refused IEP at end of school year been a week and 2 days ...

I have probably told you this before, but if the resource teacher does not understand decoding or how to teach it, it’s not going to matter whether it’s written in the iEP or not. Are you having her tutored privately or tutoring her yourself? There’s nothing wrong with having a good IEP, of course, but unless you are talking with the principal or special ed. director about sending this teacher for training, you’re wasting your time. Teaching decoding just cannot wait. It needs to be done immediately.

Janis

I have a tutor that teaches the Spalding method. We stopped with it because my child was getting overwhelmed with two spelling sessions. The school was using AVKO and was not using it as per program directions. I looked at her spelling journal where all the words should have been spelled correctly and quite a few weren’t. The tutor is using REWARDS now. I am using the check and double check series, SOS Lexia program, and Great Leaps. My child is diagnosed with Apraxia by the school. This might explain my child’s not being fluent and automatic in her reading. The silent e words are hard. In Great Leaps there is a section of words that mix up silent e and non silent e words. This is very hard for my child. I have stopped timing a while back and just let her read the words and had to decrease the amount, just hoping the repetition would help. I had suggested they get a reading specialist to help out with the IEP,and I have conacted her. I am hoping I got all my ducks lined up so we can get this IEP started. I just don’t want to push my luck and aggravate them so they don’t bring in the reading specialist. Ialso don’t believe the principal or the special ed director will help.The principal has stated to me along with the special ed director that kids don’t need phonics after 3rd grade. The special ed director used to be an occupational therapist so I don’t think his expertise is in reading instruction.

>I have a tutor that teaches the Spalding method. We stopped with it because my child was getting overwhelmed with two spelling sessions. The school was using AVKO and was not using it as per program

I’m not a big fan of Spalding as it is so tremendously rule bound (nos. for rules etc.). So I would guess a kid could be bogged down with both.
However, I would agree they weren’t doing much of what AVCO recommends. She could just continue with the Spalding and have the school limit the spelling. (not practice spelling at home and try to get her only 10 words for assignments, that type of thing).

have been spelled correctly and quite a few weren’t. The tutor is using >REWARDS now.

Keep in mind that Rewards requires a 4th grade reading level. IF she isn’t there then it won’t work too well.

> I am using the check and double check series, SOS Lexia program

I would guess, via Victoria that check and double check is more on the level than Rewards, but maybe I have read her levels wrong. SOS Lexia is also good but has to be backed up with something else (which I would guess is done with check and double check). Gosh though, there are so many different programs and approaches, I’m wondering if she is confused.

> and Great Leaps. My child is diagnosed with Apraxia by the school. This might explain my child’s not being fluent and automatic in her reading. The silent e words are hard. In Great Leaps there is a section of words that mix up silent e and non silent e words. This is very hard for my child.

Well Great Leaps is a fluency program. You can’t really expect fluency in a kid with very poor decoding. The problem with silent e’s may be more of a decoding problem (sounds like more of a decoding problem). There are so many times and so many reasons that e can be silent that it can be very confusing for the child. That’s why Orton type programs (like Spalding or Lexia) teach those concepts separately and in quite a lot of
order. Barton has a level “the Six (or is it 9) rules for the silent e”.

>had to decrease the amount, just hoping the repetition would help. I had suggested they get a reading specialist to help out with the IEP,and I have conacted her. I am hoping I got all my ducks lined up so we can get this IEP started.

I wouldn’t hold my breath. It may be that YOU know more about teaching reading than the reading specialist, unless this is an unusual case. It is pretty certain that Janis, Victoria, Sue, and I (or someone else responding might).

—des

I just don’t want to push my luck and aggravate them so they don’t bring in the reading specialist. Ialso don’t believe the principal or the special ed director will help.The principal has stated to me along with the special ed director that kids don’t need phonics after 3rd grade. The special ed director used to be an occupational therapist so I don’t think his expertise is in reading instruction.[/quote]

Several years ago I was in much the same position as you with the public school. Basically, I knew more about teaching reading than the resource teacher did. At one point, I hired an advocate and got a wonderful IEP. But, as Janis says, it meant nothing. They initially tried to implement it using the same ineffective methods as the year before. Then they tried to make it into a fluency issue when my child really couldn’t decode well yet.

