Anonymous wrote:Has child been tested for auditory processing disorder?

Jay R. Lucker, Ed.D., CCC-A/SLP has done a ton of research on this and still sees patients in the area. You can email him at apddrj@gmail.com. He was very helpful to us.

+1

There are also online learning platforms for kids who struggle with APD and dyslexia and some have a trial period. You could try it out and see if the way the method works might help your child.

Even if you don’t want to go that route something that helped my child was using headphones and the tutor used a mic that hooked up to them.

I also recall years ago while researching for my own child that there are a small percentage of people for whom even O-G tutoring doesn’t work and I seem to recall there was some kind of visual and what seemed like memorization approach but it possibly could have been geared towards adult.

The researched-based standard for children with dyslexia is an Orton-Gillingham based intervention.

Someone or several people on this thread are recommending Lindamood-Bell. It is, indeed, a good program for many kids. (No single curriculum will work for everyone.) However, it’s not the appropriate choice for a child with severely involved dyslexia. Nor are their providers are highly trained as in other programs. I know; I worked there and received just 40 hours of training and loose supervision. I call LMB “the microwave cooking” of reading remediation. I don’t mean that as a slam; it is a fast-track way to get a lot (but not all) emerging readers to fluency through the use of a scripted curriculum.

There are a lot of other O-G based interventions. Here in the DC area, a lot of reading remediation specialists use Wilson. It is, indeed, helpful for students who have mild-to-moderate dyslexia. These programs usually require initial training and a clinical observation period. Practicioners can then proceed through a second level of certification. A school that specializes in language-based learning disabilities will often have teachers trained in Wilson or a similar program. OP is telling us that this style of intervention has already failed her child.

As others have mentioned, the Sounds in Syllables program is the most appropriate for students like OP’s child. The program’s creator studied *all* of the available US reading intervention programs, borrowed their strengths, and adjusted instructional approaches for students with severely involved dyslexia. The initial instructor training is 80 hrs. plus a clinical practicum. Getting fully certified as a “clinician” takes a minimum of two years. For the students, it is a very intensive program, requiring a 3-5 hr/week commitment. The lessons are detailed and require a lot of hard work. That said, the level of repetition, variety of activities, and true multisensory integration are excellent for supporting those with poor working memory. You can find Sounds in Syllables instructors through ASDEC. They offer in-person tutoring in Rockville, Silver Spring, and NoVA and also offer online tutoring.

I saw in previous posts that folks were shocked by LMB pricing. The market rate for the level of instruction OP’s child requires is about $100-$130/hr. All of the O-G based programs require a minimum 3 hr/week commitment. ASDEC will recommend 5 hours if you can manage it, and Lindamood Bell will sell you 20 hr/week summer intensive programs. For a child with severe dyslexia, expect that s/he will need a minimum of two years in Sounds in Syllables. Requiring more time is not uncommon. While this is a very expensive proposition, consider the lifetime expense of not being fully literate and not having access to school curriculum because of an inability to read on grade level.

I also recommend new, full in person neuropsych testing. Do that before you switch schools again so you have a roadmap.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately for your wallet, Lindamood Bell is the top-tier intervention. They have published some material (e.g. Seeing Stars), but I can't speak to anything other than its existence. Might be worth a try if you are strapped for cash, though.

Asdec is far better.

+1

How recently has he had a full neuropsych done?

More speech therapy. Look into the lively letters program.

Anonymous wrote:What is his IQ, OP? You need to do asdec. If his IQ is below normal it could take years.

I haven't read past this post, but this was my question.
How is your child's math performance? Is he truly on grade level with math but not reading? What about listening comprehension, use of vocabulary, and reasoning?

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately for your wallet, Lindamood Bell is the top-tier intervention. They have published some material (e.g. Seeing Stars), but I can't speak to anything other than its existence. Might be worth a try if you are strapped for cash, though.

Asdec is far better.

Unfortunately for your wallet, Lindamood Bell is the top-tier intervention. They have published some material (e.g. Seeing Stars), but I can't speak to anything other than its existence. Might be worth a try if you are strapped for cash, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ASDEC’s Sounds In Syllables is a 2-3 year program, and it’s sorta the last resort. Very structured. It’s a major commitment but it does work.

We ultimately did this and wish we started here. Very comprehensive. Ideally, do 1 hr x 4 days/week.

OP here and going to look into this.

We sort of accidentally started with this and were so very glad we did! Highly, highly recommend.

