I have started my daughter on this program. My daughter has word retrieval problems, auditory processing disorder, maybe vision problem (tracking) and her attention allows only for half hour of session. She spells phoenetically and misses some sounds. She has trouble getting past the cvc. Past programs such as hooked on phonics deteriorated once she got to the blends. Has anyone done this program and been successful with it? It looked good to me from the viewpoint as my daughter learns visually and actually does better with sight words and she needs help in writing and it looks good for spelling too..
Re: spalding writing road to reading opinion
My son’s school used this program in the first grade and he did remarkably well with his reading, spelling and writing. The second grade teachers opted not to continue it and by mid year, he had fallen flat on his face with regard to these areas. We had no idea that he had a learning/reading disorder until then so it seems that this program worked for him while he was involved in it but, as I understand it, it is not specifically for reading disorders and you must continue the program throughout middle school for it to be considered effective longterm.
Re: spalding writing road to reading opinion
I agree with Mary…my son became a reader via the Spalding program, but presented by a very experienced, highly trained resource teacher at a local private school the summer after Gr. 1 when he DIDN’T learn to read in a whole language, ‘look and say’ classroom. This school uses Spalding for all students, not just remedial. Spalding is NOT a remedial program, but a sequential, phonics-based program — a unique philosophy and method for teaching ALL children to read and write.
I was advised that this would be a very hard program to provide without training unless under the supervision of a trained spalding ‘provider’ — having read the book, vs. ‘Reading Reflex’ which is VERY parent friendly, I agree totally.
Still, if you are able to manage it, Spalding is an excellent program in my experience. Good luck!
Elizabeth
It has a very good reputation from those who have been able to stick with it.
I tried an easier version of it, Teaching Reading at Home and School, by Wanda Sanseri — primarily for spelling, because my daughter was already reading well after 8 months of vision therapy, 3 months of PACE, and a Phono-Graphix intensive. It was just too tedious for us, and we abandoned it after only a few lessons.
I have heard it helps a lot to get some training in WRTR or to work with someone experienced with it. If you are able to get past the “starter” phase on your own, you should be just fine.
Have you considered a bottom-up approach to remediation? This is what we did, attacking sensory/motor level problems of development first (the vision therapy), then working on cognitive skills development (PACE), and leaving academic remediation (Phono-Graphix) to the last. The benefit of this approach is that underlying deficits are reduced, making the academics progress much faster.
Have you looked at Reading Reflex? That would be a lot easier than WRTR and would definitely work on the missed sound problem and on blending. It also tends to work pretty well even when there are auditory processing problems (sometimes less well when there are uncorrected visual processing problems). It’s a faster remediation process than WRTR for reading, and is the one I always recommend to try first because you can pretty much tell after 10 or 15 hours of one-on-one whether the program is actually working or not. With a lot of programs (including WRTR) it can take a year before you are really sure one way or the other.
Mary