Hi all,
We just returned yesterday from the ReadAmerica clinic in Orlando (we live in Virginia). My son did the LanguageWise program with Linda Woodruff. LanguageWise teaches about critical thinking skills, how to pull paragraphs apart for more information, how to use words effectively, etc. It was much more difficult for him than the Phono-Graphix he did with Linda in August, but he learned a lot! :-)
The interesting side effect is that because the writing and critical thinking skills were so difficult for him (involved a LOT of writing - his only school identified disability), that his reading improved almost another four grade levels when he wasn’t paying attention! He is much more confident and fluent with his reading, now. Yay!
Lil
Re: Just returned from ReadAmerica - LanguageWise
Hi Beth,
As I said in a private e-mail, Linda was in the throws of the flu aftermath, and wasn’t her normal, bubbly self (which she feely admitted to). I DO think my son got something from it, but I don’t think the learning was as dramatic as phonological awareness, which is what he got the last time.
As a “mom”, I think I will clip news articles daily from the paper to go over during dinner. If we discuss them along the lines of Language Wise, the teaching will go on, and my son will continue to learn how to disect his environment. I learned bland acceptance as a child, and don’t want that for him …
As for his phonological progress:
Pre-test:
Woodcock Reading Mastery, Word ID: Raw: 73, GE 5.2, AE 10.7
Word Attack: Raw: 32 GE, 5.9, AE 11.2
PG:
Blending, 14/15
Segmentation, 58/63
Auditory Processing, 10/10
Grapheme/Phoneme Corr. 42/50 Knowledge of code 84%
Post test:
Woodcock Reading Mastery, Word ID: Raw: 82, GE 7.4, AE 12.9
Word Attack: Raw: 36, GE 12.7, AE 18.6
PG:
Blending, 15/15
Segmentation, 63/63
Auditory Processing, 10/10
Grapheme/Phoneme Corr. 47/50 Knowledge of code 94%
I think LanguageWise helped with his reading, because FOR HIM it was so much harder than reading. After we had finished the homework every night, he was relieved that ALL we had left was the 20 min. reading period. Four and a half months ago, when he was there strictly for reading, he balked at reading ANYTHING. This time, he didn’t pay attention to the reading, and worked very hard on the written skills. The reading was incidental - but very effective - possibly from the NLD anxiety, I’m not sure. I do know his reading skills improved as dramatically as they did on the first go-round though.
My husband is ready to send him to Linda in the summer, whether there is another program for her to work with him, or not! :-)
Lil
Re: Just returned from ReadAmerica - LanguageWise
That’s great, Lil! It sounds like Linda is just a very good tutor, period. But the decoding skills are much easier to teach in a week as opposed to all the content LanguageWise would potentially cover. So I am not surprised you did not get as dramatic results.
Janis
Lil,
Do you think the Language Wise helped him? I did Language Wise and some other similar type exercises last summer. Basically, I worked on both verbal and nonverbal reasoning. I don’t know if it made much difference for him—although I saw him improving on the exercises.
Why do you think doing Language Wise helped with reading?
Beth