Looking for the advice of the teachers

K.,

My first thought is that the academic demands of a Vocational School program tend to be far less taxing than they would be if he were in a more traditional program. The education is by definition more hands on and oriented to the development of job skills and so the reading etc. tends to be much more accessible and useful. Vocational folks are frequently excellent at making the real world accessible to students with limited academic skills.

My second thought has to do with what other information you have on him regarding his cognitive capacity. His achievement is pretty low- you are right about that- but that is only part of the picture- there needs to be a sense of what his learning profile is and you aven’t shared that part. Could you?

Robin

Well, hopefully the academic demands are not as difficult but I have another brother, who is now an adult, and he attended and by the skin of his teeth graduated from this school. They put a lot of weight on the academic side. If he is not prepared or accomodated he will have trouble.

His cognitive scores are low in some areas but very high in others.

Processing speed, PR 2%, SS 69
Short term memory, PR 16%, SS 81
Long Term Retreival, PR 99.7%, SS 117
Auditory Processing , PR 41%, SS 90
Visual Processing, PR 50%, SS 93
Comprehension/Knowledge, PR 63%, SS 94
Fluid Reasoning, PR 95%, SS 108

This test was done in December and January of 2000, he will be having an independent evaluation over the summer, with a very prominent DR. but right now my concern is getting this IEP right before he leaves this school.

They have screwed up so badly that well, they need to be help accountable in some way.

Thanks,
K.

It looks like most of his accommodations will need to be built around his slow processing speed- that is the reason his STM score is a bit on the low side also. Typically this means that he is not timed on most assignments, that he is allowed extended time for tests and reading assignments, along with taped books for required reading, and that he is given lots support with notetaking stuff. He should receive remediation also- and he is old enough that it should be fairly intensive. It is going to be slow however-as you already know. That is just a function of the way his brain works. The capacity is there but he is not an especially efficent learner. Wilson is not a bad choice for him- he has good reasoning ability and should be able to generalize what he learns without too much difficulty. Ideally five days a week for an hour- but three might work. If the sessions are less than an hour then push for four or five. It may not be able to happen- there are scheduling constraints that are reasonable but more is better. Is he going to receive summer services? I would think he might be a candidate.
Robin

He will be receiving summer service. He is supposed to receive 1 hour 2 times a week for 8 weeks. I hope that will be enough.

The school department is a nightmare and the principal of his middle school said that there are only two teachers in the entire district of 7,000 children that can teach Wilson. Which I am sure is not true they just don’t want to pay for it!!

Thanks,
K.

Don’t count on that not being true — if they haven’t paid for training, then there very well could be two whole teachers who are trained tod o it (probably out of their own pockets). It’s not just paying for it…

Is he willing to spend 15’ a day between tutoring sessions, *practicing* what he’s learned? Lots of what he needs is practice of those missing skills. If you could get a hold of the SOS software from Lexia LEarning (or get the schools to purchase it — an investment they could use for lots of students) that would be a good in-between-days reinforcement.

I am sure he would practice because he saw his test results yesterday from the achievement test. I wasn’t going to show them to him because he already has the mentality “I’m stupid” However, my Mom let him look at them. He obviously was upset!

Where can I purchase the SOS software from Lexia LEarning? The school won’t purchase anything unless you force them too!

K is this your brother you’re writing about? I applaud your interest and concern. While I’m not a regular teacher, I have had experience working with my daughter.

First purchase the book Reading Reflex (approx. $20.00) which teaches the Phono-Graphix reading method. Read the book and then use the lessons to teach your brother to read this summer. Don’t rely on the school. This book is fantastic and the lessons are very easy to do. I’m sure your brother will benefit a lot.

Second, purchase Audiblox. Go to audiblox2000.com
I’m not sure of their prices now. This program helped my daughter with her processing speed, memory and concentration. I know it’s not too expensive. PACE is good too but it is so expensive and so intensive and didn’t think it was right for my daughter.

My daughter is no longer identified LD. She does have a speech/language IEP in place. She made the honor roll this year - her first year at middle school.

Reading Reflex taught her to read, but she didn’t start doing grade level work until we started Audiblox. Don’t wait for the school to remediate him. You sound like you can do it yourself.

