Phonetic Encoding

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

I have a 13year old son..Who seems to have been pushed through the system at our local school..He has been in Title Reading until he reached 6th grade. When he started in 7th grade I was told there is no program they provide to help him continue his learning. He is currently reading at a 5th grade level. We had our local school test him to see if he would qualify for special education when we was 9 years old..At that time, he showed a speech and reading delay of 6mth-1year behind his class. Unfortunatly, they told us that would not qualify him for special education class. This was to stay in his “file” for his future teachers to review. ( This has not happened it has been up to us to inform his teachers of his delay and ask for their help). We recently asked for the testing to be done again on him to see if there has been any improvement in his learning abilty and this has not yet happened…My husband is an optometrist so we have exhasted all visual problems including dyslexia..However while doing the testing we did note that he is having a difficulty with phonetic encoding…We were wondering if any one could give us any suggestion on what to pursue to get him “up to speed” so he could stop struggling and start enjoying reading…
Thanks Kim

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/18/2001 - 1:19 AM

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Your son does not understand the sound symbol relationship of language which kind of goes right into the speech and language issues that he has had. It is a form of dyslexia but he knows what the letters look like but he doesn’t have a strong grasp of the grapheme/phonetic combinations that are made to represent certain sounds in our langauge. Perhaps you could look at reading reflex or try this website Valder Phonics which explains more about reading and what it entails. Reading is something that so many of us take for granted and those that have problems with phonetics usually have trouble reading.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/18/2001 - 6:02 PM

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I’d recommend the Lindamood-Bell program. It specifically targets the problem of phonetic encoding/decoding and has programs tailored to the older (including adult) learner. They are a California-based company but have outreach facilities in other, major, metropolitan areas and trained tutors around the country.

Carol

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/18/2001 - 6:05 PM

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I have just remembered another program that addresses the phonetic encoding problem, called PhonoGraphix.

Of the two, I found that Lindamood-Bell gave a better jump start to our son’s awareness of phonemes and their relationships to printed symbols. That’s just a personal preference.

Carol

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/18/2001 - 6:33 PM

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because then it is legally binding on them. Verbal requests are not legally binding. Once they receive a written request, they have (I think) 30 working days in which to conduct the testing and meet with you.

There’s a lot of good information like this about assessments, negoatiating with a school for services, etc. at the “LD in Depth” section of this website. I especially like some of the articles under “assessments” and “IEP”.

I second the recommendation to check into Phono-Graphix. The easiest way to become familiar with the approach is to buy the book “Reading Reflex” for $16 (available at most local bookstores).

If you are interested in working with your son at home, I would recommend a combination of “Reading Reflex” techniques and Megawords, available from http://www.epsbooks.com. Megawords works on decoding multi-syllable words and is a good follow-on to Reading Reflex. I do Megawords with my daughter at home, one page a day.

Mary

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