Dyslexic 7 year old- struggling to decide on schooling options

[Anonymous]

We did an hour a day after school for a year. Brought him up to level in 1st. I also pulled him out of public for private. He’s in 7th now and doing great. Ok grades and friends and happy. There’s hope.

[Anonymous]

You need OG tutoring and it’s generally best one on one. I would avoid McLean. We do private tutoring even at our SN school and this is true for all the dyslexic kids I know, but my kid has behavioral issues and other issues that necessitate the private. His reading issues are also severe. But, he’s only 1.5 years behind I guess, so technically he’s eligible for schools like McLean etc., but we’d just supplement more. Do not think of these non dyslexia schools as a panacea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depending on the severity - which should be clearly spelled out in your neuropsychological exam - should determine your course of action. However, I would caution you on leaving a child who may be experiencing emotional distress due to the ‘wait to fail’ (until 3rd or in MCPS sometimes later) model.

The only thing that works IMHO is one on on tutoring 3x a week. Sorry. We tried public school (ignored); we moved overseas to military school (better but not enough) then small private school (hard to judge with pandemic). But ASDEC tutoring thorough out was worth every penny spent - too bad MCPS refuses to use them as service providers for OG training. (Some political fight on MCPS’ end)

This. Asdec has been vital for us.

And why is everyone recommending McLean?? So you can go there and… do asdec?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just found out our child has dyslexia (the school definitely didn't help with the diagnosis- we sought out private advice about why he was in the 1st through 5th percentile on reading classes in 2nd grade.)
Here are the options we could pursue:

Option 1: stay in public with pull out services thorugh IEP, wait til next year to enroll in specialized school like McClean school. Or wait another year until 4th grade for Siena School. Could supplement with tutoring one hour a day, four days a week

Option 2- take a mid-year spot at a small private school that is not for special needs kids but has smaller classes (not accepted yet and not yet sure which school.) Could do LindaMood Bell classes two hours a day at night with this option because the private school would be more flexible on scheduling and their hours are easier than our public. Could always switch to Siena in 4th grade.

Any advice? thanks

If your kid is below the 5th percentile in 2nd grade, they need intervention now. Whatever you do, don’t just wait it out. But also be reasonable. My kid was at 2nd percentile in Second grade. We did Wilson 4 days a week. It brought him up to grade level in a year. Still has Dyslexia, still doing Wilson. But now very happy and confident.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all public schools are the same. Mosaic in FCPS won't even say the word Dyslexia while Marshall Road has more OG trained teachers than any other school in the district.

I would not do LindaMood Bell at this age. 2 hours is too long for a child to sit for the intensive therapy.

I would start with Dyslexia Connect (online). You can do that 5 days a week for 25min/day. That's about all your kid can tolerate at this age.

If they enjoy their social life at public I would keep them there. You can opt for pull out services but it may not do much. As long as you keep her to within 2 grades behind she will qualify for any of the local dyslexia schools.

They do OG? How does that work online exactly? (not OP)

It varies by tutor. Our specific one used Wilson but DD has no issues transitioning to OG. They do offer a free session to check it out. We signed up April 2020 and were also curious how well it would work. Turns out it's fabulous. They have a great system in place and from our experience fantastic tutors. We still use our tutor every summer so DD doesn't slip. In one year our tutor brought DD from reading around 15-20 words per minute to 80. She had the tutor for all of second grade (we also homeschooled as it was August 2020 - August 2021). Her reading level (DRA) went from 8 (early 1st grade) to 30 (early 3rd grade). She had no issues getting into Oakwood post-2020.

The sessions include repeating letters and sounds, moving to reading words to sentences and then paragraphs (building stamina). They also play a lot of games. DD always looked forward to her sessions since we kept them short (25min/day). They offer 55min sessions but it was too much for her at that age. Even now I think I'd still keep the sessions on the shorter side but more frequently. That's key.

