Teaching A Struggling Reader first edition

Table of Contents

Introduction

If Only I Had Known…

Our Learning Path

Irregular Words

Tapping (Sounding Out)

“b” and “d” Make Your Bed

Rewards As A Motivator

Play As A Motivator

Our Daily Work

Final Thoughts

Phonics Progression

DOG ON A LOG Books

Keywords

Alphabet

Digraphs

-all

-ng

-nk

ild, old, olt, ind, ost

 

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

Introduction

Like so many successful people, my child just learns differently. It’s how her brain is hard-wired. There are a lot of children who struggle with reading. Some people estimate up to 10%-20% of the population are dyslexic learners. This booklet lists some of the information I wish I’d had when I did not know how to teach a child whose brain is wired like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates.

 

This booklet is not a complete discussion about struggling readers. I am not knowledgeable enough on the subject to do that. This is written from the perspective of a parent who is working with a specialist to teach a child with a dyslexic learning style.

 

Dyslexia is seen in people with normal and above normal intelligence. It makes it hard for people to learn to read. Here is a list of “symptoms” from the Mayo Clinic. Here is a pdf checklist for dyslexia “symptoms.” This is a particularly useful Dyslexia Screener for children of different ages. In addition to needing a different way to learn to read, some dyslexic learners will also have trouble with writing and possibly learning math. They may have trouble with language-related skills including speech. Some do not understand rhyming. Some might have fine motor and other physical difficulties. Or they may not. I will give a bit of information on how we are addressing math in my Final Thoughts, but I won’t discuss any of the other issues here. However, if you are wondering why your child seems to do various tasks differently than other kids, it could all be related to the dyslexic wiring of the brain. This article has some things to consider regarding dyslexia.

 

Dyslexia is categorized as a “Learning Disability.” This allows for accommodations in educational and, possibly, other environments. Accommodations include additional testing time, audio equipment, and more. However, many people don’t like to call it a disability. They simply see it as another way to learn. There are many lists of famous people and even billionaires who learn this way. This is not about intelligence, this is about adapting how we teach each child. (Or adult learner if they didn’t get the individualized teaching they needed as children.) There is a youtube interview with Steven Spielberg where he talks about growing up with undiagnosed dyslexia.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

As a parent it is my responsibility to teach in a manner that is adapted to my child’s learning needs. I do that with both of my kids. Neither of them learns the same as anyone else. We have always homeschooled. As a homeschooling mom I found it easy to teach one child to read. My second child stymied me. Nothing I tried seemed to work. I knew that meant the problem was my lack of knowledge and experience in teaching to how she learns. The problem was, I didn’t know how to overcome my lack of knowledge. I was overwhelmed, afraid, scared, uncertain, discouraged, and, at times, almost hopeless. Ironically, though I can spend hours doing online research on what and how to teach my kids, it never occurred to me to research how to teach a dyslexic learner. I guess it was all just so overwhelming I didn’t think I could do it.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

I struggled to find a Reading Specialist who could help, there just aren’t enough of them out there. One specialist I contacted recommended an online program called Mindplay. For homeschooling families I found it cheapest here. For a year I sat with my daughter as she did Mindplay. She gained skills that I had not known how to teach her. Because I had not heard the term Orton-Gillingham I did not understand how Mindplay works. I felt lost in how to help her outside the Mindplay program. Over time my desperation grew again so I went back to looking for a specialist. I was lucky and found a very skilled reading specialist. She knew exactly how to teach my daughter. As I watched this woman week after week, I learned how to teach her as well. I also learned about the Orton-Gillingham philosophy for teaching reading. It is this philosophy that has made all the difference.

 

I just read this article that talks about a school that is using an Orton-Gillingham approach in their classrooms with all their kids starting in kindergarten. Although it’s too early to know the long-term results of this, so far the results seem promising. So even if your child hasn’t been diagnosed as a dyslexic learner, it may be that using an Orton-Gillingham method could still be beneficial to them.

 

Now that we’ve been working with a specialist for over a year I find there are a lot of books and online resources to provide information. One website that I find very helpful is Homeschooling With Dyslexia. Even if you don’t homeschool, you may find a lot of helpful information there.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

If Only I Had Known…

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

1. The most studied, and possibly most effective, method for teaching dyslexic learners to read is Orton-Gillingham. There are many companies that have developed O-G programs. Although they have variations, their primary structures are similar. Some are scripted for use by homeschoolers or families that want to supplement their school system. Others are meant for certified professionals.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

2. The key to success is small steps, repetition, and a multi-sensory approach. And when I say small steps and repetition, I mean “pull out your hair if you have to do alphabet sound flashcards another 100 times.”

