Reading Recovery Program--looking for info

Reading ‘recovery’ was USELESS for my child — just more ‘guess & go’. Did not help, except to upset him as he was still on pull-out when most of the others had begun to really read. He finished grade 1 hating school and seeing himself as ‘DUMB’, no as a DUMB BABY WHO COULDNT EVEN READ A WORD, since that was what his classmates kept telling him he was.

He learned to read at a private school summer program — 3 hrs a day, 5 days a week, with an EXCELLENT teacher who used Spalding (and 20 yrs experience with dyslexic learners!) to get him reading.

By the end of the first week, he began to enjoy it…he really READ the little cvc books that came home, and could read to you BEFORE you read to him (that’s how he faked us that things were happening ‘normally’ until March of Gr. 1) and by the end of 6 weeks was really reading! It brings tears to my eyes still to think of how I watch his unhappiness and self-hatred dissolve and be replaced by confidence…

Stay away from reading ‘recovery’ in my opinion! There are many good programs and you will find info on them from this site…Good luck!

That’s what I’ve heard in a nutshell about that program. So, do I just refuse to allow the school to pull her out? I am planning on an intensive summer program and I’m crossing my fingers that we will have some good results and catching up. Thanks for your comments!

Suzi

I’m only a mom — but with my guy, he HATED the pull-out, and things got much better once I stopped it — but I didn’t stop it until Dec. of Gr. 2, when he had begun reading and it was clear that their brand of recovery would not help him advance his skills OR improve his attitude.

Plus, provider was NOT a great (or even adequate!) SPED teacher, but a snarky TA with no brains and poor attitude, with only RR as her ‘specialty’, so it was not hard to turn down. For my child, who is a daydreamer extraordinaire (but KNOWS it and CAN focus when interested), the pullout also made him more ‘disconnected’ as they often have to pullout on THEIR convenience…that is just a fact of life and budget cuts.

My gut says, for any child, ‘don’t pull out unless it’s worth it’, and there are always negative factors, even for the BEST pull-out services…sit down and make a list of the pros and cons…and probably, discuss them with the board! (and maybe your child too, in a controlled way). Many experts hang out here, mom-types and teacher-types. The best thing about this board, for me, is being able to see so many opinions, and so many kids, and then pick the things that make sense for mine…

Reading Recovery for a dyslexic?

My oldest child went though RR and it was a good program for him but it would have been a worthless for my younger LD son.

Pullouts work in some cases but I don’t think I’d put my child through the hassle and stigma for a program almost guaranteed to fail.

It sounds like your school is trying to get by on the cheap. They can do better than that!

Good luck!

Barb

She is already pulled out for speech therapy and I don’t think at this age that being pulled out is a stigma. The G&T kids are pulled out of class too. I am concerned that RR is a reading remediation program that doesn’t work for specifically for dyslexia. Wonder what programs do other schools use for 1st grade level with dyslexia?

Suzi

In my view, you can fight for someting more effective or you can decline services and keep her on a consult. You can then work with her yourself using a program like PG or hire a tutor. I certainly wouldn’t waste her and everyone else’s time doing something ineffective.

At one point with my son, I hired an advocate and fought. It did no good. I got an appropriate IEP and they chose to implement it using the same ineffective program that he had in first (and I went all the way up to the district level). So I pulled him out and partially homeschooled him and taught him myself. He was in second grade at the time. It is earlier for your child so even if you elect not to fight, she can probably keep up with a combination of tutoring in the summer between K and first and tutoring in first (by you or someone else).

BTW, I thought that Texas was one of the states that believed in early intervention. Maybe if you make a bit of a fuss you can get something much better.

Beth

From what I’ve read, the State of Texas is suppose to test kids in k, 1, 2 for dyslexia *if* they show signs. My daughter definitely shows the signs. Then from what I was reading the *have* to provide services. I don’t get where the school district then refuses to until the end of 2nd grade and no dyslexia program until 3rd grade. Right now, I really have a wonderful relationship with everyone at her school. They have all been very very very helpful this year with my daughter. It is really more than I expected. I just can’t believe their answer is Reading Recovery.

Suzi

I agree that Reading Recovery is a waste of time. Children who can’t read, can’t decode words. RR does not teach decoding in any systematic way. It teaches children to guess and use pictures for context.

I also agree with Beth about PG. You can buy Reading Reflex and work with your child yourself over the summer or you could locate a PG tutor through the PhonoGraphix web site (www.readamerica.net). By next fall your child won’t need to be pulled out for Reading Recovery!

of Reading Recovery: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~bgrossen/rr.htm

I know at least one parent who printed this report out and took it to school to back up her insistence for something more effective.

Nancy

I agree. Stay away!

They used those ‘techniques’ on my son all through first grade and he learned nil. Then they diagnosed his LD. They said with his problems learning to read would be very difficult.
I taught him to read the summer after first grade with the book reading reflex.

