Help with a few letters that aren't sticking...

[mskelly]

I am tutoring a boy who is repeating Kinder at the PS.  I asked on the Pre K/K board for some help and got great ideas, but they also suggested posting here.

The child is 6.5. He can not name all of the letters. There are about 10-12 he still struggles with.  However, the letter sounds...no problem. He has low phonemic awareness though...does not identify rhyming words, has trouble telling me the first sound of cat (for example), how many sounds are in the word ____,etc. I've been using Elkonin boxes with some success.  Sight words, which they worked on all year last year in K, are not happening for him.  Today I noticed he has trouble telling words apart. I had words from our Bob book spread around the room and we were walking the path of words. He would come to a word and not recognize that the same word was on the card 3 spots back.  Then I had him walk around and find all the "has" cards. He thought has and hot were the same.  Even when I pointed out that the first letter is the same, but the other letters are different, he wasn't seeing it.

Any suggestions?

He has been tested at school but so far only qualifies for Speech/Language.  

[Rosie_0801]

So far, I've managed to remediate those sorts of problems by teaching them to finger spell.

[mskelly]

Do you mean sign language?

[PeterPan]

You're describing pretty typical dyslexia. Does he pass the Barton screening? Grade retention is NOT evidence-based as a solution for this, and given how old he is, he's on track to be more likely to drop out later, etc. It's essential at this point the parents get private evals, get everything diagnosed, and get complete intervention. How much time do you have with him and how prepared are you to do dyslexia-appropriate intervention? He needs 3-5 hours a week of dyslexia-appropriate intervention at this point.

Have you done the Barton pre-test or something similar? It sounds like he might not pass, in which case it gets more challenging because you're looking at the convergence of his speech and phonological processing problems. You might end up wanting to refer them to an SLP who focuses on literacy or someone who is prepared to handle that.

Does he have other delays? Can the parents make private evals happen or go through the dispute process with the school and make the school pay for independent evals? It's outrageous that the dc is not receiving intervention and was retained. That is NOT evidence-based and that's something they could have fought. There's possibly more going on, a larger picture. Definitely something isn't right.

[mskelly]

22 hours ago, PeterPan said:

You're describing pretty typical dyslexia. Does he pass the Barton screening? Grade retention is NOT evidence-based as a solution for this, and given how old he is, he's on track to be more likely to drop out later, etc. It's essential at this point the parents get private evals, get everything diagnosed, and get complete intervention. How much time do you have with him and how prepared are you to do dyslexia-appropriate intervention? He needs 3-5 hours a week of dyslexia-appropriate intervention at this point.

Have you done the Barton pre-test or something similar? It sounds like he might not pass, in which case it gets more challenging because you're looking at the convergence of his speech and phonological processing problems. You might end up wanting to refer them to an SLP who focuses on literacy or someone who is prepared to handle that.

Does he have other delays? Can the parents make private evals happen or go through the dispute process with the school and make the school pay for independent evals? It's outrageous that the dc is not receiving intervention and was retained. That is NOT evidence-based and that's something they could have fought. There's possibly more going on, a larger picture. Definitely something isn't right.

 

I don't have experience with dyslexia, but that did enter my mind.  Thanks for posting about the Barton pre-test.  I will do that with him next week.  Unfortunately, I only see him for two 30 minute sessions per week.  I wish I could see him every day...all day! He lives with his grandmother and she does all she can for him, but funds are very limited for private evals.  I am going to be on her to be on the school though! When I started with him at the end of the school year last year I was confident I'd have him up to speed when school started in August.  I was hoping the school would reconsider and place him in first grade if he could pass the assessments.  He can't pass them though and they won't move him on.  I think if they could have done private testing over the summer and had a diagnosis to take back to the school they would pass him.  I'm thrilled with the progress he made, but he's not where he needs to be.  I totally understand every child learns to read when they are ready and I agree 100 %. However, there is definitely something else happening.   

I did find a dyslexia clinic at a local children's hospital.  Again, the $$ for testing is a problem. Also, getting him there would be nearly impossible. ? 

[mskelly]

On 8/15/2018 at 4:07 PM, Rosie_0801 said:

So far, I've managed to remediate those sorts of problems by teaching them to finger spell.

This is interesting. Although he's a bit "reluctant" to  put motions with sounds I do them anyway when I'm modeling.  I catch him doing the motions without realizing it!
I will have to brush up on my signs!

[PeterPan]

If he's in the US, grandma needs to make a written request for evals, saying she suspects a learning disability. 

[*****]

This infuriates me, as at 6.5 and having this much difficulty, the school should be doing something about it! (I am special ed certified and see continually how the schools ignore this for years, ugh!)     Dyslexia is a language based disability. I am glad he is getting therapy for this, but yes, it is time to re-evaluate.  

 I know too that schools are still reluctant to test so early and I have seen them not label a child dyslexic, but rather in the 'low range' cognitively, when I knew better.   So private eval can be very helpful...does her insurance or medicaid cover this (I am guessing, but have no experience with this...someone else might be able to give suggestions on this).  Everything you mentioned, it sounds like he would definitely not pass the pretest of Barton.   See this from Susan Barton for a great deal of info, especially her free videos: https://www.dys-add.com/dyslexia.html

The Foundations in Sounds program can help with passing Part C of the Barton screening.  I would highly recommend looking in to this.  Also see https://sightwords.com/ for a plethora of ideas for phonemic awareness activities and games for beginning reading.  Mskelly, it sounds like you are doing a great service in trying to help, good for you!?