Struggling Phonemic Awareness.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I would work with a reading tutor outside if school. My kid is in high school and I still suspect dyslexia. Full neuropsychological testing done two times. Apparently no dyslexia (ADHD diagnosis). He was a late reader (7 years old/2nd grade) and still mispronounces words in conversation regularly. It is certain blended sounds where he makes the wrong sound. Hates to read, but is in advanced level English classes and has a really high vocabulary. Struggles with the verbal part of foreign language class, but understands and reads it fine. Who knows? Is there such a thing as mild dyslexia that tests don’t catch?

That’s called slow verbal processing. My kid has it. Unless the teacher or coach or camp leader gives clear steps, nothing gets processed or retained well. All those “math talk” classes where half the time kids are guessing and sharing their wrong approaches and answers really messed up my child’s learning.

Thank you — I am going to research this right now!

[Anonymous]

OP: The school uses Wilson Fundations and Orton Gillingham

[Anonymous]

Op, I have one child with mild dyslexia at a mainstream private school. DC was not reading well at the end of K, and when I would read at home with them they could sound out a word, but then ok the next page they would sound it out again like they had never seen it before. I didn’t know what to make of this, but it felt like somehow my DC was just not transitioning to read like all of their classmates were.

In first grade DC learned to read (amazing and patient teacher) but it was still labored, and their writing was very basic. I decided to have DC tested for dyslexia because I felt like something was not right - the learning specialist at our school did not recommend testing, but I felt certain something was off. We put DC on a waitlist at Mindwell and they got tested several months later.

DC does have mild dyslexia and private OG tutoring has made a huge difference in their reading and writing skills.

If you think something is wrong, at least get your child screened for dyslexia, or do all the testing if you can afford itz

[Anonymous]

Get some Phonics materials and supplement at home, to help them get good at rapid decoding.

In parallel, maybe get the Bob Books, which are Phonics-based and surprisingly good. Start at the beginning, even if it seems easy to them, then continue systematically through the whole series. That will increase confidence and also ensure any phonetic gaps get filled. Have DC read some out loud to you each day and create some kind of reward system to encourage DC to cooperate.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and continue the daily reading out loud at home all year. Do not stop at winter break, spring break, or summer. This is important to prevent loss-of-knowledge when school is not in session. If DC is really behind, it might take 2-3 years to get them reading comfortably at/above grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did your lower school kid start reading? My kid is in 1st grade and kind of struggling. We are currently at one of the mainstream privates. Just looking for responses from others. Thank you!

The expectation is that kids are fluent readers and reading to learn (instead of learning to read) by third grade. You have some time but I would talk to your child’s teacher to find out if there are any red flags because addressing issues as early as possible dramatically improves outcomes. Sadly I think some private schools ignore red flags which leads to issues later.

OP - Thank you. Her teacher mentioned it me after they just had an assessment and she will be getting pullout 3 days a week in a small group. They did say it's 1st grade and that they will be tracking progress to for any signs. Appreciate the response.

That’s terrific. Your teacher is giving you a gift. I would strongly suggest getting your child one-on-one Orton Gillingham based instruction. If your child has dyslexia, and apparently 5 percent of kids do, you will be so glad you did. If she is just a late reader, she will be an even stronger late reader as a result. Other than the $$$, there is no downside and only HUGE upside. Do. Not. Wait.

[Anonymous]

Spend the money now to do full neuropsych assessment, you will not be sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son just could not do sight words. It was brutal because he felt stupid. Once her learned proper phonics he was fine though, but it took longer than most kids. He’s a fluent reader now in 4th.

Because there are actually very few sight words. Most words do follow the phonetic rules. “Th” has 2 possible sounds, “s” has 2 possible sounds. It’s amazing what kids can decide with an explicit, sequential reading curriculum based in the science of reading. There is t a reason to memorize 100’s of sight words and it sets kids back later when they don’t have the fundamental skills.

+1, my kid's program uses sight words but only to support fluency. Like the goal is to develop sight identification of the most common words simply to help the kids learn to read more quickly, which makes reading more fun. The phase when they are sounding everything out is tough, especially when they are used to being read to a lot, because the distance between what they are doing and what they are familiar with as "reading" is really far apart.

But even a lot of the sight words start by sounding them out. Then there may be an adjustment of the pronunciation (ie. learning that "of" is pronounced "uv" not "off") and that's the memorization part. But it's still based in phonics and recognition of letter sounds and combinations. The goal is never to just have kids memorizing a bunch of sight words so they can look at a sentence and comprehend it without any phonemic decoding.

[Anonymous]

So it sounds like your school is using an OK program -- Wilson Fundations is maybe a little light, but it's heart is in the right place.

My tier for interventions is as follows:

1. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which is incredibly cheap and bog simple for the parent to implement, since it is entirely scripted. You really don't need to invest in a tutor, instead you investing ~20-30 min a day of time, at least five days a week. IMHO, if it doesn't click, then you are in for a rougher ride. Test for dyslexia, if you haven't already, and then turn to supplement with...

2. All About Reading, which is Orton Gillingham based. More expensive and slower-moving than TYCTR100EL. If AAR isn't working out, your child has a serious problem, and the next step is...

3. A reading tutor who uses OG methods.

If this doesn't work, your last ditch intervention is

4. Lindamood-Bell, which is *fantastically* expensive and wildly time consuming (Four hours a day, twenty hours a week!), but can work on profoundly dyslexic kids that are unreachable by anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So it sounds like your school is using an OK program -- Wilson Fundations is maybe a little light, but it's heart is in the right place.

My tier for interventions is as follows:

1. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which is incredibly cheap and bog simple for the parent to implement, since it is entirely scripted. You really don't need to invest in a tutor, instead you investing ~20-30 min a day of time, at least five days a week. IMHO, if it doesn't click, then you are in for a rougher ride. Test for dyslexia, if you haven't already, and then turn to supplement with...

2. All About Reading, which is Orton Gillingham based. More expensive and slower-moving than TYCTR100EL. If AAR isn't working out, your child has a serious problem, and the next step is...

3. A reading tutor who uses OG methods.

If this doesn't work, your last ditch intervention is

4. Lindamood-Bell, which is *fantastically* expensive and wildly time consuming (Four hours a day, twenty hours a week!), but can work on profoundly dyslexic kids that are unreachable by anything else.

Mean personally, after my kids being in school all day, I am not subjecting them to 4 additional hours a day of tutoring. No way.

[Anonymous]

School using OG is fantastic so you're already slightly ahead of the game. I would see how this year goes and also what feedback you get at your first teacher conference, get tutoring lined up maybe one or twice a week and see how that goes.

[Anonymous]

Really though you need a professional, full neuropsychological assessment to evaluate the level of intervention needed. Don’t waste your time.

[Anonymous]

Or do a referral through your local public school and try to give them as much supporting information as possible to see if they’ll do evaluations

[Anonymous]

My child also struggled with reading in 1st. We suspected dyslexia early on, but most schools will not give this diagnosis or else they have to give accommodations. I was told by friends that if the reading doesn’t click by around Spring Break, then you should look into a neuropsychological evaluation. We got the evaluation at the end of 1st when nothing changed and she did have dyslexia. We’ve been using the Barton Spelling and Reading program (through a tutor) which is OG based but also has elements of Lindamood Bell and other successful programs. It is an arduous program but it really works. We didn’t want to do lindamood because of the expense and uneven results.