I have an 8 yr old son with autism. His teacher tells me she is sure he is reading some, but hard to tell how much, due to lack of verbal skills. She is using the Edmark program, and says he is doing well. She says phonics is not his thing, and so they are focusing on dolch sight words. However, she knows this will not give him the decoding skills he will need to master reading and spelling. She and I are looking for something that will help him…he’s a very visual learner, so a computer-based program would be a plus…something that can teach reading and maybe some phonics? I don’t know…we’re sort of at a loss! Can you help?
Here's another one...
You might want to consider Fast ForWord. I’ve heard it has worked well with some autistic children, who don’t seem to mind the repetitiveness and do seem to benefit from the auditory processing activities which are the basis of the program. You can also be trained yourself in administering the program, which will save you big bucks, through their Crosstrain online training, and I’ve even heard that they allow parents of autistic kids to use the program for a longer period than is usually allowed, at least until the maximum benefit can be gotten.
If you want to try a sample of the program, I suggest you order their pre-reading program “Away We Go”. It has many pre-reading activities and auditory skill builders that are quite similar to the Fast ForWord exercises you will find in the actual program, and have the added benefit of increasing the kids’ “mouse” skills at the same time. It’s only about $50, so easily affordable for most people. You can find out about Crosstrain and also order the CD program on their website, at www.scientificlearning.com
Good luck!
Sharon
Re: Suggestions, please!
This is not as “academic” as some of the other suggestions, however, I tutored an autistic child last summer who loved this program. The Learning Company (software) has a series of programs about a character named Reader Rabbit. There are games and activities, followed by stories that your child can read along and track along. If you have a microphone on your computer, your child can also take a turn reading the story and then listening to it on the computer with his voice recorded. The stories are entertaining while also focusing on specific skills. The programs have progress charting and some other added bonuses. Not to mention- they’re very inexpensive- $10-$20 at most stores. You might want to try one program and see how he does!
This isn’t much, but might help as a supplement.
Good luck,
Becky
Re: Suggestions, please!
I’m with Becky! My 12 year old w/autism loved Reader Rabbit when he was younger. We also purchases a half dozen Living Books that he played. They read the book to you and on each page you can click on different items make things happen. If you click on any work, the computer will hilight and say it. They are only about $10 now.
Good luck
We are using two computer programs currently for
our dyslexic 12-yr-old.
One is titled Prolexia. It starts with individual letters
and ends with things like /tle/ and /dge/, 117 in all.
The program is $200 and can be used with a mouse,
as the children ‘write’ on the computer screen.
The computer talks through the letters and words, sends
the student back to review sounds and moves on when the
computer is happy with the stuff the kids are writing on the screen.
For an additional $300 you can purchase a light pen,
which we decided to do for our leftie as he has
taught himself to use the mouse with his right hand
and we wanted the information to go up the ‘pathways’
connected to his left hand.
From a reference on this board we looked at the Lexia
programs (different company). We choose the Lexia SOS
program and he works on it at school. (The SE teacher
is overwhelmed with kids with behaviour problems and
we removed our son from that class.) Lexia SOS is the
program for older children, there is a beginner version.
Enter Lexia and Prolexia in google.com and you should
find their websites.
good luck,
Anne