Essential Programs for Remediation

My son’s current resource teacher is trained in both Phono-graphix and Lindamood. I personally think that is really good combination. We took our son previously to a PG intensive and worked with him at home but frankly I don’t think PG was quite up to the level of his disabilities. (He has CAPD, visual processing difficulties, and word retrieval) He did learn to read though. On the other hand, Lindamood is more than the average dyslexic needs. His teacher integrates the two to some degree.

I think the school uses Great Leaps to improve fluency which is also helping my son.

Thanks, Beth. I have ordered Reading Reflex and I will show it to my child’s principal after reading it myself. I am very interested in LB, also. My school is ordering Great Leaps now, so I will have easy access to that, too, although fluency training will be down the road for us. You are very, very fortunate to have such a well-trained resource teacher!

My child has CAPD and some language areas delayed and is having some difficulty reading, but it would not be considered dyslexia at this point, I don’t think. It is a tough call to know what to do for her because from what I hear, the real problems for these kids often don’t show up until 3rd or 4th grade. (By the way, I had her tested at the U of FL in November. I am a CAPD list friend of Eugenie’s :-)

Janis

http://www.resourceroom.net/Sharestrats/IDAdrillarticle.asp - “getting up to speed” — some very cheap ideas ;) the author’s site is http://www.oxtonhouse.com/ — this lady has the novel idea that you can teach closed & silent-e together, so it goes quicker :) She’s done a bit of research to support it, too.

Hi,

I have been trained in LMB and also some training from Sue Barton. Her program is really good, she has training in LMB too so I think some of that crossed over into her program. Have you tried to get your son a FM System? This would help him tremendously in the classroom.

Patti

Thanks Sue! I am spending some time on your site right now and am enjoying it very much! I’ll get back to you if I have further questions after thoroughly exploring the site. (It’s bookmarked!)

Janis

Patti,

I am delighted to hear that you also have knowledge of the Barton program! You and Sue are the first people I have found who are familiar with it. I had emailed the IDA and they knew nothing about it! My biggest problem in regard to my own child is determining whether she really needs to be pulled from the regular program to do the Barton. She is having difficulty with reading but the delays are not severe (yet?).

We had a very good APD eval at the APD clinic at the U of FL in November, and it turned out that speech in noise is not a problem for my child. She has deficits in other areas that would not be specifically helped by an FM system (auditory memory for one). However, I would personally like to see soundfield systems in EVERY classroom! I think the research is showing that it benefits all children.

Thanks so much!

Janis

I met Sue Barton about 3 years ago when I flew up to San Jose for training in Orton-gillingham methodology. She was just getting her System going then. She has really put a lot of research into it and has lots of parent tutors who have been trained to use the program with kids after school. She is a wonderful helpful person.

Regarding the FM System, my daughter has a great auditory memory because of the FM System. When my daughter started with the FM system she was 5 years old, and that was when we found out she was hearing impaired. She had lots of phonological processes, no auditory memory then she got a hearing aid and FM trainer all at once. By 3rd grade she was still learning auditorially because she couldn’t read. Now my daughter can read at grade level but her auditory memory and oral comprehension is still miles ahead of her reading comprehension. She is an auditory learner and I think a lot of it has to do with the FM system being used since kindergarten. Also, I have come across articles using FM Systems with kids who are ADD, or learning disabled and it helps them in many areas with attention, comprehension, focus, language development, improved grades etc..

Patti,

Yes, I really enjoyed watching Sue Barton on the introductory video. She is a good teacher. That is neat you were able to meet her. I am really excited that our principal has chosen a good program! At first I was concerned because I had not heard of it. But since it is so new, I can understand why.

Did I tell you that I primarily work with hearing impaired children? I deal with FM systems everyday! Yes, FM systems have many uses. I would prefer a soundfield system for most non-HI children though. We find when they hit adolescence, they balk at wearing hearing aids and FM systems are even harder to get them to use. The soundfield benefits everyone, yet identifies no one as being “different”. Of course, hearing impaired children must use a personal FM system which is adjusted to their particular audiogram.

By the way, if your daughter was not reading until third grade, I would be very interested in knowing what program was successful for her.

Janis

Janis,

We are fortunate now but it has been a long haul. I spent most of last year fighting the district over their ineffective programming. A good part of the problem was the teacher . She’s gone now!!! The principal hired someone very good who has received district grief for not doing prescribed programs, if you can imagine.

In the mean time, we took his education into our hands and have done lots of private therapy. Like Eugenie, we’re doing Neuronet (although our children are really different which I find amazing). We did PACE last summer which did a lot for his ability to tell sounds apart. The resource teacher says he really is past needing LIPS now. Last year he desp. needed it but I couldn’t find it for less than the $8000 the Lindamood clinic charged. I did a PG intensive instead. Now it seems he mainly needs review of the advanced code and I hopeful that he will retain it this time. He is doing so much better in general.

If you are lucky, PG will be enough. I think it depends on how many different problems your child has as much as anything else.

My child was classified as speech delayed in K. That improved a lot in K but then was classified as having visual motor integration disability. Now he is classified as having a specific language disability. He actually is average in visual-motor integration now.