 

3. Repetition (go back and read step 2 another fifty times.)

 

4. Repetition (go back and read step 2 another fifty times.)

 

5. A positive attitude. My child works hard and has made great progress. I wish I had learned how to work that hard when I was a kid. We remind her frequently how hard she works and how much progress she has made. (In less than a year she has gone from being able to sound out some 3 letter words to reading the Step 5 books I write for her.) We also frequent the thrift store for rewards that can be earned by reading books and writing sentences. The rewards are given for effort. They are NOT withheld for incorrect results.

 

6. Specialists are expensive. They have bills to pay just like we do, and they’ve had extensive training and put in a lot of planning time we don’t see. We are fortunate that we can pay for one, though I wish we could afford to see her more times each week. However, our monthly bill to her means we are not contributing to our retirement fund. Still, we are grateful for what we are able to do.

 

7. Not all school districts allow their teachers to recommend Reading Specialists. If they do, then the school may have to pay for it. They don’t want to budget for that. Many teens leave school not able to read because they did not have a teacher who knew how to teach them. (I have a friend who teaches special ed and she ran into this road block at a district she previously taught in.)

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

8. Not all teachers understand how to help children that learn differently from others. I have heard this complaint from parents as well as friends who are teachers. If teachers aren’t knowledgeable in how to instruct dyslexic learners, or if their classes are so big that they are prevented from giving individualized attention, it is impossible for them to provide the assistance these kids need.

 

9. Having watched two specialists teaching my daughter to read I see I could do it without their help. Since I don’t have their experience, we’d make slower progress, but she would still learn to read. I say this because I know so many people who are not as fortunate as we are. They simply cannot find a specialist or cannot afford to pay one. Our life is easier having a trained person helping us. But if we didn’t have this option, I see that we could use an O-G program to success.

 

10. If your child is struggling to read, you may find it helpful for them to have a complete psychoeducational evaluation. Schools are required to do these for free. However, I have heard from multiple people that the tests done by their local school district were not useful. They felt the school report prioritized the school budget over the child’s needs. This is part of why we did not have an evaluation done by our school district, I’d been told some of the evaluators in our district find ways to interpret the results so a specialist isn’t required. (I was also told others did great evaluations, but you’re not allowed to choose who does your evaluation.) This is not to say that this is true of all schools, but it is a common enough occurrence that you should be prepared for it.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

These evaluations can also be done privately by psychologists, psychiatrists, educational diagnosticians, educational specialists, and special education teachers. They must have been trained to do so. However, they can easily cost $2,000. If you have an evaluation done by one person and don’t like it, you may need to wait a period of time to have it repeated so that the results are considered valid. Some families decide to spend that money on a Reading Specialist or Learning Disabilities Specialist instead of the evaluation. They feel that, in the long run, the specialist will individualize how they teach the child. This will be based on the child’s response to the program they’re doing. The teacher won’t make very many decisions based on the results of the tests. So, if money is hard to come by, you may choose to work with a specialist who is willing to work without an evaluation. Some insurance companies will pay for a psychoeducational evaluation done by certain professionals but not others. You will have to check with your insurance company about that.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

11. If your child is tested and found to be a dyslexic learner, insist your school provide a Reading or Learning Disabilities Specialist. You may find they won’t and your choices will be to hire a specialist or to teach your child yourself. Whatever path you choose, one of your first steps should be to educate yourself on Orton Gillingham programs and find one that meets your needs. In hindsight I wish I had known to do that years ago when I first wondered if my child would end up having a dyslexic learning style. Although she started Mindplay when she was six, I wonder if I could have done more when she was younger. On the other hand, if I had done that I may have opted to not hire a specialist. I have found having highly skilled specialists very helpful. I am very confident about my ability to teach my children. However, in this area my life is much easier and less emotionally draining knowing I have an experienced person who can make this challenging path easier for us.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

