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SallyT
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| Posted: June 14 2012 at 8:38am | IP Logged
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Lori, I've looked at EasyRead/EasySpell for my 8yo, who is their textbook poor speller, at the very least, but am just floored by the price. I've been afraid even to do the sample and then be hooked . . . Is it really that good?
Sally
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Angel
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| Posted: June 14 2012 at 9:16pm | IP Logged
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SallyT wrote:
Lori, I've looked at EasyRead/EasySpell for my 8yo, who is their textbook poor speller, at the very least, but am just floored by the price. I've been afraid even to do the sample and then be hooked . . . Is it really that good?
Sally |
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I don't know how it will all turn out in the end because we are just on Lesson 14, but my 9 yo ds *loves* Easyread... which is something, because he had completely shut down over reading using anything else. We've justified the price like this. Since his reading skills were so minimal in spite of the most consistent phonics instruction I have yet attempted, we had narrowed our options down to 3: specialized tutoring, the Barton Reading and Spelling System, and EasyRead. EasyRead's price compared well to the other two options and my ds loved the sample lesson, so we went for it.
So far I am pleased, but I don't know that we would have gone the EasyRead route if he had been able to read better and just been a "struggling" reader instead of for all intents and purposes, a non-reader.
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Angela
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SallyT
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| Posted: June 15 2012 at 2:46pm | IP Logged
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That makes sense. I'm in the position of wanting to improve reading fluency and also spelling, and seeing that what worked with my other kids (a.k.a.: they mysteriously got with the program, just by having books available to them) is not working with her. Even though she's not a non-reader, I don't want to hold her back by not addressing the possibility of some mild dyslexia (she's still writing numbers and some letters backwards despite years of practice; she often looks at first letter of a word and guesses from context what the word is, that kind of thing which seems to signal possibly a bright kid's coping mechanism).
So we'll have to think about it. I'm going to have her do the sample EasySpell lesson and see how it goes.
Thanks for the input!
Sally
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JuliaT
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| Posted: June 16 2012 at 2:23am | IP Logged
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Can I throw yet another curriculum out there? I have two children who have struggled with reading from the very beginning. I don't have an official diagnosis with either of them but I am fairly certain they have dyslexia. I used Barton's with my 11 yr. old and he is reading very well now. Barton has helped so well with him.
My youngest's reading issues are different from my son's and Barton does not work for her. I have been very frustrated at the lack of progress in the last year. Two months ago, I came upon Logic of English. After much perusing of their site, I decided to bite and purchase it. They classify themselves as an Orton-Gillingham program.
I started the program three weeks ago with my dd and I have seen progress already. At the beginning, she was not able to remember all of the letter sounds, she had difficulty sounding words out and I was lucky to get 10 min. of work with her when we were using Barton. She now knows all of the single letter phonograms and some of the two letter phongrams. She is fairly sucessful at sounding out words now and she can sit for 45 min. at a time with LoE (We do 2 45 min. session a day.) I know that these don't sound like much but for dd this is a huge accomplishment! We are still far away from automaticity but these successes remind me that we just need to keep plugging away. Consistency is key.
I think why we are seing success with LoE is that it is a multi-sensory program. I know Barton advertises itself as such but it isn't compared with LoE. Each day is different for dd. One day she could be playing games, doing spelling lists and a grammar lesson. The next day she could be drawing pictures of the nouns on her spelling list, parsing sentences and making nouns on her spelling list into plurals. All of this is included on LoE.
I am very happy with this purchase. I thought I would just share this in case others feel like they are spinning their wheels as well.
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Angel
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| Posted: June 16 2012 at 10:07am | IP Logged
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Sally,
Two things. I found it enormously helpful to read The Dyslexic Advantage. I had been reading the Eide's Neurolearning Blog for years, and as it turns out, their books describes almost everyone in my family (and my extended family) to a varying extent. So it really helped me to be able to see my son's difficulties as part of a whole, in which his disabilities were probably actually just the flip side of his many gifts.
