dyslexic/"gifted" 1st grader - what to do in readi

Several answers:

(1) You need a consistent, planned, phonics-based program. It doesn’t have to have the name Orton-Gillingham on the box (the materials I use don’t) but it needs to follow the same plan. Each sound pattern needs to be taught in isolation and then in words and then distinguishing it from other sound patterns and then reviewed in every possible way.
The dribs and drabs of a little bit here and a little bit there of the “balanced” approach are useless.

(2) You need to work with what he has — it is *excellent* that he has the single letter sounds down already — and move into what PG folks call the “advanced code, ie the things that are coded by groups of letters. It’s OK to do a quick review of the single-letter sounds, but you are looking for motion ahead quickly, not a repetition of work already mastered for the entire rest of the year.
One problem with reading is that you need these two and three letter combinations to read anything except very extremely structured text — the sounds sh, ch, ng, ay, ee, oo, er/ir/ur and so on occur in just about every natural sentence. If you get into this as fast as possible he will be able to read real stories and will hopefully have less frustration and resistance.

(3) You need to have him read orally from a structured developmental reading text, twenty minutes or so of running text, if possible every day.
I have recently been alerted to the fact that a lot of kids in “whole-language” or “balanced” classes are not learning to read because they simply aren’t reading. A picture book with a grand total of a hundred words, half of which you have to tell the kid because he can’t possibly read ‘helicopter’ yet, is just not enough practice to learn to read. Kids who like books and get off to a good start will give themselves more practice without the teacher enforcing it; the other 90% of the real world need much much more than they are getting.
Get a developmental reader with gradual introduction of vocabulary and heaps of repetition, and plod through it. Sound out each new word over and over again until it is really learned. Jumping ahead, trying to run before you can walk, is what the RR class and the home class have done, and well, how well did it work?

(4) personally I don’t believe in “sight” words and I am firmly of the opinion that many kids are badly slowed down and even stalled by being taught two contradictory approaches to reading at the same time — this word you sound out, but this word you memorize by sight (and how you do that is a mystery) and when you meet a new word you don’t recognize you run to teacher to ask if it’s a sound-out or a guess — no, that isn’t reading, it’s chaos. Teach the kid to sound out, period, and to be aware that a few silent letters exist and vowels have two or three sounds; at least it’s consistent and meaningful. True, a tiny bit slower at first — and faster within two months, when the kid is reading instead of playing guessing games.

(5) Thirty minutes three times a week, considering the inevitable time-wasting in schools, transition time etc., is the bare-bones minimum for the phonics program alone. Stick to your guns and try to get a good one and make sure it doesn’t just repeat the single letters, but moves onwards.
You absolutely need more time to supplement this with reading of continuous text and whatever writing and spelling activities you can do. If he won’t work with you as parents, you may try a tutor. If you can’t afford a tutor, try carrot and stick — rewards for doing the reading practice daily, removal of privileges for not doing it. As he moves on and finds he can succeed, it should become a little less of a battle.

(6) You are lucky to catch this in Grade 1. Yes, it should be possible to catch up at least on the oral reading by the end of the year (failing other more severe problems), and get ahead of the class next year. Writing is a physical skill and simply takes more time and practice; you should be able to get within shouting distance of grade level (if there are no other vision/coordination problems) by the end of the year, enough to pass, and then if possible do more coaching in the summer.

