I have a fifth grade student. She has been with me since April 3. She has severe visual processing deficits, plus some others (psych. is down in the office and I am in my trailer on lunch break here). She has, when she is asked to place her attention upon the task, fair decoding skills. She knows letter/sound combinations in most instances. She is the SLOWEST reader I have now and she is not improving at all.
I use Great Leaps (which worked w/a 6th grade boy I still have in the program). Her words per minute actually go down, now just a day here and there, they go DOWN.
I use this with her daily, I have her on high frequency, graded flash cards to try to increase SIGHT vocabulary. She is given instruction in phonics skills that are weak or need a boost, etc. She is not progressing. I am doing almost everything I can think of.
At this point I want to review the records to see if we ever discussed seeing an optometrist (I don’t think this is a mafor issue). Otherwise, I don’t know. I am thinking of trying “Seeing Stars” from Lindamood Bell.
Any ideas for me. I feel dreadful. This is so reminiscent of some of those cases where the parent is on the parent board (no offense intended) stating that their child is in special education and no progress is being made. Natually this is always the teacher who cannot teach. I think I can teach and I think I am using good and proven methods. However, at this point I just cannot see how this young lady can make rapid progress based upon where she is.
What would you do?
Re: get it evaluated
YOu have some good suggestions. I appreciate them. I will check our records and speak with parents. Benchmarks and conferences come up next month.
I have Reading Reflex. This is not the program for her, believe me, though it never hurts to suggest. She can decode words.
Somebody on another site suggested the color overlays. I forgot that I have some, so I may try these with her, experiment with different colors just to see. Gol, I have a third grade boy coming up right behind her with huge and massive problems that O-G instruction or Reading Reglex just are not fully up to.
Re: I also would suspect visual processing issues,
and I would certainly second the recommendation to get a developmental vision evaluation.
Another possibility is a form of CAPD that doesn’t necessarily preclude learning how to decode, but which is characterized by slowness. Is this girl slow in more ways than just reading? Slow in thinking? Slow to respond in social situations? Generalized slowness is often related to a delay in vestibular development, which in turn is often caused by auditory processing problems. Usually in this case there are also problems with balance (difficulty learning to ride a bicycle), etc.
However, if the slowness is limited to reading, then I would say that this is a big warning flag that the underlying cause is a developmental vision problem. The Great Leaps scores could be an indication that her eyes are over-worked by the timed readings. The fatigue can be so intense that the muscles of the eyes shut down and refuse to work — similar to lifting a brick so many times in a day that your arm finally refuses to lift at all. You might be able to lift the brick a few times the next day, but not as many as on the first. With the brick example, your muscles would eventually adapt and grow stronger. With eyes, though, the problem is not that the muscles are weak but rather that the muscles are working in a very inefficient manner. Repetition in this case does not train them to work more efficiently (that’s what vision therapy does!), but just makes them even less efficient by creating additional stress for them.
If it were my child, I would definitely get a thorough developmental vision evaluation by a reputable developmental optometrist. Just like medical doctors, some are not very good, many are okay, and a few are absolutely wonderful. I’d go to http://www.covd.org and email or call all of the DO’s in my area, to get a feel for the different approaches out there. I generally prefer a DO who is willing to design and supervise primarily home-based vision therapy, if that seems the best approach for the family. I tend to dislike those who insist on only in-office therapy (although admittedly some problems do have to be treated in-office).
Mary
Re: Student is not progressing
I would try “seeing stars” because that would help that visual domain. Is she reading a word at a time or with pretty good phrasing and expression, just slow? If she’s doing the painful-decoding thing, and it’s not turning into quicker and more smoother reading, I’d consider:
1. Things just aren’t insmall enough chunks yet…The Great Leaps passages are long enough so she’s forgetting the words by the time she goes back to them. Sounds like you’re dealing with the word issue with the flashcards though, and I assume you’ve backed ‘way down on quantity to see if doing just the same five words forever made at least them click (like on the _Getting Up To Speed_ article at http://www.resourceroom.net/Sharestrats/IDAdrillarticle.asp).
2. She’s not doing any “phrasing” as she reads, so those passages are just like huge series of flashcards that are of course so long that she gets fatigued. (Tho’ the rate just creeping down…. AARGH! … I wouldhave to wonder if there’s somethign totally different going on, lack of sleep, but … it shouldn’t keep happening.) Have you taught her phrasign as a skill?
3. The visual processing issues Mary mentioned.
Re: Student is not progressing
I had a student once who I was doing Lindamood-Bell with. She was progressing, but not to the degree one would expect. She had received an OK from a pediatric opthamologist, but fortunately her mom took her to a second opthomologist who found she had very weak eye muscles. Her eyes did not converge properly on whatever she was attempting to read. She spent the summer looking through a series of glass prisms, and the difference was remarkable.
I have found Wilson reading to be a wonderful way to address the decoding and fluency issues. While Great Leaps is a good program, I think it can assume too much. It sounds like she still needs much more instruction on the decoding process before Great Leaps is introduced to improve fluency.
Wilson reading speaks to both decoding and fluency. The lessons are sooo controlled, and almost ensure fluency. Tapping and scooping are two very good features of the program. I would definitely stop Great Leaps for the time being. If it is a source of frustration for you, I’m sure she’s frustrated as well.
Good luck! She’s lucky to have you for a teacher.
First of all, find a reprutable developmental Optometrist who knows about reading problems and recommend having her tested. (I emphasize reprutable!)If visual processing is an issue, it needs to be addressed. My son is currently doing the Computerized Perceptual Therapy program which he does at home, 5 days a week for 20 minute sessions. It addresses visual processing issues including sequential processing, simultaneous processing, and addresses the speed in which visual information is processed. I was very surprised about how difficult is was for him to do some of the tasks on this program. He has made progress and he reports that reading has improve because of it. (We haven’t had any formal testing since he has not completed this program yet.) It is made by the American Therapy System, Inc. Phone # is (317) 984-9661.
I would also recommend doing Reading Reflex by Carmen McGuinness and Geoffrey McGuinness. The book costs about $16.00.
Also, check on MaryMN posts by doing a search on this board and the “parenting an LD child” board. She offers lots of good advice on these issues.
Donna in MO