The Eides also talk about stealth dyslexia. They define "stealth dyslexics" as very bright kids who have discovered a way to compensate for their difficulties. So they can read, but they're often terrible spellers, and they share many other traits with more obvious dyslexics. I'm pretty sure that this label would apply to my oldest, who is an excellent reader and a terrible speller, who can solve really complicated computational linguistics problems but took forever to memorize his times tables and hates algebra.
The other area you might look into for your daughter is her vision. All three of my older kids, including my non-reading 9 yo, have had vision therapy, and while it did not make my 9 yo read, we certainly saw many improvements. All of my kids (and me, too) have had problems with focus and convergence, and my 9 yo had so many problems with binocular vision that he actually saw double. But in a normal vision test they all tested 20/20 vision. We had to go to a developmental optometrist to have their difficulties corrected. Vision therapy isn't a "cure" for dyslexia, but it's doubly hard to read if you have dyslexic tendencies and you're not seeing correctly either!
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Angela
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Angel
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| Posted: June 16 2012 at 11:29am | IP Logged
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JuliaT wrote:
My youngest's reading issues are different from my son's and Barton does not work for her. I have been very frustrated at the lack of progress in the last year. Two months ago, I came upon Logic of English. After much perusing of their site, I decided to bite and purchase it. They classify themselves as an Orton-Gillingham program.
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Julia, I have seen this program but haven't had a chance to check it out yet. Do you think you could compare it to All About Spelling? I wanted to use something to remediate spelling for my oldest, to bolster EasyRead for my 9 yo, and to help my 6 yo twins and my 4 yo, who are all learning to read.
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Mrs. B
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| Posted: June 20 2012 at 9:04am | IP Logged
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I am/was probably a stealth dyslexic. Learned to compensate when I was young, and only learned about dyslexia when it came time to teach my oldest child, who is also not surprisingly- dyslexic.
I also read the logic of english book just recently. I love the information, but just got the opportunity to look at her lesson plans and text book. While I'm sure it's really great, I can't possibly teach out of it. It would be a terrible struggle for both of us. So I am doing something else for my two older students- we are using her spelling rules flash cards (tactile and easy to look at) the LOE games book (really great ideas for kenetic learning) and a set of phonogram cards that I got a few years ago from "The Works People." These cards are great, they have the phonogram rules and info right on the back. And then I found a site that allows you to make spelling/handwriting sheets using phonogram combinations (common words) so they can practice and see these phonograms right away. It's worksheetgenious.com So I'm teaching phonograms, and spelling rules using cards rather than her textbook. Far more appealing to me than textbooks and a lot easier for my daughter to get a handle on.
We tried All About Spelling last year, and it didn't work very well. Not straight forward enough, too much mom work involved. My dyslexic is very independent and it drove her crazy. But many people really like it and it may work for you. Logic of English I think is superior to All About Spelling.
I hope Denise Eide put her "teaching kids to read who can't sit still" talk on the web. We got to hear this at our conference this year and it was really excellent.
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and a bunch of rabbits, a pack of dogs, a clowder of cats, and some fish.
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JuliaT
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| Posted: June 21 2012 at 8:17am | IP Logged
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Angel wrote:
JuliaT wrote:
My youngest's reading issues are different from my son's and Barton does not work for her. I have been very frustrated at the lack of progress in the last year. Two months ago, I came upon Logic of English. After much perusing of their site, I decided to bite and purchase it. They classify themselves as an Orton-Gillingham program.
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Julia, I have seen this program but haven't had a chance to check it out yet. Do you think you could compare it to All About Spelling? I wanted to use something to remediate spelling for my oldest, to bolster EasyRead for my 9 yo, and to help my 6 yo twins and my 4 yo, who are all learning to read. |
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Angel, I don't know anything about All About Spelling so I can't compare. Sorry.
