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kingvozzo
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Joined: March 28 2005
Location: Maine
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Posts: 2653
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| Posted: May 11 2011 at 11:17pm | IP Logged
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How do you know when it's neccessary? One of the downsides to HS'ing is a lack of experience in what's developmentally appropriate or "normal" in terms of acquisition of reading skills.
I'm not even sure where I would get info on having the tests performed.
DD (10 in July) has been struggling with reading. I originally chalked alot of her difficulties to her temperament coupled with some family stresses that have since been minimized. She's def. improved, but I have some uncertainlty about whether her needs are being met with the methods I'm using.
She's able to read books like the American Girl books, but reading 2 pages of one of them a night tuckers her out. She does NO pleasure reading at all, although she loves audio books.
She seems to have sporadic reversals in letter placement when she's reading, or maybe "seeing" the letters out of order? She also still reverses her numbers quite a bit. My son did that till he was about 11 or so, but it seemed to be on a lesser scale, and he didn't have any reading issues coupled with it. The combo of the reading and math reversals concern me.
I've heard quite a bit about various visual difficulties that could lead to learning problems. Are those the types of things that could be diagnosed by a regular pediatric opthamologist, or would I need to see a behavioral optometrist directly.
Or would an educational assessment look for those types of issues as well? Who even does educational assessments? How does one find those people?
I'm not sure if this is even coherent...I'm having a hard time putting my concerns down on "paper." My daughter is a bright sweet girl, but her struggling is discouraging her. I want to find out all I can to help her before it's "too late" and longer term damage is done.
Thanks in advance for any help.
So I guess my questions are,
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Noreen
Wife to Ed
Mom to 4 great kids and 10 sweet ones in Our Lady's arms
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time4tea
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| Posted: May 12 2011 at 8:58am | IP Logged
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This sounds like my dd, who will be 1 in June. She is mildly dyslexic. My dh and our oldest ds are also dyslexic, so over time, I have become more accustomed to teaching to this "learning style".
You could certainly have your dd assessed. After going through the assessment process with our ds, I chose not to go through it again with dd because in the end (and our ds was in public school at the time) it did not effect his schooling (the p.s. did basically nothing for him). We ended up pulling him out of school and homeschooling him, and it was the best decision we ever made. You are already beginning from that point, so you are ahead of where we were with our oldest!
Over the years I have found that when working with a child who has issues like what you describe, it is best to use as much multi-sensory learning materials as possible. All About Spelling would probably work very well for your dd as a phonics (and really reading) program. It can be time consuming, but it is based on the Orton-Gillingham method which has a proven track record of success for dyslexics.
My dd also does not like to read, but she is improving in that area. Initially, I had her read books that I knew were easy for her in order to build her confidence. I worked her up from there to more difficult books. She is still not the strongest reader in the world, but she has made a lot of improvement in that area. Also, try to find books and other things that you dd enjoys, because if it is a topic she is interested in, she will be motivated to read the book about it. This may mean regular (once a week) trips to the library, just to let her browse the bookshelves for interesting books. That can help immensely.
Finally, the need for repetition cannot be underestimated. I found that my ds and dd required more repetition than other kids in order to really comprehend something, such as phonics rules, math facts, etc. If you can make it "hands-on" so much the better. Right now, I am trying to get the materials together for my dd to make lap books for her math facts, because she struggles to remember them and I am thinking that the multi-sensory approach to making the lap book, opening the fold, turning the pages, etc., will probably help her to comprehend them and remember them!
Do not be discouraged. As your dd gets older and matures, with your guidance, her skills in reading will improve. I almost forgot to mention - I found Laura Berquist's Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum and Teaching Tips Across the Classical Curriculum to be very helpful in helping me to understand what the "average" child should be able to accomplish at different levels of school. Even if you don't use her curriculum, I found her insight to be truly irreplaceable.
One last note: My ds, who struggled mightily to learn to read, will graduate from high school this year. He has been cross-registered with the local community college since 11th grade (in addition to homeschooling) and has earned 18 college credits and an invitation to join the national junior college honor society as a result of his consistent 4.0 average! I share this with you in order to encourage you that you can do it and so can your dd!
I will keep you in my prayers!
Edited to add - books on tape can be very helpful - I often had my ds and dd listen to the book on tape and/or watch the movie (if I can find one that is well done) in conjunction with reading the book, because it aids their comprehension of the material. The more multi-sensory kind of work you can add in, the better. My ds still uses this method even for college level work.
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Blessings to you!
~Tea
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: educational assessment
