Continued O-G reading practice after All About Reading, Level 4?

[pitterpatter]

DD9 is dyslexic (undiagonosed, but obviously so...also has a bit of convergence excess). She completed AAR4 a year ago. This past year she completed CLE Reading for third grade, which we both loved. CLE readers are leveled and require students to read aloud every other day. They also read the same story two days in a row.

 

I think she reads fairly well, aside from the starting/stopping/skipping of small words/self-correcting she does when she reads aloud. Her comprehension is quite good when she reads silently and aloud, regardless of any mistakes she makes.

 

I've read in other posts about continued O-G remediation/practice at her age/level, but haven't seen any specific recommendations. We do still use All About Spelling. I was just going to continue with CLE this year, but now I'm wondering if we should be doing something more. I'm not convinced any amount of practice is going to help her with the starting/stopping/skipping small words bit. We've been working on this for the past two years with no real improvement in this regard.

 

We got through about a third of Rewards last year, but decided to dump it. Their methods clash with what AAR teaches, particularly in regard to dividing words into parts. It was grating to DD and to myself as well.

[OneStepAtATime]

Her fluency issues may be corrected with an OG based program that is specifically designed for dyslexics. Many dyslexics do very well with smoothing out fluency issues if they have the right program.

[pitterpatter]

Can anyone recommend some O-G-based programs designed for children with dyslexia? TIA!

[OneStepAtATime]

There are several. Probably the easiest to implement by a layman at home would be Barton Reading and Spelling. It is pricey but compared to paying a dyslexia tutor it is waaaaaaay cheaper over the long haul, plus you can sell the levels after use for nearly the same price new. Just make sure to spend the extra $10 to get a second set of tiles for each level after level one since they will be used cumulatuvely for quite some time.

 

Or you can keep the levels and tutor other students for extra income and to cover the cost of additional levels. Dyslexia tutors can make between $50 an hour and $150 an hour, sometimes more (and sometimes a bit less).

 

The levels do not equate to grade levels. Some students can get through level 1-3 in a year or less. Level 1 is short and may seem incredibly basic but for many dyslexics it can end up being the missing component that unlocks reading, writing, spelling for a dyslexic. If a student completed Level 1 very quickly, Susan Barton will let you exchange Level 1 for Level 2 at no additional charge so it really doesn't hurt to just start with level 1. Gets both tutor and student used to the system and if they don't fly through then the level was needed anyway.

 

Both the student and the tutor need to do the screenings to confirm they can use the program effectively. The screenings are not for knowledge but for things like sound descrimination.

 

There are about a zillion threads here on Barton if you want to do some additional research.

[pitterpatter]

I'm familiar with Barton. I spent quite a bit of time in this section of the forums a year or so ago (received a lot of good info then), but haven't logged onto the forums much in general the past six months or so. I don't think DD needs that level of intervention. I was a co-leader for her Girl Scout troop this past year and she reads as well as or better than most of the girls at her level (and better than several older girls). She reads with expression and at a decent pace. Her reading can just be a bit messy at times (likely due in part to convergence excess...we decided against vision therapy). Her real deficit is spelling.

 

I'm picking out her curriculum for next year and am trying to figure out whether there's anything more to be done in regard to her fluency. Or, whether we should just continue to use O-G strategies for decoding with regular reading curriculum. She did well with CLE this past year. The stories themselves weren't particularly challenging, she's just not a smooth reader half the time.

[OneStepAtATime]

Then you are right, she may not need that level of intervention.  FWIW, though, the starting/stopping/skipping small words is very specifically addressed in Barton.  

 

The vision issues may be causing some of her spelling problems.  Was there a particular reason that you decided against VT?

 

Barton was a HUGE help for my DD with regards to spelling in particular but she also was really struggling with reading and writing, so for her Barton was a win/win/win on all three sides.  She definitely needed that level of intervention.

 

For just spelling alone are you saying that AAS really hasn't helped much?

 

 

[pitterpatter]

DD was diagnosed with slight convergence excess. After extensive interviewing, it felt like the doctor was trying to sell us something that may not truly be needed/warranted. We talked to the doctor about dyslexia. She is a non-believer that such a thing even exists. (All reading difficulties apparently stem from the eyes.) Honestly, our overall experience with the doctor wasn't great and our options in this area are extremely limited.

 

It's not that AAS hasn't helped (we've made it through AAS 3). Overall, DD does pretty well with AAS. The problem is that she has to stop and really think how to spell several words in every sentence she writes (particularly outside of the AAS setting). Spelling them isn't automatic for her. This slows her way down when writing and frustrates her to no end. She knows the rules and can apply them correctly (most of the time), but she has to stop and think. Thus, when she's on her own, she's often reluctant to use the strategies she knows. She's not consistent either. She may spell a word correctly one day and miss it the next. She inverses letters and generally has a hard time with some sounds (au/aw for one, often drops the h from sh although she knows how the sound is spelled). I'm tempted to start the year with Apples & Pears to see whether her spelling speed improves.

 

Having gone through multiple levels of AAR and AAS and progressed to a traditional reading program that DD likes, I don't really want to switch over to another all-in-one tile program. We are getting to a point where we want to be long done with tiles. Surely there's a supplement of some sort that can help with the starting/stopping/skipping thing. That's her biggest issue with reading, but the girls in her Girl Scout troop read in similar fashion. (The thought has crossed my mind that several of them have vision issues or are dyslexic too, though.)

 

 

Then you are right, she may not need that level of intervention.  FWIW, though, the starting/stopping/skipping small words is very specifically addressed in Barton.  

 

The vision issues may be causing some of her spelling problems.  Was there a particular reason that you decided against VT?

 

Barton was a HUGE help for my DD with regards to spelling in particular but she also was really struggling with reading and writing, so for her Barton was a win/win/win on all three sides.  She definitely needed that level of intervention.

 

For just spelling alone are you saying that AAS really hasn't helped much?