12. Dyslexic learners can have self-confidence and self-esteem issues. They see that other children their age are far more proficient at reading than they are. Our children are not exposed to the social situations children in school may encounter. Although we socialize with other homeschoolers multiple times per week, it is a different type of socialization than is encountered in school. There is a higher adult to child ratio so bullying rarely happens or is stopped very quickly and most of our activities are open-ended play/park events or hands-on field trips. The classes my kids take at our homeschool cooperative do not have testing or peer comparisons seen in schools, even in the academic classes. The co-op moms who teach the classes adapt what they do for the dyslexic students. And yet our daughter has expressed frustrations that she does not learn like other people. We talk about how everyone learns differently. We tell her she thinks in pictures so she makes observations the rest of us don’t. (She once said she knew my husband went to work early one Saturday morning because his boots weren’t by the aquarium stand. I would not have noticed that nor made that observation.) We also talk about famous people who are/were dyslexic learners. We are adding books to our home library written by several of these dyslexic writers. We recently watched Sister Act with Whoopi Goldberg and bought/read some of the children’s books she wrote. Tonight we watched BFG. When I saw Steven Spielberg directed it I told her he is a dyslexic learner. We looked at a list of his movies so I know what movies we’ll be watching during the next few family movie nights. We tell her, “Yes, this is hard, but you’ll figure it out.” She is going to have to figure out her relationship with the way her brain is hardwired. I will do my best to help her accept this is the life she was given and how to make the best of it and, hopefully, turn it to her advantage.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

Our Learning Path

 

Although my daughter is the one with the dyslexic learning style, I tend to talk and write about “our path.” My life is as directed by this learning style as hers is. We learn each phonics rule and step together. Every day we read, conquer and edit the writing of sentences. We do flashcards and keyword tables together. She is learning to read by using specific phonics rules and I stay up late at night writing her books using those same phonics rules. We are partners in this process in a way I have not partnered with anyone else for anything, not even with my husband as we raise kids. And I am grateful for the time she and I spend together this way. What a gift we’ve been given to have our relationship require so much teamwork.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

Despite years of Starfall, letter tiles, uncountable hours of me reading to her, and so many other language and phonics-rich activities and a year of Mindplay, she could not read the simplest beginner phonics book. When we began working with an Orton-Gillingham reading specialist it was almost as if we had done nothing on the learning to read path.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

Our reading path started with learning the primary sounds of the consonants and short vowel sounds. Then the digraphs ch, sh, th, wh, -ck. EVERY day we did flashcards. “What is the name of this letter? What is the keyword? What sound does it make?” Over and over until I thought my eyeballs would fall out. Keywords are still an important tool for her as she is reading (I have included the keyword tables we’ve used so far at the end of this booklet.)

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

It seemed to take forever, but once she had the sounds of a few letters we were able to start sounding out consonant-vowel-consonant words. Probably because we’d done Mindplay for a year she was really good at turning three different sounds into a word. From sounding out words we went to sounding out very short sentences. In time, this built up to longer sentences, then we moved on to very short books, and then to longer books. That’s when I started writing my books for her. (It was really hard to find books for her to read at all steps on our path. There are very few books written for O-G readers. I figured other families would be interested in the books I’d written. That I why I decided to turn my books into DOG ON A LOG Books. If you would like an introduction to my books, please visit my facebook page or my website.)

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

When my daughter had mastered the first 31 sounds and could sound out words and sentences we moved into new rules: First was Bonus letters (see definition below.) When those were mastered it was the sound “all.” After that she learned the Suffix “s.” (See below for the phonics progression we have used to date.) Each step is mastered before the new step is introduced. There is LOTS and LOTS of repetition. I cannot reiterate just how much repetition there is. And remember, if you think you’re getting bored, think how frustrated your child is to have to keep doing the same thing over and over. (Though when there is success, it is great. And I do think there is great advantage to learning how to work hard to master something. This must be why so many successful entrepreneurs are dyslexic learners.)

 

Orton-Gillingham is a multi-sensory approach. Her specialist uses a variety of flashcards, magnetic letters, writing, books, computer printouts and more. I do the same at home. Her specialist has even sometimes marched around the room or used blocks to represent concepts. She taught her handwriting using the D’Nealian process. One of the advantages of this font is that “b” and “d” are written so differently it’s hard to mix them up. I used some youtube videos to help me learn the process. I also made my daughter worksheets using this free worksheet program.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

Learning to read and learning handwriting at the same time can be challenging. To decrease the dual challenges, magnetic letter boards can be used. Words can be spelled and/or read using preprinted magnetic letters instead of the child having to figure out how to write and spell them. This goes a long way to  keep frustration levels down. That doesn’t mean handwriting should be avoided, only that for really new concepts the magnetic letter board is a useful tool. (I’ve linked to two different magnetic letter boards. Although I find the Wilson one sturdier, if you are going to use the All About Reading program, it may be more cost effective to use theirs if you get their kit.)

