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    Joined: Jun 2014
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    Hi Everyone- new here and trying to get more information on helping my DD6. Thanks for reading! Here is our background:

    DD6, after starting 1st grade in a private Montessori school started having a very difficult time. Things spiraled out of control and we got kicked out of the private school. (She was bolting out of class and hiding during recess not wanting to return to class)

    Suspecting Dyslexia, I had her evaluated by a Barton Screener friend who confirmed she most likely had moderate to severe Dyslexia and Dysgraphia.

    Took her to get a full Nuero Pysch Eval- which showed that she had overall verbal and nonverbal cognitive abilities in the very superior range (130/131 score Verbal/Perceptual; 98th percentile) and significantly lower working memory and processing speed (97/112). The Nuero Psych said her Perceptual Reasoning score was even depressed due to the ADHD impulsivity so she most likely was in the 99th percentile here. Conclusion based on her WISC-IV and WIAT-III scores confirmed consistency with at least moderate Dyslexia. She also tested positive for ADHD through the TEA-Ch test. And Dysgraphia.

    Scrambling to find a new school for her midyear, I found a local co-op type school for gifted kids. Its a small ratio (5:1) and seems to be fantastic for engaging her interest in learning(she said she was bored in her previous school). While it seems a perfect fit for her gifted quirkiness and social/emotional development, I am worried that her Reading/Dyslexia isn't getting re-mediated here, though she seems to be making slow progress. Her teacher thinks she can read now, but when my friend re-tested her using just a list of words and non-sense words, it is obvious she is only guessing based on the beginning of the word, etc. and is not really "reading". Her teacher is saying to just give it time (reading), that I shouldn't be worried about grade level categories here- she promises she will be reading War & Peace by junior high.

    Recommendations? Am I just being to hyper about the Reading and should wait it out and see, or should I get some outside remediation after school (Barton tutoring is available in my city)? Any other recommendations here? I am a full time single working mom so don't have options to homeschool.

    Thanks so much!


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    If she is actually dyslexic, she needs a structured phonological awareness-based reading program of the Orton-Gillingham variety. I am not familiar with Barton, but a quick google suggests it is an OG-type intervention, which should be effective. If she is still guessing at words based on initial consonants at the end of first grade, then I would say you should pursue remediation now. Phonological awareness is much easier to remediate in young children who have not acquired any meaningful reading vocabulary, than if you wait until they have kludged out some sight vocabulary, at which point they often have habits to be re-trained out of.

    It sounds like she has a few words, and is guessing the remaining words very successfully from context or picture clues (using her high Verbal cognition), which is why her teacher thinks she can read, but still has minimal decoding skills, which is why your friend is finding weaknesses on straight word lists.

    Obviously, you're not, but if you were homeschooling, I would recommend All About Reading, which is an OG reading program designed for homeschooling and classroom use. Easy to use (it's all scripted), and much cheaper than OG tutoring.


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    Our DD11 has a very similar profile! She is HG+/ADHD/dyslexia/dysgraphia/anxiety.

    She reads WAY above grade level, and always has. This has prevented her from receiving in-school support. But, she doesn't READ read. She has a photographic memory and describes 'taking pictures' of words and storing them in her head. She does okay if she is reading words that she has met before. But, throw a new word at her and she is 'deer in headlights' confused. Her abilities do a great job compensating for her disabilities, but only to a certain extent. Assistive technology has been a dog-send to her in school. Her spelling is atrocious and hand writing is too much work for her to get her point across.

    She is receiving private Orton-Gillingham tutoring for her dyslexia remediation. We waited until grade six to start this and I am really kicking myself for listening to all the reassurances from the 'experts' that she didn't need it, that she would figure it out, etc. We have missed many good years that the OG could have helped her with. Long story short, it has gotten as good as it is going to get and she CANNOT spell. Sure, she can use word prediction software in school... but how is that going to help her in the real world. How will she ever fill out a form or write a cheque?

    My advice... don't wait. Get the OG tutoring now! Our DS5 is already working with an OT for his printing and an SLP. He'll move into OG in the next year or so. We want him to have every advantage to help his disabilities.


