Dyslexia Resources That Helped Us

I have two dyslexic children. We didn't realize the older one was dyslexic until high school, but for my youngest I was much more aware and began working with her sooner. Neither has been formally diagnosed.

1 - Reading Reflex
I have a friend who is a reading specialist trained in Orton-Gillingham and she recommended Reading Reflex which was so valuable for us. My daughter was about 9 when we first used Reading Reflex. This is a really affordable and practical solution for moms wondering what to do. 


2 - Dyslexia Tool Kit
 After we spent a couple years on Reading Reflex, I searched for another practical help for her to focus on reading fluency and I found The Dyslexia Tool Kit which contains 24 tools that can be implemented separately or in conjunction with others. We didn't use all of the techniques, but the ones we chose really helped her greatly.



3 - Short Cuts to Long Words
She is now 14 and last year (8th grade), I wanted to focus on being able to decode long words. I found this resource - Short Cuts to Long Words by Nancy Lewkowicz - and ordered it sight-unseen. It has really helpful. The website gives an overview of the method. Looking back at the website now, I see there is a higher level of this method that I may order for her this year. http://www.thewordworkshop.com/workbks.html

 4 - Colored Overlays
Another tip that really helped my oldest son was colored overlays. He found that using a blue overlay on a white page really helped him to read better. Other dyslexics find success with different colors. I first heard of this when I was teaching school. Irlen is the company that did the initial work with colored overlays, but they are expensive. At first I used colored overhead transparencies, but later I found a company at a homeschool conference that was selling colored overlay rulers. (I can't remember which company since it's been a few years now.) These are similar, although ours are in varying widths.

Midwest Homeschool Convention - The Struggling Reader

I have a struggling reader. That's been difficult for me to admit since I love reading and it's easy for me. Of course, since I am a certified teacher with graduate work in Reading and Language Arts, I ought to know exactly how to help her, right? I thought so. But she's almost ten and still struggling. So I went to this workshop to see if there were any keys I've been missing to assist her in her path to fluency.

The Struggling Reader! Am I Emphasizing the Right Things?
Does your son or daughter seem to be faltering in their efforts to learn to read? Is it the curriculum? Is it you? Based on current research, Dr. Eckenwiler and his wife have designed this workshop to help parents better understand the most essential elements of the reading process, along with those critical ingredients that must be emphasized to produce a successful, capable reader.

Kristin Eckenwiler, of thestrugglingreader.net, led this 8:30 AM workshop on Friday morning. The room was hard to find and overly warm. She promised each parent that they could learn to be a "mini reading specialist". She reassured parents that their homeschooled children were in the best place - home.

The Eckenwiler's system is a multi-sensory approach and she spent a few moments describing what that means. I didn't take notes on that and apparently her explanation didn't stick with me. She did recommend Visual Vocabulary's materials as a multi-sensory approach to teaching vocabulary.

A phoeneme is the smallest unit of sound in our language. Phonemic awareness (the awareness of phoenemes) is NOT the same as phonics, as it does not include letter recognition. It is just sounds. Many say that phonemic awareness is the #1 predictor of reading success. Their phonemic awareness test evaluates 21 discrete skills without worksheets, using a multi-sensory approach.

Dyslexia is a neurological processing challenge. It happens IN the brain.

Their phonics assessment takes 25-30 minutes.

Important:
decoding skills = phonics
Vocabulary
Sight Words
Ability to self-monitor (was I paying attention?)
Practice

SIGHT WORDS
Sight words are often misunderstood. Most common/frequent word is "the". Can't sound it out.

The 10 most common words constitute 24% of printed material.
The 25 most common words constitute 1/3 of printed material.
The 100 most common words constitute 50% of printed material.
300 sight words should be known COLD - memorized by sight, like the snap of a finger, that fast.

FLUENCY (sight words are included here)
1 - Reading speed
Third graders read 100 words per minute. Adults read 250-300 words per minute.
However, reading too fast = mistakes.
2 - Accuracy
3 - Prosody (rhythm)

Fluency affects comprehension.

COMPREHENSION
Comprehension is very complex and includes everything from simple recall to inference.
What can affect comprehension? Physical and emotional state, decoding skills, background knowledge

Reading levels
Independent - fun to read on their own
Instructional - THIS LEVEL IS WHERE YOU SHOULD BE TEACHING
Frustration - too challenging, avoid

DRTA - Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
comprehension is NOT "read the story and answer the questions".
Try a pre-reading activity to increase comprehension.

(Sorry, these notes were not as good as some of my others.)