The word dyslexia is it over used?

I think she either doesn’t understand the term, or is using an extremely narrow definition. It isn’t a term often used in the public school special education system— in our VA district we use “speech/language impairment ” or “specific learning disability” for labels— but it doesn’t much matter what you call it anyway, it’s what you do to help the child learn! This article gives a good overview:
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/reading-4.html

That is what I thought also. Thanks for the link it had some good information.

One more question. My son’s resource teacher told me that she doesn’t do well teaching phonics and suggested whole language. The article you linked me to talked about the letter sound system. That would be teaching phonics correct? What do you think about whole language? I don’t like it.

Michele

Michele,

Sadly, whole language will not teach a dyslexic child to read. Regular phonics will not either. I really feel like you are in a situation where you will have to either get a tutor or teach your child yourself. I would not allow my child to be pulled out to go to a resource room that taught whole language.

Off hand, a few of the “best” reading methods would be Phono-Graphix, Language!, Wilson, Project Read, Lindamood Bell, Orton Gillingham, and a few others. These all require special training for the teacher for best results. If you cannot access these at school, I would begin looking for a private tutor immediately, or you could try the Phono-graphix yourself.

Good luck!
Janis

>One more question. My son’s resource teacher told me that she doesn’t do well teaching phonics and suggested whole language. The article you linked me to talked about the letter sound system. That would be teaching phonics correct? What do you think about whole language? I don’t like it.

Michele

Boy that is certainly an interesting statement by a special ed teacher!!! “I’m sorry I can’t really do phonics. Let’s dish you out some whole language cr** because I’m incompetent”. Well she might as well have said that! However, most of what passes for phonics is not what is usually needed, which is explicit systematic phonics.

Yes, the letter/sound relationship is what phonics at it’s best is. If the kid doesn’t know the “code”, s/he is basically stuck at about the fourth grade (if the kid is lucky) reading level. Whole language usually offers a kind of limited and potentially confusing assortment of phonic concepts in a limited way, for example “word families” like words ending in a certain sequence of letters.

I’d agree to go for some of the methods Janis spoke of.

“I’m sorry kids but instead of teaching you how to read, I’m going to teach you to figure out how to spell things on your own. That sounds like fun. “
Geeze!

—des

I got the same story from my son’s school. It was helpful in that it really convinced me that I needed to do this myself.

I taught my son to read with phonographix. I really didn’t think it was the most difficult thing I have done in my life. It is a rather simple straight forward method that could easily be done by the schools if they had even the beginnings of a clue.

I was asked by the principal how I came to this method. I told her I had evaluated the specific research on what has been proven to work by going through the ERIC database. She had a PHD but had never heard of the ERIC database. I found this fact odd and extremely scary.

They use whole language because they have not read the research. I have a hard time understanding how curriculum decisions are made in my district. Do they just pull programs out of a hat?

On one hand, it’s nice to see some of the progress that has happened and the technology that is available these days. On the other hand, it seems like the parents are the ones who have made the great steps, along with a hand full of educators. :o

When our son was in school, the “d” word was not even used. You couldn’t get an administrator to even acknowledge that this was a learning disability that existed. :cry:

None the less, pursue knowledge and help your child, time is short. Try looking up the Dyslexia Awareness and Resource Center (DARC), it is run by a lady named Joan Esposito. They are in Carpenteria, CA (but that doesn’t matter), there is tons of good information and leads there for you.

Good luck and trust your instincts.

Andy

So-called “whole-language” does not teach, and as far as I can see is inefficient and ineffective for *all* students. Sure, many non-disabled kids do learn to read, sort of, but they are slow, inaccurate, tired, and so on; they have all sorts of trouble with spelling; they have massive trouble with subjects requiring accuracy such as science and math; they have nightmares with second language — it just isn’t effective, period.

As far as the teacher saying “He can’t learn phonics”: Translation: “*I* can’t *teach* phonics”.

