Overcoming dyslexia through phonemic awareness, vision therapy, teaching reading at home, homeschooling

How we Remediated dyslexia..

We overcame the reading problems associated with dyslexia through phonemic awareness programs and software, vision therapy, reading aloud, and home schooling. My child's reading level jumped 8 grade levels in two years, and was at a college level by the end of our third year home schooling. The question I am asked most often is, "How did you do it?"

My child, who has severe dyslexia, had been in public school for five years. He received special education services for much of that time. After five years in public school, his latest Stanford-9 scores placed his reading score at a first grade, ninth month (1.9) grade equivalent. Given that my child was going into the fifth grade as a virtual non-reader, we could not see continuing in public school. Our son was receiving special education services, yet it was evident the services were totally ineffective. So, we brought our children home and began home schooling.

At the end of our first year of home schooling, my son's reading level tested at a sixth grade, second month (6.2) grade equivalent. At the end of our second year home schooling, our son's reading level tested at a tenth grade (10.0) equivalent. This means he read the sixth grade test as well as a tenth grader. Our results were an astounding 8.1 grade-level increase in just two years. By the end of our third year, when he was in the seventh grade, he took the College Entrance ACT exam and scored better than 70% of high school graduates who took the exam. How did we do it?

To begin with, two years before we began home schooling, our son had the Lindamood-Bell LiPS program for a year at our local Scottish Rite center. That instruction took him from a non-reader to a 2.3 reading level. His reading skills regressed during the following year in public school. Because our son was regressing with poorly provided Reading Resource assistance at school, we felt we HAD to begin home schooling if our son was ever going to succeed. (continued below..)

How We Did It:

OUR FIRST YEAR:

We used Lexia Learning's Strategies for Older Students daily for approximately 20 minutes each day. Lexia's S.O.S. is geared towards children who are nine or older. The lessons take a 'game' format, are interactive, and take place on a computer.

I bought the Lindamood-Bell "Seeing Stars" book and used the techniques in there for helping with sight words. We also used The Language Tool Kit from EPS Books. This 'kit' comes with flash cards and a brief instruction manual. Our key focus was learning all of the phonemes and blended sounds through flash card drills. I must tell you I had taken 56 hours of Orton-Gillingham training to help me effectively use this tool. The training is NOT required, but I do believe it helped me understand the means for remediation and helped me do a better job. Training in Orton-Gillingham methods is offered by a variety of providers. The International Dyslexia Association is a good place to seek a local provider.

We also completed a page in a McGraw-Hill Spectrum Word Study (available through Christian Books, but not a Christian curriculum) workbook each day. Spectrum Word Study and Phonics (available through Amazon too) workbooks offered by McGraw-Hill are good for teaching word structure, some basic decoding skills, and vocabulary. The books are a good high-level reinforcement of word learning, but won't provide sufficient depth for a child with a specific learning disability when used as an only program. For any child who can remember and recall with minimal practice, the series is excellent, and it serves well as a reinforcement activity for children who require more in depth practice of skills.

Our main curriculum was Sonlight's American History. I selected Sonlight because of the heavy volume of required reading. Call me crazy, but my belief is that a child with dyslexia needs to read, read, read, and read some more, in order for decoding skills to develop. The Sonlight curriculum uses a "living books" approach with engaging stories that my children WANTED to continue reading. Interesting reading material is a must.

In the beginning, completing our daily Sonlight reading was time-consuming, and tedious. It took about two hours per day to complete our reading. This may sound like a lot, but it is a level of exposure to reading that is necessary to allow your child to progress and actually catch up. For the reading, we began with a you-read-a-page, I-read-a-page aloud turn taking scenario with the independent readers. By the end of the year, my children each read an entire chapter aloud each day.

A BIG KEY for my child was a constant reassurance that, "I KNOW this is hard for you, but we will work together on all of our reading. We are in this together." It was key to remain calm no matter how frustrated my child was. When tantrums ensued because reading was "too hard", I'd simply tell him, "Let me know when you're done and we'll work on it some more." While I may have felt like screaming inside.. I knew I had to maintain my composure if we were ever going to make it through the hard parts.

I also implemented the "Blow Pop" program to deal with tantrums. My child loved Blow Pops, so if he made it through the day without a tantrum, he'd be rewarded with a Blow Pop. It was an immediate, tangible reward he was inspired by. As time progressed, his frustration and anger lessened, so eventually the Blow Pop program was phased out.

In addition to the specific reading remediation steps we took above, my child with most severe dyslexia was diagnosed with a Convergence Insufficiency, which is an ocular motor deficiency. In other words, his eye muscles didn't work quite like they were supposed to, even though he has 20/20 vision. With difficulties in eye movement, reading was tedious and strained his eyes. Our doctor prescribed the Home Therapy System software program, which did improve my child's tracking. This allowed him to read more comfortably.