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    Listen to Kathleen'smum. She is wise and has been down this path twice. START NOW.

    Are you in the US? If so you may be successful getting your school district to pay for/provide the remediation services. My DD (now 9) was identified coming out of Kindergarten. We wanted to send her to a lovely little private that sounds much like where you are now. They were not equipped to remediate dyslexia, though, and they knew it so they had parents contract with an OG tutor who came to the school daily. Tuition plus outside services was going to be *very* expensive (think paying for an expensive private university - out of pocket - from 1st grade on.) Our school district convinced us she *needed* to be in a public school in order to get all the services she would require.

    Now finishing 3rd grade in out of district placement at a special Ed school where her entire day is interventions/AT and enrichment for the giftedness. The literacy specialist is using Wilson which seems to be working well. She is making progress on the AT. She gets speech and OT. No way the lovely little private could have done this for her. I am estimating the district is probably spending upwards of $80k for her this year alone.

    So to repeat - START NOW. Also keep an open mind about the possibility of using FAPE to your advantage and look at your local public.

    Good luck and welcome to the board!

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    Also, if you have a sufficiently cooperative school district, and maybe make very nice, you may be able to get publically-provided OG services, even while attending your charming little private school, if you are willing to provide transportation, and bring your daughter at the beginning or end of the public school day. I have worked in systems that were willing to do this for specific services, such as OG reading/spelling, speech/language, OT. You probably won't be able to get more than 2x30 per week, though, which is the bare minimum for effective implementation of OG.


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    DS6 had a neuropsychological assessment in Oct. 2013 with the 2e experts Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide. Among numerous other recommendations (including an OG tutor), they recommended a book we could use at home called Toe by Toe. Due to scheduling we decided to wait on the OG tutor. Without doing any other recommendations we weren't already doing (reading with our son and getting him audiobooks) and just doing the Toe by Toe book twenty minutes a day, he jumped several years in reading in six months.

    I highly recommend that book. It is available on Amazon.

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    I wanted to add something. Toe by Toe shouldn't be the only measure taken for kids like ours and I don't mean to recommend it as a cure all. We are doing other things (super pricey Lindamood Bell this summer), acceleration in school, follow up testing, etc.

    For us, it was something we could get to work on right away. It was cheap, there was no need to change our schedules and we all saw progress.

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    We are still working in the Toe by Toe book too. DS does it at school M-F now and at home on the weekend. His teachers were so impressed with his progress they have several students using it now. I am guessing it will end up taking about 9-10 months to complete.

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    Hi orandark. I have a DD7 who sounds a bit like your DD6.

    (I have no advice, I am in your same shoes.)


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    Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I also had a feeling I should start on an OG program for reading, but with her teacher being so confident that she was doing fine, I just wasn't sure if I was going overboard.

    We started Barton tutoring twice a week for now in the summer- she completed Level 1 and almost through Level 2. I really see a difference in her confidence level and in the way she approaches reading, just from this beginning so we will definitely continue. She can read most CVC words now- single syllable.
    We do live in the US (northern California), but the public school near us which is ranked fairly high, is known to be very hard on kids with learning disabilities- I had posted in a parents forum to get some feedback and many people said they had to pull their kids out and homeschool because of how bad it got. They recommended a local Dyslexia Remediation school or a Charter School. I checked out the Dyslexia school but it seems like she would be bored out of her mind there- they don't seem to cater to any type of gifted education, or even project based learning, but mainly drill drill drill the remediation for Reading, Writing and Math. Kids don't seem to go on to "regular" schools out of this program.

    For now, I guess I am keeping her in the private gifted home-school while adding the tutoring. I'll try ordering this toe-to-toe book as well and maybe I can work with her at home, but the truth is that I get home after picking up both kids from work around 6:30pm, then its dinner bath and bed. I sometimes don't even get the time to read a bedtime story. Maybe I can squeeze in something in the morning before leaving for school and work.

    Thanks for the advice!


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