besides the Spelling Success games, too.  I don't know how much effort your tutor put in to make the lessons more interesting and varying things up, but there ARE ways to do that.  

 

Even if you feel your son is completely burned out on Barton, since you know this is going to be for the long haul, I would definitely look at something you can do slowly and steadily yourself instead of paying thousands to outsource over the course of the next several years....Barton does fit that bill, but there are probably other options, too.  We wasted so much money on expert tutors.  Doing it myself, when I could judge how long a lesson should be before they burned out, instead of being stuck with the tutor timetable even when they were tired or not feeling well or whatever, was far, far more effective.

[OneStepAtATime]

And I am so sorry that the diagnosis was so discouraging, but at least they believe he CAN learn to read.  Big hugs.

[OneStepAtATime]

Not sure if and when you will check this thread again, queen620, but I thought of some other things that might help.  I have found certain books were really, really uplifting and helpful to me so I did want to encourage you, if you haven't already, to read The Mislabeled Child and The Dyslexic Advantage by Brock and Fernette Eide, along with Homeschooling Your Struggling Learner by Kathy Kuhl and How to Homeschool Your Learning Abled Kid by Sandra Cook (she posted up thread).  Sandy recommended Lexia Reading so I definitely encourage you to look at that.  She has a lot of experience.  Read her book, as well.  You may find encouragement as well as useful suggestions there.

 

I did want to mention in a bit more detail why I think finding a system you could do yourself instead of relying on a tutor long-term might be to your best benefit.  Since you have multiple kids, and probably at least 2 have dyslexia, and it tends to run in families so the youngers may end up have some issues along these lines too, if you trained yourself in a dyslexia friendly program, you could save a tremendous amount of money, and customize the program to each child's individual learning needs.  If you don't want to use Barton, there are probably others out there that would work (like maybe Lexia, although I have no direct experience so cannot speak about it).  I will use Barton as an example, since that is the one I am familiar with.  If you could use Barton or another system like it that meets at least some of the following criteria that Barton does, it might really help your situation.

 

1.  Barton can be used with neurotypical children AND dyslexic children.  If I can find the blog again, there is a woman who blogs about her family and I really enjoyed her posts before I lost the blog location.  She has multiple children, some dyslexic, some not, and has used Barton all the way through with all of them with a great deal of success.

2. Barton replaces all other language arts programs through Level 4, so you wouldn't need anything else for language arts until you finished Level 4 and started incorporating a writing program (Barton recommends IEW, which could also be used with all of the kids).

3.  There would only be the one purchase for each level and each level could be used over and over with every child, no additional cost involved.  Just put the worksheets in sheet protectors and use a dry erase marker so you wouldn't even have to print out extra pages.  Or you could print out the extra pages for each child, but the pages are free off the tutor part of the website.  You would only have to pay for ink and paper.

4.  Training to use the system is pretty easy since it comes with training DVDs and a scripted TM that lays everything out in detail.  Once you are familiar with the system, you can just use the "short" instructions in the margins of the TM so you don't have to read all of the text.

5.  You could tutor other people's children for extra money down the line, when you are more comfortable with the system (and someday have a small amount of extra time...   :)  ).

6.  You could schedule the sessions when it is convenient for you, not have to worry about tutor schedules, and you could keep lessons shorter so as not to overwhelm your kids.  Mine started doing a LOT better when we began doing 30 minutes daily instead of an hour twice a week.  I know several people that do 30 min. sessions every other day, and that works really well for them.

7.  If you have an I-Pad, you can use the tile app and the whole system becomes incredibly portable.  You can do it while on vacation or while out for the day.

8.  If you get the Spelling Success card games, the kids can play the games together for reinforcement.

9.  Barton teaches language arts all the way through to high school level, as long as you pair it with a writing program after Level 4 and from the time the kids are little you include outside read-alouds for exposure to good literature  Therefore, it isn't just for remediating beginning reading skills issues.  

10. While it IS teacher intensive, once you get into a rhythm, it runs pretty smoothly.  Every time I have hit a snag and gotten frustrated, if I just go to the suggestions in the manual or on-line for how to get over the hump, or repeat the lesson that is snagging us up, things usually smooth out pretty quickly (I just don't always immediately remember to do those things.. :tongue_smilie: ).

