Are all children classified with a specific learning disability, who have difficulty reading, considered dyslexic? If not, how is dyslexia defined?
Re: dyslexia
Dyslexia is a garden variety term for having problems with reading. There are lots and lots of reasons why that child or adult can not read. Right now I am researching more on visual issues.
I just found this today while doing a search. There is two types of dyslexia. 1. Dyseidetic: Usually having visual processing deficits with decreased visual memory and visualization. They have a limited sight word and they over rely on phonetic 2. Dysphonetic: They have a poor understanding and application of phonetic decoding rules. This is usually associated with magnocellular visual pathway deficits. 3. A mixure of both.
I did a search using “Magnocellular visual and auditory deficits” and found more information about all of this.
I still have a lot to learn. I hope this helps.
Donna in MO
Re: dyslexia
Thank you for the information you posted.Where did you find it?
I am also still learning about this. Thanks
Re: dyslexia
I have been doing so much research lately, I am not sure where I saw it. Sorry. I have it in my notes under “Dylexia Determination Test”. I know that I was looking up information about “Magnocellular visual and auditory deficits”. If you type that in and do a search on-line, you may find more information.
I also have posted info which I found in the Journal of Learning Disabilities that I found VERY interesting on the “teach reading” board here at ldonline. You may want to check into that.
There is just tons of things to learn about all of this! I am very thankful for this board. You may want to join a couple of the reading groups on Yahoo. There is a dyslexia group and a readnow group. Both have been helpful to me.
Donna in MO
Re: dyslexia
My daughter is 8 years old, in the 3rd grade. Since 1st grade I have tried desperately to get the information and testing done to find out why she would not read. Finally at the end of last school year the school psycologist test and evaluated her to no surprise to me she has dyslexia which I tried to tell them all along. I also have researched and found many people to offer me information but my problem lies in the school system, she goes to a non-public school which does not entitle her to an IEP, and her Title 1 reading teacher cannot offer her the help she needs. If we go outside the school to a learning program they want a small fortune to teach her how to learn. Are there any avenues out there I can take to have the appropiate hands on learning that she needs?
Where did you turn to educate your child? Are there special workshops or something that focus on dyslexia? Any help would be appreciated
Re: dyslexia
My son goes to a private school but goes to the public school for testing which is free to us. (We had to go for private testing to get him into the system because he had such high grades and had to pay out of pocket for these tests.) He also has had an IEP. We now talk with the teacher to make up an unofficial IEP. My son’s school is very supportive and have really gone out of their way to help my son.
My son went through Title 1. I remember the first meeting after one year that my son was in this program. They were very excited about the fact that he had gained 6 months of reading skills over that 12 month reading period. Neither my husband nor I thought that that was progress, we were very disappointed, and we pulled him out.
The Title 1 program in the public school in this area does not have a reading program that they use. They use a combination of things. My son needed more structure and needed to have each lesson build on the past, not jump around like they did with Title. I also found, at times, that Title was used to work on homework. I told them many times that I could help him with his homework if they could help him with his reading. But, then I would find out from my son that he had worked on his math homework the whole time. My son didn’t need help with his math, he needed help with reading.
In my case, after a lot of research, we decided on Fast Forward, IM, and PACE with Master the Code. They all helped to peel those layers of problems off to build new skills to help my son become a better reader. Fast Forward helped to improve my son’s phonological awairness and IM helped with focusing and rhythm issues PACE worked on the underlying cognitive problems first and then it goes into a very strong, systematic, phonic based reading program. My son did very well with these program. We now are trying to improve processing speed which I feel hinders his fluency and reading speed. Yes, these all have cost our family lots of money and time but to build my son’s future, I feel that it has all been money and time well spent.
If you haven’t already, try doing a search on this board and the “teaching reading” board. There has a been a lot of discussions about the different reading programs available. The main suggestion I have is to know what skills your daughter lacks and try to find a program that focuses on building these skills. There are a lot of different skills needed to read and the dsylexia diagnosis doesn’t really tell you anything. Dig deeper and find out where her problem areas are. Keep asking those questions.