I am a parent who has studied reading methods extensively. I would stay away from Reading Recovery like the plague. You can read all about it at your local library since Marie Clay wrote a book of the same title which the program is based upon. Youv’e got to read the section on roaming in the known just to see what the kid was subjected to. It is shocking. I would say it is about the worst thing you could do for a child having blending problems. My 2nd child was also recognizing words in isolation but having trouble with the same words in context. He had eye problems including farsightedness, astigmatism and some problems crossing his eyes. (you need to bring your eyes in that direction in order to read print close up) . He was able to compensate for a limited time but the eye muscles would get tired and the mistakes would become more and more bizarre. Sometimes they have trouble refocusing near to far. You might want to experiment at home with printing things on large paper with bold magic marker and see if the child reads better at a distance, does she read better real close up. Try different typeface..I would invest in a trip to a developmental optometrist to see if there are any undiagnosed eye problems. I have run into my share of eye doctors who really should not be in the business. Don’t be afraid to go for a second opinion. Then there is self study and helping your own child. If you can get the right remediation at the school thats great but nothing can replace lots of hard work and reinforcement at home. Reading Reflex (Carmen McGuinness)is a good book to start with at home. Her mother-in-law Diane McGuinness wrote a wonderful book but it is not a course book. I did have sucess with Hooked on Phonics also although I would recomend starting with Reading Reflex first and progressing on to HOP later. Remember testers only see a snapshot of your child. You see her every day. Young kids don’t always fully cooperate with tests either so use your judgement.

Hello Annise,

I’m so glad that you’re getting your son help now when his reading difficulties are just beginning. Congratulations!

Different people on this board will suggest the reading programs they prefer. You’ll have to decide for yourself what you think is best and what the school will agree to provide. My preference is Orton-Gillingham when there are decoding or encoding difficulties. I prefer pure OG because it’s flexible and very individualized, so students can move quickly. There are no specific materials; it’s up to the teacher to choose what best fits the needs of her student(s). My second choice for a first grader would be the phonology strand of Project Read, an OG-based program. The written expressive language strand is good too, but that’s for writing.

Three 30-minute sessions a week is not very much. It’s just about impossible to get a full multisensory lesson into a half-hour. It means that the teacher needs to teach part of the lesson one day, part another. This isn’t what multisensory, systematic language means. In addition, because your son’s in a small group, progress will depend on how large the group is and how diverse the needs are because the teacher will have to teach to the weakest student.

Although it was said that it doesn’t matter what the program is called, I think that it matters unless you get lucky and have a superb teacher who will do a great job with any program. Otherwise, it helps to have a specific program and to be sure that the teacher is trained and certified by the program. In most cases this involves a practicum, not just a one- or two-day introduction. I definitely agree that you don’t want someone to do a bit of this and a bit of that. The instruction has to be systematic, cumulative, and explicit.

I’ve seen many students build their decoding skills without also building their knowledge of words with irregular spellings (sight words) and this ends up holding them back. In the beginning, all of the text that your son reads needs to be controlled so that he can sound the words out. However, some words will have to be included that need to be memorized. It’s not difficult to teach children that some words don’t follow the rules. Some people say that these words don’t play fair. Gradually I think he’ll need to learn more and more of these words, along with the decoding skills he’s learning, to attain his correct reading level. However, reading should not be presented as a guessing game. This is too frustrating. When he’s given text to read, all the words he can’t decode need to be underlined and introduced as sight words. And there should not be very many of those words for now.

An apropriate way to monitor progress is to use the scope and sequence chart from the program your son’s working from and pre- and post-test the sounds, patterns, generalizations, etc. An informal reading inventory can also be used for oral reading and for reading comprehension, although he probably won’t be able to read even the preprimer level yet. You cannot use the same standardized test more than once a year, and even if you could, it would be too stressful. However, ongoing criterion-referenced tests for the skills being taught can be given every few months.

I’m not sure if it’s realistic to think your son can be reading at grade level in the next half year because I’m not sure exactly where he is now. He’s certainly bright, but I’m not sure what’s holding him back. His word attack score on the WJ-III looks good, but I suspect from what you write of your own observations that on a more demanding test he would not do as well. I’m surprised that his LAC Test score was so strong. Still, I’d do a little informal testing for auditory blending and sequential segmentation just to be sure. It doesn’t appear that he has spatial issues either, at least not according to the WISC performance scale. It seems by what you’ve written that he has some beginning phonics skills, but his CVC decoding is slow, primarily because he doesn’t have an automatic grasp of the vowel sounds. He’ll need to practice that until he can decode those words automatically, but the consonant digraphs and consonant blends can be introduced once he knows the vowels and is continuing to review them. Then other kinds of syllables and the r-controlled vowels and vowel teams can be added in.

