Nothing available for young children

My granddaughter is almost 7. The private school she was in never addressed her disability - her doctor said of her stuttering to do nothing for a while that it will probably go away as she got older. The second private school she was enrolled in will not allow her to return because of her disability and now we’re being told that she has to go to public school special education class. I’m at my wits’ end. So, I’m with you - what resources are available for young children. The worst part, if there is such a place, is that no one has as yet IDENTIFIED what her particular disability or disabilities are that are causing her to experience learning problems.

If your child is struggling w/CAPD you might want to look at the Fast Forward program. My dau did that (as a third grader) and it did help some with her reading skills…HOWEVER my district doesn’t recognize CAPD as a disability so we paid for it. We went through The Scottish Rite who with the University of SD provided the program at a minimum cost. Also there is Reading Reflex that you can do as a parent, again however if the CAPD interfers with hearing and distiguishing the vowel sounds (needed for sounding out words) that may not be as helpful now as it might be after FastForword.

Sounds like a difinite speech problem to me-I would try The Scottish Rite who helps kids with speech. I believe they have a web site.

Someone else recommended the scottish rite, how do I find that in my area?

I am in massachusetts.

Thanks
K.

K.,

The Scottish Rite Centers provide speech/language services usually at a reasonable rate. Some of those centers also test for and treat dyslexia. They ahve thier own program which is based on OG methods. I ahve heard it is sort of boring though. It is on video. Here is the link for your information:

http://www.mn-mason.org/language.html

Now, I will tell all of you with children with potential reading problems, a great program to try (which I think has already been mentioned) is Phono-Graphix which is found in a book called Reading Reflex by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness. I actaully went for training in it in April to use with my own child and the children I teach with hearing impairment. It does an excellent job teaching the phonemic awareness skills for reading. The other great program out there is Lindamood-Bell. They actually have several programs which address different skills LiPS is the one that teaches basic decoding and would be what I would go to if Phono-Graphix didn’t work. LB tutoring is usually expensive, but parents can get the training themselves if they want to teach thier own child.

I will tell you all that very few schools use either of these programs. As a matter of fact, I would NEVER count on a public school to remediate a reading disability. They usually do not give the right services with the intensity of service needed to be successful. But it doesn’t hurt to ask what they use. You cannot tell then what they have to use, though.

Janis

PS:

The book Reading Reflex was written so parents could start teaching reading to their 5 year olds. It happens to also be an excellent program to remediate older readers who never got these skills.

I am with Janis. Phonographix is amazing. I taught my son to read with it when the school was unable too.

I have already started using some of the principles with my 3.5 year old. Not real training just teaching the sounds occasionally. He already demonstrates some phonemic awareness.
I would highly recommend it to any parent that has a child struggling with reading. It is not difficult at all. I think the simplicity of the program is it’s greatest strength.
I just happened to be in a bookstore one day and something made me pick up that book reading reflex. I hate to think where my son would be if that didn’t happen.

Janis have a look at callirobics. www.callirobics.com. It is for handwriting. It helps children learn to draw the basic forms neccessary for good handwriting. It seems a little more fun than HWT.

My son’s teacher did HWT and his therapist did something similar to callirobics. My son loved drawing those forms. My son’s therapist said that the 2 programs together would help.

Thanks, Linda! I’ll definitely take a look at that and bookmark it!

Janis

I have started teaching my son who is five from Phono-graphix. He is starting to be able to read CVC words. I think it works well. I don’t think he is LD but we did get comments on his preschool report card (he starts K in fall) that we need to work with him to learn his letters. In other words, he certainly isn’t at the top of his peer group. His best friend is reading and he wants to learn too.

Beth

check on line for a location …I believe their headquartes is in Texas.I’ll check for their web address and post it in a bit.

I already posted the web-site for her above. :-)

Janis