homeschooling help!!

[Hema]

My 1st grade daughter (7years old)has just been officially diagnosed with Specific learning disability or Dyslexia. Can someone guide me and let me know how to start homeschooling so that she can excel in her studies? Also have anyone done Feuerstein instrumental enrichment course to help child with such difficulties. If yes please share if it was effective.

Thanks

[Rosie_0801]

Welcome to the forum. 🙂

A lot of people use Barton with kids with dyslexia. I've not used it but someone is bound to chime in here with their experience. I teach the syllabary using the old fashioned spellers. Our wonderful ElizabethB here on the forum has video lessons (for you, not the child) on her website. I used 'Apples and Pears' spelling with my dd too. We did most of that using fingerspelling instead of writing because my daughter also has dysgraphia. We did a lot of maths orally or with me scribing too. It's important to keep in mind what lesson you really want the child to learn, and isolate that. If they are forced to practice reading and spelling in every lesson, they won't have enough brain space left over for the actual content, kwim? We read aloud a lot, of course, particularly books above her reading level, discussing words and ideas she didn't understand. 

I've never heard of Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment course, but I am always suspicious of websites that tell you how splendid they are, with no examples of what they are offering.

[Melissa in Australia]

Welcome to the forum

I have successfully homeschooled my dyslexic children all the way through to tertiary level.

An important thing I found was to read, read, read to my children. Read all their science, History, math word problems, etc. have as much as you can as oral discussion instead if requiring written answers, and scribe, scribe scribe for them. My children also have Dysgraphia,  2 have dyscalculia, and 1 has 2E

We did intensive phonics courses,  an Australianised version of Spalding.   I am now using All About Reading and really  like it.

don't compare you child to others and where they are at. I always told my children that Dyslexia is a gift-  it is a different way of using the brain. the way of great inventors and scientists, people with average to  higher than average IQ

[hepatica]

I'm a huge Barton fan. I know it seems expensive, but IMO there is nothing else like it for home teachers. I homeschooled three dyslexic children and didn't use Barton until the third (I tried just about everything else at one point or another), and if I could go back in time I would definitely use it for all three of my children. 

I agree that reading aloud and audio books are essential!!!! My kids were able to keep their vocab scores in the superior range even though it took forever to get them reading somewhat fluently.  Reading is not just about decoding. Reading comprehension relies heavily on vocabulary knowledge and dyslexic kids can fall behind if they do not have access to rich reading material both fiction and non-fiction. Read aloud history and science and literature etc so that they can keep up with their vocab and content knowledge. 

Also, remember, dyslexia is a processing difference, so it can impact spelling and writing and math, not just reading. 

[Pen]

8 hours ago, Hema said:

My 1st grade daughter (7years old)has just been officially diagnosed with Specific learning disability or Dyslexia. Can someone guide me and let me know how to start homeschooling so that she can excel in her studies? Also have anyone done Feuerstein instrumental enrichment course to help child with such difficulties. If yes please share if it was effective.

Thanks

 

Hi!  I’ve not heard of Feuerstein.   If it is music, my son did have and enjoy some music lessons—guitar, ukulele...

I’m not able to make links work today, so where I know them I’ll put what I think are urls that you could search or cut and paste perhaps. 

I suggest starting out gently with an emphasis on real world learning—garden, nature, cooking,  music, art... which doesn’t even have to be called “school”.   Some audiobooks, or time you read aloud or tell stories, and just an hour or two of core academics, plus reading skills time should be fine at age 7. 

The core reading program that worked for my son was called High Noon from Academic Therapy Press.  www.highnoonbooks.com  the Two level intervention  program, plus Sound Out Chapter books.  They sell a lot, so it you are interested, and can’t figure out what I mean, quote this in a reply and I’ll try to give an exact link to what we used, at future time when links work for me.  Or search my username as I have posted about it before.

He also used www.talkingfingers.com which reinforced reading and sound discrimination skills, while also getting him started on typing (especially helpful since he also had dysgraphia). 

History, Science, etc: We used a great deal of audiobooks and documentary films.  Too many to remember or name now.  Susan Wise Bauer’s Story of the World in audio was a standout for history up to 4th grade level. 

My son did hands on nature study, gardening, animal care, etc as part of science.  

I also think BFSU (building foundations scientific understanding?) would be worth looking at. And Critical Thinking Press has some useful science materials, including one with simple experiments.

Math: for my son MathUSee worked best early on because of the page lay out and videos and blocks being good for dyslexia (word problems needed me to read them aloud till he was able on his own).   Critical Thinking Press also had lots of good math materials, balance Bender puzzles, computer based programs etc.  Their science books are also worth looking at IMO

At this point I would perhaps also give a try to Beast Academy (not available yet when my son was that age), which would probably have to be a read aloud by parent for a child with dyslexia, which could be a problem perhaps. 

