silent e

Comprehension is going to hit a brick wall without decoding (and conversely, decoding without comprehension is not going to be much good for anything either; you do have to have both.)

It is good to know that other people can work around a problem, but as a general rule I’d say that people who can’t do a particular skill are not necessarily the best ones to ask for advice on how to do it. In this case, other dyslexics can be a fine support system but may lead you into sharing errors in reading skills.

What method are you using to teach the “silent e” pattern? I go for direct teaching myself. If you are going with a “no rules” system where the child is simply supposed to imitate patterns, maybe some direct explanation of the rule will help.
Also it takes huge amounts of repetition. With little kids first learning, it took several weeks to get the lesson across the first time, and then reminders for several months before the long vowel/short vowel pattern was fairly automatic.
Reading (input) comes before spelling (output) in general. Most students can read the silent e words months or even years before they can spell them.
Right now I am working with a thirteen-year-old boy who got off to a very bad start in the schools here (hope and guess in two languages at once — no hope of ever learning patterns because the two languages have different patterns!) He can do short vowels and long vowels just great on a workbook page when you tell him that’s what he is doing. But if we
go back and read the same list later, even a few minutes later, he guesses wildly at the vowel sound; he tends more to say the long too often when short is required, but either error is a problem. Anyhow, I am starting to see some real progress with him after a month, but I have repeated the same lesson at least eight days and at least four or five times plus reminders each of those eight days.

Keep working on it and as long as there is a teeny bit of progress here and there you know you are on the right track. It does speed up and come together in time.

>School starts this Thursday, end of last year I refused the IEP because I didn’t have all the info yet. Still don’t. This summer we worked on the silent e words with the Lexia SOS she kind of was getting it. We worked with Great leaps kind of getting it but was aggravating her. I reminded

Well Lexia might help, but Great Leaps works with fluency— not decoding (sounding out). If she does not yet know how to decode the words, then this would only be frustration for her (and you).

>her with guided reading.

Guided reading isn’t esp. effective with kids with learning disabilities, I don’t think. It also presumes they know how to decode but need a bit of support now and then.

> I had her do some spelling words with silent e words, if I did it in a pattern she got it but if I mixed it up she lost it.

That would be typical.

> She knows the different sounds but is not automatic in knowing which sound to use. I work with a woman who reads alot and is dyslexic and she tells me she still has trouble with those words and has to read around it to find out the context to figure which one to use.

This would be a typical compensation technique for an adult (or even younger person) with dyslexia, but it definitely has its limitations as you can see.

>So, how much should I push the school to work on this? They were mostly wanting to work just on comprehension.

I’m afraid that unless your school is quite unusual (there are some out there), that this problem is not going to be dealt with by the school. It doesn’t sound like it as they haven’t figured out that she has a decoding problem, and may not have a comprehension problem at all. If she can’t read silent e words that cuts out quite a bit of vocabulary (and there are probably other things she can’t read either). If she can’t read the words, how is she to understand them?

You can do one of two things:
1. You could look into Reading Reflex. It is an inexpensive book ($15) which may teach her these patterns. And you can work with her yourself.
This might help, esp if she has few other problems. There are some outshoots of this that are sound.

2. You could hire a tutor. Make sure the tutor knows/uses a multisensory sytematic phonetic approach like Orton Gillingham (or something based on it). Do not use one who just goes over the same old same old with your kid as it obviously doesn’t work. Do not hire someone who uses whole language, four blocks, directed reading, etc.

HTH,

—des

You didn’t mention how old your child is, or in what grade.

My first thought would be to use Reading Reflex — especially since it notes that teaching “silent e” is confusing to many children, and therefore takes a very different approach to teaching it. People on the ReadNOW list at http://groups.yahoo.com have some really helpful tips to help with the Reading Reflex approach. However, it’s important to commit to the approach and not try to mix it with traditional phonics.

It sounds as if you have been doing a traditional phonics approach (silent e, word families). When this doesn’t work, the approach in Reading Reflex is often very helpful.

Hiring a Phono-Graphix tutor would be my first choice, using Reading Reflex at home would be my second choice, and my last choice would be leaving it up to the school.

Decoding and comprehension are both necessary for reading. It sounds as if the school is not seeing a decoding problem.

Nancy

>It sounds as if you have been doing a traditional phonics approach (silent e, word families). When this doesn’t work, the approach in Reading Reflex is often very helpful.

I agree. If you hire somone PG or OG (Orton Gillingham. Do not mix this with regular phonics. It won’t work and will just confuse your kid.

>Hiring a Phono-Graphix tutor would be my first choice, using Reading Reflex at home would be my second choice, and my last choice would be leaving it up to the school.

I just don’t recommend hiring a PG person as it isn’t my particular approach. But it is an option. I agree definitely DO NOT leave it up to the school.

Hire someone with a known systematic approach and who has experience with it. That would just about eliminate anybody with the public schools sad to say.

>Decoding and comprehension are both necessary for reading. It sounds as if the school is not seeing a decoding problem.

Yes comprehension is VERY important, indeed the whole point of reading. But without the decoding, your child won’t get too far with comprehension. I think Nancy and I essentially agree. I just wanted to clarify my own position.

I would seriously doubt you could even know at this point if your child has a comprehension problem (unless, say, he/she doesn’t understand when you read to them).

>Nancy

—des