He is in third and reading very well. Vision therapy also has helped him enjoy reading. He has a severe ocular motor problem that makes tracking difficult.

Follow Nancy’s advice. First print out the data on Reading “Recovery” — it is, from all reports, a disaster that keeps up sales with lots of misleading marketing. Then also print out at least the introduction of the NIH Teachin Reading study (available on the LD In Dpeth section of this site) to show what *does* work, and that their program isn’t it. Take these to the school board and to any meetings; provide yourself with lots of copies and hand them to anyone involved. Then if anyone gives you the BS about “Nobody knows how to teach reading” or “There are many different effective methods” and so on, sweetly ask them if *they* actually read for themselves.

Ah, yes, Reading Recovery!
In my son’s school early remediation in reading or language skills means RR or nothing.RR is actually a very expensive program; teachers must be trained to use the system and a hig $$. My hubby did an analysis of RR for his LD course at university and would certainly agree with other posters on this site; the good thing is that it does identify kids at risk early, the bad thing is that it uses too few strategies to be useful. RR itself has seen the error in its ways, and has changed the program to add a strong phonemic awareness component (or so they say, our son certainly did not get this).
After a year of frustration, we asked that our son not get RR; a decision that essentially cut us off from all services.So, we have been using a quite wonderful Orton-Gillingham trained tutor (she actually uses a wide range of strategies) and have been seeing a huge improvement, so much so that our son will be going to a small private school that uses multi-sensory techniques.
My sis in law is a respected early literacy teacher,who has set up an innovative program for early intervention in a neighbouring school district. She was asked by RR to do an eval of the program. The results were not good, and needless to say, RR did not use her study.

I find in criminal that some school districts buy into these expensive one-size-fits-all approaches at the expense of the needs of the individual kids.

And, then justify their own position by promoting the belief that ‘some kids just can’t learn to read well’…BS! Sad, but true…

Read the new book Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz. Over 20 years of experience and research with dyslexics. Lots of reasearched based programs and what they should teach and how to measure progress.Reading Recovery was not mentioned in her book.

Ugh! Reading Recovery. Count my son as another victim of that garbage! He went in 1st grade and failed it. If there was a picture of a road and the word in the sentence was “road” and my son said “street” it was correct! No Problem. He’d come home and read it to me as “road” and I’d say, That’s the word street and he would say, No, it’s not. My teacher said it was road. OMG! The teacher was HORRIBLE. Awful. A sarcastic eye-roller. What a waste. The district got rid of Reading Recovery this year. Said it wasn’t cost effective to do 1-on-1. I could have turned it down. There was a permission slip. It came home a couple of months after he started going. At the end of 1st when it was determined that he failed RR, they put him in a small group program with the same evil teacher. Still no improvement. We put him in resource. He showed some improvement in 2nd by going to resource an hour a day, but not as much as he should. Next year, 3rd grade, he is going to an LD school. Course the public school never mentioned LD to me during all this. He was evaluated privately in order to apply to the LD school, so I know what’s going on with him.

I’m in Texas and our district does not do any sort of early screening for LD. They do various assessments to see if kids are on track to pass the 3rd grade state reading test - no pass, no promote - that start in Kindergarten.

I’m near Dallas. My daughter is having an evaluation at Shelton and may be attending school there in the Fall. I refuse to allow her to struggle and get no where for until 3rd grade, then receive in inferior program for dyslexia and also be expected to pass the TAKS. I’m hoping that by doing the LD school early on, that she will eventually be able to come back to public school. I hope!

Suzi

Suzi - My son will be at Shelton in the Fall in 3rd grade. I just enrolled him for summer school too. My next door neighbor, a boy, will also start 3rd grade there also and there is another boy in my son’s current public school (RISD), same grade, who will be there as well. My neighbor also has a boy who is there now and will be in 1st grade next year. Everyone I talk to sings praises of that school. I hope your child gets accepted. Where in the process are you?

My son would not have taken the TAKS next year. They said he would be exempt. I said I want him to take it and they said He will fail if he takes it, you want him exempt. Course this public school has a 100% passing rate which makes you wonder. Of course they want him exempt. They have a 100% passing rate! So then you wonder just how much help will he receive if he’s not even taking the test. Will he be put to the side? Ignored? Shelton seemed the only choice. I know he will be taught there and not pushed to the side.

Small world!! We are at the very beginning of the process. She was screened by her SLP this year with PAT and an auditory processing test. She scored low on both. She has also scored on the Frustational/Hard level for reading and is below where she should be for 1st grade. Her IQ tests above average. Based on all these results, her SLP has either dyslexia or AP or both. We have our evaluation tomorrow at Shelton. She said we would discuss getting her in for the summer program and discuss attending school there. So, what is the application process like? Is there a huge waiting list for 1st grade? I’d REALLY love to get her in for 1st grade if that is what she needs. I hope I’m not too late. You can e-mail me direct at [email protected].

Suzanne