Hi everyone,
I wanted to thank those of you who recommended the Phonographix method for my 6 year old son. I wrote earlier about his probable dylexia and coding issues. The schools final recommendation was for him to go to 1/2 day K twice a day for next year and if there was no progress recommendation to special education would occur. I am glad to report that he is easily reading CVC words and his fine motor is getting plenty of excercise from writing the CVC words during the lessons. Best of all, as a long time teacher of 1st grade I am very pleased with the ease of the lessons and the progression of difficulty. (Also the shortness of the lessons. Perfect for young children.) My child left Kindergarten a broken child. He was bubbly and bright and ready to learn when he entered school, he began the summer as a child with a low self-concept about his ability to learn and would balk at trying just about everything. I began the lessons on June 5th and he has progressed beautifully. He is so confident and excited about his success. He NEVER cries about working on reading and loves to challenge himself. I did a 10 minute writing run on him on June 5. He wrote 8 words in 10 minutes. Yesterday he wrote 17 in 10 minutes! When I taught 1st grade a jump like that in the # of words written in a 4 week period would indicate that a GREAT deal of connections had been made in a very short period of time. He is still a little unsure of some of the graphemes. But, he is a very anxious perfectionist who has great difficulty taking risks so taking his personality issues into account I think he is doing great. We also started Handwriting without tears last week. He loves that too! Especially building the words and writing them on his slate. I don’t remember who recommended these programs but THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Also “The Pencil Grip” ordered from the “Therapy Shoppe” has been invaluable for his poor grip.
Re: Phono-graphix THANKS!
Hi Helen,
His coding was actually a 6, which falls in the low end of the normal “range” . The reason it was a deficit was that it was so out of whack with every other subtest. He really still continues to get symbols confused. It take a tremendous amount of effort on his part to focus and retrieve the symbol. (Especially compared to his other abilities.) However, HWT and especially Phonographix have helped him tremendously and especially give him the confidence to trust himself in an area he knows he is weak in.
Re: Phono-graphix THANKS!
A 6 just as I thought. My own son is 14 and has a coding score of 6 as well. His writing is poor despite OT and some work with HWT. He sent a post card from camp and both my husband and I were amazed that he actually got it. I don’t know if you followed a previous thread on Interactive Metronome. You can find them by doing a search over the last 60 days on Interactive Metronome. I am considering it for my son to see if it will help with the processing speed. Web site: www.interactivemetronome.com
Helen
Re: Phono-graphix THANKS!
Thanks Helen,
I’ve read about IM, sounds almost too good to be true. However, anything that would help his processing speed would be a God send. His anxiety tends to make the processing speed worse. Thanks for the info. I will certainly look into it.
Re: Phono-graphix THANKS!
What is the cost for this program when delivered by a trained professional?
Thanks.
Re: Phono-graphix THANKS!
Yes, you can do it yourself. Easy is a relative term.
I thought it was fairly easy to grasp the concepts. Teaching your own child can be difficult no matter the subject matter.
One thing, the key is to do it the same time every day. Don’t waver from that for any reason.
Kids will just adapt to it as a part of their day like brushing teeth or having breakfast. Approach it with the same nonchalant attitude of making them brush their teeth.
Sounds like you’ll be sending a confident reader off to 1st grade in the fall. Good for you for taking the bull by the horn and remediating over the summer.
Just courious, I remember you stated that his codeing score was “0” and considered low by the . Was that really the score or was the tester talking about decoding?
Helen