I am considering enrolling my 8 year old dsylexic/dysgraphic son in this program. I understand it has until recently been primarly based in Canada. There is a new center in my area of VA. Does anyone have any experience/opinions for this particular program. The director has a strong background in working w/gifted/ld children, and has OG in her background. She is very confident that this program will be beneficial for my child. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Ran a better search on Google
and turned up some websites.
Oxford looks like a remedial education approach to dyslexia. It may be very good for this. However, I would definitely recommend that you research sensory level deficits and cognitive training programs also, especially if you are looking for optimal remediation.
Nancy
Re: Ran a better search on Google
I’m in Canada and haven’t run into this one — it’s probably in Toronto or Vancouver (I’m in Montreal). Since I get lots of questions and requests for referrals, I’d appreciate it if you would email me any info you get so I can tell people.
I do academic remediation, and I work on tracking, writing/coordination skills, phonemic awareness, etc., *included* in a good reading program. Don’t throw out all academic remediation without looking at what people do.
Re: Ran a better search on Google
Victoria,
The web site for Oxford is www.oxfordlearning.com.
It appears they do have a location in Montreal.
If you run across anyone who has had success with this program. I would love to hear about it. I think I am going to go ahead and give it a try. This appears the best option for us at this point, since the nearest place offering LMB is almost an hour away.
Re: Ran a better search on Google
I checked the website. It is high on flash and hard sell, very low on information. This is not *necessarily* bad — it may just mean they’ve hired a commercial website developer who is out there to pull in customers. They do admit that they teach phonics, which at least is a start. However I would investigate a lot more deeply and make sure it’s not another Sylvan — huge advertising budget, low teaching budget, and curriculum that is just as rigid and often a carbon copy of the schools.
and Google didn’t turn up any information on it for me.
Do you know what’s involved? If so, you can compare it to other programs.
The programs I know of that have good track records with dyslexia are PACE and Audiblox — both of which focus on training cognitive skills — combined with a program such as Phono-Graphix, which teaches decoding skills.
If the emphasis is entirely academic, I would be cautious. Most dyslexics remediate much faster academically if sensory level deficits (developmental vision, auditory processing, sensory integration) and cognitive skills deficits (especially sequencing) are addressed first.
You may want to post on the DyslexiaSupport list at http://www.groups.yahoo.com to see if anyone there has experience with Oxford.
Nancy