End goal for dyslexia

[Anonymous]

Our kid completed two levels of Wilson with a tutor and was part way through level three when we had to stop for various reasons. We are trying to get started with OG again and looking at options. Kid is now in 7th grade and very resistant to more tutoring “I can read!”. Kid can read now and scores ok on school reading exams (multiple choice) despite most just skimming.

Kid still cannot spell or wrote though.

If we push to continue OG how much will that help with spelling/writing? Will kids with dyslexia always struggle with spelling/writing?

Do most kids “finish” OG? I believe there are several levels in most programs?

Is OG the best next step at this point? Is there someone we could ask? Former tutor had health issues and isn’t available anymore. School is worthless.

It’s probably going to be painful to make this happen but we want to do everything we can to remediate while we still can.

[Anonymous]

My daughter finished the OG program in 6tj grade. She can read but it is not something she enjoys. Her handwriting is terrible. Spelling is terrible. She has accomdations at school

She has learned to enjoy audio books and is great at speak to text. I think the endgame is that dyslexia doesn’t go away but there are technologies available to help.

[Anonymous]

I would spend the next 6 years with a writing tutor to help you child learn to formulate a good paper.

In college, mostly, my kids needed help with papers. They were excellent at projects and presentations which I joke is because they had an accommodation to do tests orally.

My kids feel that typing helps spelling since the computer spell checks. Voice to text also was very helpful.

I remember middle school just being the tipping point where they could not take any more OG.

[Anonymous]

Private Lindamood Bell tutoring at a LMB center. LMB (per fidelity) took my child from a dyslexia level diagnosis to testing above average and no longer meeting the clinical criteria. It is worth the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private Lindamood Bell tutoring at a LMB center. LMB (per fidelity) took my child from a dyslexia level diagnosis to testing above average and no longer meeting the clinical criteria. It is worth the money.

I mean, if they’ve started and almost finished OG, they know that. OP if you’re in the area asdec is great. How about one of the intense summer programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private Lindamood Bell tutoring at a LMB center. LMB (per fidelity) took my child from a dyslexia level diagnosis to testing above average and no longer meeting the clinical criteria. It is worth the money.

I mean, if they’ve started and almost finished OG, they know that. OP if you’re in the area asdec is great. How about one of the intense summer programs?

Thanks. I know they use a different program. I am waiting on a call back from them but I wonder if my kid would be starting all over from scratch if it’s a new program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private Lindamood Bell tutoring at a LMB center. LMB (per fidelity) took my child from a dyslexia level diagnosis to testing above average and no longer meeting the clinical criteria. It is worth the money.

How long was the whole process? How do they handle kids who’ve already had some OG - do they have to start at the beginning? How much do they work on spelling & writing? It was maybe just our tutor but our kid did very little writing, spelling (irregular words) in Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would spend the next 6 years with a writing tutor to help you child learn to formulate a good paper.

In college, mostly, my kids needed help with papers. They were excellent at projects and presentations which I joke is because they had an accommodation to do tests orally.

My kids feel that typing helps spelling since the computer spell checks. Voice to text also was very helpful.

I remember middle school just being the tipping point where they could not take any more OG.

Thanks. Writing tutor was our plan after “finishing” OG. Might be next step if we can’t make OG happen.

Suggestions on finding a writing tutor for kids with dyslexia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter finished the OG program in 6tj grade. She can read but it is not something she enjoys. Her handwriting is terrible. Spelling is terrible. She has accomdations at school

She has learned to enjoy audio books and is great at speak to text. I think the endgame is that dyslexia doesn’t go away but there are technologies available to help.

Thanks. Their school is 100% focused on (minimal) accommodations. Now that kid tests in passing range for grade level for reading - on multiple-choice tests that are easily guessed - they no longer think it’s an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would spend the next 6 years with a writing tutor to help you child learn to formulate a good paper.

In college, mostly, my kids needed help with papers. They were excellent at projects and presentations which I joke is because they had an accommodation to do tests orally.

My kids feel that typing helps spelling since the computer spell checks. Voice to text also was very helpful.

I remember middle school just being the tipping point where they could not take any more OG.

Thanks. Writing tutor was our plan after “finishing” OG. Might be next step if we can’t make OG happen.

Suggestions on finding a writing tutor for kids with dyslexia?

I do not, I'm a little "out of the game" since my kids are in college now. I'd check with ASDEC.

Also, my kids did tutoring for the SAT/ACT. We set 10 days aside after school was over and did 10 straight days of tutoring, then took the exam right after the tutoring. Treated each day like a 5 hour school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would spend the next 6 years with a writing tutor to help you child learn to formulate a good paper.

In college, mostly, my kids needed help with papers. They were excellent at projects and presentations which I joke is because they had an accommodation to do tests orally.

My kids feel that typing helps spelling since the computer spell checks. Voice to text also was very helpful.