 

I tell you all of this because it looks like you will be facing a lot of years of various therapies with various children.  That is obviously a costly and time consuming situation.  If you could cut down on some of that cost and time by using a system you could implement yourself that you could use with all or at least most of the kids, it seems to me that might be your best option.

 

Best wishes and big hugs.   :grouphug:

 

 

[LaraH]

I'm so sorry about the diagnosis. 

 

We have used Reading Horizons (younger version) for my son. It's a good program, my son liked it and used it willingly. We are taking a break because I felt we needed more review at this stage. I'm not sure I'd recommend for severe dyslexia. It moves quite fast at times. But it might be good for your 8 year old. We only did the online version and didn't order the printed mateials - Explode the Code is working for us. Their customer service is very good and you can arrange a free trial to try it.

 

I like the look of the Lexia sample though and am looking into that now too. It's nice to have a break from book work every now and then.

 

You might want to look at Touchphonics as well from Rainbow Resource. The letters are very tactile for tracing, touching, etc. I've ordered just the letters, not the entire system.

[queen620]

Here is what I posted on a closed thread on my fb feed & only tagged a few people who were close or had

experience. My son knows he is dyslexic. He is angry & frustrated all the time. He is a ticking

time bomb---literally. I think he might have some underlying mood disorders, but we haven't addressed

anything other than ADHD & dyslexia w/ the clinical pschylogist we saw last week. Obviously there was

more to the report, but this is the gist of it.

 

 

Friends, I am looking for any and all insight into special ed schools in the triad. As I think most everyone knows, Noah, who is almost 13 is dyslexic. We had him THOROUGHLY evaluated by an excellent psychologist last week. The results were not anything we wanted to hear. I knew the extent of his dyslexia was bad, but his report was far worse than what we expected.

To quickly summarize 6hours of test and nearly 2 hours of conference going over the report--

*Noah is SEVERELY dyslexic. The dr. said he rarely uses that classification, but felt it was fitting for him.

*Noah has very little working memory, making sight words, letter shapes & math facts very difficult if not impossible.

*Noah has very little phonemic awareness past CVC.

*NOah needs to see a speech language pathologist to really work on the phonemic awareness. Until the phonemic awareness is address he will not move forward in reading.

*Noah needs consistent daily instructions PREFERABLY from a school that specializes in kids w/ severe learning disabilities.

Dr. suggested Noble Academy in GSO. At nearly $18,000 a year that is a hard one to work out the details. From what I've read we will likely be able to write off ALL the expenses & including driving b/c it is considered a Medical expense. Still that is a lot to come up with for the first year.

I'm also going to look into Wesleyan Academy. They have an entire EC department that looks promising. I'm not giving up on homeschooling him. I'm just not sure if I will be enough as I'm learning as I go, and the severity of his issues need more training.

 

*Noah will possibly be able to read at a 6th grade level w/ 10 years of consistent interventions.

------

 

*The Dr. also told us to focus solely on reading as his math skills were only a few points below the low side of average. He also said quit worrying about math facts. He needs survival math to function as an adult.

*He needs to quit writing as it is too difficult. We need to move on and get some various programs for accommodations--- speech to type & text to speech type programs.

*Dr also said Noah was rather mechanically minded and he would do well to attend the public schools trade schools in high school. He would come out with solid career options, that wouldn't require lots of reading.

(This one hurts a lot. There is nothing wrong w/ being a blue collar worker if that is your choice, but basically hearing that is his only choice is hard to hear. This also means that being able to get a contractor's license in his preferred field could be very difficult.)

 

There was a lot more discussed as far as Noah have severe ADHD along w/ the severe dyslexia. The ADHD really gets in the way of him functioning and working. And it is a cycle b/c the work is so hard and frustrating, his mind wanders. SIGH. He said we should consider going back on meds and stick with it until we find what works for him.

 

So as you can tell I'm really upset and frustrated.

