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still having trouble with multi-syllable words


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My 12 YO who I believe has mild stealth dyslexia has almost finished Barton 6 and is still having trouble with some multi-syllabic words.  She always has to slow down a bit to decode the ones she doesn't know by sight, but not infrequently one stumps her.  Even when she divides it on paper she still has trouble sounding out each syllable and then putting it back together.  I can't figure out what the hang-up is because they don't seem to be any more complicated than the words she does ok with--it might be a word like compilation or intricate.  I don't know if she's mentally confusing it with another similar-sounding word or if she gets a little anxious and freezes a bit or what.  I went back and did Level 1 which she'd tested out of and she had no trouble with that, and we reviewed the syllable division rules in Level 4 also and that didn't help either.  It's not an issue of knowing how to divide them, it's something else.

 

Any suggestions on what might be causing this or how to work on it?  The only thing I can think of to do is find some multi-syllabic nonsense words somewhere and have her work through those. She can read somewhere between 50-90% of the words (depending on the lesson) in the Barton lessons fluently at the start of each lesson so I don't think she gets as much practice breaking words down as most kids who do Barton do. 

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Barton has extra lists for fluency drills in the tutor support section. Also, shhh, but I've been thinking about getting that OWL polysyllable (Potter) book. My ds tends to be able to guess easier, more common words, so I figured it would get him more practice.

Edited by PeterPan
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I'd try REWARDS first (as suggested by KathyBC).  It is an incredibly powerful program, easy to implement, and short and sweet (there are only 20 lessons and they don't take very long).

 

The other thing I'd try would be to do fluency readings.  You don't need a special program for this.  Just start with books that are easy for your daughter to read aloud and have her read aloud to you every single day with the goal being for her to read aloud comfortably for 30 minutes at a stretch.  Then, over time, gradually increase the reading level until she is able to read fluently at a level commensurate with her underlying intellectual ability.

 

If she's still having trouble, you might want to take her for a developmental vision assessment.

Edited by EKS
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Here are some regular and nonsense words to divide from my syllables lessons. My syllables page also has hundreds of nonsense words arranged by type that you can use to make more. For complex patterns, I like to use a mix of real and nonsense words. Because of the difference in syllable division patterns between romance and Anglo Saxon origin words, some of the harder patterns I left real words, not nonsense words.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/Resources/Syllable%20Division%20Exercises%20Nonsense%20Words.pdf

 

Webster’s Speller, Megawords, and Sophris West Rewards are all good sources of additional multi-syllable words.

 

It might be a phonemic awareness problem, one of my students with phonemic awareness problems has troubles with multi-syllable words with a few sound patterns, it is the sounds and sound mixes of syllables, not the type of syllable division, that messes her up. I told her mom to get a good speech therapist to work with her on it.

 

The Webster words are arranged by accent pattern, that might help you find particular groupings that need work. For that, you need the complete Webster, not just the excerpts used in my syllables program, here is a direct link to that, there is a lot of stuff on Don’s page!

 

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/websterspellingbookmethod.pdf

Edited by ElizabethB
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Well English is stupid because it breaks so many rules but I am assuming that she learned open and closed syllable patterns?

I don't have a recomendations for a program but when she is reading write down any word she had a hard time segmenting and put it on your spelling list for the week or whatever. Then write the words on one she of paper each and have her practace cutting them up into syllables.

Magnet letters or tiles are also great for this.

I have a daughter who is bilingual and I have figured out that English is a lot of exposure and context guessing along with following rule strategies. Some kids make the leap faster and easier. Some take longer and need more exposure and encouragement.
 

Edited by exercise_guru
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I'd try REWARDS first (as suggested by KathyBC).  It is an incredibly powerful program, easy to implement, and short and sweet (there are only 20 lessons and they don't take very long).

 

The other thing I'd try would be to do fluency readings.  You don't need a special program for this.  Just start with books that are easy for your daughter to read aloud and have her read aloud to you every single day with the goal being for her to read aloud comfortably for 30 minutes at a stretch.  Then, over time, gradually increase the reading level until she is able to read fluently at a level commensurate with her underlying intellectual ability.

 

If she's still having trouble, you might want to take her for a developmental vision assessment.

 

Where do you get this program anyone have a link?

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We've had success with Rewards. We're at the end (went through it twice) and looking for the next thing.

My syllables program, the full Webster, Megawords, Don Potter’s wise owl syllables, Marcia Henry’s Words.

 

Here is a link to Words, it is a nice resource.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Words-Integrated-Decoding-Instruction-Structure/dp/1416404414/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520965397&sr=8-1&keywords=Marcia+Henry+words

Edited by ElizabethB
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Where do you get this program anyone have a link?

 

Here's the link to the company: http://www.voyagersopris.com/literacy/rewards/overview

 

Here's a link to the teacher's guide on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rewards-Teachers-Guide-Multisyllabic-Development/dp/1570352712

 

Here's a link to the student workbook on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rewards-Student-Vachon-Archer-Gleason/dp/1570352720/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520965198&sr=1-1&keywords=rewards+sopris+west+student

 

You need both the teacher and student books to do the program.

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My syllables program, the full Webster, Megawords, Don Potter’s wise owl syllables, Marcia Henry’s Words.

 

Here is a link to Words, it is a nice resource.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Words-Integrated-Decoding-Instruction-Structure/dp/1416404414/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520965397&sr=8-1&keywords=Marcia+Henry+words

 

Thank you! It would be great if there were samples on Amazon. $60 is a lot for something you can't preview. :(

 

I appreciate you sharing the resources.

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Advanced Search : PRO-ED Inc. Official WebSite  Words by Marcia Henry is published by ProEd, which is ProEdInc, the company that bought out Linguisystems, a pretty well-known speech therapy company. Linguisystems still has a separate site, but it was something like that.

 

Anyways, price from ProEd is $45, and they should have samples. I don't know that I've ever gotten coupons from them.

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Thank you! It would be great if there were samples on Amazon. $60 is a lot for something you can't preview. :(

 

I appreciate you sharing the resources.

 

There are samples on Pro-Ed, but the lesson is very early on, the later lessons are multi-syllable words.  It is also a bit cheaper from Pro-Ed, I have ordered from them with no problem and Don Potter has ordered several different products from them.

 

https://www.proedinc.com/Products/12626/words-integrated-decoding-and-spelling-instruction-based-on-word-origin-and-word-structuresecond-edition.aspx

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We did Rewards before starting Barton. It helped but Barton helped more...still something holding her up though. I don't think she has APD. It's not phonemic awareness because that's what Barton level 1 covers and she had no trouble with that. She reads fluently overall but maybe some extra practice with long word would help.

 

Whoever was looking at Rewards, I found older editions on Amazon cheap. I think I paid about $5 for an unused student book and a little more, maybe $10 for the teacher manual.

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