help...dyslexic daughter

What about Assistive Technology? Your school is mandated by the same federal laws that all the other states are mandated by. Your daughter has a right to access to curriculm and she CANNOT access reading that far below grade level. I would suggest the following:

1) Try to find some good multisensory tutoring in your area (or at least see if you can get an intensive over the Summer in a nearby town) and/or push for multisensory in school.

2) Get the school to provide e-reader, text held read and write, cowriter, write outloud. There are LOTS of AT available to help your daughter access the curriculum.

YOU MUST however, get remediation or your child will not pass your state tests and will get a special diploma or as my friend calls it, a “thanks for coming” diploma.

go online at LDOnline and look up assistive technology. Or do a www.search of Assistive Technology. When you get your facts and ammunition, go back to the school and have another meeting.

JMHO

If you’ve been following these bulletin boards, you’ve probably seen many recommendations for Reading Reflex by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuiness. This book instructs parents on how to teach/remediate their children with the PhonoGraphix reading method that they have developed. You can buy this book on amazon.com and it will teach you to help your daughter. If you have questions, you can ask them on the Teaching Reading bulletin board right here on ldonline or you can post questions on the PG bulletin board at readamerica.net. You should also purchase a parent support workbook from ReadAmerica that goes along with the lessons in Reading Reflex.

In the meantime your daughter could also be listening to books on tape (and following along in a book if appropriate). Hopefully your public library has juvenile books on tape or can get them for you through interlibrary loan.

We enjoyed the Marvin K. Redpost books by James Howe. (3rd grade reading?) Then we moved on to the Bunnicula/Howliday Inn series by Deborah/James Howe. Also, our son found the Wayside School series amusing. The author is Louis Sachar. When she can read at the fifth/sixth grade level, check out Sachar’s book “Holes ” It’s a little dry for the first few chapters, but after that the author weaves an incredible story together out of some tangled threads.

Also at the fifth/sixth grade level, I would highly recommend anything by Lois Lowry. Many of her books have girls as the main characters, and she is a wonderful writer. Her books tackle more serious subjects in very poignant ways.

I found this helpful this site while I was verifying author names. http://www.mhu.k12.ca.us/~eltoro/ar_m.html
It seems to be a recommended reading list from an elementary school showing the grade level of each book.

Louis Sachar is the author of the Marvin K. Redpost series.

You wrote: “She is a normal girl at her age who likes boys and wants to be into her hair.” Go to your local Barnes and Noble or Borders or a children’s bookstore and take a look at the American Girl books. Not the historical ones—my very cool fourth grade dd won’t give these a second glance. But she just loves their books on girlhood: “Groom Your Room,” “The Care and Keeping of You,” “Hair” (yes!), “Slumber Parties,” and many, many more (including, as I recall, a guide to boys). She also loves the Amelia books. These books really speak to girls—they are a lot of fun and convey good positive values without any heavy lifting. If you have no bookstores locally, you may be able to find them at amazon.com (not sure), but certainly all of them can be had at americangirl.com.

I live in the Portland area, so recognize the limitations of your vicinity. My dd is 10, and we’ve been fortunate to have multi-sensory programs available locally. If you get the chance, try making an appointment with either OHSU’s Child Developmental Clinic or The Children’s Program in Beaverton. Both could do an independent evaluation and provide you with more guidance for options available in your area. As for reading, try The Boxcar Children series — written at 3.5 level (thanks, Victoria!) but entertaining enough that my 7th grader wasn’t bored to tears with them. I also recommend Reading Reflex or Seeing Stars if you want to try to help her on your own. Both programs are fairly parent friendly, and when they are confusing there are a lot of helpful people on this board to answer your questions!

While we were lost in the reading instruction woods, my daughter got into books on tape. She was able to experience high-level literature and ideas, expand her vocabulary and her mind. Our local library began stocking classic kid’s literature on tape (the quality of the reading makes a big difference). We wore out the Harry Potter tapes and had to switch to cd’s. The Lemony Snicket books were good too. But many of the classics were her favorites: the Narnia series, Anne of Green Gables, Cricket in Time Square. Your daughter qualifies for the free books on tape service for the blind and dyslexic. Your library can help or do a google search.

Meanwhile, we did find the help that got her back on track-a great reading teacher, vision therapy etc. When she really needed reading practice for fluency, we were pointed to www.bookadventure.org -this site is a database of children’s lit by genre and grade level. She could input her interests-fantasy, myths/legends, etc and her reading level and come with a terrific list to go to the library with. It was her summer job and we paid her (best money I ever spent!). When you are not a great reader you don’t want to plod through a book that doesn’t interest you. This website gave her a list that was well matched to her interests and abilities. I recommend it highly.

Hi Trish

I highly suggest you get Reading Reflex and try helping your daughter learn to read. It’s extremely easy to use (specifically written for the parent at home) and the results are often very quick. Many parents on this board have used it with wonderful results. I used it with my son (he’s dyslexic) and he made great progress as well.

You can order this book on Amazon and it’s relatively inexpensive (under $20).

In the meantime, get an inexpensive tape player and borrow books on tape from the library. I have both my kids (both LD and non-LD) listen to books on tape every night after reading, or listening to me read.

Good luck to you! :-)

Do a search— their site is something like rfbd.org I think…. Here you can get access to thousands of books, including textbooks, on tape. I have not personally used them, but some on these boards have.
I thought Sue Jones’ website resourceroom.net had some high interest -low vocab. books listed at one time. Try crystalsprings.com also.

Yes, I heartily second everything Laura said! You MUST remediate the reading problem so that she can learn to read. Please do not count on the school to do it.

Janis

the DyslexiaSupport group at http://www.groups.yahoo.com. You can search the archived posts for information that could be helpful, and there are lots of links on the “bookmarks” page.

nt