 

One of the few positives were his IQ was difficult to test b/c although he scored as low as possible on several subtests, he scored almost as high as one could on the other subtests. (Yes, I know IQ isn't everything. Just it was very interesting.)

 

Noah also has an EXCELLENT word vocabulary to work with. He knew lots and lots and lots of words that kids with his reading disabilities rarely know. YEAH, for homeschool, oral curricula & the hundreds of books on tape he has listened to.

(Trust me this is one of the things I feel I've done right in our journey. So it was nice to hear it show up in his testing.)

[queen620]

I'm also not sure where to start. Noah "made" it up to level 4 with Barton. But based on the findings w/ the psychologist I'm not sure that is where he is working comfortably. His tests showed he had

some mastery w/ CVC and closed syllables, but he had not mastered any vowel teams or blends or digraphs. The Dr. said we need a SLP who will work to weed out the phonemic awareness problems.

 

 

 

On a different note I'm not really sure if I should look into SSI for him or if this severity of

dyslexia qualifies. I haven't applied for any SSI for my undx ASD son, b/c I don't have a firm

diagnosis & just the blanket dx of developmentally delayed. I'm not really looking for money, but if

it would cover some of these expenses that would be great help.

 

Also my kids & I are on my husband's insurance at work. We have a good plan, but who knows in a year or 2 when ACA is more implemented. I'm wondering if I should apply for Medicaide/Medicare (sorry not sure which one if for kids). Our insurance will cover SLP, but at $40 a trip that adds up fast. I don't think my 4 yr old is getting enough ST in school so I was already considering getting him a referral for

private ST. So between 2 kids that would add up fast. I know when my kids were on the state's

healthcare maybe 8 years ago, ST was covered. My 12 year old saw a ST for nearly a year and didn't pay for any copays.

[Lecka]

I do not know a lot about this at all -- but if he needs a contractor's license -- I think he could get ADA accommodations possibly?  I don't know a lot about the ADA, but I have read about lawyers getting accommodations when they take exams, maybe a contractor's license would have the same options? 

 

I am just mentioning, maybe it is something to look into, maybe someone else who knows more about it can post. 

 

Edit:  I googled "license exams accommodations dyslexia," and there was a link to a law case for a blind law student, and the little blurb says it has implications for assistive technology for learning disabilities as well..... so that was the top google hit at least.

 

I think -- maybe try to look into how successful dyslexics do get through things -- I think there are successful adults who are using technology and stuff, who really have very low reading levels.  I reads the Ben Foss book recently, he might be an example.  There is a page on the Yale Dyslexia page with profiles of successful dyslexics, also.

 

So maybe something to check out. 

 

Sorry he is having such a hard time right now. 

 

Edit:  I also saw on the California Contractors State License Board -- they have a little thing saying that they offer "reasonable accommodations" in accordance with ADA, and have a link to a form to fill out requesting reasonable accommodation.

 

So -- I don't know what they would allow or anything ----- but maybe you could find out what accommodations have been offered in the past in your state?

 

I think ---- the psychologist you saw does not know all this information ------ I would not take what he said to heart too much, even if he is a great psychologist.  He cannot predict the future!  He has no crystal ball!  He does not know if your son "has to" go to the vocational track!  It is a compliment, I think, to be told he would excel there. 

 

A lot of parents have been told there kids would "never" be able to do something, by a professional, that there kids went on to do!!!!!!!  I mean, maybe it is true, but I think it is a real pronouncement to make on the basis of just some tests! 

 

Though again -- I hope I am not being too optimistic, I really am sorry he is having a hard time right now.  I hope you can find a good program for him. 

[Lecka]

Another thought -- maybe someone who has used Barton could comment on this, or I would e-mail and ask Susan Barton.

 

For my son ----- I did choose a program that would follow the "public school" order -----so, CVC words, and then vowel teams, blends, and digraphs.

 

That is NOT the order of Barton.

 

So ------- I would want to know ------- are the things he missed, things not covered by Barton at the level he has completed????????????????

 

B/c if they are not things he has covered, I think that it is still helpful information, but does not cast doubt on his progress through Barton.  I would want to find that out, though.