discontinuing tutor qestion

Well, it’s better notice than what most people give me.
Do tell the tutor that you are happy with the progress and may come back when time permits - having clients that you’ve worked hard on just disappear is very hard on the self-esteem.

Thanks, for the advice. I appreciate it. :D

I agree with Victoria’s excellent advice and want to second it. Nobody has ever given me any warning, so it has tended to come as a shock.
you are unusually sensitive about this, imo.

However, had a question. Was it you or someone else that said that your kid flunked the Barton screening? Did you try a retest or what?

—des

Yes it was me. I tried the last 4 on task C today. I had to repeat f,th,s and o,i,e and she got it correct after the second repeat. Her try on m,n,n sounded all the same, so I see that she needs help on how to place her tongue to make the n sound clearer. I have talked to the school, and the speech pathologist is going to help her with her sounds and the other goals that are on her IEP should help with her basic skills. I am thinking of starting on the Barton program and seeing where she is having problems so I can have my private speech therapist work on the sounds she is having problems with and fill in those holes.

Auditory Mom, has she done Fast ForWord? What has the tutor been using the last three years? How do you know what parts of Barton she has already mastered? Barton is very expensive and I can understand if you were starting with it from the beginning as her first reading therapy. I just question whether it would be the best thing to use at this point.

Janis

My tutor was using the Spalding method along with explode the code and then she was doing Balametrics and started Rewards. My child’s working memory is not great , but it is alot better than it was. My child’s spelling is not great and I am going to incorporate cursive into the Barton program. It seems like a comprehensive program and I will be able to tell how she is doing if I do it myself. It will be less expensive than paying for a tutor and since the school is starting off again with basic skills, it seems it should all fit together.

So she passed this time? I would agree with the idea of the speech path. working on the sounds. One thing is that some of these will get clearer when she is actually in the program. Another thing is to have her look at you. f and th may sound similar, as would m and n but if she looks at you (at least initially) this will help. Barton has some ideas on sounds that are commonly confused and what to do with it. However, if she didn’t pass at all, she isn’t ready. However, ime, the task is new, so you have some kids who will almost pass and might do ok the second time around.

IMO, the Barton program would be great. It is not more expensive than FFW, unless she is 14 or so and can go thru the whole Barton program (in which case she will be a pretty good reader!). (Unless she doesn’t have the skills.) And I agree that it is cheaper than private tutoring (depending on the area of course). The program is very good and I think you will be pretty happy with it. The program is superior to Spaulding, imo. It is newer and includes things that Spaulding didn’t know about circa whenever that was.

You can combine the cursive with Barton. Decide what program to use then when they do writing on paper, you can use it. You can also use it to introduce new sounds. I think it will be pretty easy to fit in. Barton didn’t include the cursive as she said there was just no good way to do this on video tape.

—des

[

quote=”auditory mom”]Yes it was me. I tried the last 4 on task C today. I had to repeat f,th,s and o,i,e and she got it correct after the second repeat. Her try on m,n,n sounded all the same, so I see that she needs help on how to place her tongue to make the n sound clearer. I have talked to the school, and the speech pathologist is going to help her with her sounds and the other goals that are on her IEP should help with her basic skills. I am thinking of starting on the Barton program and seeing where she is having problems so I can have my private speech therapist work on the sounds she is having problems with and fill in those holes.[/quote]

What I was trying to understand is whether there is a placement test that will show where she needs to start in the program. I am hearing that she has some auditory discrimination problems. But if she is already reading, she surely doesn’t need the whole program, does she des? By the way, I wasn’t mentioning Fast ForWord as a substitute for a reading program, I was considering it as therapy to help her auditory skills prior to starting a new reading program.

Janis

>What I was trying to understand is whether there is a placement test that will show where she needs to start in the program.

Yes, she can ask for specific placement tests for the levels. However, I would start with book 1, even if she can read as it is a whole level on phonemic awareness. It is pretty awesome, and maybe would treat someone with a mild PA problem. She can also give the screening tests for each book and might be able to skip some stuff. Though you have to be careful. I think if they are third grade or under (don’t remember the grade), I’d just go thru the whole thing and not try and have them test out. You find they might have some holes.

>I am hearing that she has some auditory discrimination problems. But if she is already reading, she surely doesn’t need the whole program, does she des?

I started a kid that was reading at a 3rd-4th grade level and had done Wilson up to level 4. She had LOTS of holes in her reading ability. For example, she could not hear a l or r in a blend, that kind of thing. She could not spell complex syllables (ie multiple blends). After one session with Barton she could hear those sounds. (No it doesn’t teach blends, of course.) I was able to go thru the first couple levels pretty fast. I would also skip thru some of the stuff (I know Sue B. would not necessarily recommend it, but you want to keep the kid with you.) So say, if I saw the kid could do “x” very well and quickly I’d do a couple and then go on.
I was talking with someone here about actually skipping stuff. I would do it if it was very easy at this point.

It is a very thorough program. It redefines explicit. The student I mentioned was able to read and spell multisyllable words— even spelled a 7 syllable word! (Btw, there is a bad part to all this. The student I mentioned got thru 5 levels and then her mom decided she was reading well enough. :-})

> By the way, I wasn’t mentioning Fast ForWord as a substitute for a reading program

It’s an option. I think a good speech path. would be as well. Esp. if she had tools to maybe teach her some of the stuff in LiPS without maybe needing to go thru the whole thing. Actually there are some great tools in Barton for auditory awareness— unless she has severe auditory memory problems where she wouldnt’ pass the screening. It doesn’t cover those or the ability to hear the sounds. If they can’t repeat them back, then there are some major processing problems going on that you need to deal with first. You absolutely can’t do Barton without that. (Or any other OG program really.)

If she could pass the screening, I would just go on. The extensive PA practice, the work by the speech path., and the stuff in the program will handle a lot of auditory awareness issues imo/ime.

>Janis

—des