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

Irregular Words

 

Learning words that do not follow rules (or are introduced before the appropriate rule) takes a different approach:

 

1. The word is written with marker in 2 inch tall letters on strips of cut up paper grocery bags.

2. With two fingers, she underlines the word while saying the word.

3. With two fingers she traces each letter while saying the letter’s name.

4. She underlines the word again while saying it.

5. She pauses then starts the whole process over.

6. She repeats this until she feels she can write it.

7. She writes it on paper or a dry erase board then verifies its spelling.

8. She writes it again and verifies her spelling.

9. She writes each word a minimum of 5 times.

10. Then the word is added to our daily flashcard stack.

 

Sometimes this is all that is needed. Other words require us to do this multiple times. I have been told some kids will have to trace a complicated word at least 100 times to learn it. As I said, this learning style requires lots of repetition.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

 

 

Tapping (Sounding Out)

 

For sounding out words, we “tap.” Start with the index finger for the first sound and touch it to your thumb. The middle finger is for the second sound, so you tap your middle finger to your thumb, and so on. It’s more complicated for more complicated words, but that gives you an idea. It makes it multi-sensory as compared to just saying the sounds. Although I’ve been reading for several decades, I find this approach makes a lot of sense to my brain. When my daughter struggles with a word, I remind her to tap. It’s so much easier when she uses this strategy.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

 

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

“b” and “d” Make Your Bed

 

“b” and “d” are easily confused. When they are in a word she can make her left hand look like a “b” and her right hand look like a “d.” The letter bellies touch each other and she has made a “bed.” She can then see which hand the print letter looks like to determine whether it is a “b” or a “d.”

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

OR

 

 

 

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

Rewards As A Motivator

 

From the beginning her specialist gave her $1 in play money for every effort, not for correct answers, but for effort. This was really critical. Every time my daughter tried, she got $1. Often in an hour session she would get $100. In time my daughter got paid a lump sum (usually $100) at the end of the session. I stock rewards she can buy with her play money. Initially, I kept small items in a treasure box that she could look through at the end of each session. They would cost about $100 each. It was stuff she would like from the dollar store or a thrift store. When time passed and she asked for more expensive items, I told her she would have to save up. So a $5 throw blanket cost her $500. Leaving a session without any reward was not realistic. So I kept a small bag of yogurt covered pretzels. They were $5 each and she could buy 2 of them per session. She’d usually choose to spend $10 on pretzels and save the rest for the big item she wanted.

Play As A Motivator

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

I am trying to find a way to help her learn to love to read and to be intrinsically motivated. Because reading can be so hard, that feels like a big challenge. How many kids wake up and say, “I want to do something that makes my brain smoke and I want to do the same thing I’ve done every day for the last several months.” Since she’s still young, play is an important part of her life and playing with me is an especially wonderful thing to do. After she reads to me each day, we use toys to recreate what she just read to me. So far she loves this, but I’m starting to see the newness of it wear off. Still, I’m hoping that associating reading with playing with Mom will make her feel warm and fuzzy about reading. Plus, the more we read in a single session, the more we have to re-enact with the toys. I’m also hoping our play will help solidify her comprehension of what she reads. So far I’m seeing she has a good understanding of what she just read, even if her reading isn’t 100% fluent. I don’t know if playing this way will make a difference in the long run, but it’s one more way to add fun to the basics. This journey is about modifying the path to the needs of the student and this is our current modification.

 

She reads my books as stapled together computer printouts. Then we play.

