Moms of children with dyslexia . . .

[PinkTulip]

What are some books or other resources you would recommend to someone new to this?

 

My DS, age 9 was tested about 2 weeks ago and we got the results yesterday: moderate dyslexia along with some processing issues. We feel really good about the center where we went, and will be following most of their recommendations regarding tutoring, Interactive Metronome therapy, CogMed, etc. The diagnosis is actually a huge relief to me, because it validates a lot of the gnawing gut feelings I've had, and gives us a starting point to move forward from.

 

I found a book at the library called Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz, and stayed up until 2:30 this morning reading it. It was extremely helpful and I liked its tone of "this is a brain wiring function that can be improved somewhat with extensive (and intensive) intervention. Many academically successful individuals have dyslexia - surgeons, attorneys, writers, etc."

 

What other books or resources have you come across to help you understand what you can / should do when your child is dealing with dyslexia?

 

Thanks for your help - I think I'll be frequenting these boards a lot more. Mostly lurking, but occasionally posting and soaking up your wealth of knowledge and information!

[Paz]

What really helped my dd take off reading and writing (she's dysgraphic too) was the Orton Gillingham approach. We used a tutor who did her own version and was amazing. Right now we are using the Barton Method to help continue the progress.

[Stacy in NJ]

My only piece of advice is to spend both the majority of time and money on services that actually teach READING. In my experience services that don't specifically focus on the fundamentals of reading are much less valuable than those that do.

[Laurie4b]

The Cogmed has excellent research support (multiple double-blind studies) I assume that means she has working memory problems because that is what it is for.

 

Additionally, do choose a direct instruction method of reading--as Stacy in NJ is saying---and keep at it. Orton-Gillingham family of approaches works (OG tutors, Barton, Wilson) as does the Phonographix family of approaches (and this works faster for most kids: Reading Reflex and REWARDS follow this approach.)

 

Overcoming Dyslexia would be the book I would most recommend. It's available in paperback, so for less than $20 you can have it to consult, mark up, etc.

[cillakat]

It was extremely helpful and I liked its tone of "this is a brain wiring function that can be improved somewhat with extensive (and intensive) intervention.

 

It's the best book out there on this topic. The intervention she's talking about is of course intensive phonics...direct instruction, comprehensive, systematic, multi-sensory phonics.

 

The rewiring part is much much more effective when they're really young (think 5....6). At 9 you'll certainly be able to get him reading well but it is different. The other therapies may or may not be helpful.....jury's still out. But there's no doubt about just how much the right kind of phonics will help - and it will help more the sooner it's started, the the more intensive it is (5 days a week v. 2 days a week). You'll also read in her book that one of the most common mistakes is removing the intensive remediation too soon......so it needs to go on for sufficient duration.

 

:)

K

[LizzyBee]

The Everything Parents Guide to Dyslexia by Abigail Marshall

The Mislabeled Child by Drs Brock and Fernette Eide

http://www.dys-add.com

http://www.visualspatial.org

[mktyler]

Diane McGuinness' book, "Why Our Children Can't Read and What We Can Do About It" as well as the discussion section of "Reading Reflex" by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness. The methodology they advocate is called linguistic (or synthetic in the UK) phonics and is somewhat more streamlined an approach than Orton-Gillingham. In short, synthetic phonics emphasizes explicit and thorough instruction of the spellings a letter or letter group can have (the sound /o/ can be spelled dog, law, applaud, cough, etc.) and the sounds a spelling can have (break, meat, bread). Sight words are not taught, instead certain parts of the word are called "tricky", such as 'eo' in people; the kids still sound out the word, rather than memorize it. Generally rules are eschewed in favor of patterns. So, for example, silent-e is not taught, instead i_e is taught for the sounds /ie/ as in ice, /ee/ as in police, and /i/ as in genuine. You can learn more about synthetic phonics at syntheticphonics.com and dyslexia.org.uk. This is the type of instruction that has been mandated for primary instruction in England.

 

As I have talked to tutors, both here and in the UK, one thing they seem to agree on is to NOT have kids read outside books while they are receiving intensive phonics intervention. The reason is that you are trying to undo old habits and establish new habits; if the kids are asked to read material they have not been explicitly taught, they fall back on the old methods.

