Severe Dyslexia

[PeterPan]

2 hours ago, caedmyn said:

I could be wrong, but I suspect the creators for FiS are parents of a child who needed it or LiPS.

We assumed as much given they provide zero qualifications on their site. Usually people who have them broadcast it.

2 hours ago, caedmyn said:

Two, FiS has very minimal troubleshooting included, none of which addressed the particular issues my child was having.

Yes, this is what I suspected happened and why I haven't been enthusiastic. If someone has that basic level knowledge, they have no clue the radically challenging situations a tool like LIPS was designed to help with.

2 hours ago, caedmyn said:

IMO it would have been way better if they would have limited the number of cards needed for that section with each lesson since working memory issues are so common with dyslexia.

And yes, I ended up making custom word lists as we went through LIPS. It sounds like the authors didn't understand how thorough and stepped  you have to be with the most serious kids. We continued it all through Barton 1 and I think much of Barton 2 iirc. For some kids it's just really essential methodology.

Well thanks for explaining the program. At least it got you where you needed to be, even if it wasn't as stellar as you had hoped. I think it would be hard for someone to make a fully scripted program for phonemic awareness that would fit all kids, because some kids need a level of detail that would bore others to tears. It's really a custom thing, something you alter on the fly, making more words, spending more time, whatever. 

[Heathermomster]

15 hours ago, caedmyn said:

Forgot to come back to this.  FiS is definitely more teacher-friendly.  LiPS and Barton say you need training to do LiPS but I and others on this board did it without training.  I will say that I didn't do the full LiPS program.  I just introduced all the consonants and we played with them some (don't remember the specifics of what LiPS suggested as it's been a few years) and then we moved back to Barton because I started it when my DS was most of the way through Barton Level 1 (long story) so I already knew he could distinguish between vowels and do the sound chains or whatever LiPS calls them.  I did LiPS with one child and FiS with another because I had a small baby and didn't feel like figuring out LiPS again.

Three things I didn't like about FiS: One, it uses pictures for the sounds instead of pictures of the mouth shape made by the sound like LiPS.  I'm guessing that they did this because Barton recommends drawing a picture to go along with a sound if the child is having trouble remembering what sound a letter makes. But to me it makes more sense to use the mouth pictures, and I suspect some kids would have an easier time with being able to see the mouth picture as a reminder.  I am no expert though.  My DS has done quite a bit of speech therapy so he did ok with the pictures.  You could certainly buy the mouth pictures alone directly from LiPS if you felt they were needed and go through the steps with first the mouth pictures, then the picture cards, then the blank tiles.

Two, FiS has very minimal troubleshooting included, none of which addressed the particular issues my child was having.  Others who've used it have said they provide better troubleshooting if you call them but I didn't try.  I wish there was more included like Barton includes quite a bit in their manuals.

Three: Once most or all of the sounds were introduced, the process of pulling down the matching picture cards for 3 letter combinations was very difficult for my DS.  He clearly has some major working memory issues, and trying to find the right card while remembering what sound he was looking for was really, really hard for him.   He did it with little trouble with the tiles though, so I ended up skipping the picture/sound-finding section in the last few lessons of FiS.  IMO it would have been way better if they would have limited the number of cards needed for that section with each lesson since working memory issues are so common with dyslexia.

I could be wrong, but I suspect the creators for FiS are parents of a child who needed it or LiPS.  It is definitely modeled after Barton and seems different enough from LiPS that I wonder if they don't have any speech therapy background or actual LiPS training.

Good job!  And thanks for the review.

OP, teaching these kids takes moxie and courage to adjust the program when it’s not working for the student. That’s hard to do sometimes when you don’t feel trained or qualified.

In my area, a local OG tutor teaches LiPS.  I’m fortunate that a local dyslexia school teaches OG certification classes and know several moms who became OG certified and used Wilson Reading materials with their children . Now that you have a diagnosis, start networking with people locally for moral and educational support.

Lastly, welcome to the boards!

[caedmyn]

On 5/9/2019 at 6:48 PM, PeterPan said:

We assumed as much given they provide zero qualifications on their site. Usually people who have them broadcast it.

Yes, this is what I suspected happened and why I haven't been enthusiastic. If someone has that basic level knowledge, they have no clue the radically challenging situations a tool like LIPS was designed to help with.

I will say that a few people on the Homeschooling with Barton FB group I’m in have said that they called FiS and got troubleshooting help that way, so it sounds like more’s available than what’s in the manual.