Brain Gym and Reading Reflex

Search older posts on this site. Quite a few people here have used these programs and in general they seem to have positive results (no miracles, but improvements).

Reading Reflex is wonderful. I used it with my son when he was younger and it helped considerably with reading. He he still needed Lindamood Bell (a VERY expensive program) to help break through a wall we had reached, but Reading Reflex was a great place to start.

I’m not familiar with Brain Gym, but I’ve heard good things about it. Both of these programs are relatively inexpensive and can be done easily at home.

Like Laura, we used Reading REflex combined later with Seeing Stars (Lindamood Bell). Reading Reflex is parent friendly, although I understand some others have come up with compatible materials that are even better. Look on Reading Board for ideas.

I have a book with Brain Gym exerices. We never used them much but couldn’t hurt.

Beth

Laura, where did you find the book? I am not finding anything at our local library. We have extremely limited funds, actually no available funds for this, however I am going to try to do whatever is necessary if at all possible. I did locate an qualified person for Brain Gym about 30-45 minutes away from where we live, but if I can do it at home with little to no cost that is preferred.

Thanks all for your input.

Hi Tracy,
If you go to www.braingym.org you can read more information about it and also order the books.

For a look at exercises like the ones in R R (so you could start now :-)) go to http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba and click on “letterbox lessons.” (You could possibly design a whole program from this site, as well as get a better-than-most-graduate-level knowledge of reading).
RR is reasonable and parent-friendly - but people including the authors can be really zealous (in a nasty way) about it; it’s biggest advantages are that it’s cheap, it *does* focus on building the sound-symbol association so it works for many students, and it’s fairly easy for a parent to follow.
Some students need more structure, or more practice and review, or more multisensory strategies (the authors, however, have very strong feelings about ‘tainting’ their program with anything from another program and this is part of training of teachers who use it; don’t tell on them, but the good teachers I know who use it *do* pull in other things and have great success). If you go to www.rlac.com you will find several other program options. If you wanted to put your own together, there is a yahoo group called MSSLathome that is not active at all — but if you joined, you could go into their “files” and get the materials for doing it (and if you asked a question, it might wake ‘em up :-)) That would be free :-)

Also free, I email my how-to-tutor outlines to anyone who asks. Rather behind in sending but hopefully this week. [email protected]

Thanks again everyone, especially for the heads up. I will check out those other options. With a minor in education from my university degree I am sure that I can devise something for my daughter. I need to get her learning better on her own ( and the younger two into full time school) before I can consider returning to school myself to finish my teaching degree. Of course this is NOT my motive for wanting my daughter to be able to learn (and do homework) on her own.

Tracy,

In regard to your question about Reading Reflex/Phono-Graphix, I did use it in the past. I am also trained in the Lindamood-Bell programs. However, there is a newer program that incorporates the best of both of those in a more user-friendly format. It is called ABeCeDarian and the website is:

http://www.abcdrp.com/

The author will be presenting a session on the program at the International Dyslexia Association national conference in November, which is a pretty big honor.

Janis

Brain Gym may or may not help, depending on the underlying problems. It helps with sensory integration, but it’s impossible to tell from your post if that is a problem your daughter has or not. The white teacher’s book is the version you want, as it contains all of the exercises and diagrams so you can see how they are done. If your library doesn’t have it, ask about inter-library loan.

Reading Reflex is well worth the effort. Again, you should be able to borrow the book from the library. Your daughter is old enough to be able to work with a small whiteboard and markers, so you can skip the manipulatives.

I am a little more concerned about the letter reversals, which can be an indication of undiagnosed developmental vision delays. This type of problem often produces ADD-type symptoms, poor visual memory, and slow processing of visual inputs. Some medical insurance programs will cover an evaluation by a developmental optometrist. It would be worth investigating. You can find board-certified developmental optometrists at http://www.covd.org . You can also look for the book “Eyes On Track” at your library.