I worked as a tutor in an area where the school system tested all of their special ed kids and assigned them to the program that was determined to be a “best fit” for their needs. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Funny thing, though, is that every single child I met or heard of was determined *not* to be able to learn by phonics and was placed in a word-memorization program that was more of the same as the regular classroom, and continued to fail in it. If the test results are pre-determined to fit every kid into the program we’ve decided to use anyway, then it isn’t much of a test and the program is unlikely to work.

Though I thought the teacher said she couldn’t *teach* phonics— oh well. I think that whole language is kind of lazy. You don’t teach reading or spelling. There sure are kids who will learn to read anyway but a high percentage won’t (maybe something like 44%).

I have read also that whole language is sort of popular as it is “creative” and there is precious little that is creative anymore in school. Some don’t like something like Open Court thrown at them, as it is so scripted. You could just as well argue well math teaching should be more creative— 2+2=4, 5 , 7 whatever the kids want. If they practice it enough they will learn how to do it because it is “natural”. Yikes what a bunch of bull.

—des

That was good, des!!! I love it…2+2=5…why not let the little ones use their creativity! Lol!

Janis

Do Not Do Whole Language no matter what it doesn’t work. They did that with my son from K-4 grade. I had to pay tutors and finally was fortunate enough to get Shay to teach him to read.

Funny Not he is now in 6th grade mostly regular class he brought home things kids in the class wrote about him one said he is kewl (cool) another Kewt (cute) and he’s ld!

The whole language deal doesn’t work they can’t memorize every single word.

Get PG and teach him yourself if you can’t get a good tutor. BTW if you get a tutor make sure you have a plan and make them show you progress testing or just burn your money.

For my youngest (non-ld) we are using Jump Start spelling & that is helping him sound out the letters and put them together to form the words. This program is pretty inexpensive in comparison to other learning cd roms. Of course, he isnt aware he is learning to spell, sound & read-if I told him that he wouldnt even try this… :wink:

I used jump start for my oldest (ld-apd) with good results too. I paid @$10 for this at target when my oldest was in 1st grade a couple years ago. Not hard to play & fairly entertaining, think its preschool to 4th grade…

here’s a link with more info:
http://www.smartkidssoftware.com/ndkna21.htm

My son had the JumpStart programs to help with his reading and spelling (he’s the one with an LD). His younger sister (4 at the time), started playing with the second grade version. It turned out, she taught herself how to read. It seemed like a great program that really kept the kids interested. I also had the Reader Rabbit programs, and they were good too.

Kay

Please, Please read Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shawitz, MD It is the most comprehensive and latest research on dyslexia and appropriate interventions. This should be required reading for all special educators and regular ed, teachers as well. The book is well worth the time and money spent.

I don’t think it is used enough. Our school does not recognize dyslexia they prefer the term slow reader. I prefer dyslexia - my daughter is a text book case.

She is 8 yrs old and I saw signs of a problem in Kindergarten. The teachers kept telling me that it is developmental and will come. Well 2years latter she is in RSP and getting the help she needs. Her RSP teacher is great - she is not the one that assessed her. And is wanting information on dyslexia from me that I find for her own use. She suspects her own child may have it also.

I also work closely with her general ed teacher - who is a reading specialist so I am hoping we will see some results this year.

If your intuition is telling you there is a problem - then more then likely there is. I have found this to be true for me - I have 3 kids 2 have ld’s. One is and auditory learner (my dyslexic one) and the other is visual/kinetic learner (my ADD/Auditory Processing Delay one). I felt there was something wrong but could not put my finger on it.

Hope this helps.

I found your comment that your daughter is both dyslexic and an auditory learner very familiar. My son is both as well, but some professionals in our life have pointed to his strong auditory vs. visual skills as evidence that he’s not dyslexic. This was back when he was 7, now 2.5 years later its quite clear that you can call it whatever you like - this kid has a reading disability..

Anyway, just curious if you’d ever encountered that.