PSF is probably the most difficult subtest for my students in kindergarten and first grade. It’s a listening activity v. a visual one. Students slowly improve during kindergarten once they understand the test but the targets are high and they keep moving throughout the years.

https://dibels.uoregon.edu/sites/default/files/2021-06/DIBELS%208th%20Edition%20Dyslexia%20White%20Paper.pdf

Meant to include the link too

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PAF is easy to practice at home. It measures fluency so spend one minute each night on it.

What is PAF?

PSF is phonemic segmentation fluency. If you hear a word, can you break it down into individual sounds?

Is that not what they are doing in schools? Honest question…seems pretty obv that is how you should teach a child to read.

So PSF has the instructor say the word, without giving the kid the written word to read.

Ex: teacher says sun. Student is supposed to say s/u/n (sounds not letters).

It’s about whether you can hear all components (including which sounds are digraphs and consonant blends) and separate them into their components.

This seems to help my kid with writing words, like, he will pause and say the sounds he hears in a word before writing a word he doesn’t know how to spell.

Versus the rest of dibels, which focuses on the opposite- if you’re shown a word, letter, or nonsense word, can you make the correct sound/blend?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PAF is easy to practice at home. It measures fluency so spend one minute each night on it.

What is PAF?

PSF is phonemic segmentation fluency. If you hear a word, can you break it down into individual sounds?

Is that not what they are doing in schools? Honest question…seems pretty obv that is how you should teach a child to read.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PAF is easy to practice at home. It measures fluency so spend one minute each night on it.

What is PAF?

PSF is phonemic segmentation fluency. If you hear a word, can you break it down into individual sounds?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is going to disproportionately impact students with dyslexia who haven’t received adequate services.

It’s hugely damaging to the kid. They should instead be doing universal dyslexia screenings in 1st grade and provide services to all kids who have dyslexia.

Wait, they don't do universal dyslexia screenings in 1st? That is shocking to me. I thought that was standard.

DCPS does universal screenings.

My kid is 1st and all I know is they administer DIBELS 3x per year. My kid was in the "needs support" category for most of K and beginning of 1st and they didn't offer much support. We got tutoring outside of school and kid is on track now.

This is the issue.

They use DIBELS, which is fine for flagging kids who are at risk, but they don’t follow up with proper supports.

If you don’t give OG tutoring to a kid who needs support in 1st grade, then by the time they get to 3rd/4th, it is much harder to teach them to read.

It’s in part neurological. Literally you can help rewire a kid’s brain in 1st and 2nd with proper OG tutoring.

By 3rd/4th, their brain is developed such that it’s harder to rewire.

So there’s a clear window. This is well known in the scientific community. MCPS is literally being negligent by not supporting these kids. They are knowingly dooming them.

— A mom of a dyslexic kid who is livid about this. She is ahead in 3rd because we pay $20,000/year for private tutoring. MCPS was ZERO help.

Can I ask where you (or other posters) found help? My K kid was flagged as “needs support” in PSF but as far as I can tell the only support he gets is occasionally being pulled out of class to see if he scores higher next time.

I’m not in MCPS, (balt county, private) but I’d love to find good help rather than trying to cobble this together myself.

We found it with private tutoring. It was expensive ($150/hour) but was a godsend.

I would strongly suggest doing that if you can possibly swing it. Find a good Orton-Gillingham tutor now. Don’t wait.

It cannot hurt and if your kid really needs the help, it is critical.

Thanks! Yes, I’d rather sink unnecessary $$$ now than wish I’d done something sooner a year for now. You and PP who suggested the ALTA site are the reasons I keep coming back to DCM— some genuinely useful advice from parents who have been there. Thanks.

And PP who asked about PAF, that was a typo, it’s psf, phoneme segment fluency.

Anonymous wrote:PAF is easy to practice at home. It measures fluency so spend one minute each night on it.

What is PAF?

Specifically, we used Partners in Learning. They are MoCo-based but might be able to give you a local recommendation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is going to disproportionately impact students with dyslexia who haven’t received adequate services.

It’s hugely damaging to the kid. They should instead be doing universal dyslexia screenings in 1st grade and provide services to all kids who have dyslexia.

Wait, they don't do universal dyslexia screenings in 1st? That is shocking to me. I thought that was standard.

DCPS does universal screenings.

My kid is 1st and all I know is they administer DIBELS 3x per year. My kid was in the "needs support" category for most of K and beginning of 1st and they didn't offer much support. We got tutoring outside of school and kid is on track now.

This is the issue.

They use DIBELS, which is fine for flagging kids who are at risk, but they don’t follow up with proper supports.

If you don’t give OG tutoring to a kid who needs support in 1st grade, then by the time they get to 3rd/4th, it is much harder to teach them to read.

It’s in part neurological. Literally you can help rewire a kid’s brain in 1st and 2nd with proper OG tutoring.

By 3rd/4th, their brain is developed such that it’s harder to rewire.

So there’s a clear window. This is well known in the scientific community. MCPS is literally being negligent by not supporting these kids. They are knowingly dooming them.

— A mom of a dyslexic kid who is livid about this. She is ahead in 3rd because we pay $20,000/year for private tutoring. MCPS was ZERO help.

Can I ask where you (or other posters) found help? My K kid was flagged as “needs support” in PSF but as far as I can tell the only support he gets is occasionally being pulled out of class to see if he scores higher next time.

I’m not in MCPS, (balt county, private) but I’d love to find good help rather than trying to cobble this together myself.

We found it with private tutoring. It was expensive ($150/hour) but was a godsend.

I would strongly suggest doing that if you can possibly swing it. Find a good Orton-Gillingham tutor now. Don’t wait.

It cannot hurt and if your kid really needs the help, it is critical.

What specifically triggers an intervention in K and 1st?

It isn’t too young to diagnose dyslexia, though not all psychs will do so before 1st. Either the brain wiring is there or it’s not. Intervention in K can re-wire the brain, though, and essentially act as prevention so the dyslexia never has the environment to develop, if that makes sense. If your kid is flagged as a struggling reader, get intervention. The school probably won’t provide support in time.

One way to find a very high quality tutor would be to go the the website for the Academic Language Therapy Association (ALTAreads.org) and use their search. They have a database of Certified Academic Language Therapists by state, and you can look to find one near you. A CALT will be able to select the right intervention for your kid. The credential is the gold standard for reading instruction.