Help for a new friend, posted with permission.... (4th grade reading issues and ADHD)

[Joanne]

This is posted with her permission.

I think she's looking for a private tutor. What I think she wants from me are curriculum/resource recommendations. She came to me through finding out in our son's sports team that I homeschool. The son in question (not the one on the team) is in 4th grade.



He is not fluent. He is still struggling some with basic sight words when the are in a story, but knows them on flash cards. He HATES to read, because he struggles so much. He has a decent reading comprehension, even though it may take him 3 times longer to read something, and still not get all of the words correct.

He has failed spelling for the first 9 weeks. He really struggles with blends and spelling in general.

In {another state}, he was in a co-taught classroom with an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) with additional one-on-one help (special education) when needed. Here, they are threatening to take all of his services away, because his IQ is testing mid-average. It does still show that he has a slow processing speed. His math scores are great, but he struggles where he has to read anything, including Social Studies, Science, etc. In Virginia, they gave him additional time to complete tests.

I have some test scores if they would help in what you would recommend. For example, he reads 72 words per minute (not sure what the average should be). I seem to remember them telling me around 150 for his age.

One other thing I should have mentioned is that he is ADHD, which affected him quite a bit in the beginning. He is medicated now and seems to do well with both paying attention and behaviorally.

I would prefer a private tutor. My only experience with other is a friend who took her son to Sylvan, and other than it greatly affecting her checkbook, she didn't see much improvement. Do you have any experience with those?

[LizzyBee]

If she's looking for a tutor, I'd suggest finding someone certified to teach one or more Orton-Gillingham reading curriculum.

If she wants to tutor him at home, I'd suggest she looks at Barton Reading and Spelling.

[Cadam]

He sounds like a kid who was taught whole language instead of phonics. Working through OPG or ETC may do the trick. Places like Sylvan may work if you get the right teacher but the tutors there are just normal teachers picking up side work. They are not reading specialists or anything else. He sounds like a pretty smart kid if he made it this far.

Any tutor that has a good relationship with him and uses a solid phonics approach will make a big difference. Mom could do it too, with something like OPG or HOP.

[Ottakee]

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=585909#poststop I would have her look at the 2 programs I mentioned here. She could do 15-20 minutes of the reading and 10-15 minutes of the spelling a day and make good progress.

Can she homeschool for the rest of this school year to get him a better reading/spelling base?

[cillakat]

since 4th grade is the big year of 'Reading to Learn.....rather than learning to read', a small amount of intervention isn't likely going to be helpful. He needs intensive remediation to get up to speed as quickly as possible.

Overcoming Dyslexia is the best read currenty available and can be found at any library or bookstore.

Barton Reading can be purchased and used at home by the parent. It's the most pricey but the most scripted, easily followed and the support from Ms. Barton herself is incredible.

Wilson Reading is much less expensive but the parent tutor needs to be willing to get fully up to speed and spend multiple hours figuring out the program very thoroughly and creating lesson plans. It's not difficult it's just more time consuming and requires more follow though. I'm using this at home with my 9.5 yo dd.

Horizons reading looks great. there is a problem in the videos though: they say the phonemes wrong!!!! 'buh' or 'beh' instead of /b/. It's critical that the consonant sounds be clipped of all vowel involvement. Otherwise the program looks good. The pronounciation problem might be worked around by the parent sitting there with the child working through the computer based modules. it'll also be key to not rely just on the computer component but also work the rest of the program.

All the best,
Katherine

[Laurie4b]

A private tutor is the best choice, I think.

It sounds like he is dealing with slow processing speed, and I am guessing also slow RAN (rapid automatic naming) as well as basic reading issues.

Most tutors will either be some branch of Orton-Gillingham (old-time O-G, Wilson, Barton) or of the phonographix approach. The latter is faster (within a couple months) if it's going to work. If it doesn't, then the Orton-Gillingham-type approach (Including Wilson or Barton) would be the best bet. The important thing is to find a tutor who is trained and experienced.

Tutoring is optimal when done at least twice a week. The mother could learn from the tutor anything she could do to help in between. Additionally, you can't beat fluency readings for helping a child like her son. There is an online publication called Put Reading First http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/reading_first1.html or you can order a free hard copy. (Your gummint money at work--and it's GOOD!) This describes the components of reading instruction, including fluency reading.