Looking for information on dyslexics/Language Disabled facilities/experiences at Clark County School District
I’m the Singaporean mother of a recently diagnosed 9 year old dyslexic (a US citizen). My husband (the sole bread winner) is currently unemployed in what is Singapore’s worst recession in 30 years. We know many of his peers who are still unemployed from the Asian crisis of 1997 ¡V 1999.
My daughter is enrolled in the Singapore school system, which in terms of accommodations for dyslexics, is light years behind that of the US. No use of computers, scribes, readers, spell check etc. are permitted. Sarah’s papers are marked exactly as her peers would be. On top of this, the Singapore school system is highly competitive and elitist in nature. They believe in continuous educational streaming :
„h age 9 (top 1% identified as gifted)
„h age 10 (into 3 groups ¡V the lowest of which are identified for ¡§technical” education i.e. work with their hands)
„h age 12 (to segregate them into schools. The brightest having the best facilities and teachers)
„h age 14 (into the ¡§arts” & ¡§science” streams. Once in the arts stream, certain science professions will be out of reach forever)
„h age 16 (to segregate them into Jr. colleges)
most (>95%) of pupils who go into the lowest group in the age 10 segregation never make it back into the normal education stream.
The only other viable alternative are the international schools located in Singapore. Fees vary from US$11,000 to $22,000 per year. Private tutoring (to teach coping skills) costs approximately US$6,000 a year. The Dyslexic Association of Singapore, a charity, provides subsidized teaching but I was frankly told to supplement their programs using private tutoring if I wanted Sarah to avoid the lowest stream next year. We have savings but we are currently supporting 2 mothers and another daughter. There are no unemployment benefits in Singapore.
In desperation, I am now exploring the benefits of sending Sarah back to the US. A very good friend (from university days) has volunteered to be Sarah’s guardian. He lives in Summerlin, Las Vegas, Navada. The zoned school district would be John W Bonner Elementary School and/or the Sig Rogich Middle School in Summerlin. Is there anyone out there who can tell me of personal experiences with:
„h these schools
„h the Clark County School District
„h private schools in the Summerlin, Las Vegas area
„h other information which may be helpful
The information you provide will go a long way to help me decide what is best for my daughter. Please help. Thank you.
Sincerely
Pat
Many of us have found that homeschooling is hands-down the best way to go with a dyslexic. By homeschooling you can hand pick curriculum materials to suit your child’s needs and discard those that don’t work. Furthermore, most children (especially dyslexics) learn much more efficiently one-on-one. Homeschooling would definitely be my recommendation in your situation.
Remember also that stress interferes with learning. Surely being away from her family at the age of 9 would be stressful for your dd? I know that my dd, even now at 11yo, would be extremely stressed if she were separated from her family.
Most dyslexics have an underlying sensory/motor problem and/or delay in cognitive skills acquisition. Homeschooling allows time to diagnose and remediate underlying deficits. My daughter, for example, had severe developmental vision delays. What helped her the most was 8 months of vision therapy to develop visual efficiency skills, 3 months of PACE (a cognitive training program) to develop visual processing skills, and Phono-Graphix to develop phonological and decoding skills. (Dd had also been diagnosed with severe phonological awareness delays.) This sequence isn’t appropriate for all dyslexics. Some children have auditory processing problems that need to be addressed, and some children only have cognitive skills delays.
If you can, get a copy of “Reading Reflex”. This is a book that teaches decoding skills using the Phono-Graphix approach. It is written for parents to tutor a child in reading, it is easy to use, and it usually works very effectively for dyslexics. (My own dd went from preschool reading level to 2nd grade decoding level in 6 weeks using “Reading Reflex”, at the age of 8-1/2. Currently dd is 11 and reading on an ending 6th grade level.)
The DyslexiaSupport list at http://www.groups.yahoo.com is another good source of information. There might even be someone from Singapore on that list. You can run searches on the archived messages to find a lot of good information about Phono-Graphix, cognitive training, vision therapy, CAPD, etc.
Mary