I remember middle school just being the tipping point where they could not take any more OG.

Thanks. Writing tutor was our plan after “finishing” OG. Might be next step if we can’t make OG happen.

Suggestions on finding a writing tutor for kids with dyslexia?

I do not, I'm a little "out of the game" since my kids are in college now. I'd check with ASDEC.

Also, my kids did tutoring for the SAT/ACT. We set 10 days aside after school was over and did 10 straight days of tutoring, then took the exam right after the tutoring. Treated each day like a 5 hour school day.

I don't mean 10 straight day I mean 2 weeks, 5 days a week.

I could use a writing tutor. Lol. the apple does not fall far from the treee.

[Anonymous]

The end goal is to be a financially independent adult, OP.

This means going to college, since the income gap between non-college educated adults and college-educated adults keeps widening.

This means having solid reading comprehension skills as well as solid writing skills! College admissions get more competitive every year. You can't just walk into your state U anymore. UMD and UVA both require top GPAs and if you submit a standardized test score, they need to be high.

I cannot overstate the importance of working on this! You need to persuade/bribe/crush your middle schooler's opposition to additional tutoring because she does not realize she's sabotaging herself for life. Explain it and say it's non-negotiable.

I'm not an expert on dyslexia. But my son with several learning disabilities, ADHD and HFA needed to work specifically on reading comprehension and a skill called inferencing (understanding unwritten information from context clues). He had a writing tutor that worked on all aspects of written organization and reading comprehension, but mostly on inferencing, for most of middle school, and then he had ACT test prep in high school, as well as occasional tutoring for some of his AP course work. We have spent a small fortune on this, and it's been worth it: he would never have made all the progress he has without one-on-one tutoring.

Please tell your child that families who can afford it pay for tutors to increase their kids' changes of getting into a good college, even if they have good grades to begin with and no learning disability. In my corner of Bethesda, most students will have a tutor for something at some point, whether they're in private or public!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter finished the OG program in 6tj grade. She can read but it is not something she enjoys. Her handwriting is terrible. Spelling is terrible. She has accomdations at school

She has learned to enjoy audio books and is great at speak to text. I think the endgame is that dyslexia doesn’t go away but there are technologies available to help.

Thanks. Their school is 100% focused on (minimal) accommodations. Now that kid tests in passing range for grade level for reading - on multiple-choice tests that are easily guessed - they no longer think it’s an issue.

My daughter gets extra time on tests, had audio for tests (if she wants) and always starts paper, tests that require and written assignments off with speak to text (her spoken vocabulary is much better than written).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The end goal is to be a financially independent adult, OP.

This means going to college, since the income gap between non-college educated adults and college-educated adults keeps widening.

This means having solid reading comprehension skills as well as solid writing skills! College admissions get more competitive every year. You can't just walk into your state U anymore. UMD and UVA both require top GPAs and if you submit a standardized test score, they need to be high.

I cannot overstate the importance of working on this! You need to persuade/bribe/crush your middle schooler's opposition to additional tutoring because she does not realize she's sabotaging herself for life. Explain it and say it's non-negotiable.

I'm not an expert on dyslexia. But my son with several learning disabilities, ADHD and HFA needed to work specifically on reading comprehension and a skill called inferencing (understanding unwritten information from context clues). He had a writing tutor that worked on all aspects of written organization and reading comprehension, but mostly on inferencing, for most of middle school, and then he had ACT test prep in high school, as well as occasional tutoring for some of his AP course work. We have spent a small fortune on this, and it's been worth it: he would never have made all the progress he has without one-on-one tutoring.

Please tell your child that families who can afford it pay for tutors to increase their kids' changes of getting into a good college, even if they have good grades to begin with and no learning disability. In my corner of Bethesda, most students will have a tutor for something at some point, whether they're in private or public!

I agree and disagree with this response.

The part I agree with is that you should encourage your child to continue tutoring (once you assess what the correct intervention is). Until your child reaches an adult reading level and spelling (or as high as they can get with the dyslexia) intervention makes sense. My approach with my child has been to acknowledge that it is difficult and a commitment to continue tutoring and a downside of dyslexia but also highlight the strengths of how my child’s brain works (for my child it is creativity). The tutoring in the end will allow your child the most / best opportunities and options as an adult.

My disagreemet would be not to frame it as needed to get into a “good” college. I am not sure if such additional pressure is necessary. Also, for a special needs student especially, the focus should be on finding a college that is a good fit (and being flexible if college ends up not being the next step). The right fit might not be what the genera population views as the “good” college.

[Anonymous]

I'm not convinced that being able to spell correctly is a critical skill. My experience has been that dyslexic adults in the professional workforce can use technology to compensate in most situations. Similarly, unless handwriting is actively interfering with other skills (such as higher level math classes), I'm unconvinced that focusing on remediating handwriting is worth the investment. On the other hand, reading comprehension and the ability to write effectively are much more important.