The approach to writing (composition) that ended up working well for my son was Brave Writer. www.bravewriter.com

Penmanship: Zaner Bloser at home for manuscript printing or Getty-Dubay italics would be my recommendation. My son also had an IEP for writing at the local public school at same time as we were homeschooling.  They gave him some reading time, and time in computer lab for the talkingfingers typing or some online math (Khanacademy) or math games (cool math and sumdog) while we were there too . We gave up on cursive beyond him figuring out a signature when he was older. 

[Pen]

PS: my son started playing chess (for fun, not competition) at age 5 which, besides being a relaxing game and with magnetic sets good for waiting rooms, I think also builds logic and math abilities. 

Balance Benders puzzles mentioned above are also good for logic and math and don’t need reading.  

PPS the things I mentioned in post above might be gradually introduced from 1st to 3rd grade.  Not all piled on in 1st grade at age 7. 

 

My son is “2E” so we tended to gravitate to “high interest/low level” materials for reading. —High Noon was particularly strong on that.  And while dyslexia doesn’t go away, so my son remains a slow reader, he now (now 10th grade, public school) tests at 99th %ile in National standardized testing in language areas without extra time or accommodations.  It was a long road from him not reading at all age 8-9 to getting to this point.  

Keep a sense of the long distance and remember that your child will progress, that there may be ups and downs along the way,  that neither of you need to be perfect.

Also, in general, I recommend Carol Dweck book: Mindset

Susan Wise Bauer’s new book can’t recall title, on rethinking education.

Sally Shaywitz: Understanding Dyslexia 

Edited February 19, 2019 by Pen

[Pen]

Just looked up Feuerstein—looks interesting, not anything to do with musical instrument, I see.  

 

Related to that, I believe that the activity of remediation for dyslexia does apparently change brain function so that as more and more reading ability is acquired the brain (according to what I’ve read when scans are done before and after or however dyslexia can be seen beyond the outer impairment) becomes more like a non-dyslexic brain.  

That seems similar to the Feuerstein idea.  

Edited February 19, 2019 by Pen

[Storygirl]

I homeschooled my dyslexic daughter only through third grade, and we tried a mix of things that I can't say were extremely successful (her remediation came through tutoring), so I won't name specific programs but just a few pieces of advice.

Teaching a dyslexic child to read is challenging, and most typical reading programs that you can buy will not be sufficient for remediation. So look into reading programs specifically for dyslexia.

Make reading instruction a primary focus of your teaching, even if it means that your day will not look typical, with a typical course of studies. But learning to read with dyslexia is hard, hard work. So work some joy into each day as well by finding what your child is good at or loves and emphasize that, as well.

Many with dyslexia have trouble memorizing math facts. Don't get stuck on that. Keep moving forward with learning math but allow the use of number charts, manipulatives, calculators, etc. Sure, keep practicing math facts, but don't stall math progress to do that.

Try to also teach the enjoyable part of reading. Provide books that are at an easy to access level, so she can read some things for fun independently. Consider picture books, comics, graphic novels, and easy to read series books to increase the fun quotient and reduce the decoding required. if there is a movie version of a fun book, watch the movie first, then read the book. Yes, read aloud as much as you can. And play audiobooks.

I will be honest -- my two kids with reading disabilities do not choose to read for pleasure now that they are teens. Which makes me sad, but I also understand that it's hard to find pleasure in an activity that is so hard. There is no guarantee that reading for pleasure will end up being a choice for your child, but you can provide a language-rich environment at home, which may improve the odds. And creates a good foundation for any future.

[Pen]

4 hours ago, Storygirl said:

I will be honest -- my two kids with reading disabilities do not choose to read for pleasure now that they are teens.

 

Curious: do you mean not reading physical books visually or does this apply to audiobooks also?  

[Rosie_0801]

If there is any dysgraphia, she'll probably do better with joined writing, right from the beginning. This seems to be fairly common, as far as I can tell. My daughter couldn't memorise letter shapes at all until I started teaching two joined together, then she picked it up pretty well. Not neatly, though, but then her old mum has a touch of dysgraphia too.

[summerreading]

Welcome, I'm just chiming in to say I'm another one who wished they had started with Barton after trying a whole bunch of other stuff. I have three dyslexic kiddos. They all love audiobooks and I think that has really helped them have a good vocabulary. 

[Pen]

4 hours ago, Storygirl said:

I will be honest -- my two kids with reading disabilities do not choose to read for pleasure now that they are teens.