Beth

Beth,

You are right that getting service is only half the battle! Having a good and knowledgable teacher is the other half! I am glad you are seeing progress in your son. I think my child’s problems would be considered in the mild range, so hopefully with intervention now, we can keep her from serious problems down the road. I’ll look forward to seeing you around this board. :-)

Janis

Janis,

I agree early intervention is the key. I know my son is doing much better than he would have been because of it. I have been told that it is typical for a kid like him to be reading on a first grade level in third grade. Recent testing shows that he is reading in the second half of second grade.

Beth

Could someone tell me how to find out more about the Barton program? I am a reading teacher and very interested. Thanks ([email protected])

It is a very complete program (it includes training videos for each kit), but also very expensive.

www.bartonreading.com

Janis

I can’t get over the quality of support that many of you are getting from your public (I assume) school districts. I had to fight tooth and nail, daily, for 2 years just to get them to do more than provide reduced grade curriculum - although, a large part of the problem was the teacher.

Now, my 13 yr old son is in a private Christian school and doing better. There is a Spec Ed teacher, but the principal is not totally sold on learning disabilities or ADHD - my son has both. So he is a bit of a guinea pig. He has been diagnosed as having adhd - non-hyperactive - auditory processing disorder, dislexia, word retrieval problems. I’m looking at putting him through lmb, og, or wilson - Id like some feed back on the differences between these programs.

Also, Janis - what is a soundfield? It has been suggested that he have an fm system - but I think that would be difficult for the reasons you mentioned.

I used Reading Reflex with him one summer, with good results, but his new spec ed teacher was not familiar with it - so we dropped it.

Thanks for any info.

Laura,

A soundfield FM system has a teacher microphone and speakers placed in the classroom so that her voice is amplified just enough over the noise level of the classroom so that all the children can hear better. This way, one child is not singled out by having to wear headphones or placing a speaker on his desk. However, some Christian schools do have smaller, quieter classrooms, so the soundfield may or may not be helpful. My child was in a Christian school last year and did fine. But this year we switched her to a charter school (for several reasons including availability of speech therapy and more hands-on curriculum) which has a class size limit of 22. She has CAPD, but does not have that much trouble with speech in noise, so we are not pursuing the soundfield.

What is your son’s reading level and what is the LD teacher using for reading instruction?

Janis

Thanks for the info on soundfield. My son’s reading level was recently tested as around 4.5-5th grade level. His fluence is greatly hampered by having to sound out or stumble over words. While his decoding tactics are good, and he uses them, he can’t seem to get over that hurdle. He’s currently using a phonics program that incorporates creative and informational writing. It’s a regular workbook, but from the 4th grade - I can’t remember the publisher.

I’m particularly interested in an assessment of OG v. Lindamood Bell v. Wilson reading programs. LMB does have a CD-rom program which could be done in school - that would be helpful, as it is EXTREMELY difficult to get much work out of him once he gets home - he just shuts down.

Any info on these programs, or others, would be much appreciated.

Laura,

The first thing I think I’d do if I were you is to go back and get your Reading Reflex book and give him those 4 tests again. See if he has indeed mastered those skills. I am going to use PG with my first grader very soon. Wilson is an O-G based program and some school resource programs do use it, but not where I live. I am a little confused, though. If he is in a private Christian school, they aren’t going to offer him OG or Lindamood Bell are they? Or are you looking for a private tutor? As I understand it, if his root problem is at the phoneme level, either LB LiPS or an O-G would be good, if you think Phono-Graphix was ineffective. If he didn’t have PG long enough, you could always go back to that first. LB does do evaluations before starting a child. It is expensive but might be worth it to get a good accurate evaluation. That way you don’t waste time and money doing a program that doesn’t solve his problems. What about going to Orlando for a one week Phono-Graphix intensive session? That might give him encouragement to potentially see some rapid gains.

I don’t have my LB catalog with me at the moment, but I think the CD rom is just for practice and is not a stand-alone program. I know there is a CD rom for Visualizing and Verbalizing but I can’t recall about LiPS. The bottom line is, he probably needs intensive one-on-one therapy if he is to make any improvement at this point. And since he is near entering high school, I would think the sooner the better. But you have narrowed it down to some good programs. It’s just a matter of finding who you want to teach him.

Janis

Janis,

Thanks for the info. I didn’t realize the CD-ROM was just for practice. We don’t have any LMB tutors here, that I know of, but I have to contact them. There is an organization that offers OG for free! but the waiting list is long - however, I think I’ll get him on it. I can get Wilson, but it’s only a once a week program - doesn’t sound like often enough. I was unaware of the one-week Reading Reflex program in Orlando - that’s a thought.

My son has had extensive diagnostic testing done at Duquesne University here - I feel pretty confident of his problems. They are pretty widespread, but the phonemic awareness and auditory processing issues must be addressed specifically.

No, the private school will not cover the cost. It’s a shame that these programs are so expensive. Although, I understand when you have a one-on-one tutor.

Thanks again - I’ll keep searching for what we have in our area.

Laura

Laura,

You have an excellent handle on your son’s needs. It sounds like just a matter of finding who can give him the best service at a frequency that is adequate. I am also dealing with a child with APD and I know how hard it is to get those issues addressed. I should mention something to you I recently found out about for APD. I can’t testify as to the results, but it sounds promising. It is called Dichonics and is designed for kids with APD and deals with those phonemic issues:

http://sonidoinc.com/low/products/dichonics/dichonicsmain.htm

Just thought you might want to look at it. It costs $350 and can be used with more than one child. I think you can do it at home or with a SLP or audiologist. I am considering it becuase Fast ForWord is so horribly expensive.

Janis