[Anonymous]

I agree with do not wait to fail. Again we started in 1 st grade with og tutor. My child was at grade level within a year and is in 7 th now and doing well. We do tutoring two days a week where he gets help with homework like writing projects. He’s in private. He’ll always struggle but he can do it and keep up. It’s a lot of work for him but for now he can do it. That may change as he gets older and we need to pivot.

[Anonymous]

My two cents -

OG tutor now, one hours a day, five days a week. Switch to specialized school next fall. See how it goes from there.

You can pursue an IEP but don't let that deter you from the 1:1 OG tutor right now. The one hour a day, five days a week doesn't have to be forever. It could just be for the next 4-5 months and then you can reassess.

[Anonymous]

Can you pay for an OG tutor who can come daily pull her out during her schools reading time?

[Anonymous]

1 full hour of intensive OG is too much for a kid this age. Even my 10 year old who goes to an OG certified school isn't getting a full hour. If they tried a full hour the first 30ish minutes would be productive and the rest would be burn out. Especially for a kid who is just starting. You don't want them to dread tutoring.

Definitely find a tutor (online, inperson, etc) but start at 30min daily. Once they get used to that you can start to lengthen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1 full hour of intensive OG is too much for a kid this age. Even my 10 year old who goes to an OG certified school isn't getting a full hour. If they tried a full hour the first 30ish minutes would be productive and the rest would be burn out. Especially for a kid who is just starting. You don't want them to dread tutoring.

Definitely find a tutor (online, inperson, etc) but start at 30min daily. Once they get used to that you can start to lengthen.

While I recommended an hour a day upthread, I see the value in this approach. The key is to make it consistent. If your kid can handle 30 minutes a day, then do 30 minutes a day. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP do not go to a small private that will be a disaster no matter what they tell you.

I'd do McClean or publc

Our small Catholic was a life-saver for my child with dyslexia. I don't know where DC would be if we had stayed in public. That was a disaster for sure.

I don't think you can generalize.

[Anonymous]

Most people on this board will say do an SN school -- or public with IEP and significant tutoring. We did the latter option for four years with significant success. We spent a LOT on tutoring. And it was worth every penny! We switched DS to a small independent school once he was remediated and he is doing great. He gets some supports at the independent school but nowhere near enough if that had been expected to remediate him. But now, he is just maintaining the skills we have already built and caught him up. And the accommodations at the small independent school are great!

So, my take is that for remediation, it should be SN School or public with IEP and significant additional tutoring. For accommodation, small independent schools seem very good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just found out our child has dyslexia (the school definitely didn't help with the diagnosis- we sought out private advice about why he was in the 1st through 5th percentile on reading classes in 2nd grade.)
Here are the options we could pursue:

Option 1: stay in public with pull out services thorugh IEP, wait til next year to enroll in specialized school like McClean school. Or wait another year until 4th grade for Siena School. Could supplement with tutoring one hour a day, four days a week

Option 2- take a mid-year spot at a small private school that is not for special needs kids but has smaller classes (not accepted yet and not yet sure which school.) Could do LindaMood Bell classes two hours a day at night with this option because the private school would be more flexible on scheduling and their hours are easier than our public. Could always switch to Siena in 4th grade.

Any advice? thanks

Pretty sure Oakwood has space for this year in 1st/2nd grade- worth a call to Admissions?

[Anonymous]

Thanks OP here. We started with OG tutoring this week. We're pretty far from Oakwood (we're in Kensington MD). But we are wanting to go to McLean- I saw the concerns above in this thread. Can someone say more about concerns about McLean?
thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks OP here. We started with OG tutoring this week. We're pretty far from Oakwood (we're in Kensington MD). But we are wanting to go to McLean- I saw the concerns above in this thread. Can someone say more about concerns about McLean?
thanks

We're considering McLean as well, but one of the concerns that I've seen from several people on different threads about the school is that academically, the kids are much farther behind than kids in public school and that it doesn't prep kids well for college.