I think my son has dyslexia, now what?

[KNF-TX]

Hello,

My ten year old son has really struggled to learn how to read. We have been using Dianne Craft's "Right Brain Phonics Program" with much success. He is able to read "The Littles" and very simple chapter books as long as I sit with him. We read together for about 20 min. and then he reads what we read on his own. But, he just hasn't taken off and achieved a higher level of reading.

My question is, am I doing everything I need to do? Do I need to have him tested? Everyday he seems to move forward, but it is at a very slow pace compared to his siblings. If I have him tested, where do I go and what can I expect?

Also, he likes the Explode the Code workbooks and actually seems to need less help with them than with his reading. Can you recommend another workbook type curriculum that he could do as a review?

Thank you for your insight.

[LizzyBee]

Here are some websites for you to check out:

http://www.brightsolutions.us/

http://www.mislabeledchild.com/

You could have comprehensive testing by an educational psychologist or a neuropsychologist. For a homeschooler, an ed psy will tend to give you more practical information irt how to teach. If your dc has ever has seizures or other medically based neurological problems, I would go with an NP instead.

For pieces of the puzzle you could do the following testing:
- developmental optometrist
- audiologist who has special training to check for auditory processing disorder as well as hearing impairments
- occupational therapist (sensory processing disorder, visual perception, and more)
- speech and language pathologist

An NP or edpsy will likely refer you to have some of the above testing. I personally found it more helpful to have the aud, ot, and slp testing before the comprehensive testing. It gave the ed psy more information to work with and it gave me a better basis for evaluating information from the ed psy. But I'm a person who has to fill in a lot of details before I can see the big picture.

[elegantlion]

We are fairly sure our ds has mild dyslexia even though we've never had him tested.

We started using the REWARDS (http://store.cambiumlearning.com/ProgramPage.aspx?parentId=019005486&functionID=009000008&site=sw)program this year with great results. We had repeated phonics every year and it just never seemed to stick. The teachers guide is pricey, you might be able to find it used, but the program was so worth the investment.

It has been frustrating but he has made good progress. I looked hard for books that would match his reading level and his comprehension level, which is much higher.

Landmark biographies has some grade 2 and up books that are good, also the "Who was....?" series. he just finished one on on Albert Einstein.

[Laurie4b]

What reading level is he on? If he can read regular short vowel words, including nonsense words like clum, shrob, dist, etc. and he is on a 4th grade reading level, he can use the REWARDS intermediate program. That program is really good with the decoding of multisyllabic words. Additionally, you want to be doing repeated oral readings to build his fluency. These don't have to take long. Take a passage at his ability level abotu 200 words long. You read it to him or you read it together. Then he whisper reads it. Next you time him for a minute while he reads aloud. Subtract incorrect or skipped words from total correct and then have him do it once more to see if he can beat his time.

I would go ahead and get him tested if for no other reason than to start the paper trail for getting accomodations on the SAT, ACT, etc. It's easier to get them if the paper trail is started early (rather than right around the time of testing.) You'll need to update it as he nears testing age, but at least you'd have an eval. to start with. Additionally, the testing may reveal something that you didn't already know.

If dyslexia is the only problem (no social problems, behavioral issues, ADHD, etc.) you can get a pretty straightforward eval. Most schools will do it free for private and homeschoolers. You would want a WISC-IV, an achievement test, like the Woodcock Johnson, and the CTOPP probably at a minimum.

[kRenee]

Each test the others have mentioned are good and will give you a little bit more information to understand what is going on. But the first thing I'd do is take him to a developmental optometrist. He may have some issues that vision therapy could fix rather quickly. A regular optometrist is not trained to test vision and may even tell you a vision screening is a waste of time and money (mine did), but if the muscles in his eyes are not working well together, then all the testing and therapy in the world won't help much.

[Laurie4b]

We are going to vision therapy because my son has visual processing problems. (We are trying to address these issues through VT, since there isn't a clear research-based way to do so as of now. VT is the best bet.)

However, I wouldn't do it as a first step for reading problems, but only if research-based instruction was not showing success. 80% of kids with reading problems have issues with phonemic awareness only. There is also not an accepted research base for vision therapy and it is very expensive. There is a research base for several of the reading programs and they are much less expensive than VT.

I would not necessarily trust a vision therapist to tell you that a child did not need vision therapy. Ours, who is a fellow with COVD actually told me that the tests don't correlate with symptoms: that kids with symptoms sometimes show few problems on testing and that kids who test poorly sometimes show few symptoms. (I've posted some of my experiences with VT on this board.)

[ElizabethB]

My phonics lessons have been helpful for some dyslexic students:

http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/phonicslsnslinks.html

You might also want to try Webster's Speller
http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/webstersway.html

and some divided syllable books after learning the syllable division patterns from the syllabary. (basically, open syllables long, closed syllables short, unaccented syllables, especially unaccented open syllables, often schwa.)

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllabledividedb.html

These syllable divided books have enabled my remedial students, including some of them diagnosed with dyslexia, to read above their current grade level.

