what affects visual memory/word recall in reading?

[caedmyn]

Thinking about DS6 reading the same words over and over in fluency drills and never getting to the point where he truly knows any of the words (ie can read reliably one in isolation without having to sound it out).  What can affect/cause poor visual memory or word recall besides dyslexia in general?  Just wondering if there's something else going on that I might be missing.  I will probably push for dyslexia evals for him this summer if his reading doesn't improve some once we start Barton.

[Kanin]

At Lindamood-Bell, they do a lot of "air-writing." You hold up a card for a few seconds (1 second per letter), and then put it down. The child has to write the word in the air from memory, and then you ask questions about it - like, "what's the first letter you see? What's the last letter you see? Now read the word." Things like that. Eventually you ask the child to switch a letter, so if the word is cat, you say, "now change the first letter to m, now what's the word?"

 

You start with just 2 letters on a card, and build up.  :001_smile:

[TheReader]

My son struggled similarly; he would read a small book (ex: a Bob Book), read a word fine on one page, yet still have to sound it out later or not recognize it even after multiple readings. He still has that, some (ex: I just learned he doesn't actually know how to spell his brother's name, though he has read it many times).

 

His LDs include dysphoneidactic dyslexia (meaning, both the auditory type and visual type), suspected auditory processing disorder, very very very slow processing speed (bottom 5%), very poor visual processing, very low working memory....probably some more stuff I am forgetting.

 

I think it is likely the working memory, dyslexia, and processing speed plus visual processing that all combine to make that particular thing a challenge, but I think working memory is a strong component of it.

 

To work on that, some things we have done/continue to do: practice the random access naming stuff. We do picture flash cards, crayons, number cards, letter cards (now that he knows letters), and he has to name as many as possible in a set time limit. The goal is to increase how many he can do in a set time frame. Then, we do strings of things, and he has to remember them and repeat them back. So, we use a game that is basically number cards. He draws one, says the name. I draw one, and say back his and mine. He draws one, and repeats back all three, and so on. We keep going until someone misses, with the goal being he retains more and more each time. You could do this with picture cards, too, or with mixes of things. We also play oral games like this with no visual component, like the old "I'm going to grandma's, and I am taking an apple..." The next person adds to the list, and so on. I do like the one with the visual component, though.

 

I don't know how much of his struggles are due to which part of all of his LDs, but Barton is helping, so hopefully it will help with your six year old if or when you decide to try it. We've only finished Level Two, but for the first time my son actually retains the way to pronounce the /th/ when he sees it in a word other than "the" -- he would unfailingly try to pronounce it as a /t/ /h/ every time before Barton. Similarly, he remembers the short vowel sounds and doesn't mix them up anymore, and now when he sees a word he has encountered, he actually remembers it.

 

If Barton can help him, with all the extra stuff he has going on, I truly believe it can help most people if not all, when the tutor and child are both committed to working it.

[PeterPan]

Well the reading improving with the Barton would more suggest that it *is* dyslexia, rather than it's not. ;)  Yes, he needs the evals. This should be a simple thing. Your ps could run it or any clinical psych or tutor with a CTOPP. Personally, I'd get a baseline. Then you'd have info to know if you need to work on RAN/RAS as well.

 

And for the nailing stuff, I put all the Barton words into quizlet and drilled them. You can download the quizlet app onto your phone, kindle, anything.

[geodob]

Sounds are stored in our Auditory Cortex, and images are stored in our Visual Cortex.

Where we actually have to develop neural connections between them.

So that he may just have to develop stronger connections between them?

 

To develop a stronger basic connection?   A simple approach uses photographs, with lots of 'things' in it, that he knows.

Where you just point at things, and ask him to name them.

You will be able to observe whether his difficulty with words, extends to 'things' as well?

 

But practicing naming things in photos.  Develops this stronger connection, which will carry over to linking written words with their sound. 

[MistyMountain]

Sounds are stored in our Auditory Cortex, and images are stored in our Visual Cortex.

Where we actually have to develop neural connections between them.

So that he may just have to develop stronger connections between them?

 

To develop a stronger basic connection? A simple approach uses photographs, with lots of 'things' in it, that he knows.

Where you just point at things, and ask him to name them.

You will be able to observe whether his difficulty with words, extends to 'things' as well?

 

But practicing naming things in photos. Develops this stronger connection, which will carry over to linking written words with their sound.

I just started doing this recently with my youngest and I am hoping it will help. I heard rapid naming is good for developing fluency. I printed some rapid naming a cards from TPT. I may look for some other ones to add variety.