My child is dyslexic and in the sixth grade. It took four years but I finally was able to get him placed in a private school and he is making tremedous progress. Of course he didn’t have to wait until fifth grade for this. The school system could have prevented this need for private school.He has made up three years of reading in one and half years being appropriately taught.If schools just changed how they teach reading these issues would decrease. Schools would probably save money in the long run. Parents would be happier and kids might actually learn to read. All kids would benefit if research based techniques were used properly by well trained teachers. Schools wait for failure before they admit the can’t help our kids. I am lucky they even did this for my son.It took lawyers, educational specialists, private testing more then once and my advocating day in and day out for him( can’t forget going into debt) How can we get schools to change? I don’t see it happening for a long time but perhaps NCLB will help. I am sick and tired of hearing all these stories of schools failures to help kids learn to read. This is a crisis. The Put Reading First Initiative is for Title 1 schools only. This doesn’t help the average middle class family unless your child is in a Titile 1 school.
Re: how to we get school systems to change?
Hi,
This will be short. The only way to effect wholesale change in the public school system is to put the dollars spent in the parent’s hands. This will require a voucher system. Teachers are afraid of such a system, but for the truly good ones, it will be the best thing that ever happens to them the day it comes…they will finally be paid what they’re worth!
Re: how to we get school systems to change?
Hi,
My son is in 4th grade and has LD particularly in the reading area. His social skills are not very good and he has experienced some problams with other students at school picking on him and when he trys do defend himself verbally he is the one to get into trouble. I have a meeting tomorrow with the whole school enterouge to discuss his bad attitude. I am so miserable for him and was wondering if you could tell me more about this reading program that helped your son?
V/R
Linda
To Linda Popp
Hi Linda,
A wonderful home-based, inexpensive, reading program you can try with your son is “Reading Reflex.” You can find the book at almost any book store (my local Barnes and Noble always has a copy in stock). I think it’s around $17.
It’s really easy and many parents on this board have seen great reading improvement in a short amount of time.
My son is dyslexic and made dramatic improvement in decoding thanks to this book.
In addition to being dyslexic, my son is very quiet and has some expressive language difficulties so he doesn’t easily make friends or know how to effectively deal with teasing.
The way I’ve tried to help him with this is by practicing what to do and say in various situations. Sort of like role-playing or acting. We also brainstorm various responses. The whole point is to try and give my son “tools” to help him figure out what he can do or say in various situations. I figure he’s always going to have to deal with these uncomfortable situations. Now is a wonderful opportunity for him to learn how to deal with them. I don’t know if this helps you, but you might want to try this.
I’ve also been thinking about enrolling my son in an acting workshop to help with difficulties in language and expression.
Something like this might be helpful for your child as well.
Even if your son doesn’t have an expressive language difficulty it may be helpful emotionally. Teasing can be very painful. I think it’s good if kids have somewhere to deal with that pain.
Good luck to you! There’s a lot of great information on this site.
Just don't ever say it didn't work for you
It is wonderful when it works. It works for lots of peopel.
Just know that it ISN”T YOU if it doesn’t work for you, and taht really, there are lots of people it didn’t work for but they tend to keep quiet about it. Some people including the authors of the program get downright abusive so people have learned to keep a low profile.
Re: Seriously consdier homeschooling
I agree, Brenda. Kids sometimes get sacrificed while the parents spend years entangled in arguments with the school. It’s not worth it a lot of the time. If and when school gets to be an unhappy place, then my child will be homeschooled.
Janis
Re: how to we get school systems to change?
We too have fought for improved reading instruction. I am a special ed teacher and when my son did not learn to read, a whole new world of research and methods opened up to me and I was eager to learn. Unfortunately, his (my) district was not interested. We sold our house and moved to a private, college prep ld school. My new district has excellent programs and has trained me and supported me in learning new methods to teach reading. Our son will be graduating from high school, has been accepted into a four year college with a scholarship even. I have lots of letters to write to people who told us he would never learn to read and would not graduate.
Change always comes hard and particularly hard to schools. I took my own children out of public school but sadly found out that private schools were not perfect places either. That your son is making such great progress is wonderful though and we can all only hope that one day all schools will be better.