What learn-to-read program would you use for a dyslexic 7yo?

[mo2]

Thanks.

[Mandy in TN]

I would use Preventing Academic Failure. It is Orton-Gillingham based; however, it is much easier to implement than other multi-sensory programs. It is straight forward. You don't feel like you need a teaching boot camp to get you up to speed on how to effectively use it. The components like the Merrill Readers and the Stepping Up in Reading books are more appealling to young children than something like Riggs or Writing Road to Reading. You don't have to make anything or create lessons. You just open the manual and it is all laid out.

 

Here is their website for more info.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[Blue Hen]

The one I used with my dslexic son was Reading Reflex. Excellent. Start at Chapter 1, read it, go on to ch 2 .... give your son their diagonostic test and start to work. You might even find the ~$15 book at your library but I would just go with it.

 

Visit the Special Needs board or do a search on Reading Reflex here and read all the recommendations for this program. It is simple but it WORKS!

 

Carole

[eight_gregorys]

I am using ABeCeDarian for my 7-year-old. So far, so good. He couldn't read at all (except for some sight words). He's now sounding out and can SPELL three letter words. It's awesome. Reading Reflex is also great if you are on a more strict budget. It is my understanding that ABeCeDarian is based on Reading Reflex. We have tried A LOT of phonics curricula and this is the first we have seen success with. I have also heard great things about Barton, but I haven't used it. We are sticking with what is FINALLY working.

 

Blessings,

 

Andrea

[deeinfl]

Reading Reflex. He learned how to read in record speed with this program and I found it extremely easy to implement.

 

He has never understood phonics, never, and I tried after that. I was even told by some that his dyslexic problems were because of the fact that I didn't use a phonics approach with him, so we tried many phonics methods...he just didn't and doesn't get it.

 

With Spelling the only thing that clicked for him was Sequential Spelling, and then later I added Megawords and it has been great.

 

He's a great reader and has started to devour books on his own only this year. He's an okay speller, and that is okay. My husband's spelling is atrocious, yet he's still managed to get a good job and support a family of 6, and he's very intelligent, knows more about politics than the average person, and reads voraciously.

 

This is more than you asked for, but I just wanted to encourage you in the beginning of your journey that your child will learn how to read and she will be fine!

 

Be blessed!!!

 

Dee in Sunny FL!

 

ps I checked out RR one evening at Barnes and Nobles, read the first three chapters and was totally convinced and it made so much sense to me. I've used Tatras(similar to Writing Road to Reading with my second child because he needed phonics and didn't get Reading Reflex past the beginning level.) Each child is so different and I am so thankful that there is so much out there to reach different types of learning abilities.

[Perry]

I'd first read Reading Reflex, then switch over to ABeCeDarian. It's very similar to RR but much more user friendly and has the repetition we needed.

[LizzyBee]

We're going to use Barton Reading and Spelling. It's an OG program that comes with DVD's to train the tutor or parent how to teach it. It has 10 modules that go through a 9th grade reading level.

 

However, my dyslexic 7 yo still needs more work on phonemic awareness before beginning phonics, so we are using LiPS for that (Lindamood Bell Phonemic Sequencing).

[Mom0012]

I would try Funnix. The program has a cd-rom and a workbook. The parent sits with the child and goes through the lesson on the computer. http://www.funnix.com

 

Lisa

[mktyler]

Deeinfl stated:

He has never understood phonics, never, and I tried after that. I was even told by some that his dyslexic problems were because of the fact that I didn't use a phonics approach with him, so we tried many phonics methods...he just didn't and doesn't get it.

 

My dd10 had the same experience. We went through 12 different phonics reading programs before I figured out what she needed:

 

1. Instruction that only taught the phonemic layer--no word families, word parts, silent letters or whole words.

 

2. No rules--she went batty when I gave her a rule that only applied some of the time. There are no rules that apply 100% of the time. I needed to speak in terms of patterns and try another sound for a given letter.

 

3. Explicit instruction, with lots of practice, all the way through the code. That meant lessons on things like 'et' for the sound /ae/ as in ballet, beret, buffet, etc.; 'ar' for the sound /or/ as in award, quartz, wharf, etc.; 'ch' for the sound /sh/ in chef, machine, etc. I ended up teaching over 300 sound-spelling correspondences (a letter or group of letters that represent a sound).

 

4. No book reading till she knew enough to read without mistakes. She is a perfectionist so it was better to not frustrate and upset her with asking her to guess at words.

 

Abecedarian is a solid program. Our problem was in the way the correspondences were taught. In Abecedarian and Reading Reflex, they are presented in groups based on sound. So, for the sound of /oe/ would be 'o', 'oa', 'oe', 'o-e', 'ough', etc. my daughter could do all the activities but not apply the knowledge. It got better when I separated the teaching and taught each correspondence one at a time, then did the sorting exercises. Abecedarian has the advantage that it also teaches the morphemic (meaning) parts of the language such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots from Latin (I believe their adding Greek roots). These units can really help speed up reading and improve word comprehension.

 

Melissa

Minnesota

Reading Program Junkie

dd(10) dd(6) ds(4) ds(1)

[Quiver0f10]

We're going to use Barton Reading and Spelling. It's an OG program that comes with DVD's to train the tutor or parent how to teach it. It has 10 modules that go through a 9th grade reading level.

 

However, my dyslexic 7 yo still needs more work on phonemic awareness before beginning phonics, so we are using LiPS for that (Lindamood Bell Phonemic Sequencing).

 

 

We are using Barton's too and we are having good success with it after trying a few other programs that just didn't work.

