Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Anyone with experience with Davis program?

We are looking at options for mitigating our 11yr old twin DD who have dyslexia. We have contacted local learning specialists who are all booked out for several months. We looked into Lindamood Bell as an option. However, I am here at a homeschooling conference and there is a program called the Davis program created by Ron Davis. Anyone have any experience with this program? The Lindamood Bell program will run us easily $17k for two kids. Before we shell out that kind of money, looking for other less expensive options. Thanks for any guidance.

The Davis Dyslexia program is not based on evidence-based therapy, and specifically goes counter to the well-established research base in reading development of 30+ years depth (e.g., he explicitly avoids phonological processing, and espouses a number of long-debunked ideas about dyslexia as a visual processing deficit, with relationship to balance and coordination).

Your money would be better spent on $17k of effective Lindamood Bell or Orton-Gillingham therapy, than $1000 of bogus therapy.

AEH. You are such an amazing resource. That you for always being so available to answer questions and provide guidance!!

You're welcome, Laurie. If home/afterschooling is an option, there are a number of relatively parent-friendly, and generally affordable (some more than others) OG home therapy options, including

All About Reading/All About Spelling http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/
Logic of English http://www.logicofenglish.com/essentials
Reading Horizons: Elevate http://athome.readinghorizons.com/store/elevate/overview
Rosetta Stone Lexia http://www.rosettastone.com/homeschool/reading
Barton https://bartonreading.com/

(RH and RS are or have online options).

I've listed them more-or-less in my order of personal preference, taking cost, ease of use, flexibility, and range into account. Another person might prioritize differently, and come up with a different ranking. Any one of them would be a reputable, research-based intervention, with a high likelihood of effectiveness.

The first two are easy enough to use that you could even hire a bright college student to use the curriculum for tutoring, at much less than a certified OG tutor. AAR/AAS separates reading and spelling, so they don't have to go at the same pace. LoE integrates them, which may be better for students whose reading and spelling are at comparable levels. RH and RS have online options, for which you wouldn't need a tutor at all. Reading Horizons' online subscription actually includes accounts for two students in the base price. (The disadvantage of RH and RS is that both take students only through the grade five reading decoding level--though that does cover the vast majority of phonetic decoding skills, and may be enough to get your girls on their way.) Barton has the smallest increments, in terms of developing reading skills, and is the priciest of the options. Some children will need those more finely-graded increments, especially in the early, phonemic awareness-heavy levels.

Approximate cost for two students to complete a reading program ranges from ~$200 to ~$500, plus any tutor costs, for the programs other than Barton, and is ~$3000, plus tutor costs, for Barton. Both online programs come to about $200 for a 12-month subscription for two students, but RH has a heavily discounted renewal cost of $50 per additional year (still includes both students).

-a

AEH, we did start homeschooling(unschooling for now) in late 2015 because we struggled with our school district. The district didn't believe in the dyslexia dx because both could read chapter books in K but they can't spell to save their souls. These are amazing resources. I am going to start researching them now. Thank you again for all your help. It is very much appreciated.