Texas Scottish Rite?

I have not used this program, but it is one of the multi-sensory structured language programs that I think is Orton-Gillingham based. I have heard that the videos are boring. But I will warn you that all the programs for dyslexia will be “like an intensive phonics program”. With others, you will have to get training and do all the lessons with your child yourself. I guess it’s a matter of deciding which way works best. But I am sure they are all tedious.

Take a look at this article and you will see the common components of all the MSSL programs.

Janis

I have heard this complaint before. There are many alternatives.

Have you tried “Reading Reflex”? This would be my first choice because it is inexpensive, easy to use, has an excellent track record with dyslexics, and tends to work quickly. The book is $16 at most bookstores. If you don’t see significant gains after about 10 hours of one-on-one using RR, you can always try something else. For something like 90+% of children, though, RR is enough.

Mary

An important question for considering alternatives is: why is it torturous?

If she finds the phonics aspects difficult becaues of the severity of the dyslexia, then odds are she’ll be one of the folks for whom a quicker program such as Reading Reflex will not be effective.

What does she dislike about it? If it’s ‘way too tedious, then there are lots of alternatives including RR.

Hi
We use Seton’s special needs program and this is what we were using for reading. Ds also hated the videos. So after talking to our advisor from Seton I did what she was doing with her kids which is just teaching without the videos. Once you watch the lessons enough you get a hang of how they do things. To make it easier on myself I scan each lesson and then watch the video, doing alot of fastforward, and make notes to myself on what to do when. It seemd to make the lessons better for my sone.
Also we dropped cursive, he just could not get it. And I have to admit I find all that coding tedious….
Also I tried to remind myself that that kids in the video and in a classroom were not having to read each line, they were taking turns, so I let ds do every other line or so in the workbooks. Unfortunatly Seton charges extra for the videos and I could not aford the cost every few months for the next shipment so we went back to RR. Ds now has a definate preferance for RR and I am seeing some improvement. I did keep airwriting the digraphs we are working on while crossing the midline from Scottish…..

Julie W in AR

She found the video boring, very slow moving but on the other hand the woman who was teaching the class would direct the students in the video to do a certain activity and the kids would be done before my dd would be and she would almost panic, thinking the video was moving ahead and she was going to be behind. You are instructed to “under no circumstances stop the tape” but I saw very quickly that that would never work for her. The tapes are an hour long and that is a long time to sit in front of the tv focusing on something that is being presented in such a boring manner and that is so difficult for you. Also philosophically, I have a really hard time with the idea of a living, breathing, vibrant, child, any child….not just mine, sitting in front of the tv for a large portion of their school.

We have tried RR….actually we made it part way through the advanced code and it really wasn’t making that big of a difference. Molly has both visual and auditory processing challenges so maybe that is why we didn’t see as dramatic of results as others have seen. I do think it is a good program and recommend it often….it is a perfect starting place.

Sue, you just posted to me over at vegsource about our workload and my apprehensions that we aren’t doing enough…and Mary, I know you from the dyslexia support email list….Annette Marshall, mom to 9yo Molly. Just thought I would let you know who you are talking to you! :o)

What is Seton? I am trying to make plans for next school year and have been looking at the Sonday program. I saw it in the EPS catalog. Its down to either that or Susan Barton’s program which is quite a bit more money, but hopefully worth it. At least we have made enough progress that we aren’t starting at the very beginning of each program. She is able to take a placement test and begin somewhere between the beginning and the middle. I will say that what she does know, she *really* knows.

A.M.,

Since you have already tried RR and feel you need a more intense MSSL program, I want to give you a link to look at. I have spoken with a homeschooling mother who uses this curriculum which is based on Spalding’s Writing Road to Reading (another O-G based program). I have also looked at Barton and think it looks wonderful, but the cost of Barton is about 10-20 times more than the Riggs Institute/Spalding based program. If it were me, I’d probably ask to see Riggs on a trial basis before I ordered Barton for sure.

http://www.riggsinst.org/index.shtml

Janis

I was going to ask earlier who was bored, you or the child, but that got answered above, apparently both.

The advice you got about scanning the tapes for what content to cover and methods to teach it, and then teaching it yourself, is very sound. This is a good way to learn how to pace yourself and organize presentation as a teacher.

Watching a TV class is very different from being in that exact same real class; you have no interaction with the teacher and you know for sure you will never be called on, so you are an outside observer rather than an active learner.

You say your child is progressing, albeit slowly. Well, then whatever you are doing is helping at least a little. Sometimes it is necessary to go through some slogging before you get to the payoff. Doing one-to-one tutoring, you can do completely interactive lessons and see immediately what is catching on and waht is going over your daughter’s head. You can work on the stuff that is catching on, and *do not* omit the stuff that is going over her head, but look at going back earlier to review it or finding an alternate way to present it, or both.
One problem with ready-made programs is that they have to pigeonhole you, and if you have uneven development this may be difficult. I would tend to take the good advice you’ve been given on buying good inexpensive teacher-directed book and adapt as needed. Please don’t omit the hard parts — they are the meat of the program that you have to learn — but pace things by your own needs.

Your original post sounded disappointed because the TSR video program was just an intensive phonics program. Well, that is what has been shown to be effective, over and over again. You need systematic applied oral phonics (*not* silent busywork or occasional games), guided oral reading, and varied teaching of comprehension, to have a good reading program. Yes, if the phonics comes hard it can be a long hard job, but it’s one that’s worth doing. Try using other good-quality books and seeing the same phonics over two or three times in different contexts; that sometimes helps break the barrier to understanding.

One issue with the Riggs program is that it was developed at a school for boys. One very bright but severely dyslexic student I worked with had found that it didn’t match her well - there were things she needed to have broken down even more, but her excellent reasoning skills were often untapped. However, that’s *one* student and there are many others for whom the program has been an excellent match.

I fully agree, Sue, that there are no programs that work well for everyone. I was thinking that it was the Spalding, though, that was developed at a boys school, but I can’t say that I know the full history of the Riggs version. I just know it has been recently revised to be much easier for parents/teachers to follow with 160 sequential lessons. I am certain that some children would take more time on certain skills than others, so the teacher would still have to individualize and reteach until each skill was reasonably mastered. The other advantage is that the original Orton phonograms have been updated to reflect current pronunciation. I think this would be very important so as not to confuse the kids even further.

Janis

***Your original post sounded disappointed because the TSR video program was just an intensive phonics program. Well, that is what has been shown to be effective, over and over again. You need systematic applied oral phonics (*not* silent busywork or occasional games), guided oral reading, and varied teaching of comprehension, to have a good reading program. ***

From what I have read doing phonics and more phonics is not *all* a dyslexic child needs. We have done years of phonics. I taught my older kids how to read using intensive phonics and they are fine, fluent, readers. It is the multi- sensory aspects that are so crucial. I am not suggesting throwing out the phonics….only that I don’t need yet another phonics program. I have several on my shelf already that haven’t given her what she needs.

Well, if you look back at what you quoted from me and at my other suggestions, I think we said exactly the same thing!

Hello, We also use Seton and we found the Stevenson Language Program works very well for us. SLP is the other dyslexic reading program Seton offers. It is very reasonably priced and easy to use. My daughter, Mary’s reading has really taken off. SLP offers a series of reading (programs) levels up to 6th grade (I believe!). SLP website is stevensonsemple.org.

God Bless, Lin Schirm

Most “schools for dyslexics” are either just for boys, or started out that way; the coed ones generally have a lopsided enrolment. Has its advantages for tenth grade girls, though!
It’s not as simple as “boys act out more” and end up in special schools, though that’s a big part of it.