It’s hard to decide how to factor in his “giftedness.” Recent research seems to indicate that intelligence doesn’t affect initial reading acquisition one way or the other. However, being a bright boy, he may have higher expectations about his performance and this may frustrate him. He’ll need to understand that we all have strengths and weaknesses. This is often a hard lesson to learn, but it will help if you continue to be positive and to point out his many strengths.

If you can possibly insist on more services than the three half-hour sessions, and limit the group size to three students with similar reading needs (not just reading level), that should give you a better chance of making real progress. Whatever you end up with, I’d keep close tabs on the gains. You’re always allowed to request another IEP meeting to rethink the programming or goals.

I’m just a mom of a gifted/LD daughter. Have you considered putting your son in the gifted program at your school? My daughter attends gifted (and your son is much higher than she is) and she loves it. In 2nd grade, although she could not read on grade level and her handwriting was illegible, on the advice of her evaluator, we placed in the school’s 1x/wkly gifted program. Initially, I was very concerned about this placement. THis has been one of the best things we have done for her. She received private 1:1 tutoring and OT and in 2nd grade when she first joined this gifted class, the other students had to read to her. It still worked out well and we taught her that there are lots of smart people who can’t read and spell well. It was a good lesson for her, as well as the other children who ended up reading to her. Fortunately, after 2 years of tutoring, she is holding her own and no longer has to have the other students read to her (except helping with an occasional word or two).

The school initially thought it would frustrate her and cause her to feel worse as she compared herself to other “gifted/non-LD students; however, that was not the case. Each child is unique, so you have to take your son’s personality, etc., into consideration.

Just wanted to throw in my two cents.

The writers on this board excel. Because of an injury I can’t post extensively…

The little guy is five. Much is left to reveal itself. We develop at different rates, these scores are very volatile at his age. This is NOT saying not to teach, especially in a logical manner teaching to proficiency - but also NOT to worry. He may surprise you.

I couldn’t read at five - was a disastor. Now, I write the books….Ken

Just a mom? Parents are a child’s first teachers and usually their best advocates. There is no “just” to being a mom or dad. The parents on this board work so hard on behalf of their children. I’m proud to be part of the process.

thanks for the great responses to my query.

actually, ken, the little guy is 6 1/2. i am incredibly concernced about his lack of progress (and noticable) confusion in learning to read because his older brother is severely dyslexic. his brother was a very frustrated pre-primer reader until age 8 and 1/2. he was in special ed at public school, received the fast forward program (which did not help), had private tutoring (the wrong kinds) and finally learned to read through intensive lindamood bell therapy. we were desperate, had no other options and lmbell was readily available. it has worked wonders for my older one. so much so that he has done 2 intensive sessions and has retained everything he has learned there. he is not getting support in his public school - that is another story. and is the primary reason i am so concerned about the younger one.

as there is a definite heritary link to dyslexia i have been watching the little one for the past year or so. because of our past experiences, i cannot let anyone tell me to just wait and see; sorry. also i am counting on the power and research behind early intervention and feel like i may already be too late in some ways.

my little one is getting frustrated. yesterday he decided we would read together - he is generally very resistant to reading, but loves to be read to. he spent a long time choosing a book and choose a board book about a puppy (toddler type book). he decided i would read a page and then he would read a page; when it came time to read, he siad, “mom i can’t read this. i have no idea how to figure out these words.”

thanks leah, my school does not have a gifted program. i would have to move my child to another school for one. they will offer “differentiated” instruction at his current school - can anyone tell me what that means?

i need to go back and re-read andrea and victoria’s responses. they were very informative and i am new to this board and don’t know how to access them while i am replying.

i am feeling from your responses that i am going to have to supplement whatvever the school does with private tutoring. i have asked the school for more time than 3 days per week/30 mins, but they are resistent to giving him more. i also want to see the schools program in action and they do not want me to observe. i have asked them a lot of questions about what exactly they will do and how they will monitor progress. at the rate i am getting answers from the school, and from the answers i am getting, we may not agree on an iep for sometime.

anyone want to give some input on taking my 6.5 year old to an lm bell clinic for 1 - 2 hours per day during his reading time at school for the next few months (or?) i am wondering if this intensive may be a better option for closing the gap now in 1st grade. there are very few o.g. trained tutors where i live; the good ones are booked solid and could only see him 1 - 2 times per week after school.

thanks for all the input!