I could have fought the system but decided not to. I checked with several people who told me what people got when cases went through mediation (as opposed to due process which would take years) and someone I respect very much told me it was better than what he was getting but still wouldn’t be enough.

I pulled my child out of school part time and homeschooled him. The next year the resource teacher was gone and someone much better was there. Several years later the principal told me that she knew the first resource teacher was incompetent but that she couldn’t do anything any quicker than she did. This principal was new that year—Mrs. P would still be there if the old principal had stayed.

My child was the only one in resource room who could read when the new teacher came.

Also, I must tell you that even a good teacher in resource room knowing good programs was not nearly enough for my severely learning disabled son. It was much better—because we worked together but I didn’t stop anything I was doing when she came.

I really believed that getting the right IEP would help. It didn’t. Legally, the school can implement it with any program they like and parents do not have input.

Beth

I am not relying on the school. We have a math tutor( 2 hours), a reading tutor( 2hours) and our speech pathologist who is helping my child with writing(1/2 hour) a week.My husband and I both work. I am not sure I could homeschool because just working with her as much as I am, she gives me a lot of grief. I am hoping that I can get a reading specialist into the school so it can help improve it and at least not waste my child’s time in SPED. Math is so far ok as my child made a years gain. What I need is more than just 2 hours a week for reading and math with the tutors.

Two hours a week should work out ok, unless there is something really
more severe, ie the child is not hearing the sounds. Then OG, PG or whatever is not going to work and you need something like LiPs for him/her to hear them (and usually needs to be a tad more intensive). I have been doing 3 hours a week with the two kids I have used LiPS with plus giving them “homework” which I structure. The kids I worked with did fine with 2 hours a week.

However, unless your child does read at a 4th grade reading level, Rewards will not work. I would still recommend keeping up with the Spalding and having the school deemphasize spelling, so as to not confuse him/her. This could be part of a 504 plan say, or you could
just not worry about it at home. As I said, I’m not thrilled with the
Spalding program as it is exceptionally rule bound, with rules given
in numbers.

I’ d email you this (but since you are a guess I can’t) but if your tutor is willing to learn something different and you are willing to pay for it, you might look into Barton Reading and Spelling. It is a pricy system, imo. (Although I think after the first 3 books it averages $100 a month, which isn’t bad. The first 2 books are likely to go pretty fast and are $300 for each level— I think the first two are actually $250.) But does a few things that a lot of them don’t do.

a. It systematically teaches phonemic awareness.
b. All of the instruction is on video tape. But since it is OG based, the tutor should whiz thru them.
c. Instead of rules as nos. etc. the rules are in mnemonics. Kiss the Cat is an example. It tells you when to use “K” and when to use “C” at the beginning of the word. It is MUCH easier than remembering rule no. 17 or something.
d. It includes a lot of different reading activities, including activities to increase phonemic awareness; fluency; and vocabulary development so it is a pretty complete program. It has several activities the kids really enjoy, esp some of the fluency activities.
e. It goes up to 9th grade.
f. It does a great job with spelling, about half the time is spent on spelling.
g. Susan Barton is really easy to contact, though I would recommend phone over email, she is very abrupt in email.

I would not do a lot of extra work with fluency,etc until you get down the basics of decoding. There are some decodable books that are inexpensive that go along with the Barton program. If a parent was interested, I would have them buy these.

Not working for Barton, and not getting anything out of this.
www.bartonreading.com

—des

>I am not relying on the school. We have a math tutor( 2 hours), a reading tutor( 2hours) and our speech pathologist who is helping my child with writing(1/2 hour) a week.My husband and I both work. I am not sure I could homeschool because just working with her as much as I am, she gives me a lot of grief. I am hoping that I can get a reading specialist into the school so it can help improve it and at least not waste my child’s time in SPED. Math is so far ok as my child made a years gain. What I need is more than just 2 hours a week for reading and math with the tutors.[/quote]

I agree with des that if she is reading below 4th grade level, REWARDS isn’t the right program for now. What is your daughter’s reading level?