 

Curious: do you mean not reading physical books visually or does this apply to audiobooks also?  

 

@Hema I’m finding Feuerstein extremely interesting .  Looks like it mainly has been used for more profound problems than dyslexia—TBI, Down’s syndrome, etc.  , but I started to see things like this from a school in NZ about using it for all kids and some comments about it with regard to dyslexia - link if link will work:  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/77027669/null It looks like there’s a lot of Feuerstein in NZ as well as in Israel.  

Do you have a Feuerstein tutor or courses (or some such) available wherever you are?

I suspect that it won’t take the place of a reading program specifically geared to dyslexia, but it looks to me like it might greatly aid learning and coping in general.

I’d love to know more about what you might be considering with this, and if you try it, what your experience is.  

[Pen]

I found this as well:  http://www.feuersteininstitute.uk

which explains a bit some of the details 

one problem I see potentially is it looks like the training is oriented to areas that tend to already be strengths for many dc with dyslexia.  They tend to be, in my admittedly very limited experience, good at logic, good at spatial reasoning...  they have a specific problem in regard to reading (and often also writing) as a translation of on the page words into meaningful language (or for writing as translation of thoughts into on the page words).  

Perhaps this is why the article about using it in NZ classrooms said Feuerstein was good for allowing children with dyslexia who often struggle to have an area where they can shine.  

[Storygirl]

4 hours ago, Pen said:

 

Curious: do you mean not reading physical books visually or does this apply to audiobooks also?  

They are not interested in audiobooks, either.

DS14 (SLD reading comprehension) spends his free time drumming or playing bass guitar, so he wouldn't be able to listen simultaneously, and he would strenuously object to the idea (he is oppositional). I could probably encourage more audiobook listening for DD13 (dyslexia) and should try to, but I would have to require it. I've found that requiring things that they don't want to do tends to backfire, sadly. Until a couple of years ago, we did a ton of reading aloud, even after they were enrolled in school, so we never used audiobooks at home much, and they didn't develop a habit.

If I could go back in time, I would have used audiobooks more with them when they were younger to develop that habit. So I would encourage that for others!

OP, in case you are not aware, a dyslexia diagnosis will allow you to get free audio materials from the National Library Service and Learning Ally, if you apply.

[Pen]

1 hour ago, Storygirl said:

They are not interested in audiobooks, either.

DS14 (SLD reading comprehension) spends his free time drumming or playing bass guitar, so he wouldn't be able to listen simultaneously, and he would strenuously object to the idea (he is oppositional).

 

If comprehension were difficult, even listening would probably not be enjoyable.  

1 hour ago, Storygirl said:

 

I could probably encourage more audiobook listening for DD13 (dyslexia) and should try to, but I would have to require it. I've found that requiring things that they don't want to do tends to backfire, sadly.

 

In teens for sure!

1 hour ago, Storygirl said:

 

Until a couple of years ago, we did a ton of reading aloud, even after they were enrolled in school, so we never used audiobooks at home much, and they didn't develop a habit.

If I could go back in time, I would have used audiobooks more with them when they were younger to develop that habit. So I would encourage that for others!

Good point!

1 hour ago, Storygirl said:

 

OP, in case you are not aware, a dyslexia diagnosis will allow you to get free audio materials from the National Library Service and Learning Ally, if you apply.

 

NLS If they are in USA— other things may be possible elsewhere.   

Currently I think it’s Bookshare, not Learning Ally that has free access.  LA lost their grant—or did they go back to free?

 

 I gave LA up when it  stopped being free.  If free again I’d like to get it back.  

[Melissa in Australia]

6 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said:

If there is any dysgraphia, she'll probably do better with joined writing, right from the beginning. This seems to be fairly common, as far as I can tell. My daughter couldn't memorise letter shapes at all until I started teaching two joined together, then she picked it up pretty well. Not neatly, though, but then her old mum has a touch of dysgraphia too.

I think this must depend on the child.

 I tried teaching mine cursive writing. they could do it perfectly if they were copying some text , but it was just patterns or artwork  for them, they could not read it at all. We eventually stuck straight with ball and stick very similar to the print in books. no Victorian cursive print script at all. once they got to the age of 10 or so we moved to using computers for just about all written work done by the student.

[Pen]

26 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I think this must depend on the child.

 I tried teaching mine cursive writing. they could do it perfectly if they were copying some text , but it was just patterns or artwork  for them, they could not read it at all. We eventually stuck straight with ball and stick very similar to the print in books. no Victorian cursive print script at all. once they got to the age of 10 or so we moved to using computers for just about all written work done by the student.

