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I have a 10 year old girl, diagnosed six months ago as both dyslexic and dysgraphic.  No surprise there.  In the past, maybe 18 months ago, she was assessed by an O-G tutor who confirmed my suspicions that she was dyslexic but she was mostly re-mediated as far as reading goes.  I understood that to mean that the methods I was using were good and she had solid phonics and "word attack" tools behind her.  

 

At this point she's reading through "History of the Horse" unit study by Beautiful Feet books with audio book/hard copy pairing and I think that's working fairly well for her.  She is just over half way through Horizons Elevate phonics (their program for older kids).  She completed REWARDS last year.  The years before that, we worked veeerrrrry slowly through OPGTR.  I don't know that any of these programs have been AMAZING for her.  Just a steady year's worth of reading improvement each year, according to standardized testing we do in May, although the results are always a year or so behind where she "should" be.  At this point, I'd say she's reading at an approximate grade four level.  

 

What do I do now?  In the fall, she'll be in sixth grade, about to turn 11.  What isn't babyish, doesn't require a TON of input/time/money from me (I home school three other kids, one of whom is also mildly dyslexic)?  It will need to propel her forward (fourth grade reading is not adequate, is it?!)  When does phonics stop?  If ever?  I'd guess to say that she'll probably still need phonics review if not instruction, but fluency is more of an issue than anything.  

 

Limitations besides oodles of time and money:  We don't have any appropriate reading tutors in our small town.  Internet connection isn't adequate for skype tuturing (we're very rural!).  I live in Canada, so neither Learning Ally nor Kindle Immersion are available to us.  I tried!

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I don't know overall, but look into fluency.

 

There are books and programs just for fluency, that are available.

 

They can include things like: reading below level, repeated reading, reading out loud for short passages, and timed reading.

 

I have never done timed reading, my son doesn't do well with anything timed.

 

But I have done many of the other suggested things for fluency.

 

I didn't use Barton, I used "just phonics" kinds of programs.

 

That means they don't include fluency (or don't include sufficient fluency to meet my son's needs). So I needed to add fluency separately.

 

The good news about fluency is there is a lot available, and it is less complicated than phonics.

 

There are two parts of fluency. One is reading in a smooth, fluid, expressive way. One is reading faster.

 

They do go together, but things seem focused more on one or the other.

 

My son read very choppy, little expression, poor phrasing, etc. so that is what I was more focused on.

 

A lot of it is just ways to practice reading smoothly and with expression and phrasing, by practicing these things, and practicing reading things where the phonics side will be easier so they can focus on reading fluently instead of focusing on phonics.

 

I don't think this is your whole answer, but 15-30 minutes a day doing something for fluency should help with fluency :)

 

My son is still not the most expressive reader, but he is a lot less choppy and his phrasing is much better than it used to be. He can read out loud okay. He does miss words here and there and re-read sentences here and there, but it isn't so choppy that he just avoids doing it.

Edited by Lecka
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I have not used these, but I have looked at the websites.... but examples of fluency programs are Read Naturally, Great Leaps, um that is all I can think of.

 

Readingrockets.org has information about fluency.

 

I read a book about fluency from the library that had ideas for teaching phrasing and noticing punctuation. I want to say by Wiley Blevins. You could look on Amazon for books about teaching fluency.

 

I had this same kind of thing, for dyslexia so much focus is on phonemic awareness and phonics, and then fluency is not mentioned as much.

 

But my son needed a lot of work on fluency!

 

I think it is bc there is a lot available for fluency, you don't have to look for special dyslexia programs.

 

There are dyslexia programs that include fluency, too.

 

The ones you mentioned sound like ones I used, more focused on phonics and not so much on fluency.

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Edited...

 

That would be good for vocabulary, too.

 

I also think -- a reading tutor would have probably done fluency practices all along in some fashion. I didn't and programs I used didn't. Or -- they included just a little and I didn't recognize I should do more.

 

So I think that is part of why it was a weaker area for my son.

Edited by Lecka
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Ok, if you're open to it, you could consider a grade adjustment. She's going to be 10 in the fall, turning 11 after the cutoff? Or does Canada use a different cutoff? In the US, she would be a rising 5th grader. A *few* states still have Dec. cutoffs, but there's a trend to move them earlier. So here, she'd be a rising 5th grader. That grade adjustment could buy you some more time and lower your stress. I think your stress is partly that she's not at all ready to do academic reading (reading to learn) and partly that you see time going quickly. So slow down time.

 

Next, I think you might find it helpful to look through the scope and sequence of every level of Barton. That way you can see your holes and where you are in the process to pick up and move forward. Like you say, maybe you don't use Barton. But the topics of every single lesson for every single level are available publicly on her site. That would let you make a game plan.

 

Next, Barton just put out a video on her FB feed discussing how to handle summer with dyslexics. I don't know HOW your supposed OG tutor thinks a 4th grade reading level is remediated and needs no intervention. Either your data is wrong or she's crazy. A rising 6th grader at a 4th grade reading level still has a significant deficit. That means she can't write at grade level without using dictation tech, nothing. So that doesn't add up.

 

So Barton basically is saying use the same, work an hour a day, and if you're homeschooling drop everything else. So 23 hours of break, 1 hour a day of serious work on her dyslexia. Do you have her CTOPP scores? When people are saying remediated but still clearly dyslexic, sometimes they're looking at the RAN/RAS scores as a lagging indicator. RAN/RAS is VERY, very, very easy (and fun!) to work on and will improve fluency. I've given links in the past to my files, so search for them. If you did the RAN/RAS exercises and your intervention materials, you could probably make significant progress over the summer. I would not count RAN/RAS in the one hour a day. Do those during some movement breaks.

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Thank you very much for all your replies!  I'm sorry I don't have time to reply this morning (it's town day.  Packing the whole kit and kaboodle up for the day)  

 

OhElizabeth, just wanted to quickly add that when she used the term remediated, I think she meant more like she had good methods behind her, solid phonics, not necessarily that she was "done".  I haven't tested her reading yet this year, I'm hoping it's high fourth grade or maybe even low fifth, but that might be a stretch.  I didn't get CTOPP scores from the psychologist - don't even know what that is?  I'll look through the papers again, but maybe the assessment process is different here.  And no problems with considering her a fifth grader again (except for math cause she's average/above average in math).  I usually group her with her younger brother for all content subjects anyhow.  Our cut off is December 31, but many parents keep their kids back if they're born in late November or December.

 

Thanks again every one!

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