need help and don't know where to turn

He could have an auditory processing problem, he could be ADD, another thought I had was has he been exposed to any other languages? Sometimes kids who are exposed to several languages have problems with the sound symbol relationship. but from what you are telling me…it really sounds like he has something going on with his auditory/visual attention…he isn’t making the connection..

Some people here have had success with vision therapy and other treatments; I leave it to them to explain these things which I have no personal experience in. But go over the old posts on the boards Teaching Reading, Teaching LD, and Parenting LD and look for topics on vision therapy, audiblox, and interactive metronome. You will find many possibilities in there. No guarantees but some things to look at.

Right now, at home, for very little investment, you can try one thing that is often very helpful, which is multisensory instruction.
Stop just trying to teach him a letter by showing and telling.
Rather, get a good printing guide that gives proper directionality for letters and follow it faithfully. The consistent directionality is vital because it gets the information into muscle memory (kinesthetic) and it leads to consistent and easy writing later. Make photocopies of the printing guide using the enlargement feature, copy a couple of times if necessary, until you get the letters a couple of inches high with the directionality arrows well visible, then cut them apart and save them in an envelope to do one at a time. Do *lower-case only* for the first while — 95% of reading is lower case, and also the letters are more distinct visually.
Also get a medium-sized whiteboard or a small blackboard and appropriate markers or chalk. It’s passable to put them on a table, but much better on a sloped surface like an easel, or if he can stand for twenty minutes, on the wall. The idea is to get a surface that he can work on with *no* hand pressure and make nice large swooping motions to form letters easily. Small writing comes much later; don’t worry about it for now.
Take one letter at a time, lower-case, and tape the large model to the top or side frame. Have his trace the letter in *correct* directionality, with as few pen lifts as possible, using his fingertip. At the *same time* he is tracing it, have him say either the *sound* of the letter, or both the name and the sound since he has already started names. The sound is important because that’s what you actually use in reading; letter names can actually confuse the real beginner. So he traces the letter and says “ay - ah” or “bee - buh” and so on. Saying the sound at the same time as doing the motion is important to get things into memory.
Then have him copy the letter on the board using large fluid motions — if he does it six inches high, good. As he is forming the strokes, for many kids it is helpful to give a description of the motions: “b — start at the top, way up; sli-i-i-ide down to the bottom; now slide back up to the middle; now bounce around the ball and all around and back.” (*Only* if the child has a real verbal comprehension disorder do you leave this out.)
One letter a day is a good idea. Start with two or three letters that are very distinct — say for example a, m, and t (round, two bumps, and tall stick). Have him say name and sound *each and every time” he forms the letter. “around-up-down — ah — around-up-down —ah … “
Then do a page or two or three on the *same* letter in a good phonics workbook — a page identifying words that start with “mmm”, a page writing m’s, a page with some other activities with m’s, etc.
After the first three letters, then put up two at a time and have him point to the correct one when you give the sound. If he is 70% to 80% correct you are getting there (50% would be pure guesswork). Don’t demand perfection; he is learning and needs to work on this. After he can identify when you give the sound, try having him do the harder tasks of giving the sound from looking at the letter — encourage him to trace it in the air to identify it — and of printing the letter when you dictate the sound (a hard task without a model — don’t push it until he is getting the idea well.)
Continue this pattern, learn a letter by shape and feel and appearance and embedded in word sounds and any other way you can come up with; one new letter a day, two or three days on new and then a day on review. Keep reviewing all the work previously done every few days.
*Usually* this starts to show some results within a week and gets the job done in a few months.
After you have the first few letters and sounds, say a, m, t, you can also slowly and gently introduce (model yourself) blending to make words, mat, at, tam for that example.
Keep at a *slow but steady* pace. Trying to hurry through it to meet a deadline is almost always counterproductive. Usually this works well.

Please feel free to ask for more advice or notes if you need more help.

He could have an auditory processing problem, he could be ADD, another thought I had was has he been exposed to any other languages? Sometimes kids who are exposed to several languages have problems with the sound symbol relationship. but from what you are telling me…it really sounds like he has something going on with his auditory/visual attention…he isn’t making the connection..

Patti — we have a lot of experience around here with two or more languages, and usually things sort out in a year or two with good teaching. Dr. Wilder Penfield’s work in the 1950’s and 60’s is the basis for working immersion programs. Of course deafness or severe APD would throw a wrench in the works, but good programs deal well with even most LD’s.

The good teaching issue is the big problem; if the teachers don’t even teach the basic sound-symbol structure of their own language you get great confusion, and confusion squared if the system is not taught in two languages. I have a couple of “graduates” of the do-your-own-thing in two languages plan right now, and they are really hard to do anything with.

You definitely need an intensive multisensory approach. Lindamood Bell is a great approach so you might explore finding a center that uses this method. The book “Understanding Dyslexia” by Sally Shaywitz would be a good book for you to read to get information to help you. Don’t worry about his age and being in 1st grade. Many parents wait a year to start kindergarten, so he will have age peers in his grade. And many students start first grade without knowing all of their letters, etc. You have the summer to do some intensive work to help catch him up. I wouldn’t worry about him not learning the letter even after a week of work—what they are doing with him is not working. He needs a different approach to get this. So take heart—you can make a huge difference with an intensive program that meets his needs.

Hi,

I don’t know what compelled me to come to this board this am. I used to come alot when I was lost like you but now I am happy to report my son is doing well, now in fourth grade regular class.
The people on this board can help.

It sounds like the testing they did was not sufficient. It is crucial you understand his underlying deficits as a starting point. You can push to get the school district to pay for outside testing.

There are some who can help interpret test scores if you have them post them and see who responds.

My son had a problem remembering letters and numbers. We found vision therapy and interactive metronome very helpful.

You can also try audiblox. It addresses several underlying issues visual, memory, cognitive skills etc.

We did special ed for awhile but that was pretty awful. I thought it hurt more than it helped. In the end, getting hm out of sped became my goal and addressing his issues the ticket out of sped.