 

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

 

Our Daily Work

 

At home we write sentences and irregular words almost daily. Irregular words are words that do not follow normal phonics rules. After many, many months we moved past letter sound cards but still do irregular word cards. We’ve been doing some of them for nearly a year. She also reads daily. She used to fight this because it is so hard. We struggled with various rewards. Finding the motivator that works for each child is important. That often changes in our family. Currently she gets a piece of gum for a set number of minutes of reading. As she is becoming more competent with reading, she is not fighting us. Actually, she really likes gum so she sometimes asks to read 2 or 3 times a day so she can earn some gum. She also asks me to rub her legs while she reads. So we snuggle together on the couch and she reads while I rub her leg. It’s really quite lovely and we’re making memories I will cherish forever. I hope she will cherish them as much as I already do.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

Final Thoughts

 

As I said, this is just some basics that helped me become the teacher my daughter needs. I know lots of families who are struggling with this process but cannot afford (or find) a specialist. Most of these families feel let down by schools. If your child is struggling with reading find your local dyslexia association and join online groups (I follow the Facebook group Homeschooling with Dyslexia.) And remember, with the Orton-Gillingham approach you can teach your dyslexic learner to read.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

As I mentioned before, many kids with dyslexia also have dyscalculia—they are challenged to learn math. Finding a math specialist is also hard and equally expensive. I have tried several online programs. The one that has been most successful has been ST Math. For homeschooling families I found it cheapest here. Even with this amazing program she just didn’t seem to get it. I decided to try and teach her the basic math equations. I tried online games, music that sings her the equations, and doing flashcards and other ways of memorizing. Nothing worked. I realized that as well as she is doing with ST Math, it’s not enough. (It’s designed to be a supplemental program, not a primary program.)

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

I feel very fortunate to have just found a math specialist, Dr. Meg Burke of Dyslexia Pros. She is also a dyslexic learner whose PhD is in math education. She says she has many homeschooling families that have had success with Math U See. Because of how people with dyslexia learn, the fraction program included is not as effective for dyslexic learners as it is for typical learners. She has yet to find a fraction program that is effective with her students. (I will update this to include a recommendation when it is available.) Dr. Burke (we call her Meg, but Dr. Burke conveys what an amazing teacher she is) also stated, “As for learning math facts, rote memorization is one of the most difficult tasks for people with dyslexia. It is thought that this is because the areas of the brain that are impacted most by dyslexia are also the areas that focus on word retrieval, recall, and memory. Thankfully, focusing on fluency rather than memorization is supported by both the math education research and special education research. Fluency means being able to use strategies automatically to figure out facts (such as using figuring out 3 + 2 using the strategy of “doubles plus one,” where one knows 2 + 2 and adds one more to get 5.) These strategies are developed over time as a child gets more comfortable counting and breaking apart numbers. You will see these foundational skills being worked on in our session today. As your daughter becomes more comfortable with seeing patterns and making connections among numbers, her addition and subtraction facts will begin to develop as well. This is a slow process, but a much more productive process than memorization because she will learn to see relationships rather than just memorize isolated facts.”

 

So we will be trying a combination of Math U See, ST Math, and weekly sessions with Dr. Burke. Because I have seen such tremendous progress with reading now that we have a proven path to take, I expect she will be successful with math. I’m guessing it will be a slow, hard path, but we’ll both learn a lot along the way. Dr. Burke has a blog you can follow here.

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia

I want to add that school teachers often get a lot of criticism for not helping these kids more. Teachers are overworked, underpaid, and are frequently required to work with ridiculous requirements and circumstances. Many of them are not trained in how to teach children with dyslexia or other reading challenges. And even when they are, classroom size and structure does not allow them to give children the extreme amounts of individualized attention they need when they learn differently from other children. My purpose for writing this booklet is to give parents some very basic information so they can help their kids when school teachers cannot. I also hope that teachers who have not been trained in working with dyslexic learners can facilitate these kids getting their educational needs met. I do not mean to free school districts from the responsibility of making sure every child truly gets the help they need so they can be competent readers. I do want to say that this issue is bigger than teachers and I understand the challenges teachers face.

 

 

 

 

Keywords

Alphabet

 

 

 

 

 

Digraphs

 

-all

 

-ng

 

 

 

-nk

 

ild, old, olt, ind, ost

 

 

I hope you have found the information in this booklet helpful. There is so much to learn about dyslexic learning and I hope I’ve introduced you to ideas and concepts that you can further study.

 

I wrote this booklet in hopes that it will help parents and teachers who are just beginning to understand how to help their struggling readers. The only way it can help more people is if they read it. If you could recommend it to teachers or parents with struggling readers, I would appreciate it. I would also appreciate it if you could leave a review. Can you please share with others how this booklet helped you.

 

Thank you,

Pamela Brookes

 

 

 

Free dyslexia e-book Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience With Dyslexia