>>>lac test = 62 (currently in mid 1st grade); my understanding is this is strong p.a. for his age and grade.

What my son’s Special Education, who was trained in Lindamood-Bell, told me many year was that the Lindamood’s felt that everyone should score 100% on the LAC. They only developed age/grade level scores because their publisher insisted. A 62 standard score would indicate a deficit. If their are any Lindamood-Bell Clincs near you could call and ask them their option of that score.

thanks helen. i will call lindamood bell and see what they say.

i know from working with another lm bell clinic that they do use the lac test breakdown scores. you have to have someway to mesure progress, especially with p.a. being the big buzzword in dyslexia.

here they are if anyone is interested:
—grade 2: 1st half of year 61
— grade 2: 2nd half of year 71

—grade 3: 1st half of year 71
—grade 3: 2nd half of year 81

—grade 4: 1st half of year 81
—grade 4: 2nd half of year 86

—grade 5: 1st half of year 86
—grade 5: 2nd half of year 93

—grade 6: 1st half of year 93
—grade 6: 2nd half of year 99

sorry, i did not clarify.

the last post was a breakdown of the recomended minimum scores per grade on the lac test which measures phonemic awareness.

in thinking about helens original post, sure it would be great if everyones p.a. score was 100, then we would not have such severe dyslexics.

also, 62 is a strong score for the 2nd half of first grade. phonemic awareness is a learned skill that a child develops over time, some as we know much easier than others.

I looked up my son’s score when he was 7 and in 2nd grade. He scored a 36 which was a big deficit. It would be interesting to see what the L-B clinic would say about your son’s score. My son had remediation in L-B in the school setting (not intensive) where it took three years for him to reach 100% on the LAC. PA was his deficit area and L-B corrected it. He is now a senior in High School and reading is not an issue other then he prefers not to read.

Helen

I’d say if LB was successful for your first child and it is readily accessible, then definitely go at least let them look at the testing and give you an opinion. My child also did not have extremely low pa scores and it was suggested to me that she have Seeing Stars instead of starting with LiPS. Maybe that is where your son is. But I’d not worry over whether you choose LB or Orton Gillingham. Both are good and we have to use the one that we have most available to us.

“they will offer “differentiated” instruction at his current school - can anyone tell me what that means?”

Oh, my. I’m afraid that is the new fad or buzzword in education this year. I actually was forced to sit through a workshop on it a week ago. I had asked to be excused since I certainly know how to differentiate instuction as a special educator! But my principal couldn’t see past everyone needing to attend. Ugh. All it is is an updated version of learning styles (been there, done that)…teach to different senses: auditory, visual, kinesthetic. That’s about the gist of it. I suppose the next segment may discuss differentiation for different ability levels. But lets face it, few teachers are so gifted that they can reach all the students in a class. It rarely happens.

Janis

helen,

i will post here when i speak with lm bell about his scores. i am sure they will want to do their own testing as well.

my older son has done many (many) intensive hours of lm bell. both lips and seeing stars. he never reached a score of 100 on the lac. his highest score last year was 94.

he has done very well with lindamood bell instruction (intensives). am seriously considering it for the younger one.

i know that now the clinics do not start kids in the lips program UNLESS there lac score is below 60. if it is above they start directly with seeing stars which they say stimulates p.a. effectively for those who are not terribly weak in p.a. if it does not they then go back to the lips program.

Hi annise,

Have you looked into vision therapy at all?

