dyslexia

First, be sure (if you don’t already) that he’s got something that he’s the expert on that his sister can’t touch. Feeling like there’s some fairness in the world is really importante ;)

How did the 100 EZ lessons go?
Lots of kids with dyslexia need a *lot* more practice than programs provide, and you sometimes need to make sure that what is “phonics” to you is being “phonics” to them.
What do I mean? Kids who are smart, visual learners will take a phonics lesson — and manage to figure out a way to do it visually, often because they don’t even know they are *supposed* to be paying attention to sounds. Phonics worksheets sometimes make it easy — you picture in your mind how the word is spelled, so when you’re asked “which picture begins with b” you remember how it is spelled. Annie auditory is “hearing” the word in her head… but Vinnie Visual isn’t.
What are his strengths, and how strong are they?

Hi Carolyn. The Orton-Gillingham (O-G) method has worked with us—plus a lot of time and hard work. We use Recipe for Reading by Traub and Bloom as well as Patterns for Success in Reading and Spelling: A Multisensory Approach to Teaching Phonics and Word Analysis by Henry and Redding. I make up my own stories that appeal to the “coolness” and sense of humor of a ten year old boy. I code the words in two colors—blue for phonetic words and red for non-phonetic words or words we have not yet learned but will be learning soon. My son is a very kinesthetic/tactile and visual/spatial learner. He has to move to learn—air writing, simple body movements, writing, shooting hoops, standing on his head. Every time pencil comes to paper, he has to sound or say in order to learn. He has to move his body and his voice in a simple rhythm in order to build those neuro-pathways.

My son started out with an O-G tutor for the first several months of this school year until I completely took over in January. My son is 10 years old. In the beginning of the school year he was a complete non-reader. He is now competely surpassed everyone’s expectations—except mine. If I had to put a grade level to it, then it would be an early 2nd grade—he is not fluent at this level—yet—but he can do it and understand what he has read. His comprehension is well above his reading level. I am a firm believer in O-G—at least for me and my son.

The reading and math bulletin boards are a great source of information. I posted recently some information on the Reading and Math Bulletin Board about memorizing facts. There are lots of other great posts from people who really know their stuff. Stick with it and good luck. Val

The suggestion to use Orton-Gillingham is probably the best; the program was designed and tested with dyslexic students.

It sounds to me like you have tried too many programs and need to slow down and take a deep breath and relax. OK, we have some difficulties here, but 7 1/2 is still young and we can work through it.

What reading level has he attained already? What does he know, and what is he not picking up? In general, what are his strengths or weaknesses? If you tell me a bit more, either on this board or in an email, I can give some concrete and detailed suggestions. (If you post on the board lots of other nice people will chime in and add some ideas too.)

how is his attention span? Is it short? Perhaps he is ADD on top of the dyslexia. From all the programs you have tried did you do them because he was bored and wasn’t progressing? Perhaps you might look into some outside tutoring for him from someone who has training in Lindamood-Bell LiPS. That is what I did with my dyslexic daughter and many other kids I have taught to read. It is sequential and can be fun. You may want to check out Charles Schwab’s website for learning differences. They have a fantastic program to hlep you understand a child who has reading differences and it is FREE. I have been reading it today and it is really good. It sould give you a place to start.

I haven’t read the other posts, but what I would recommend is working first on reducing any underlying deficits that may be making academic learning difficult. Dyslexia is often caused by unremediated deficits on the sensory/motor and/or cognitive skills levels of development.

Ideally, you would want to get both a developmental vision evaluation (http://www.childrensvision.com and http://www.covd.org) and a CAPD evaluation (http://pages.cthome.net/cbristol/) to either rule out or identify sensory/motor deficits so you can start appropriate therapies. How is his balance, motor coordination, ability to clap in rhythm, etc.? If these are poor, I would do a lot of reading on the NeuroNet website (http://www.neuronet.com).

Cognitive skills training is often very helpful. Audiblox is a good, inexpensive, home-based program (http://www.audiblox2000.com). We did PACE (Processing and Cognitive Enhancement, http://www.learninginfo.com), and this program often works wonders if sensory/motor level deficits have been adequately addressed first. Master the Code, its follow-up reading program, is also excellent.

Ideally you would leave academic remediation for the last step, because it goes much faster after underlying problems have been addressed.

Mary

What is his level of phonemic awareness? No phonics reading program will work without phonemic awareness. Lindamood Bell Lips/ADD starts with phonemic awarenss which is probably why it works where others fail. Most other programs assumes that the student has a basic phoneme awareness ability.

My son took the Lindamood-Bell LIPS program, and it saved his life!! He took it in the 5th and 6th grades, and took 2 yrs. of it, and it raised his reading level from upper second grade to upper 6th grade in a year! His is 14 now and home schooled. WE were thrilled and all though Orton-Gillingham is the orginal program devised for dyslexics, this program is the best. They are based in California, have work shops, and sell their products (of course). They even have books that are in your childs reading level, but age appropriate. Also, anyone who is dyslexic under the American Disibilities Act can apply for the Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic. Its all free through the Library of Congress.You only need your doctor to fill out the form. This has been very helpful for our son, as he now gets the tapes, and we go to the library and he follows along with the book, at home. We just got him started on the short stories of O’Henry, and it has added the literature part of his Language Arts.