phonics progra,

bad typing : o)

I don’t understand how a program that is done on the computer can claim to be Orton-Gillingham. A vital part of O-G is that it is multisensory. A person has to use all three learning pathways when learning a sound/letter relationship. The student sees the letter (visual), says and hears the sound s/he makes (auditory), while WRITING the letter with large arm movements on a textured surface (kinesthetic/tactile). If the arm movements and textured surface are not incorporated in the learning activity, then it is not truly Orton-Gillingham. It would just be another ordinary phonics program. Also, I don’t see how a computer can correct any mispronounciations, especially with the the short e and i sounds (bet, bit) which are often confused by many disabled readers because they are formed similarly on the mouth.

L. Starr

What I”ve heard about it — though all indirect, but from two or three people — is that it’s thorough but painfully dull. ,

A program I have used and like is the one from Lexia Learning. It doesn’t try to be a tutor — it *does* have good sound production. Games include having a student pick between “ai” and “ee” and pick the right word (“tr____n” and “gr____t” for example) to put it in, after hearing the word. One of my college kiddos reading about fifth grade just started it and I could almost see he thinking about hte sounds (for the first time, I suspect).

No, I don’t work for Lexia :) And no, the program doesn’t substitute for teaching — but on the other hand, if a teacher weren’t available, I think a student would still benefit from the games, much more so than from other programs trying to replicate multisensory strategies and teaching.

Lexia has a kids’ program and “SOS” — “Strategies for Older Students.”

Thanks for your replies, I was looking around the web and saw this, don’t actually remember what I was surfing for specifically to get there. My son is almost 13, I am looking around to see what would help his reading comprehension that we could do at home during the summer. I still worry about how things will be with him when he starts high school when we get back to the states. He has been in a DODDS middle school, overseas, and doing well. Just don’t want to get slammed in 9th grade.

wouldn’t necessarily be helped by an Orton-Gillingham program, unless it’s poor decoding skills and poor reading fluency that are holding him back.

If he has reasonable visualization skills (Lindamood Bell Visualizing & Verbalizing, and IdeaChain from http://www.mindprime.com work on developing visualization), then books such as “Mosaic of Thought” and “Strategies that Work” might be helpful in terms of providing you with ideas on how to teach comprehension stategies.

Mary

that has gotten some good reviews, “I Read It, But I Don’t Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers”,
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/157110089X/102-5019428-8538545

This book might actually be more helpful than the other ones I mentioned, which are more geared towards teachers.

Mary

Many many comprehension problems start with weak basic reading skills, particularly phonics. Unless your son can pick up an unfamiliar grade-level book and read out loud with reasonably fluent pronunciation — whether he comprehends it or not — then skills training can make a big difference. Many students who read hesitatingly and with a lot of errors and backtracks are putting so much energy into guessing and searching memory that there is no mental space and time left to pay attention to the content.

BUT this is not to say you should forget about comprehension. As soon as his skills are OK enough to pronounce a sentence without multiple errors, then use good comprenhension materials to build up the skills he has missed over the last several years.

Grade 9 is hard anyway. Going to a new district is hard anyway. Switching countries and systems is often very confusing. The best thing to do is to work as intensively as you can over the summer (reading in the morning and swimming/basketball/travel in the afternoon as a reward can be a good system) and then back off on the tutoring for the first couple of months in school while he finds where he is and how things work.

IdeaChain works on comprehension in a very similar manner to V&V.

Are you aware that many parents just buy the V&V book (under $50, I think) and do the program that way? It doesn’t have to be done by a certified tutor. It’s very expensive done in a clinic, but very inexpensive done just with the book at home. This has worked successfully for many people who do not have any specific training. IdeaChain would provide much the same program, except it is probably easier to use because it is completely scripted and specifically designed for home use.

However, if you are considering doing the program yourself — I don’t think you can. You have to have somebody else doing the teaching part of it. You would need a friend or family member to do it with you. This would be true of both V&V and IdeaChain, I think. You could call or email the companies to make sure of that.

Hm….., 1998. My daughter was 8-1/2 and coming home from 2nd grade at her expensive private school saying she was stupid because she couldn’t read and all the other kids in her class could. I searched the net, bought a copy of “Reading Reflex”, we experienced some success, and the rest is history…..

Mary

Mary I am bit confused about your message.

You are saying many parents are doing V/V with their children and a paragraph later you are saying:

” ….However, if you are considering doing the program yourself — I don’t think you can. You have to have somebody else doing the teaching part of it.
You would need a friend or family member to do it with you. This would be true of both V&V and IdeaChain, I think. You could call or email the
companies to make sure of that. ….”

Can you explain why do you think so?

Ewa

a person cannot provide the program to himself/herself. In other words, it takes two people — the provider and the recipient. A parent can provide it to a child, or an adult can provide it to another adult. Neither program is designed as a self-improvement course.

Sorry if I was unclear about that.

Mary

I could be wrong about that. It might be worthwhile emailing or calling the company to find out if the program could be used as a self-improvement course.

Mary