Dobela Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 This is a cross post from the K-8 board. My son is 9 and a struggling reader. He also had severe fine motor delays and has been in occupational therapy for those for 2 years now. He has finally made huge gains there and can write his letters and numbers independently and correctly from memory for the first time this year. Printing only. We have not made it to cursive yet. I have been using the Barton system this year for reading, and while helping we are still not making much progress in reading. We tried several other methods in the past. He is starting to describe what is hard about reading. One is that words jump from one line to the next making it all confused. He will lay paper or his hands on the row above and the row below where he is reading to stop the jumping words. He is also still having difficulty distinguishing some letters when he sees them in print. I have noticed that when completing math problems with 2 digits add/subtract 2 digits, he has to start on the right side of the paper and work left. If he does that, he can make 100% every time. He can even work them out in his head without writing and make 100%. If I make him start on the left, he will miss every single one, even if they are the exact same problems he just completed. Something about changing directions so many times in a row just messes with his brain. He also cannot switch between vertical and horizontal problems on the same page without frustration. If I separate them onto separate pages, he can work them without issue. Last year I took him to an opthamologist who said he had better than perfect vision and that there were no eyeball problems. I didn't have him check visual tracking though because I wasn't thinking about it possibly being an issue. I am also concerned that he may truly be dyslexic. He is on a waiting list for academic testing at the only local place that does it independently. He can excell when everything is presented orally. He can actually work above grade level if I do it all orally. When I put anything on paper, he works/struggles on about a 1st grade level. I am looking for ideas and resources that I can use to help him with visual tracking and perception. If you know of any, I would love to have your recommendations. Thank you so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekarl2 Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 I highly recommend you look into having him screened for Irlen's. http://irlen.com/index.php. This goes undiagnosed for a lot of people, but is easily corrected. Whoopi Goldberg has it; she wears those colored glasses all the time to correct it. You can find a local screener on their web site. It's not very expensive. Blessings, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobela Posted March 6, 2009 Author Share Posted March 6, 2009 Erin, that is something I had not heard about. I will look into it more. Very interesting. Unfortunately that site didn't list anyone in my state, but I will keep looking. Possibly some one nearby can do diagnosis that isn't on their list. Thank you so much for taking time to post. I appreciate it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twinmom Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 (edited) I just wrote a long post as to how your son sounds like my DD, who ended up being dx with a visual processing disorder, but the computer ate it! No time to rewrite. :glare: The short version is that we had a developmental vision exam through a dev. optometrist and ended up in vision therapy. She also had 20/20 vision (actually better than 20/20!) but couldn't make out the shifting words, lines and numbers on a page with any regularity. During a summer of condensed, very hard and pretty expensive work, she went from a 1st grade to a 5th grade reading level! She's really doing great now...literally a different kid in terms of academic achievement as well as social confidence. You can find out more information about visual processing disorders as well as find a doc at www.covd.org . A good direct link to articles is http://www.covd.org/Home/AboutVisionLearning/tabid/102/Default.aspx . Edited March 6, 2009 by Twinmom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobela Posted March 7, 2009 Author Share Posted March 7, 2009 Jennifer, thanks so much for sharing your experience. Using that site I found an OD locally that does vision therapy and left a message. She only works 2 days a week. I am praying that this is just what we need, and that she can accept us, and that she is good at this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twinmom Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I'll be praying this works out for you as well! If this gal isn't a good fit, keep looking until you find the right person. Vision therapy is a new arena and some are better at it than others! Best of luck. PM if I can help you further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Everson Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Jennifer, thanks so much for sharing your experience. Using that site I found an OD locally that does vision therapy and left a message. She only works 2 days a week. I am praying that this is just what we need, and that she can accept us, and that she is good at this. I completely agree that your son should be seen by a developmental optometrist and that your son is likely to need vision therapy. It's surprising how many kids who struggle with reading are actually struggling with an undiagnosed problem with their visual efficiency skills, especially convergence insufficiency (an inability to bring both eyes together to view close-up clearly, as reading requires.) When picking an optometrist, try to get some parent references that you can check out to see if other parents were satisfied with results because vision therapy departments vary quite a bit in what they provide, and also in their charges. If you only have one provider in your area, of course, you'll have to take your chances, I suppose. After vision therapy (assuming you go through it) you should back up and make sure your son gets the phonics instruction again, as it very likely didn't "stick" very well if he was experiencing a vision problem of the sort addressed by vision therapy. There's good information about this sort of vision issue at the covd website (there's a 12-minute video there on a recent study on convergence insufficiency), at a site called childrensvision.com and at The Vision Piece (of the dyslexia puzzle) on my own site (where you'll also find an earlier study on convergence insufficiency discussed, as well as my own experiences working with kids with vision issues.) By the way, it's not exactly new. I have parents of some of the kids I work with who went through vision therapy 20-25 years ago. Developmental optometrists have been doing vision therapy for many decades, but it remained obscure until the internet made it easier for parents to communicate like this. Now knowledge of its usefulness is rapidly spreading, as it should. Rod Everson OnTrack Reading Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Check out the notched card to help him. http://www.roadstoeverywhere.com/3RsPlusfiles/Download/Notched_Card_Technique_000.pdf This is SUPER simple and cost about 10 cents to make (if that). It forces the kids to track left to right as they read. It is very portable, easy to replace if lost, etc. I used this with my dd who had lots of vision issues. She did 1 course of vision therapy with no real improvement. Now with the card she can read simple chapter books. http://www.roadstoeverywhere.com/3RsPlusRead.html This is the reading series I am using to teach her to read as well. The stories are cute and they give lots of practice with each new sound. Check out the UK link as that has even more information and examples (the US link is going to be updated soon). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobela Posted March 8, 2009 Author Share Posted March 8, 2009 When you read the performance problems on the covd website, my son has every single one, some more pronounced than others. Sigh, I hate that I didn't catch all of this sooner. I am praying that this works well too. I am willing to drive a long ways for this, but I would rather not if possible. I also have a special needs daughter and her appointments are never local. While the frequency of her appointments has slowed, we seem to spend way too much time in the car or waiting in an office somewhere. I have used the the in a card some, I used to teach elementary school and had used it in my classrooms, but ds really resists that. I guess because he has not seen other kids using it in co-ops or youth groups. I love the look of those books though. They remind me of Bob books and I love Bob books. Thanks so much for sharing that site. I have never heard of that company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 First, my own dd really resisted the notched card as well as it forced her to track left to right and it was HARD for her. With consistant use though it has become easier and easier for her. She can now track well without the card in her reading book. The I See Sam books are different from the Bob books in that they give a LOT more practice with each sound/word before adding more. They start with only 5 sounds that make up 3 words and move from there. They don't teach the short a sound and then expect the kids to read all short a words like most programs. If you are intersted in some samples, I can email them to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aMomNteacher Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 I have had great success creating fluent readers in a short period of time by using decoding word lists and dot patterns. I found this information on the TeachAllKids site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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