Prioritizing reading for the mildly dyslexic

[elegantlion]

My ds is mildly dyslexic, probably 6months to a year behind reading level (made great strides in the last year), but is a very slow reader. We do read aloud time with an additional book and I'm working on letting him do audio books for some items. We take turns picking his reading material, one book my choice, next book his choice. He's reading consistently as well.

However I see all these great book lists and I know there is no way we can work our way through them all in a year. It's so hard to choose. Do you pick your top choice on a subject or time period? Do you rely on a lot of audio books?

Any advice or tips? Thanks.

[momtotkbb]

Primarily, the only thing my 11 yo ds reads on his own would be what I assign him for reading/lit. The science, history, geography, read alouds, etc. I read it all or we use a CD/tape of the book. He does do a little free reading or listening to an audio ---but primarily I do the reading and he listens and narrates back to me. DD who is 13 and not dyslexic but a slow reader w/ some CAPD used to either read to me or I read to her and she followed along. Now, we've worked to the point where she reads the majority of all of her work on her own w/ the exception of a read aloud and we typically do history or science together w/ tandem readings just so we have that time together to discuss.

For all my dc I make selections at the beginning of a school year for books that I want to cover - I place them on my shelf for ec dc in the order I wish to have them covered and we start reading. The exception is that I will allow them to sometimes make a choice of order for a book they are to read or for a read aloud. Since I read so much aloud to all my kids throughout the day we typically finish what I plan for the year. And because we travel frequently on long car trips we take audios and can frequently cover several on 1 trip.

[Renee in FL]

I have him read some, I read some, and we use a *lot* of audiobooks.

[elegantlion]

Primarily, the only thing my 11 yo ds reads on his own would be what I assign him for reading/lit. The science, history, geography, read alouds, etc. I read it all or we use a CD/tape of the book. He does do a little free reading or listening to an audio ---but primarily I do the reading and he listens and narrates back to me. DD who is 13 and not dyslexic but a slow reader w/ some CAPD used to either read to me or I read to her and she followed along. Now, we've worked to the point where she reads the majority of all of her work on her own w/ the exception of a read aloud and we typically do history or science together w/ tandem readings just so we have that time together to discuss.

For all my dc I make selections at the beginning of a school year for books that I want to cover - I place them on my shelf for ec dc in the order I wish to have them covered and we start reading. The exception is that I will allow them to sometimes make a choice of order for a book they are to read or for a read aloud. Since I read so much aloud to all my kids throughout the day we typically finish what I plan for the year. And because we travel frequently on long car trips we take audios and can frequently cover several on 1 trip.

Thanks. I do most of the subject reading as well. I did recently start him on a biology book, a chapter a week.

I try to plan all of our readers at the beginning of the year, but I haven't been good about it this year. Thanks for the reminder. Unfortunately we don't have many long car trips.



I have him read some, I read some, and we use a *lot* of audiobooks.

I'm uping our use of audiobooks. Our library has overdrive, I need to get him on that and download a few. Thanks!

[RamonaQ]

Another thought for audio is RFBD.org and bookshare.org. Both are free with certification.

[elegantlion]

Another thought for audio is RFBD.org and bookshare.org. Both are free with certification.

Thank you, those both look great, but we have opted not to seek certification at this point. It's nice to know those sources are out there though.

[Shari]

I feel your pain! :) There are so many great books out there that I want my ds to be exposed to .... and there's just no way we will get to them all. I got a lot of great support and advice in the tread here:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150863

[elegantlion]

I feel your pain! :) There are so many great books out there that I want my ds to be exposed to .... and there's just no way we will get to them all. I got a lot of great support and advice in the tread here:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150863

Thank you, that was helpful and reassuring. :grouphug:

[ChristineMM]

I think it would help you to set distinctions.

First goals for improving reading should be set and worked on DAILY. IMO the striving for reading fluency and improving the reading ability should never be paused for an audiobook listening. (Your message was short so I'm honestly not sure if that is what you were impllying.)

Second if more pleasure story-hearing is wanted then audiobooks are fine for that (listen while playing, listen while in the car etc).

Third, there is the learning CONTENT issue.

If he cannot read independently enough to get 100% book-source content for subjects like history or science then you will have to read aloud if you can't find audiobooks.

My son was diagnosed with slow visual processing speed, an eye tracking problem and limited fields of vision 2 years ago. People don't always talk about it but it is real that an LD child can 'tap out' their neurological system by overuse. When they are 'done for the day' they are DONE. No matter what you try to teach it will go in one ear and out the other. This was hard for my son because he could only read about 30-45 minutes a day (a bad day was 30 minutes) then nothing else could be read or it would not be recalled or learned at all. But he could listen to me reading aloud or listen to audiobooks.

So my point is to work on that reading fluency daily. But that may tap him out. So do read-aloud's or audio books for CONTENT so that his knowledge base is not paralyzed in this time frame. Also just vocabulary exposure to fiction books by audio book or listen to a read aloud will help build the vocabulary. IMO the fiction audio books as "extras" to the reading of paper books (books of HIS choice for fiction) will help him realize books are good and fiction is worthwhile thus keeping working toward improving reading skills is a good thing.

You might also try the paper books that are laid out with lots of white space on the page and larger font. I don't know his age but some examples in the age 9-12 juv lit category are the anniversary edition of Hatchet, the Max Anderson mysteries, anything with wide margins and lots of white space. (For girls, the American Girl series.)

Exactly 24 months after my son's diagnosis , after home based therapies done by me, under a doctor's instruction, my son is 'cured'. His reading speed is at grade/age level, other tests are above age/grade level, his visual fields are open. Now he is 12.5 years old and usually reads about 3 hours a day and can handle more self-teaching by reading history and science books.

The other day I reviewed a new book The Dyslexia Checklist on my blog. I don't think it's a great fit for homeschoolers but it did say studies show that systematic intensive phonics based reading programs from a young age can "prevent" dyslexia (I think they meant prevent reading problems in a child who has the other dyslexia symptoms) and that remedial work should also be with that system (not sight reading which I found interesting since others push that for dyslexics).

The challenge with kids with an LD is they have to do double work: work at remediating what they are behind in while also learning this grade's content to not get further behind on CONTENT. It is not easy but believe me it is worth the effort. It does pay off in the end.

Good luck.

[ChristineMM]

One more idea. The Sansa is a cheap MP3 player. Some are tiny and about $50. Costco sells one great model. Amazon discounts them too. We own 2 different Sansas and love them. IMO the iPod is expensive to justify our family to buy one even if it has been a huge fad item.

Audible.com has audio books for download for a membership fee.

A library in my state has free MP3 downloads of books via the Internet that automatically delete in 30 days or something like that. (That system is not formatted for the iPod.) I can use this even if I'm not a resident of that town (our state has a rule that a libary card holder in one town can use any libary in the state).

So another option is your child can listen to audiobooks with an MP3 player or iPod and it won't disturb others in the room (like a sibling trying to do math work).

We have listened to audio CDs from the library in the car and also on a 'boom box' that my kids can move from room to room.

Also---the newer Kindles can be adapted for font size and spacing. Thus a book that in paper format is too-small of a font can be adapted on the Kindle to have double spacing and big font that might help some kids with various LDs. Although this is not a cheap thing to get into, and their books for juv lit are limited right now to the most popular, the best-sellers or the ones that were turned into movies.

[elegantlion]

Thanks, Christine. He has an Ipod and we downloaded his current reading book via our library just this week.

Thanks for your suggestions, too.