Good Luck

I totally agree with PatNE. Wilsons is a good program when the child is young and has 2-3 years to work on reading, your son doesn’t have that time. Also, Wilsons teaches the advanced code still using rules, this can be a problems with a lot of kids. Also, I don’t know the IQ of your son but Orton reading program and it’s clones, (Wilsons) was based on at least a 92 IQ. IQ doesn’t have a lot to do with reading unless it is exceptionally low, in the 50s, but it does have something to do with certain reading programs. Buy Reading Reflex and do it yourself. Log onto the website Read America and ask questions about the program when presenting it or email me directly and I will help you. It is a fast program for most older kids and I specialize in remediating older kids.

Shay-
Wilson is designed for teenage-adult learners. It is generally a bit less successful with younger students.

He has the capacity to manage and generalize the rules- that doesn’t appear to be the issue. It appears the issue is speed of processing - which is impacting memory capacity- his desktop for information is a bit smaller and he doesn’t shuffle things through the in and out baskets efficiently.

That isn’t to imply that RR wouldn’t work for him- it probably would. I would speculate it is the quality and intensity of the instruction as opposed to the quality of the program that is causing the lack of progress. Whatever you choose to do- it is important to do it well:)

Hey- I used RR with a student this year- high school, learning impaired- greatr kid. I would love to have a conversation (off the board) with you about how it went and what I want to do next year. I was generally quite pleased- but I think we need to tweak it a little and I would welcome your input.

Robin

He has the profile of that group of folks who really need more that RR and more time to learn in — and I agree that doing it every day will have a lot to do with it helping. Frankly, I’d let him have a voice in deciding.

Reading skills are *skills* and have nothing to do wiht intelligence. One of the surprises in research was that there was even less of a connection than the researchers had anticipated; that many folks with fairly low IQs picked up at least the decoding part of reading fairly easily and naturally (the way whole language advocates think we all can). WHen G. Reid Lyon was talking about it he suggested it was like having a natural talent for track… so of course intelligence would come in handy for figuring out aspects of the skills, but a: some kids would just do it easily and b: most kids could get a lot better with a bit of work and coaching.
This was at basic levels of reading, not higher order comprehension, etc. where of course language intelligence is language intelligence.

You are absolutely right and we all applaud your efforts to make up for what this kid has missed.

He has missed eight years of what was supposed to be 900 hours of teaching, including two hundred hours of reading, every year. Quite simply, you aren’t going to make that up in eight weeks at two hours a week.

But the situation CAN be improved a lot, and the more both of you put into it, the more you will get out of it. I don’t know how much money or time you have. If you have money, you can hire a tutor; if you have time and willingness and a very litttle money, you can do it yourself.

He needs intensive one-to-one work, starting at or near the beginning and directly teaching him those skills he didn’t get. If he has improved barely two grade levels’ worth in nearly two years of his Wilson program, and he is older so he should be able to do the basics faster than a five-year-old, something is missing from that program. Perhaps the teacher is not a good match, perhaps he is in a group and doesn’t get the guidance he needs, perhaps the teacher doesn’t understand the program and isn’t implementing it well, or whatever; something is missing and has to be made up. If you have the time yourself, or if you can afford someone who can do it, I’d recommend working with him every day five days a week all summer, as long as he can take, essentially homeschooling; two hours a day would be good if he’s agreeable. As some other posters have noted, at this age he has to have his own active motivation — but if he sees some success he should be all for it. Take a break and go swimming now and then, but do as much reading as you can.

Shay uses Reading Reflex successfully in an intensive every-day program in a school, along with other materials and programs to add other skills and continue on afterwards. I use different materials but from the same point of view. It isn’t the materials that do the teaching, it’s the teacher. Some people, especially those new at this business, prefer materials with more detail and guidance and built-in repetition, and that’s fine. You need a good person who either has experience with this or who is willing to learn and follow instructions. AFTER the teacher has taught the materials, CD programs are good review and practice, and that is a good thing. But they don’t teach.

I have posted a few lesson plans and other detailed outlines of how to set up an intensive reading/writing/phonics lesson. You can use the search button on this page to find them. Or, email me and ask for copies and specific advice.

Always glad to hear from you.