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Stephanie_Q
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| Posted: April 15 2010 at 2:42pm | IP Logged
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I'm not sure if this should go here or in Special Blessings. My daughter has symptoms of dyslexia. My neighbor homeschools kids who do, too. We have been reading about Orton-Gillingham methods (Barton's and PAF) which many say is the ONLY way to teach dyslexic kids to read; but we thought they sound a lot like Julie Fogassy's "Sound Beginnings" - based on "Writing Road to Reading" - the Spalding Method, which also claims to be good for dyslexic kids. Since this is a widely used phonics instruction method, and because Orton-Gillingham is not a method exclusively for kids with learning disabilities, I thought I'd post here. Feel free to move it.
Can anyone help us out with the differences between these?
Orton-Gillingham
Spalding
Thanks so much!
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Stephanie dh 6.01
dd 6.02, dd 8.03, ds 3.05, ds 12.06 at Catholic school.
dd 12.09 at home.
Baby boy due 10.13
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Karen T
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| Posted: April 15 2010 at 8:52pm | IP Logged
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I use Barton myself for my dyslexic son and I can say it has really done wonders. Most criticism I have seen about it is the expense, but by buying one level at a time and reselling it as I buy the next, the cost is very reasonable. I do not think it is the ONLY method for dyslexics but it is a very proven method and this particular system is very laid out and scripted which was important to me. A similar, but less laid out (ie you make up the lessons with guidance) is Wilson, which is much less $. It would still be OG.
I have not personally used the Spalding method but I have read the main text and one of my friends uses it. It does cover the phonemes well from what I see and I think it would probably work well for a child who is mildly dyslexic, has good phonemic awareness (ie, can really hear the differences in sounds - many dyslexics struggle with that) and has not already been struggling to learn to read for many years. I think if they are at that point, it may not be enough - many dyslexics develop a lot of tricks and coping strategies like using context clues, looking at the shape of the word, guessing based on the first couple letters, etc. If they are already doing that, those habits need to be broken (gently of course) and I am not sure if Spalding delves into that. I imagine a good tutor could set it up to be used that way, but for me it's much easier to just open my book and go.
Even though OG methods are not specific to dyslexic or learning disabilities, they are the most thorough way to teach reading IMO. Certainly many kids learn to read without such stringent phonics (I did, never learned a bit of phonics) but it benefits most kids to at least have some basis before jumping off the deep end into whole word language. I used Barton early on with my non-dyslexic dd simply b/c I was already using it for ds and didn't want to deal with two different programs and schedules. Her reading quickly took off, though, and now I only use bits and parts of it to teach her spelling.
I don't know much about PAF except that it is also supposed to be OG and much cheaper. The only person I've seen lately using it was just trying to sell it on a reading list  - I think from her for sale posts that she's also bought and sold Barton and Wilson, so I have no idea what she's actually using!
One last thing about Barton is its multisensory teaching - the child hears the sounds, repeats them back to be sure they did hear correctly, uses tiles to build the words, taps syllables on the table, finger spells, writes, etc. in addition to seeing written words. I think Wilson is also multisensory but have no firsthand experience. I don't think Spalding has as much of that but it's been awhile since I looked at it and it very well may have. I haven't seen Sound Beginnings specifically, just the orig SWR text.
Karen T in Md
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Stephanie_Q
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| Posted: April 16 2010 at 3:09pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for the thoughtful post, Karen! I e-mailed Susan Barton and got a response already! I hope that this may be useful information for others trying to pick a phonics program:
Ramalda Spalding created The Writing Road to Reading.
She did study with Dr. Orton. But she took what she learned and changed it significantly when she created her classroom approach called The Writing Road to Reading.
As you probably know, she designed her system to be used in a first grade General Education classroom, and she hoped it would allow every child to master reading.
She does focus on sounds and "phonograms." That's the good part.
But it is not an Orton-Gillingham-based system because she does not tie reading and spelling together.
She doesn't teach syllable types. In Orton-Gillingham, syllable types are at the core of everything. The syllable type explains the sound the vowel makes.
But in Spalding, a student is taught that A can make four sounds. A student must memorize the four sounds that A can make. Then, whenever a student is trying to read a word that contains A, the student must try each of the four sounds until it turns into a real word.
In other words, Spalding requires a lot of memorization and a lot of guessing -- with no obvious logic (syllable types). As you know, students with dyslexia cannot memorize easily, and they are already guessing way too much. Those are two reasons why most dyslexic students fail with Spalding.
But the most important reason is that Spalding is very poor on teaching spelling. A student is taught that one vowel sound can be spelled many different ways -- with no systematic instruction on which one is the best choice.
Instead, Spalding tells students to write the word using every possible way of spelling that vowel sound, and then circle the one that looks right.
Since children with dyslexia have very poor visual memory for words (which is why they write they as thay -- despite seeing it thousands of times), they can't tell which one "looks right." Either none of them look right, or they all look right. So it is a disaster in the area of spelling.
A true Orton-Gillingham-based system teaches spelling as directly and systematically as reading, and shows how the two are related.
The sequence of teaching in a true Orton-Gillingham system is from most common to least common -- for spelling. So we introduce the most common spelling patterns first, and prove to students that there is a logical reason why words are spelled that way. We save the more unusual ones for much later. Spalding does not do that.
I could share more differences, but those are the most important ones.
Susan Barton, Founder
Bright Solutions for Dyslexia
SO - even though Orton-Gillingham and Spalding are both "Explicit, Systematic, Diagnostic and Multisensory" they are quite different! Also, I've found out that PAF does not teach spelling quite as well as Barton's and it does not take the kids as far in reading level but is a good OG program for learning to read.
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Stephaniedh 6.01
dd 6.02, dd 8.03, ds 3.05, ds 12.06 at Catholic school.
dd 12.09 at home.
Baby boy due 10.13
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Karen T
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| Posted: April 16 2010 at 7:47pm | IP Logged
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I'm glad Susan could clarify that for you - she's usually really good about answering emails, phone calls, etc. to help people out.
Karen
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Stephanie_Q
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| Posted: April 19 2010 at 8:34am | IP Logged
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Karen T wrote:
| she's usually really good about answering emails, phone calls, etc. to help people out. |
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I was impressed by this and my husband agrees that THAT is something that makes the cost of Barton's program worth it...
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Stephaniedh 6.01
dd 6.02, dd 8.03, ds 3.05, ds 12.06 at Catholic school.
dd 12.09 at home.
Baby boy due 10.13
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: April 19 2010 at 9:37am | IP Logged
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Wow...this is SO helpful!!!!!!!! My excellent reader ds found the wrtr terribly confusing- bur he is one that I am almost sure is dyslexic (shows up in spellung, penmanship, and life). I have to look more into barton.
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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!
A Walk in the Woods
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: phonics...again