[homefront]

Stevenson's reading program is made to modified for the individual child. It's a concept based program. The teachers guide has wonderful insights on different special needs. The material doesn't have a grade associated with it. And it doesn't have "baby readers" (humor from a dyslexic adult, who was tortured with not age appropriate materials while learning to read).

 

Read-alouds (to your son) are wonderful additions to any program you choose. Some time you need to expand the mind for other things to fall into line.

[Reya]

We used Reading Reflex and Remedial Reading (both free) from DonPotter.net. It was day and night. Speed accuracy shot through the roof.

[ELaurie]

you may find some helpful advice there as well :001_smile:

[AngieW in Texas]

If I had it to do all over again, I would start off with Abecedarian. I started off with Reading Reflex, which was fine for basic code, but I couldn't figure out how to go beyond that point with my dyslexic dd. RR was perfect for teaching my middle dd to read, but she jumped nicely from basic code to advanced code. My dyslexic dd needed more help for that leap than RR provided.

 

What I actually ended up doing that worked was:

Headsprout combined with I See Sam readers sets 1-4

then

Funnix level 2 (started where Headsprout left off)

then

Phonics for Reading (from Curriculum Associates) levels 2 and 3

combined with

repeated timed readings of DIBELS oral reading fluency passages from 1st-3rd grade level

and

lots of work with nonsense word chains

 

I found out that my dd was dyslexic after she finished vision therapy at 7yo. The VT told me that she thought my dd was dyslexic and she was right. I did testing with the ps just a few months later.

 

My dd is reading at grade level now in 5th grade, but still needs reading instruction to continue to progress.

Edited March 21, 2009 by AngieW in Texas

[siloam]

I will be using SL LA with readers and AAS with readers (due out within the month) for my ds 6. Both have a similar pace (short vowels, blends, long vowels).

 

Heather

[Terabith]

Well, a lot depends on how severe the dyslexia is. If the child has poor phonemic awareness, I would start with level one Barton. Barton is a thorough program, but very very slow. If I had a child with severe dyslexia, I would use Barton, or possibly Preventing Academic Failure. But the first level of Barton is excellent. It's pure phonemic awareness.

 

After that, I would use ABeCeDarian and the I See Sam readers. I would supplement with Read Write Type computer program.

 

If I didn't see good progress in six months, however, I would go to a purer Orton Gillingham program, like Barton. The advantage of ABeCeDarian is that it works for many, many kids (even dyslexics), but when it works, it tends to work fairly quickly. If it doesn't work within six months, you want to start a more straightforward Orton Gillingham program, because those take a long time and are very slow.

[Geo]

Reading Reflex. Read the first portion of the book, don't be tempted to skip it, you will get an education on what reading is...and is not (rarely so simply explained). Very simple, straight forward, multi-sensory activities. It works.

 

Geo

Edited March 21, 2009 by Geo

[LizzyBee]

Well, a lot depends on how severe the dyslexia is. If the child has poor phonemic awareness, I would start with level one Barton. Barton is a thorough program, but very very slow. If I had a child with severe dyslexia, I would use Barton, or possibly Preventing Academic Failure. But the first level of Barton is excellent. It's pure phonemic awareness.

 

Depending on how poor the phonemic awareness is, it needs to remediated before beginning Barton (or any other phonics program). Barton has a student screening test; if the student can't pass part 3, phonemic awareness needs to be remediated. Susan recommends LiPS for this purpose. Unfortunately, my 7.5 yo hasn't passed yet, although she has improved since the first time she tried the test.

[ajjkt]

Have a read of some of the posts Elizabeth has made in the past, in particular search for her thread on the Webster Syllabery. That said, I'm not able to wrap my head around how to use the syllabery but if you can I think it would be pretty powerful (and free).

 

I think anything based on Orton-Gillingham or Spalding would be the way to go. My DD6 has dyslexic tendencies (her brother and sister are dyspraxic, a condition that has a 50% overlap with dyslexia) but having taught her using SWR she reads and writes well.

 

Her only downfall is that she often reverses letters. Often as in she reverses everything that can possibly be reversed. I'll teach the next child cursive first, not printing, and not capitals until the lower case is mastered.

[mo2]

I think I'll either go with Reading Reflex or All About Spelling. AAS uses the O-G approach but has much more detailed instructions than WRTR or SWR. Reading Reflex has the benefit of being cheap, so if it doesn't work, I'm not out much! I will probably get RR first and read through it (my library doesn't have it) and then make a final decision.

 

Thanks for all the great input.

[MerryAtHope]

I think I'll either go with Reading Reflex or All About Spelling. AAS uses the O-G approach but has much more detailed instructions than WRTR or SWR. Reading Reflex has the benefit of being cheap, so if it doesn't work, I'm not out much! I will probably get RR first and read through it (my library doesn't have it) and then make a final decision.

 

Thanks for all the great input.

 

I love the first half of Reading Reflex, until it gets to the Advanced Code. And since RR and AAS both use letter tiles, I think AAS makes a great follow-up to RR. RR taught me how to teach reading--and AAS does the things I wished RR had done for me in terms of lesson plans and teaching in an incremental way, and continuing with letter tiles past the alphabet & consonant blends.

 

Merry :-)

[Reya]

We used Reading Reflex and Remedial Reading (both free) from DonPotter.net. It was day and night. Speed accuracy shot through the roof.

 

Why the heck did I write "Reading Reflex"??? I meant Word Mastery! So sorry!

 

I have looked at Reading Reflex (NOT from Don Potter), and it looked good.

 

Blech. I hate brain slips....