 

Pretty much same here.  Still using manuscript printing, not cursive.  

[Rosie_0801]

1 hour ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I think this must depend on the child.

 I tried teaching mine cursive writing. they could do it perfectly if they were copying some text , but it was just patterns or artwork  for them, they could not read it at all. We eventually stuck straight with ball and stick very similar to the print in books. no Victorian cursive print script at all. once they got to the age of 10 or so we moved to using computers for just about all written work done by the student.

I didn't use Victorian cursive. It's horrible.

[Melissa in Australia]

1 hour ago, Rosie_0801 said:

I didn't use Victorian cursive. It's horrible.

I completely agree

[Pen]

8 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said:

I didn't use Victorian cursive. It's horrible.

 

We tried much simpler cursive, but had problem that while Ds could do it beautifully as an art form, he wasn’t connecting meaning to the forms.  Even type face variations in standard book print fonts were a huge thing to master—especially g and a which take many different forms in different fonts.  And to try to understand how different a written letter could be and still be a ___ rather than morphing to another letter or not discernible as any English letter was a challenge.  

I know for some kids with dyslexia cursive is supposed to be easier than printing. For ds, pictorially, the flowing movements for cursive were slightly easier, but the problem of connecting those movements and shapes in pencil (or finger in sand or whatever) to letters and words rather than meaningless squiggles was more struggle than seemed worth pursuing in a world where typing is an option, and where printing was mastered enough to do a school test, leave a note, or fill out a form.  

[Storygirl]

15 hours ago, Pen said:

 

 

NLS If they are in USA— other things may be possible elsewhere.   

Currently I think it’s Bookshare, not Learning Ally that has free access.  LA lost their grant—or did they go back to free?

 

 I gave LA up when it  stopped being free.  If free again I’d like to get it back.  

Too bad! I didn't know that Learning Ally had added a fee. I just checked, and it looks like it is $135 per year. 😟 But Bookshare is free.

https://www.bookshare.org/cms/bookshare-me/who-qualifies

[Pen]

I wonder if Hema is still around.  It’s a good thread anyway.

[Hema]

19 hours ago, Pen said:

I wonder if Hema is still around.  It’s a good thread anyway.

Sorry for being away for so long and THANKS for sharing your valuable learnings with me. All this will surely help me to start with. Will surely get back to you in case i am doing the feurestein instrumental course.

[Pen]

2 hours ago, Hema said:

Sorry for being away for so long and THANKS for sharing your valuable learnings with me. All this will surely help me to start with. Will surely get back to you in case i am doing the feurestein instrumental course.

 

Curious: What country are you in?

[Hema]

On 2/22/2019 at 2:23 AM, Pen said:

 

Curious: What country are you in?

I am from India. I have just started checking the sites suggested here. will surely need all your kind support in this journey. 

[Hema]

On 2/19/2019 at 8:32 PM, Rosie_0801 said:

Welcome to the forum.

A lot of people use Barton with kids with dyslexia. I've not used it but someone is bound to chime in here with their experience. I teach the syllabary using the old fashioned spellers. Our wonderful ElizabethB here on the forum has video lessons (for you, not the child) on her website. I used 'Apples and Pears' spelling with my dd too. We did most of that using fingerspelling instead of writing because my daughter also has dysgraphia. We did a lot of maths orally or with me scribing too. It's important to keep in mind what lesson you really want the child to learn, and isolate that. If they are forced to practice reading and spelling in every lesson, they won't have enough brain space left over for the actual content, kwim? We read aloud a lot, of course, particularly books above her reading level, discussing words and ideas she didn't understand. 

I've never heard of Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment course, but I am always suspicious of websites that tell you how splendid they are, with no examples of what they are offering.

hey thanks for sharing this wonderful site ....this would be a great help to start ...

[Hema]

On 2/19/2019 at 9:12 PM, hepatica said:

I'm a huge Barton fan. I know it seems expensive, but IMO there is nothing else like it for home teachers. I homeschooled three dyslexic children and didn't use Barton until the third (I tried just about everything else at one point or another), and if I could go back in time I would definitely use it for all three of my children. 

 I agree that reading aloud and audio books are essential!!!! My kids were able to keep their vocab scores in the superior range even though it took forever to get them reading somewhat fluently.  Reading is not just about decoding. Reading comprehension relies heavily on vocabulary knowledge and dyslexic kids can fall behind if they do not have access to rich reading material both fiction and non-fiction. Read aloud history and science and literature etc so that they can keep up with their vocab and content knowledge. 

