Wilson Reading vs Barton Reading

Well unless you live in CA, you most likely would not find a school using Barton.

All the Orton based programs have similarities as well as differences. I don’t think he will be too confused (unless you plan to do Barton at home or something—so I wouldn’t do this). Here are some differences as far as I am aware:
1. Barton uses touch and say and “finger spelling”. Wilson uses tapping (not like tapping the vowel). The purpose of each is to isolate the sounds of words.
2. Barton has more emphasis early on on phonemic awareness. Later on most of this has been pretty well finished up. So if you are say on book 3, there isn’t much in the of specific PA activities. (THis is a relative strength of Barton).
3. Barton is much more scripted. Wilson has a general format and lesson plan vs specific words (though I have REALLY gotten away from the scripted thing).
4. The scope and sequence are somewhat different. I had a kid that was in Wilson and went to Barton. She was not confused. I felt she had missed things in Wilson but they are early things. The farther in in the program the more similar the program. I think they both have 12 levels but the levels aren’t quite the same. (I haven’t seen anythign past 5 though. I do know about book 6 pretty much.) OTOH you could use the books in Wilson as reinforcement for Barton (I mean the readers).
5. Wilson has less memory stuff (names fro the rules that kind of thing). Wilson uses more handwriting. There is a bit more spelling in Barton.
6. some keywords are different.

Similarities: general methods; lots of spelling at word, paragraph; sentence level; decodable stories (decodable at very high percentage); same rules on syllable types (with some exceptions) and rules for decoding multisyllable words; spelling rules handled similarly.

I think your kiddo will be fine, esp if he has gotten thru book 3. If not I would make that a priority over the summer. Unless he is REALLY going slowly, you should be able to do it. I think that esp. if he can do well in book 3, he won’t have trouble with Wilson.

BTW, Wilson supposedly targets higher level kids than Barton (older and higher IQ). I’m not so sure about that one. I have a young kid (I am tutoring— not my own), and I am just not able to use all of Barton. His vocabulary just is not good enough. He was a nonreader when I started (age 9, and kind of a young 9 at that). I took him thru LIPS—Btw, he’s reading two syllable words now! YES!!!!

So good luck with your own kiddo.
BTW, you might give the name fo the school and where it is located. The people here are very savvy and some people might know if it has a good reputation (even maybe have had a child that has gone there).

—des

Thank you for the information it was very helpful. My child is currently enrolled in the public school system and I have him tutored through an outside certified Barton reading tutor twice a week. In the last 3 months he has made extreme improvement. He started on level 1 and is currently at the end of level 3. His confidence level, attitude and reading skills have improved tremendously. His teachers also sees the great improvement, unfortunately his current school does not teach in the same manner, so I am currently looking into a non-public school which is called Summit View in Valley Glen, California, specializing in learning disabled children. Does anyone have any information on this school? My understanding is they mainly teach dyslexic children or at least The Wilson Reading Program geared toward teaching dyslexic people. My main concern is Barton reading is working so well for him I’m concerned of changing programs. That is why I asking if the two (Wilson and Barton) were similar.

It’s not so much whether the programs are similar; once you have a program that is actually teaching reading, as opposed to guessing, it isn’t the program so much as what you do with it. Any program can be taught well or badly. I’d say to visit the classes and see if they are in tune with the way your tutor presents material — lots of active student involvement, lots of work on understanding each new concept, lots of language enrichment; not too much paper-pushing, not too much wandering around without supervision, no pressure for speed without understanding.

I’d agree — and unless the public school is otherwise doing a stellar job, or a visit to Summit View tells you that the kiddos there just aren’t anything like your kiddo (or it just doens’t feel right), then I’d go gather those aluminum cans and scrounge up the dough and give it a shot.

Yes, at a certain point it is more the teacher (maybe you’d say it is always the teacher, but you could have an otherwise good teacher who didn’t know much about teaching reading). Wilson is a solid method in good hands. I think the big differences are at the early levels. Barton is really superior from levels 1-3— and esp that it even has that Phonemic Awareness level at all. Now that he has learned all that PA, he is in much better stead regardless of method (and as Victoria says, he isn’t guessing anymore— and the other things that Victoria indicated. A good Wilson teacher would have these things under control). I don’t think he’ll be confused. If you want you could just continue to have him tutored by the Barton person, though. It is no doubt cheaper than private school. OTOH, the older in school he is the more reading load there is.

I’d go and visit as they suggest. I have heard of Summit, but that might not be the same one.

—des