All in, I might suggest public for the social emotional/ school day stuff then paying the high cost of having an ASDEC come to your home 4-5x per week. All the while using a lawyer to get whatever services you can out of school, but knowing it’s the ASSEC tutoring that is actively the education. Also you still do it 4-5x per week the entire summer.

Good luck, OP, this stuff is crazy hard. You are NOT alone.

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone recommend intensive older-elementary-aged tutoring programs or summer programs in NoVA or DC for intensive dyslexia remediation? This is for a child with *profound* dyslexia (3 grade levels behind) with severe language retention, processing, and memory weakness. No behavioral problems. Sweet kid. But obviously frustrated and has developed a low frustration tolerance due to trauma from public school and also Covid/virtual.

Child is currently enrolled in a private school that specializes in language-based learning disabilities, but administrators are concerned about lack of progress and are not sure they can provide sufficient services anymore.

We are at a loss about what to do bc child is already in a private special Ed school, is getting privately tutored 2x a week, OT twice a week, and speech therapy 1x a week and is still functionally illiterate. Public school was a disaster and left DC emotionally in shambles.
Help!

I know you commented on the cost of Lab - but if you are at a private Special Ed School - and doing outside tutoring 2 x a week, you are not getting what you need from your current school.
We were in public school - and as a part of the triennial review, our school did the "FAR" and this helped better understand the complexity for why learning to read was so challenging.
We got a placement though the public school to Lab (this was not an easy path - but we documented and fought and won).
Now our kid gets dropped off at school - and everything happens during the school day.
I have a happy kid who is reading grade level texts.
It does not cost me $60K a year - but it cost a lot of time, stress etc in getting from public school to the school district paying (it was almost another full time job)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ Be nice. She's tried smething, it didn't wrk and nw she's frustrated. (I"m giving up 0s fr lent)

Didn't mean to be rude, tho I could have softened it possibly. It seems to me that some parents try to cure their kid, so that was why i commented that. Not sure if that's OP's expectation or not. I know several people who are highly dyslexic and highly successful - to this day they prefer to listen to everything: news, books, training for work, you name it. They still don't read well, but they are rock stars in their fields

Fair. I have tw with dyslexia and seems "fixed" accrding t the schl. We'll see. IEP seasn is s fun.

I’m dyslexic and I can say it isn’t ever fixed because it isn’t a lack of skills, it’s a brain difference. So even when skills are built to grade level the fundamental brain difference remains, and will pop up in different contexts. I have to say this is most true for people with more than just the reading challenge - I am a dyslexic speed reader, if you can imagine that, but the working memory deficits that are part of my dyslexia still cause me hassles. I hope it is “fixed” for your kid, PP - just keep an eye out for struggles as the years go by and when weird things pop up see if the dyslexia is causing them. My son would ALWAYS start getting in trouble weeks before his teachers flagged that he was struggling academically. He would start to act up when he was frustrated academically, but we often missed that what was causing him to misbehave was academic struggle.

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, in that situation, one of us would quit their job and tutor ourselves at home. None of these programs are "hard". They need some specialized knowledge and practice, but nothing a person of your intelligence can't figure out. Maybe your child has a rare set of learning disabilities for which the usual approaches don't really work. Maybe he also has autism and/or ADHD, and he would do better in a quieter environment, with ADHD meds.

Me again. So this child has not had a full neuropsychological evaluation? This absolutely needs to happen ASAP. A school evaluation will never be able to give you the full picture. School psychologists are usually not trained (they don't have PhDs), and they don't have that kind of time. A full neuropsych is 8 hours over two days. They administer several batteries of tests that are targeted to the child's issues as described during the parent intake consultation. Questionnaires are filled out by the parents and teachers. It's the gold standard of testing and you cannot have a full picture unless you get one. At this point, if your kid cannot read functionally yet, time is working against you and need to bring out the big guns. Pay the $5K, you won't regret it. Also be aware that the best psych practices in our area, like Stixrud, are scheduling months out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ Be nice. She's tried smething, it didn't wrk and nw she's frustrated. (I"m giving up 0s fr lent)

Didn't mean to be rude, tho I could have softened it possibly. It seems to me that some parents try to cure their kid, so that was why i commented that. Not sure if that's OP's expectation or not. I know several people who are highly dyslexic and highly successful - to this day they prefer to listen to everything: news, books, training for work, you name it. They still don't read well, but they are rock stars in their fields

Fair. I have tw with dyslexia and seems "fixed" accrding t the schl. We'll see. IEP seasn is s fun.

You would need to supplement wherever you are. KTS is great but I know several kids there and they all supplement. If your kid can handle public you should do that. The cohort at KTS or any other SN school will be poor the self inclusion classes.