By the end of the school year, reading was much less tedious. My son had advanced well through S.O.S., had completed the Spectrum Word Study, knew the phonemes we studied in the Language Tool Kit, and he could decode most words encountered in the Sonlight books. Best of all, we had phased out the Blow Pop program and my child now willingly and confidently engaged in reading tasks. Trying to always maintain a positive, upbeat, "you can learn this" mindset was a key to me, although I admit to going into the bathroom and crying by myself on occasion! (It IS difficult for everyone.. I won't lie to you there! ;-) (continued below..)

378520: Language Tool Kit & Manual, Grades K-5

Language Tool Kit & Manual, Grades K-5
By Paula D. Rome & Jean S. Osman / Educators Publishing Service

The Language Tool Kit teaches reading and spelling to students with specific language disability. Based on Orton-Gillingham principles, it is designed for use by a teacher or a parent. This set contains 163 cards (4" x 6") in a white cardboard box along with the 32 page manual. One group of cards has spelling units printed in large type on one side, with the common and rarer sound equivalents on the reverse side in small type. Key words and spelling patterns are also listed. The salmon-colored cards are for the teacher's reference, and the yellow cards are for extra practice with consonant blends. Grades K-5.

OUR SECOND YEAR:

For our second year, we used Sonlight's "Non-Western Nations of the World", on a fifth grade level. We continued with each child reading an entire chapter aloud on a daily basis. By the end of the year, each child's reading fluency and reading speed was significantly improved.

During the second year we continued using the Language Tool Kit. I had each child memorize every phoneme, the alternate spellings, and order of frequency of use. All of this information is on the cards in the LTK card deck. These drills were completed by having me call out a sound, and the child responding with all of the possible letter representations, in order of frequency of use.

Additionally, I used the spelling rules from The Writing Road to Reading and had each child memorize each spelling rule. One spelling rule was added to the "Memory Cards" each week, and the cards were studied every day. Spelling is an ongoing challenge, but my child did rise from the second percentile in spelling to the 27th percentile. This is a great increase given the total ineffectiveness of other spelling programs we've tried.

The second year, we repeated Levels 4 and 5 in Lexia Learning's S.O.S. for reinforcement. Afterwards, we used "Simon Sounds it Out" software offered by Don Johnston. This is another game-like edutainment program which helps a child sound out words for spelling and reading. We used Simon S.I.O. on a daily basis for about 20 minutes per day. We also have Earobics software which the children could use daily, but were expected to use at least twice per week.

For our workbook, we switched from Spectrum to Megawords. Our children like Megawords better, and the program is much more incremental. I'm not sure I agree with the order of concept presentation in Megawords. The begin with compound words, but that is a relatively small segment of the program in the beginning.

OUR THIRD YEAR:

We used Earobics daily throughout our summer following the second year as part of our "Power Hour". *Power Hour* is a means for us to spend one hour on academics each day of the summer. Having a "Power Hour" keeps the children's skills from regressing, and helps them maintain or move forward a bit. The children were expected to work one page in a math book, read one chapter in any book of their choice, write one journal paragraph about what they read, and complete one lesson in Earobics. (The first year, Lexia's S.O.S. was used as part of our Power Hour.)

For our third year of schooling, we engaged in a LOT of independent reading practice, and worked through the entirety of Earobics (started again at the beginning) and continued with the Megawords series. For our independent reading practice, we used Sonlight's "World History" readers, which held my child's attention quite well.

SUMMARY:

While it sounds like our program was a lot of work, and it was, it has paid off handsomely. My children are now reading well above grade-level. For my child with significant dyslexia, reading is now one of his strongest subjects. He scored a 24 on the ACT when he was in the seventh grade, where the average for a high school graduate scored around 21. I couldn't be more pleased! Now.. IF we can EVER get spelling mastered above grade-level.. I'll be able sell my secrets for millions! This is a cautionary side note: Spelling has remained a significant weakness. We have tried many different methods and programs and spontaneous writing still shows poor spelling ability, but given a word processor, my child CAN recognize the correct spelling.

What we did won't work for everyone, as each child's needs are different. My child was diagnosed with "true dyslexia", which is a lack of phonemic awareness and short-term memory deficits. He also has executive function deficits, as well as with Ocular Motor deficiencies. At this point, although I continue to see some 'short circuits' from time-to-time, my child's dyslexia has been eliminated as a factor in reading! By carefully considering your child's individual diagnosis and needs, you can find success for your child too!

Best Wishes,
Sandy

Overcoming Dyslexia.. How We Did It

Overcoming Dyslexia..
How We Did It