As I’ve stated many times on this board, reading-related vision issues seem to run in families and, in my experience, can often be addressed with a vision therapy program. Until they are addressed, or a child grows out of them or learns to compensate for them, he is likely to resist reading even if someone spends the time to help him thoroughly understand the reading process,

Rod

thansk janis.

i will be calling the lm bell clinic next week to see what they say. at this age (6.5) i can’t see him attending more than 1-2 hours per day. i hope to be able to have him attend during his reading time at school.

i am very familiar with both lips and seeing stars. seeing stars is very powerful. the only complaint(or concern) i have heard about the lm bell programs for this young age (and this was from a tutor trained in both o.g. and lmbell) is that he will not get much practice reading decodable text in the 2 hours per day would attend.

i plan to observe a session or two with someone this same age and at the same level before i decide.

the problem here is there really are very few o.g. trained tutors. the good ones do not have openings or are a good drive away.

i’ll keep you posted.

I guess I just felt the question was directed to “professionals”. Thanks for your comments!

Annise, does the school have a neighborhing school that has a gifted program? In our school, in Florida, b/c of “meeting the criteria”, the school has to provide transportation for gifted kids to be transported from their home school to the gifted classroom at the neighboring school. Now, I understand, as a MOM, he is a little bit young for that, but you may want to keep that on the back burner….

Additionally, when my daughter was 7.5 yo, she left school year (not during reading) and when to LMB tutoring. She missed, art, music, & PE. (Of course, she couldn’t sing, keep a beat, or draw (fine motor problems) and played soccer so that wasn’t a problem) The school FREAKED OUT when I told them I was going to do this. Then I explained that I either did this, or I pulled her out completely. They finally relented and the principal said, “I can’t condone this, but I can’t stop you”. Best 1-1/2 hours we “lost” at school for 1 year! She also missed reading in the a.m. the 2nd half of 2nd grade in order to go to keyboarding class. She still made above average grades. In 3rd grade, we changed our tutoring schedule and she went after school.

Re: his frustration. I remember my evaluator (private) pointed at her verbal subtests and then at her performance IQ and said this is WHY she is so frustrated. She said my daughter’s reading comprehension was Little Women and her reading ability was “Pal the Pony” (with help). I’ll never forget my evaluator telling me, …if you knew hard she was working to keep her head afloat…

Of course, I can tell by your questions and determination that you’re not going to let this continue. Good luck with your quest.

thanks rod,

actually vision related reading problems do not run in the family. my older child is severely dyslexic. dyslexia (which is not related to vision problems) does run in families.

i have not found any research that verifies the effectiveness of vision therapy for dyslexics reading issues, but lots of research that documents early, appropriate reading intercention for dyslexics.

i plan to do that route.

I like your plan, Annise. The reason I personally think 90 min. to 2 hours a day would be enough is that he is not all that far behind at this point. He certainly won’t need the full LiPS program according to the scores. So I think 90 min. of one-on-one Seeing Stars would be wonderful! I would think that 2 hours a day should allow for time reading some decodable text, and regardless, you can practice at home in the evening with him again. I don’t think you should worry about not having an OG tutor since your other son was successfully remediated with LB. You have first hand experience that it works!

Janis

Hi Annise,

Okay, I was just wondering, since you hadn’t posted here much before, or at least I wasn’t aware that you had.

I guess the one assumption that you are making which I think is incorrect, and will someday be proven wrong conclusively, is that dyslexia is not ever related to vision problems.

Anyway, thought I’d ask….good luck with your program….Rod

I am just curious because I was able to remediate my son who now reads well using the research that is currently available but he didn’t like to read and he couldn’t really read for extended periods of time.

I scoffed at the vision therapy thing but after a long road am now pursuing it, (mostly through exercises that we have done at home.) My son likes to read now and is able to sustain his reading for longer periods. His dad was also dyslexic as a child.

There is some excellent research out of Oxford that explains this.
I don’t believe all children who have trouble reading have a problem with vision. I also think some who have a vision problem get remediated by the act of reading itself. This didn’t happen for my boy and I do really want him to enjoy reading as much as he enjoys being read to.

Hi Linda,

Thanks for posting that. It’s better coming from Mom, herself.

I can think of well over a dozen parents of my reading therapy clients (just over the past year) who would tell similar stories, including the family history of reading problems on one side or the other.

As far as research goes, I intend to post, today I hope, a reference to some of the vision therapy research that the American Optometric Association has presented. That will be in a thread of its own…..Rod