Janis

Basic word reading WIAT-II is 3:0 , reading comprehension 2:8, pseudoword decoding was 2:0. According to the school report; The pseudoword decoding test is applicable to compare her to her grade level peers. However, it is not an accurate assessment of her decoding skills due to her speech which the school diagnosed as apraxia.The tutor and I talked today about how the rewards program was going. I did let her know about the reading level. We are going to try the first four sessions as she is seeing benefits from the program. I will continue with the silent e words trying to make them more automatic. My child’s working memory is also an issue where when she sounds out words she will forget parts when putting it all together.Some days she reads really well other days not so well. We are seeing the chunking of the words in Rewards a benefit. Thanks for the information if this all doesn’t start coming together in a month, I will be making changes.

>Basic word reading WIAT-II is 3:0 , reading comprehension 2:8, pseudoword decoding was 2:0. According to the school report; The pseudoword decoding test is applicable to compare her to her grade level peers. However, it is not an accurate assessment of her decoding skills due to her speech which the school diagnosed as apraxia.

I don’t understand why pseudoword decoding problems would be caused by apraxia. To me the pseudoword decoding problems show that perhaps (?) she is able to remember many sight words and has good visual memory so that while she can read real words (words she can remember), she has difficulty reading words she has never seen before.
That would be my interpretation. All her skills may be reduced due to apraxia— if she just doesn’t have the verbal coordination to say the words quickly (maybe not comprehension). In any case she isn’t even close to the 4th grade level for Rewards.

She may benefit from some of it, but if she doesn’t have some of the basic skills she won’t benefit as much as she would.

>sessions as she is seeing benefits from the program. I will continue with the silent e words trying to make them more automatic. My child’s

Yes, but if she doesn’t really understand the silent ‘e’ thing or is confused by it all the fluency type drills won’t help. (I have had kids just add “e’s” at the end of words. You ask why and they say “It’s silent I think”. They have no idea why some ‘e’s’ are silent.)

>working memory is also an issue where when she sounds out words she will forget parts when putting it all together.Some days she reads really well other days not so well.

Yes but that is another trait of poor readers. Prob. good ones as well but the differences aren’t noticed so much.

—des

Pseudo word decoding is to test if your child can decode words that he or she does not know. My son has had grade level single word decoding of real words for several years now but it has taken much longer to bring up the pseudo word decoding scores (they are still below average). Low pseudo word decoding means your child does not have the skill to decode new words automatically. The tests use real patterns but not real words so that a child who has a large sight vocabulary cannot rely on those skills.

Beth

Just a thought: yes, she gives some grief over workingwith you as much as you do —but that’s on top of all the school stuff. Woudl she react differently if she didn’t *also* have to do the school part? How would she feel about reducing or eliminating school for a spell while she learned to spell?
Could be that would just be too unnervingly world-rocking… leave school?!?! but I’ve known folks who did it for just long enough to get the skills up enough to get back into the academic swing, and it worked. Or, you can get creative about what matters in the school environmnet — make an arrangement so that she goes & helps a lower grade teacher or does something else entirely — look for something that uses her talents & that she would like — while she would be doing spelling or reading , with the contract that she shows them the hours of labor she puts in after school.
I must agree, though, that with those reading levels, Rewards is a bit on the high end. It’s basically assuming she’s going to be able to fill in the gaps — and if she could do that she wouldn’t be *in* this position.

The school situation is not looking too good. There is another child that she had problems with last year, and during the summer, that she is having problems with now in class. This other child irritates my child so much that I have to talk to my child about what’s bugging her before we can do school work.The two are in the same reading and math group. I am looking at options . I asked for my child’s schedule so maybe I can work something out. I will also be calling a Barton tutor today and see how that looks. Thanks for all the input.

Well, I guess I won’t be talking to a Barton tutor, phone number was disconnected.I’ll keep on looking.

Oh really!? I’m looking into this one.

—des

Des, I e-mailed them with my e-mail address and they e-mailed me back that they only had one tutor in our area and gave a phone number which was disconnected to that particular tutor, but they also gave other options as well. How long did it take to learn the Barton method? I wasn’t considering my tutor because it may take a while to learn. Thanks for your help.