Questions

There are all sorts of programs out there, ranging from simple and basic to very fancy and expensive. People here will give you their favourites. As long as a program includes *both* systematic synthetic phonics *and* guided (corrected) oral reading for fluency and meaning, plus if at all possible direct teaching of writing skills, you can do a very good job with it. These ideas are basic to the structure of our written language and no one program has a patent on them.

I have put together my own low-cost and flexible program which I used for a couple of years in classroms and with great success for many years in tutoring. I work with materials at hand, a couple of preferred phonics books, a preferred series of beginning readers, plus homemade, found, school resource, and used-book-store items. You can use these approaches with most reading series. If you are interested in my how-to outlines and suggested resources, send an email to [email protected] (These are my collected online works, and to avoid reposting the same things continually, I email the book-in-progress on request.)

Most programs are single (or at best maybe double programs) for decoding and maybe spelling. Some combine modest amounts of comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. One total language arts one I can think of is Language! by Sopris West. It is not cheap (maybe $1000+ and training would be almost required.

Some possibilities are a Reading Reflex clone (not sure of it but Janis knows); EPS (www.eps-books.com) has some Orton based ones that are good. For younger kids, Jolly Phonics has a good reputation. If the kids are not really dyslexic, I have heard good things re: “Explode the Code and Beyond the Code” (eps again). With really dyslexic kids get yourself some Orton training. That’s my very very short list.

—des

Well, getting training in teaching a research-based reading/spelling program is the single most important thing you will probably ever do for your students.

I’ve had training in all the Lindamood-Bell programs, Phono-Graphix, Language, and ABeCeDarian. ABeCeDarian is an inexpensive but highly effective multi-sensory structured language program. (This is the one to which des was referring). It basically takes the best of Lindamood-Bell and Phono-Graphix and then extends them. So while I have benefitted from all the trainings, I actually use ABeCeDarian materials to teach decoding. The trainings are not widespread yet, but it is well worth a trip when you are able to attend. The author is presenting a session at the national International Dyslexia Association conference in November in Denver.

Here is the website:

http://www.abcdrp.com/

QuickReads are inexpensive books to use to work on fluency after you have taught the decoding skills and do not require training.

http://www.pearsonlearning.com/mcp/quickreads.cfm

Next, to teach skills for reading comprehension, I recommend Visualizing and Verbalizing by Lindamood-Bell. There is almost nothing out there to compete with this one. Trainings are held in various locations throughout the US.

http://www.lindamoodbell.com/programs/conceptimagery.shtml

Then, please join your state International Dyslexia Association and keep yourself educated about reading disorders. And two books every LD teacher should have and read are: Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz and A Mind at a Time by Mel Levine.

Janis