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Anneof 5
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I have used All About Spelling and also looked at Logic of English. I went to two talks given by Denise Eide, the author, when she first released her book back in 2010. I think it has expanded since then to a full curriculum. After looking at her rules cards, etc., I decided to stick with AAS as they were basically the same rules, just worded differently at the time. My kids had already started using those rules and I didn't want to change anything. I am sure both are great programs but I was comfortable staying with AAS, which has also added All About Reading for beginning readers. For my visual learner, she likes the colored cards in AAS. My ds13 has done well with AAS in spite of all of his learning issues. He has been able to memorize all of the rules so far (up to level 4) and apply them most of the time. I think for me as the teacher, the set up for AAS worked best. HTH
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MichelleW
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We are going to give Reading Assistant a try this year because The Homeschool Buyers Co-op has it for 84% off right now. We are also going to try family counseling.
Nothing has worked this year. Nothing. He turns 15 this week. I feel like our time is running out. I have just 3 more years to prepare him for his adult life and I am truly stumped.
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montessori_lori
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Easyread is pricy but well, well worth the cost. And it is less than tutoring through an Orton-Gillingham tutor or something similar.
I also use the Logic of English (saw Denise Eide speak at a homeschooling conference in the spring). I find that Easyread is fantastic for training a child to decode, while the Logic of English is fantastic for spelling. They are complementary.
Also, I may have mentioned this already, but it's important so I'll say it again: Current research is showing that dyslexic children's brains will re-wire if given the proper therapy/intervention.
That is to say, it is no longer "once dyslexic, always dyslexic" as was once thought. A child who receives the proper intervention will no longer struggle with reading or need special conditions in order to function in school.
If your older child is still struggling with reading and/or spelling, they have not yet received the correct intervention but it is never too late. The Barton Method, Easyread, or the Logic of English (or a combination of any 2) will help even an adult who still struggles.
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bfleur
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Hi there  I am new here, and have read through the dyslexic posts and wanted to share some info with you ladies. I also have a very bright child who I suspect is dyslexic. We have found a woman in Denver by the name of Dianne Craft and she has an 'at home' program for dyslexic children up to any age, that covers brain training exercises, a phonics program, a behavior program (supplements) and also offers private consultations. These exercises cover vision, writing, and auditory systems. My son went through vision therapy, and it didn't help as much as it should have. With Dianne Craft's Brain Therapy manual I am finally seeing results that are 'sticking'. Dianne Craft also sits on the HSLDA board, and homeschooled her son. She is now a masters level special ed teacher and teaches at one of the Universities in CO.
I don't know if this solution will end up completely working for us, but I wanted to pass along the info to you ladies
 Hugs to you all! I hope to draw strength here on the hard days.
~Brooke
Mom to 5 boys, 8, 7, 5, 3, 1 1/2
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Christine
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I just finished reading The Dyslexic Advantage. One of the many things that grabbed my attention was their discussion of visual tracking problems. I am positive that one of my son's reading difficulties stem in part from tracking issues.
I brought this up to our pediatrician and she told me that I should schedule a psychoeducational evaluation for dyslexia at the public school. Does anyone know if this evaluation also tests for visual problems?
His reading is progressing, albeit slowly. I do think that he has dyslexia, but I think that a large part of his current difficulty with reading stems from eye strain and an inability to track words on a page without a marker. He doesn't always want to use a marker because "no one else uses one when they read."
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MichelleW
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My son has vision issues and we had him tested at the public school 2 years ago. Our experience was that the evaluators asked if there could be vision issues. We said yes. She told us to see an eye doctor. We said, we already do and we do vision therapy as well. She moved on to the next question. There isn't anything they can do about vision problems at school. They make accommodations based on doctor's recommendations. They don't test for it, they just bring it to your attention and tell you to make an appointment. At least it was that way in our case.
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Michelle
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MichelleW
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I did want to come back and say that we have been seeing a psychiatrist and that has helped more than anything else we have tried. The doctor diagnosed him with an anxiety disorder, and the medication he is on for that has made it possible for him to succeed at reading. The change in him is HUGE.
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Michelle
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4Real Forums : Special Blessings
Topic: Severe/Profound Dyslexia
