My 7 year old has resource 2 hours a day, divided between math and reading. He’s also on Ritilin for ADHD. He has speech 1/2 hr per week since kindergarten, now concentrating on oral expression which is getting worse as his vocabularly expands and his thought more complex, OT for sensory integration (probably going to be eliminated), he’s finishing up vision therapy, and has a 1 on 1 1 1/2 hrs a day in the general classroom. He does touch math (and not), and the school uses open court for reading. It’s just not happening for him. I had him with an ed therapist once a week for several months who “saw progress”. He will not read at home - probably because of the 2 years I spent arguing with him about homework in kindergarten and 1st grade. We lost our therapist in Dec. and as I am talking to others, I’m getting mixed advice. One insisted on seeing him strictly for reading twice a week minimum. An educational psychologist thinks I should get a college kid as a tutor to read with him at different levels. School is not terribly helpful in terms of finding out what HE needs to learn to read. I’m not sure what to do next.
Re: educational therapy
What are they doing in that resource room for two hours a day? Also, I’m sorry, but 1/2 hour a week for language therapy is a waste of time. What grade is he in now? Has he repeated a grade? I do not believe in pushing a child up before he is ready. My own child is repeating first grade this year as she did not have the reading skills to be successful in second.
Seriously, as Linda said, he must be taught with an effective method. Find out exactly what they do in that resource room, and if it’s no good, pull him out and get a private LB, OG, or PG tutor. Open Court is great for regular ed. kids with no learning disabilities.
Janis
Re: educational therapy
Thanks for the responses. What is OG and PG? I visited a Lindamood-Bell Center this summer. It cost about $9000 for the summer program. An ed therapist I spoke with uses a version of LIPS. But is this a total waste once a week? My son’s ed therapist wanted him to do FastForWord, but there’s no way after school he’s going to spend 90 minutes a day doing it. I know there’s a million things out there, but it seems that without a comprehensive private evaluation I could be overburdening him and spend hugh sums for things he may not be wired for.
Re: educational therapy
Amy,
I agree that a good evaluation would be a very wise step. And I also totally agree that a child could not possibly tolerate FFW after a full day at school.
I do apologize for using initials…OG is Orton-Gillingham and PG is Phono-Graphix.
Here is an article on reading programs:
http://www.schwablearning.org/Articles.asp?r=318&g=2&d=5
Janis
Re: educational therapy
Lindamood Bell is a really well respected tested series of programs that helps Learning disabilities. It address’s issues that other methods ignore or take for granted. Yes it is expensive but it can work miracles. Check out www.lindamoodbell.com as see if any of the examples of leraning issues match your child.
Re: educational therapy
tHE LATEST - MY SON’S TEACHER SAID THE RESOURCE TEAcher suggested the hour currently spent in resource now for reading be replaced by putting him a 1st grade class for reading. First, he’s very concerned about grade level, particularly since he’s a twin. Second, he’s not at 1st grade level and how is it going to help being in a larger group of younger kids who are all more advanced than him? Where’s the remediation? I know the resource teacher is trying to come up with a short term option so that the rest of the term isn’t wasted while we contemplate options for summer and last year. I’m going to have an informal meeting with the teachers, coordinator and whoever else we can pull in on next steps. Any suggestions?
Re: educational therapy
Amy,
Wow, unreal that the LD teacher doesn’t know what to do with your son and tries to put him back in a regular class for reading! Please buy her the book “Reading Reflex” and tell her to use it in the future if she has any desire to teach children how to read. But your son needs help NOW from someone who is experienced.
(I am thinking that they made a mistake moving him up to second if he is not even reading at first grade level, especially since they apparently have not remediated the reading at all. My child is repeating first grade this year and is doing much better with the Saxon phonics.) Open Court is excellent and apparently he needs a more intensive program at this point. I think you will have to get the tutoring privately. If I were you, I’d tell the school that since they have not brought him up to level, you expect them to pay for the private tutor. If you seriously want them to, you’ll need an advocate to help you.
It is critical that you get a private tutor for him now if you want to have the possibility of moving him to third grade. Even if he repeats second next year, he’ll have a lot of work to do to catch up between now and then. I would not worry about him not being in the same grade as his brother. Honestly, it will not be good to have them in the same grade being compared all the time if one is LD and the other isn’t. But you’ll need to see where he is reading at the end of the summer to decide on grade placement for next year. Find out what that ed. therapist uses that is “similar to LiPS” (Orton-Gillingham based programs are good as well as Phono-Graphix). He really needs the tutoring right away before he gets further behind and more discouraged. The large majority of schools just do not know how to remediate reading disorders, unfortunately.
Janis
Buy the book reading reflex and teach him how to read. It helps kids develop the phonemic awareness skills they aren’t always getting in school.
If you can’t do it yourself don’t worry about it. Alot of parents just can’t go there. Find a lindamood bell clinic in your area and sign him up.