Dmmetler Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 A friend of mine has a 7 yr old who is really struggling with reading and even with letter recognition, with a lot of reversals and confusion. Regular eye exam is OK. There is a strong family history of dyslexia and other LD issues (older sister and mother both have been DX'd with dyslexia, older sister also has dyscalculia, dyspraxia, and dysgraphia). Mom has asked me for suggestions, because the "Hooked on Phonics" and Starfall that worked with her middle child just aren't working. Her oldest fell through the cracks badly in the school system, so she's scared to have them test her youngest-but can't afford the $2500 the Neuropsych exam for her oldest cost for him right now. He's a bright kid with a lot of knowledge about various topics, and is quite athletic. She's getting a lot of "he's a bright little boy, he'll get it when he's ready", but her life experience had taught her that reading difficulties aren't outgrown. Is there any reasonable program that she can start now, while trying to pull together money for evaluations? Since she struggles with reading, it needs to either have a video component to teach the parent or be very straightforward. They only have a $500 budget for materials to homeschool 3 kids, so cost is a concern as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 1. The eye exam needs to be through a COVD (see link below) not a regular eye doctor or pediatrician since they probably won't screen for developmental vision issues, just visual acuity and maybe eye health. (Example: My DS has perfect visual acuity and passed every eye exam his pediatrician and our normal eye doctor gave him. Yet, things seemed off so we had him examined by a COVD. Massive issues, all tied more to developmental vision. Ocular motor/convergence insufficiency/etc. The list goes on.). Have her find a doctor listed on this site then call to see if they can do a normal vision screening that includes a developmental vision screening (not the full blown evaluation, which is costly). If they can, it shouldn't cost that much and it might give them more info to work with, even if they can't afford the full exam right now. http://www.covd.org/ 2. Without an evaluation through the school or a neuropsych they will be shooting in the dark for what is wrong but I agree, just waiting for it all to gel given the family history and his struggles is NOT a good idea. 3. Although probably the best do it yourself at home program that includes a video component for remediating reading would be Barton Reading and Spelling it appears that the cost would be prohibitive. The levels are $250-$350 each and there are 10 of them (They do not equate to grade levels. You start at level one and progress through.) You can resell for nearly the original cost but Level 1 and 2 usually go very quickly. In fact, most students are able to go through the first three levels in one year. That's a lot to shell out in a year. After that, Level 4 usually takes quite a while and is frequently a bear to get through (may take 6 months to a year or longer, depending on the student and any co-morbid issues/strengths) but Level 5 may take just a couple of months. Anyway, if they could swing it, that would be my first suggestion since the TM is very scripted, there is video support for the tutor, tons of on-line support for the tutor, etc. 4. If Barton isn't an option and they don't have insurance that will help cover an neurospych exam then maybe go with ElizabethB's stuff. She has free materials on her website and can answer questions. http://www.thephonicspage.org/ She has helped quite a few with her site. 5. Suggest your friend read The Mislabeled Child by Brock and Fernette Eide and maybe Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz to start out with. After that maybe The Dyslexic Advantage by Brock and Fernette Eide. She needs to do research and come at this from a place of knowledge. It is going to be on her shoulders to be her child's advocate. The school system may want to help but in all likelihood even the "experts" are going to have limited scientifically based knowledge of what may be happening, plus a whole lot of misinformation and poor assumptions. There are exceptions but... 6. They might also look to see if there is a Scottish Rite in the area that does testing for dyslexia or at least free or low cost reading remediation. Hugs and good luck to her... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 I would check into state child's medicate and try to get them to cover a screening by the dev. optom, just to make sure that's part of it. He's old enough for her to get the ps to run evals for the dyslexia. The difference between the process before and what she did now is that by homeschooling she's not waiting for them to decide to eval. She may be able to get a "parent support" person provided by the school. Some districts have grant funding for this. She needs to go in knowing exactly what she needs. Yes to the Scottish Rite. Thing is, it's not a full psych eval and not an OT eval. She probably has more going on, and the ps evals would get her all that. If she intervenes *before* she gets the ps evals, all she does it make it harder to get the disabilities diagnosed later. Thing is, if she goes in having just done Hooked on Phonics, I'm sorry but they're probably going to want RTI. So she's going to have to step her instruction and do more than that. I would do the Barton pretest, because it's free. The cost of Barton should be factored against the STRONG RESALE VALUE. Barton will cost her less than buying 3 other less expensive things that are mistakes. She can use the library for everything else to save money. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caedmyn Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 She could look at Abecedarian. It is fairly inexpensive and there's even some levels for sale on homeschoolclassifieds right now. There's a placement test on their website. It is working well for my 7 yo who I believe has dyslexia (not formally tested). He made loads of progress in 6 weeks with ABCD Short Level A. I think it may not be enough for a kid who's severely dyslexic though. It is pretty straightforward but there is a bit to read before starting teaching. The author has been very helpful and I bet if she emailed him he'd tell her what pages absolutely needed to be read before starting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geodob Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 In regard to the struggle with letter recognition and lots of reversals? Perhaps you could ask your friend to do a simple test? Just ask your friend to hold a page of letters/ text next to a mirror? Then to ask her son to try reading the letters/ text in the mirror? Specifically observing whether he has greater letter recognition, with the letters/ text reversed? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted June 8, 2016 Author Share Posted June 8, 2016 It looks like the Dyslexia Foundation can do an assessment for Dyslexia for $225-not a full Neuropsych, but enough to give an idea of where to start. They also offer reasonably low cost multisensory phonics tutoring, parent training, and have a materials library. So hopefully, she can get some answers, and help her son earlier rather than going through the years of struggle her older DD has faced. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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