Also, remember, dyslexia is a processing difference, so it can impact spelling and writing and math, not just reading. 

yes in maths she is facing problem in backward counting and skip counting concepts .... also she seems to be struggling with handwriting also ....any ideas how to work upon the same to make it easier for the child .

[Hema]

On 2/19/2019 at 9:47 PM, Pen said:

PS: my son started playing chess (for fun, not competition) at age 5 which, besides being a relaxing game and with magnetic sets good for waiting rooms, I think also builds logic and math abilities. 

Balance Benders puzzles mentioned above are also good for logic and math and don’t need reading.  

PPS the things I mentioned in post above might be gradually introduced from 1st to 3rd grade.  Not all piled on in 1st grade at age 7. 

 

My son is “2E” so we tended to gravitate to “high interest/low level” materials for reading. —High Noon was particularly strong on that.  And while dyslexia doesn’t go away, so my son remains a slow reader, he now (now 10th grade, public school) tests at 99th %ile in National standardized testing in language areas without extra time or accommodations.  It was a long road from him not reading at all age 8-9 to getting to this point.  

Keep a sense of the long distance and remember that your child will progress, that there may be ups and downs along the way,  that neither of you need to be perfect.

Also, in general, I recommend Carol Dweck book: Mindset

Susan Wise Bauer’s new book can’t recall title, on rethinking education.

Sally Shaywitz: Understanding Dyslexia 

I have already started reading understanding dyslexia and loving it so far ......will surely read other 2 as well,,,

[Pen]

50 minutes ago, Hema said:

yes in maths she is facing problem in backward counting and skip counting concepts

 

My son son managed to get quite good at maths without skip counting or backwards counting.  

He enjoyed playing math games on “Sumdog” - only free ones in our case- which was apparently being played by kids all over world.  I gave our homeschool a name and signed me up as teacher, him as student.  

MUS was a good math program for him at that age.  If you use it, Allow your child to spend time just building and playing with the blocks (as if they were Legos) — it helps build number and quantity sense.

Do real things, like building or sewing or cooking, with the child that involve measuring rather than just doing the thing by feel.  Try things like doubling or halving recipe or thing being made...  or even measure all sorts of things in house.  

I think it is okay to allow times tables charts to be used for maths.  Rather than to worry about memorizing.  If child makes out a new chart at start of week (or day) that can help gradually with memorizing.  My son also worked on memorizing maths facts while active with a ball.  And Sumdog computer game helped this too.  

I was recommended to start him on abacus (real type with two beads above bar- not sure if that’s Chinese or Japanese style), not child’s toy type,  to help gain number sense.  I did not know abacus myself, but wish we had followed this advice and learned together.

50 minutes ago, Hema said:

.... also she seems to be struggling with handwriting also ....any ideas how to work upon the same to make it easier for the child .

 

We deemphasized handwriting .  (Or did after several different teachers all trying didn’t get far, and I realized that the struggle wasn’t worth it in 21st century) Learned enough to print neatly for forms or required exams. Mostly he learned to type starting with www.talkingfingers.com program 

I prefer Zaner-Bloser or Getty-Dubay Italics for learning hand writing — my son does at least print legibly when necessary, though usually uses keyboard to write. Also speech to text, nowadays.

[Rosie_0801]

1 hour ago, Hema said:

yes in maths she is facing problem in backward counting and skip counting concepts ..

 

I don't believe my daughter would have learned maths at all if not for CSMP (google CSMP Materials and it should come up.) 
Have you tried a number line for the backwards counting, so she has something to look at? It might help to make it a vertical, rather than horizontal line for now.
Skip counting was instrumental here for learning to multiply, but that's too advanced for your dd for now.

 

[Pen]

5 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said:

 

I don't believe my daughter would have learned maths at all if not for CSMP (google CSMP Materials and it should come up.) 
Have you tried a number line for the backwards counting, so she has something to look at? It might help to make it a vertical, rather than horizontal line for now.
Skip counting was instrumental here for learning to multiply, but that's too advanced for your dd for now.

 

 

Ah yes, we used a vertical number line in the form of a thermometer at around the age of OPs dd.   The up and down direction seems better connected to more and less concept.  

 

[Hema]

On 2/27/2019 at 12:28 AM, Rosie_0801 said:

 

I don't believe my daughter would have learned maths at all if not for CSMP (google CSMP Materials and it should come up.) 
Have you tried a number line for the backwards counting, so she has something to look at? It might help to make it a vertical, rather than horizontal line for now.
Skip counting was instrumental here for learning to multiply, but that's too advanced for your dd for now.

 

will surely try using the same with my kiddo... and i truly appreciate you all to take out time and answer me appropriately. thanks !!