 

Good luck!

 

Melissa

Minnesota

Reading Program Junkie

dd(11) dd(6) ds(5) ds(1)

[cillakat]

<<In short, synthetic phonics emphasizes explicit and thorough instruction of the spellings a letter or letter group can have (the sound /o/ can be spelled dog, law, applaud, cough, etc.) and the sounds a spelling can have (break, meat, bread).>>

 

OG does as well, though it's a secondary to learning each sound individually.

 

I do wish synthetic phonics was the norm in early reading classes here. A lot of kids would be reading more words much more quickly.

 

 

Katherine

[LizzyBee]

Forgot in my first post - Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World. I think the author's name is Jeffrey Freedman.

[Rod Everson]

What are some books or other resources you would recommend to someone new to this?

 

 

Hi,

 

For ten years now I've worked with kids most would consider dyslexic (though most weren't formally diagnosed) and I gradually came to the conclusion that the vast majority of them have undiagnosed vision issues that make it difficult for them to learn phonics easily. This is one reason it takes such intensive, concentrated phonics work to get through to them. In many cases there are other issues besides vision going on as well. Some can't sit still when working, for instance. But most have poor binocular vision skills.

 

Nearly every time I write something like this, the parents will say that they've had their child's vision checked and it's fine (or has been corrected.) But most of the time they have not seen a specialist in binocular vision problems and therefore cannot say that they've ruled out the problem.

 

Compounding the problem, most books on dyslexia never mention vision, or like Diane McGuinness's book, they intentionally disavow it, so it's really hard to even learn about the vision issues, much less do anything about it. Also, developmental optometrists can be hard to find, or some distance away, and vision therapy (which is usually the prescribed treatment) is as expensive as any other therapy, but is often not covered by your insurance.

 

Nevertheless, experience has taught me that it's best to check the vision first and correct it before going ahead with phonics instruction. It will go much easier then. (I teach an intensive phonics course in a private practice and over half the kids I've worked with had undergone vision therapy, so I'm speaking from experience with well over 100 children here.)

 

There's a lot more on all this on my website.

 

Rod Everson

OnTrack Reading - The Vision Piece of the Dyslexia Puzzle

[ElizabethB]

While it's older, Dr. Hilde Mosse's "The Complete Handbook of Children's Reading Disorders" has specific examples of interventions for different types of dyslexia and is very complete.

 

Here's an example from her book that I quote on my dyslexia page, you would think that a piece of paper under the text would be helpful, but actually, you need to have a piece of paper above the line instead:

 

A folded piece of paper or, much better, an unlined card should be held above the line the child is reading, not beneath it. This is the so-called Cover Card Method of treating Linear Dyslexia. The reason for this position of the card is that it can steady the eyes, which have a tendency to wander above and not below the line being read, and it can connect the end of one line with the beginning of the next, thus indicating the return sweep and making it easier on the child's eyes. By blotting out all the text that has just been read, the cover card helps the child to concentrate on just that one line he is reading. By holding the card at a slant with the left corner slightly lower than the right, and by pushing it down while he reads, the child steadies his gaze and at the same time pushes his eyes from left to right and down via a correct return sweep from one line to the next. This is by far the simplest, cheapest, and most effective treatment for Linear Dyslexia.

 

My dyslexia page talks about syllables and why they are important. Several of my remedial students were diagnosed with dyslexia and have found my online phonics lessons helpful, they focus on syllables.

[calandalsmom]

Its important to remember dyslexia isnt an eye issue, its a brain issue. So be cautious when people try to tell you to seek advice from eye doctors. While eye exercises can help some children, they are not really recommended for dyslexia in many cases.

 

This is me being tactful.

[cillakat]

Its important to remember dyslexia isnt an eye issue, its a brain issue. So be cautious when people try to tell you to seek advice from eye doctors. While eye exercises can help some children, they are not really recommended for dyslexia in many cases.

 

This is me being tactful.

 

 

This is me agreeing with you:) There is a huge body of evidence regarding what works. Huge.

 

:)

Katherine