My 8 year son has been recieving extensive aid thru the school system since he was a virtual non-verbal 3 year old. Due to middle ear blockage since birth that went undiagnosed by DR., I now suspect an audio processing disorder. He also appears to have a reading diability possibly dyslexia and a language fluency problem. He’s been on EIP since three and had his annual 3 year review recently. However, I don’t think he’s being diagnosed properly and is getting the kind of help he needs. The only areas that he qualified for services was the language fluency even though he has a substantial reading fluency problems. They think the reading problem stemed from poor phonemic awareness, yet he can decode fairly big word. His problems stem in the small high fequency word. What he does is read high frequency words wrong (ie, and/the, it/to, a,i). He also has trouble with b’s and d’s and read words like “saw” as “was”. This sounds like dyslexia to me yet they didn’t diagnose it as such. I do alot of internet and book research to help him. He read slow and choppy whether it a 4th level chapter book or a 1st level Cat in the Hat.
Having multiple learning issues has made it hard to teach him. Yes, he attend a public school but I have done of lot of extra. I used a program called Frontline Phonics to teach him to read becaused he wasn’t learning it from school.
He is also getting very frustrated. I need to find a solution to at the least the reading problem (dyslexia?). What is out there that works to correct this kind of problem? Since he is going into the 3rd grade already I don’t have time to experiment.
Thx
Tracy
Re: Dyslexia? Audio Processing Disorder? ADD?
I agree that this sounds as if it could be a visual processing problem — more so than an auditory processing disorder. School systems are not equipped to deal with visual processing problems, so getting it checked out would be up to you.
You can find information about developmental vision delays at http://www.childrensvision.com . Developmental vision skills are *not* evaluated in regular eye exams. A child can test with 20/20 vision (which is actually 20/20 acuity) and still have major severe visual efficiency problems. The only way to know for sure is to get an evaluation. You can find board-certified developmental optometrists at http://www.covd.org .
If there are visual efficiency problems, they are usually very responsive to vision therapy. If money is a problem, though, check for optometrists at http://www.homevisiontherapy.com . Pre-testing, the software, and post-testing usually cost under $300. Just make sure that the doctor will be willing to prescribe the software if your son needs it. Some doctors want you to do in-office visits if you are within driving distance, but this is much more expensive.
If visual efficiency skills test at the 40th percentile or better, then what I would suggest is doing a cognitive skills training program. BrainSkills is a good program for children 8yo and up. Website is http://www.brainskills.com . This program works on developing a wide variety of skills that are important to academic learning.
You might also want to join the dyslexiasupport2 list at http://groups.yahoo.com .
Nancy
Re: Dyslexia? Audio Processing Disorder? ADD?
Hi. I tutor students like this all the time.
Often is is a poor visual tracking *habit*, not up to the level of a disorder. In many of these cases simple home tutoring can help.
I think this is a likely scenario becasue of a couple of things in your post: the school wasn’t teaching phonics so you had to teach him after he was already confused; he skips and guesses little words; and he reverses.
In many case you can help these problems by doing the following: (1) re-stress phonics (2) re-teach handwriting with a big stress on *directionality* (you didn’t say but my bet is his handwriting and spelling are all over the shop, aren’t they?) (4) Teach spelling by *sound*, one phonogram at a time, with a stress on order and directionality in both letter formation and spelling (5) read aloud and have him correct every single error, no matter how “small” (a thousand small sheets of paper add up to one heck of a big heavy package and a thousand small errors add up to a non-reader.)
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Re: Dyslexia? Audio Processing Disorder? ADD?
This sounds like a neurological disorder. Wow. Don’t mean to shock you. I’ve been doing a neurological program with my son and his reading is improving drastically.
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One thing you could check would be his vision. My kids both have issues that cause them to have more trouble with the small words than the big ones. For my oldest the answer was visual therapy. An educational optometrist should be able to do a thorough exam. After diagnosis in 4th grade, my son wore prisms for reading and did visual exercises. He went from being a kid who could barely read at grade level to reading 2 grades ahead in less than 6 months. He continued to improve over the next 2 years and by the end of 6th grade was reading at a college level.
For my dd, the answer has been Text to Speech programs. Ones that highlight the word being read have helped improve her visual tracking so that her eyes aren’t jumping all over the page. She is also able to change the background color so the page doesn’t glare, which helps with her irlen syndrome. We’ve noticed dramatic improvement over the last year with her. She is even reading to her friends, something I never thought would happen because she has always been too embarrassed to try.