Remember. You are your daughter’s best advocate
Donna in MO
Re: dyslexia
Here’s what is so frustrating to me:
The president and Mrs. Buch are promoting education and their love for children and reading is big on their list, (past presidents are guilty also), and it seems that all us have been failed by the school system in one way or another. Why aren’t the special ed teachers trained to work with dyslexia or the teachers who spend so much time with our kids trained so they can spot the early signs. Its so frustrating finding the right help for child, and when you do it costs you thousands of dollars and every inch of patience you have with that child to help them learn. I am NOT a teacher, I have a hard time trying to teaching my daughter in a way she can comprehend, and I feel like although I try very hard I have failed her. And her LD is not as severe as some others are, but I cannot be the teacher she needs to have. It is worth every penny to get the training she needs from a person who is specialized to teach it, just so I can keep my sanity and just be mom when she comes home from school. I just want to know why they can’t come up with a program in the school system to work with these kids, like an afterschool tutor program or something. They can teach sports and have practice almost everyday why not do the same for learning disabled kids, and let the state pick up the tab? If anyone knows of such a program I’d be interested in knowing about it.
Re: dyslexia
Carrie, Three years ago I started researching the different reading programs because I felt the same way as you do. A big part of me still feels that way. But since than, through research and talking to other parents with children struggling to read, I realize how big of an order that really is.
I recently joined the “readbygrade3” group at Yahoo and have had the last 10 to 12 posts of discussion from people just trying to define what reading is! It goes to show you how much discussion is going on in the education field about “what is reading” and “how to teach reading”. It also shows how difficult a problem it really is.
You may be interested the recent news from England about thier quest to teach reading. You can find it on http://news.bbs.co.uk/hilenglish/education/newsid_1626000/1626512.stm#able (I hope that is correct). They too, are trying to understand what reading program is the best to teach reading and are finding that teaching phonics (surprise, surprise) actually helps kids learn to read and spell.
There is just so many skills needed to read. In one classroom, there are different children with lots of different problems that keep them from learning to read. My child has processing issues, another child may have visual issues, another child auditory issues, and another ADD. Than, you have one teacher, trying to teach one thing, reading, while trying to meet the needs of all these children Throw in a child like my second son, who is in 3rd grade and reads at the 6th grade level. Then you start to understand what the teacher is faced with.
Don’t get me wrong, I am as frustrated as you are with how they teach reading. My youngest daughter who is kindergarten, is learning sight words and the letter names. They haven’t even talked about the letters having sounds and the first quarter is all ready over! I have been trying to educate the teacher and principle as much as possible but they are very confident about their reading program (Open Court) and at this time they do not want to change. Needless to say, I am using Reading Reflex to teach my daughter to read at home.
Donna in MO
IM
IM stands for interactive metronome which is a program to help improve attention and focuss. Go to interactivemetronome.com and you can find a lot of information about this program.
Also, go to the “parenting a child with ADHD” bulletin board on this site. There has been recent posts about about IM.
Donna in MO
Re: dyslexia
Donna,
Have you gone to any of the learning centers eg: Sylvan, Lindamood-Bell and if so how did they work for you?
Since it looks like I cannot get the school to help I have looked at the Linamood-Bell program it seems very promising and expensive.
Also it has been suggested to put my daughter in the public school system because they have better resources than the Catholic school she is in. We cannot get an IEP in non-public schools (I’m in Pennslvania), are they all they are cracked up to be? Also I wonder if I should remove her from the Title 1 reading class or what is it I should as of this teacher? You had some problems with it too right? I’m just looking for suggestions on what has worked for other parents.
Re: Phono-Graphix is what worked for us
I started with the book “Reading Reflex” when my daughter was 8, and it was extremely helpful. My daughter learned basic decoding skills in about 6 weeks using RR. This gave me a great deal of hope and the confidence to seek out other interventions.
After my daughter did vision therapy and PACE, she went through a one-week Phono-Graphix intensive (Phono-Graphix is the methodology explained in “Reading Reflex”) to finally master advanced code. This year (one year after the PG intensive) she was placed in the advanced reading class at school. She is 11yo and in 5th grade. The school assessed her as reading at an ending 6th grade level. Not bad for a child who was reading at a preschool level 3 years ago!
Mary
Many are dyslexic, however not all. Dyslexia is like anything else, you look at the child against a list of manifestations and if the child has or does most of them, then dyslexic would apply. LD encompasses more than dyslexia, that is why it is the preferred term in education. The primary issue is the identification of the child’s own unique set of strengths and deficits.