I explain why syllables are helpful on my dyslexia page (the atomic nature of syllables, about 1/2 of the way down):

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/dyslexia.html

It takes A LOT of repetition for the phonics to eventually sink in for a dyslexic student. I've found the use of spelling and syllables helps.

[Mandamom]

>>>> Do I need to have him tested?>>>>

I would just to start the paperwork trail as others have mentioned in case you need accommodations for future school with K-12 or at the college level.

>>>>>> Everyday he seems to move forward, but it is at a very slow pace compared to his siblings. >>>>>

Keep doing what you are doing but I have a few suggestions.

Make sure you continue to work with spelling rules and phonics for a while to make sure he internalizes as much of the rules as he he can.

Have him start learning to keyboard because it is likely he'll always struggle with spelling and having spell check can be great so he doesn't get bogged down on every written assignment.

Make sure he's comprehending through oral narration well and then, if you haven't started already, make sure you start writing. This is where keyboarding will come in handy.

Make sure that if he has other weaknesses such as those in the Executive function including time management, organization, sequencing, memory, etc. that he has been given the appropriate skills to manage them. For example, is he comfortable with an assignment book so that when he's in college or in the workforce and is given deadlines will he be able to manage them. Again, I don't know if your son has any of these problems but since many of them go with dyslexia and other learning disabilities I thought I'd throw it out there.

>>>>Also, he likes the Explode the Code workbooks and actually seems to need less help with them than with his reading. Can you recommend another workbook type curriculum that he could do as a review?>>>>

If you look around the epbsooks.com website, which is the publisher of Explode the Code you can find a lot things which will be very good for him. I've used Primary Phonics, Starting Comprehension Phonetically and Comprehension Varied Subject Matter for the other students.

Good luck.

[Rod Everson]

...the first thing I'd do is take him to a developmental optometrist. He may have some issues that vision therapy could fix rather quickly. A regular optometrist is not trained to test vision and may even tell you a vision screening is a waste of time and money (mine did), but if the muscles in his eyes are not working well together, then all the testing and therapy in the world won't help much.

Hi,

I absolutely agree with the above recommendation, except that as Laurie indicated, vision therapy isn't necessarily quick and it is usually fairly expensive (on the order of other therapies such as PT and OT, actually.)

In my experience (and I teach phonics primarily, and once believed as most poster do that 80% or so of the issues faced by poor readers are phonics-based) the most overlooked issue actually faced by these kids is that their visual skills are deficient in some way. Address this first and they become easy to teach. If it's not addressed, then you get all the "it's a long struggle, but..." sort of comments. Yes, kids can learn phonics with a vision problem, but it's a lot harder for them and they still won't want to read. This is more than likely why your son has an easier time with the exercises designed to teach reading, than with the actual reading itself, for instance.

There's a lot more on vision problems and vision therapy on my website under The Vision Piece (http://ontrackreading.com/the-vision-piece). At a minimum, you should have your son tested by a developmental optometrist before undergoing all sorts of other testing, in my opinion. This is especially true if any other family members have experienced reading problems in the past.

Hope this helps,

Rod Everson
OnTrack Reading (http://ontrackreading.com)

[cillakat]

What reading level is he on? If he can read regular short vowel words, including nonsense words like clum, shrob, dist, etc. and he is on a 4th grade reading level, he can use the REWARDS intermediate program. That program is really good with the decoding of multisyllabic words. Additionally, you want to be doing repeated oral readings to build his fluency. These don't have to take long. Take a passage at his ability level abotu 200 words long. You read it to him or you read it together. Then he whisper reads it. Next you time him for a minute while he reads aloud. Subtract incorrect or skipped words from total correct and then have him do it once more to see if he can beat his time.

I would go ahead and get him tested if for no other reason than to start the paper trail for getting accomodations on the SAT, ACT, etc. It's easier to get them if the paper trail is started early (rather than right around the time of testing.) You'll need to update it as he nears testing age, but at least you'd have an eval. to start with. Additionally, the testing may reveal something that you didn't already know.

If dyslexia is the only problem (no social problems, behavioral issues, ADHD, etc.) you can get a pretty straightforward eval. Most schools will do it free for private and homeschoolers. You would want a WISC-IV, an achievement test, like the Woodcock Johnson, and the CTOPP probably at a minimum.

2nd everything Laurie said.

In addition, I'd skip looking at the vision peice for now. Virtually all kids with sufficient IQ can learn to read with appropriate, intensive, systematic direct instruction, multi-sensory phonics and *without* vision therapy. there is a huge body of evidence showing 'what works' with reading disabilities at it is the above kinds of phonics instruction, not vision therapy. imo, for the kids who *do* have vision issues, the above kinds of phonics instruction do remediate the vision issues....hence the 98-99% reading rate when those kinds of reading programs are used in classrooms.

K

[cillakat]

Most schools will do it free for private and homeschoolers.

I'll just toss out that this varies by area. In Fulton and DeKalb Co in Atlanta, it's virtually impossible to get appropriate testing through the county, and even more difficult to get any kind of dx if you do get an eval. And they won't diagnose dyslexia. Or offer evidence based interventions for any reading issues. Period.

K