Extra benefit from Phonographix/Reading Reflex

We did phonographix. My son became a wonderful decoder. Early on it was slow, sounding out each word. After tons of practice decoding everything he became a great reader. Way above grade level.

It took awhile for that early skill to become automatic. Keep plugging away at it.
Minimize the use of letter names as much as possible.
I am quite sure that without phonographix he still would not be able to read.

Thanks Linda -

My son is 9 years old, and has this temper tantrum whenever we begin lessons (which he has never done before in his life). He sobs in my arms for about 5 minutes, then says “Ok, Mom, I’m ready.” And we have our lesson. I have finally figured out that he never understood (and probably still doesn’t understand) how much of the written word he is missing.

So I am forcing him to come to grips with his deficiencies and then forcing him to work on remediating them! No wonder the poor kid is crying. We’ll keep plugging away - thanks for the encouragement!

We’re going on vacation on Friday, and he wants his own spending money. So today (for the first time ever), I put five one dollar bills in front of him before he started crying. I told him if he did his lesson without arguing, and did everything I asked, he could have the money for vacation. Terrible precedent, never did it with the three older kids, but it sure was nice to not have the tears today. Of course, tears can be very useful sometimes. ;)

LilLinda F wrote:
>
> We did phonographix. My son became a wonderful decoder. Early
> on it was slow, sounding out each word. After tons of
> practice decoding everything he became a great reader. Way
> above grade level.
>
> It took awhile for that early skill to become automatic. Keep
> plugging away at it.
> Minimize the use of letter names as much as possible.
> I am quite sure that without phonographix he still would not
> be able to read.

The other side of this maybe when he breaks thru that he won’t be able to stop smiling and hugging people. Even those he barely knows. That was my son’s reaction when he found he could “read.”

Linda,
About how much was “tons” of practice?
Approximately how long did it take before the skills became automatic. Was your son motivated to read? And if not, how did you keep him motivated?

We reward (bribe) our son to do some of the extra work that is required of him. Why not? As you said, these kids have to face deficiencies every day. Let there be a silver lining!

We, too, have resorted to hard, cold cash. Its portable, flexible and easy to keep track of. We pay for daily practice (amounts to an allowance) and bonuses for finishing books. Its hard work and she earns every penny. The plus is that mom no longer foots all the bills at the craft store! She is earning money and getting lessons in financial management.

A reward and a bribe or worlds apart. For there to be a bribe, there had to be a refusal or something “bad”. Example of a bribe. Child, “I hate this crap!” Briber, “If you do this, I’ll give you a _______.” For the child to get the reward/bribe, there had to be the refusual. Child will learn that misbehavior has its rewards/will always has his little paws out for grub.

A reward is set up from the get go. When you finish a novel and pass the AR test we will ___________. Child doesn’t finish, child gets nothing. Child tantrums and refuses, child gets nothing. Child finally given in reads a book, passes the test, child gets _______________.

When we issue extrinsic rewards (candy, for instance) we always pair the reward with a responding, emotional reward - often verbal. “Good job, bucko!” (remembering it’s not what comes out of our mouths - merely words - but out of our hearts and soul - the body language and true feeling that come from a victory.) Eventually, the small reward becomes insignificant - task successes become the prize.

I am not LD, but I am a very visual learner. After many years in HR Management for large companies in a very multi-ethnic city, I have learned that the best way for me to get someone’s name right is to have them spell it, and then repeat the pronunciation with their correction while I read the written name. I have gained a huge reputation for my ability to remember employee names using this trick…but if I DON’T write it and analyse the spelling, I have terrible trouble even getting the name right, never mind remembering it! Not really related, maybe, but I think you have stumbled on a key to your kiddo’s learning style that may be an even greater asset in the future…best wishes to you!

My son was able to sound out right away once he knew the basic code. So he actually started reading right away.

I did actual phonogrphix for about 4 months. Then I just practiced the code with him while he read. If I were to do it over I would have worked harder on him having the advanced code more automatic before stoppinig phonographix.
I think the time period would have been shorter.
We did 20 minutes of reading every day. He also practiced the code with his spelling words. I would ask him to spell them by sounding them out. We would use this as an opportunity to go over the code. One of the advantages of doing this as a mom is that you can reinforce the concepts as you go about your day.
It took 1year and 3 months to go from having only a few beginning sounds in words to reading a page of H Potter. H. Potter is still a little too difficult for him to sit and read by himself, but we do buddy read it.

Hurray! That’s the old tried and true method — congratulations.