8th grader wants to read better

hire a certified Phono-Graphix tutor to work with him privately. Where I am, this would cost $50 an hour, but you should see significant gains within 6 hours of tutoring (with daily homework of 20-40 minutes) — usually less. Most kids are pretty much remediated within 12 hours of tutoring. A few severe kids need 18 hours, and a very few really severe kids need something else.

If that is outside of what you can afford, then I would teach him at home myself using “Reading Reflex”. This book is available for $16 from most bookstores, or check it out from your library.

Website for this approach is http://www.readamerica.net

My 11yo daughter is dyslexic and was reading on a preschool level in 2nd grade, at age 8. “Reading Reflex” was the turning point for us — significant gains within 6 weeks after starting this at home. We ultimately ended up also doing vision therapy for 8 months, PACE for 3 months, and then a Phono-Graphix intensive for one week to fully remediate. Dd now reads on a beginning 7th grade level.

It can be done, but I wouldn’t rely on a school to do it.

Although we used RR at a younger age, it is equally effective with older students. If you want to discuss this approach with experienced tutors, try posting on the ReadNOW list at http://www.groups.yahoo.com

Mary

I see lots of possible paths to take.

If you have in writing that the school cannot provide reading remediation, and you have a good private option available, you could press for private placement on the grounds that your son needs to learn to read to achieve a free appropriate public education; the school cannot meet that need and there is a private school that can; therefore, legally, they are obligated to pay for such placement.
At the private college-prep school for kids wth LDs where I tuaght, about 20% of the population was there at public expense. Sometimes it took years of lawyers and litigation to get the kids there; sometimes it wasn’t that tough. I don’t know how many kids *didn’t* get there and the families efforts in that direction were wasted. I do know that the need had to be clear-cut — a kiddo with college potential, but so far behind in reading that it precluded succeeding in the public school’s college prep classes, and generally a history of the school not following through on meeting the kids’ needs — unless the parent had documentation that the school had known the need and not met it (and usually for more than one year) and/or had lots of documentation of violations of their legal obligations, then the school would say “of *course* we can meet Johnny’s needs. We have this special ed program that will…” and they’ll describe it, and write it up and it may look great on paper.

If there’s a good private school you could investigate the many options for paying for it yourself. (Many if not most of our students had at least partial financial aid if the public schools weren’t footing the bill, though that wasn’t public information).

You can *try* to insist the school teach reading. THis is a really long shot. YOu could fight very hard and finally “win” — and get something on paper, but if the teacher doesn’t have the skills or resources to do it, it won’t happen. In my last public school job, I had the skills to teach kids to read but could only manage to do it with a group of ninth graders in one period’s class. THe schedule just didn’t make it possible otherwise.
I really wish I could be more optimistic about your chances there… and you could get lucky… but unfortunately your counselor is probably right.

YOu can teach him to read yourself (or hire a tutor). There are several good programs and it’s worth figuring out what tutors are in your area and getting parents’ recommendations and giving it a whirl — do make sure it’s somebody who’s ready to deal with dyslexia, and teaching an older kiddo to read (and, of course, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is). ONe problem wiht this route is that it’s extra work on top of school — if you were to do it this spring I’d consider sacrificing homework, in general. Reading is more important than whatever else is going on, and credits don’t count ‘til ninth grade. (On the other hand, if you’re sacrificing getting into challenging classes, you have to weigh that factor).

You can pull the kiddo out of school and teach him to read (or et a tutor to do it). Perhaps *the* most important factor in whether a program works for teaching a kiddo to read or not is the frequency and intensity of the work. I know my Orton-Gillingham successes were largely due to being able to work wiht students 50 minutes a day, 5 days a week (though I worked with two students generally, half the period each). If you’ve got the kiddo on board with you, you can make a plan for “his year” in homeschooling, and work on skills and explore what *he* wants to explore, which could be really useful when it comes to what he does with his life.

Sue,
I would think most schools are too smart to say they won’t remediate. In my opinion, they put it all on paper, want to remediate in a group of students, while working with others on math, computer skills, etc.,ps. really no remediation. They may even have a reading group, and some kids have phonological problems, others have trouble finding the main idea,etc. P.S. it does not work. If a child has not significantly improved by the end of middle school in the public schools, they have had their chance, and it is probably not going to happen there. They obviously have many other priorities than “leaving no child behind.”

I basically agree with all of the above posts. The counselor is technically wrong to tell you that! However, the reality is, they probably just don’t know how to teach the children to read, or else, the caseloads are too high to effectively remediate individual problems. But he should technically have a reading IEP with that kind of deficit.

So, I’ll agree with Mary and the others…hire a tutor or learn to teach him yourself with something like Phono-Graphix. If he still needs comprehension help after that, try Visualizing and Verbalizing by Lindamood-Bell (which I am just now ordering but others highly recommend it). He may need some catch-up work on vocabulary, too, at this point.

Janis

Opinion, nuthin — it’s pure fact that when I was in public schools, I had groups where I was supposed to be teaching 3-5 different subject areas at the same time. Forget even focusing on individual needs in one area!

While your son’s school counselor is right, that we don’t is wrong. I’d ask how they expect he will get through school three years behind in reading level? Then I’d ask for individual tutoring for him.

That ten of “them” is a tactic and a shabby one at that. Don’t let it bother you. Direct your comments to the meeting leader and keep focused on that person.