I am looking for a reading program that is appropriate for my son, who
is nine years old and in the third grade. He has a diagnosed learning
disability and reads at late first grade to early second grade level.
On the good side: His receptive vocabulary is very good, as are his
math skills. He has no trouble with comprehension when I read to him,
or when he reads and I correct his mistakes. He knows many of the
rules of phonics and can decode pseudo-words at grade level. He has
an excellent memory for contextual material (stories with logical
sequences).
His reading is slow and inaccurate. His phonemic awareness is below
average. He has difficulty identifying rhyming words. His rapid
naming speed is very low. He has poor short-term memory for
non-contextual material (phone numbers or lists of unrelated items).
I am looking for a program that is designed specifically for children
with learning disabilities, that can be implemented at home by me and
one or two college age tutors over the summer. It should be focused
on decoding and fluency and not on comprehension. It may include
spelling activities. It may include the use of a computer. It should
not require me to take a training course. A good program will include
a variety of activities, so that he can work at it up to two hours per
day in the summer. We might be able to combine two complementary
programs, spending an hour on each of them. It would be helpful if the
program includes a way to monitor and chart progress. It should be
based on standard US English, rather than UK.
I would like you to make a survey of the available programs that might
match my requirements, confirming that they do not require special
training to implement, list price ranges, provide links to vendor
websites and provide information on whether the program has been
proven effective for children with learning disabilities.
Feel free to add any additional information that will help steer me to
the right choice. |
Clarification of Question by
villablanc-ga
on
22 Mar 2005 21:55 PST
I'd like to make some clarification to my question. I am well aware of
the risk of getting information from places like Google Answers. I
hoped that I might find an expert in the field that would do a more
thorough job of googling this topic and lend some of their own
experience to the answer.
The public school teachers will not advise me on any outside programs.
They have been given strict instructions to be neutral whenever a
parent makes inquiries about an outside program. They are concerned
that if they recommend an outside program that the parent will ask the
school district to pay for it. They also have instructions not to
send home any additional homework. I know this because when a teacher
suggested an exercise that I might do with my son, the school
psychologist reminded her that they cannot send home this sort of
work. So, at best they say things like, "just give him lots of
reading practice over the break." As of this time, the only summer
program the school district has offered is a "reading comprehension"
program, which will not address a significant decoding problem.
I have found that most tutors have not made a good survey of the
market. Typically, they obtained training in one specific program at
a significant cost (time and/or money) and now that is the program
they suggest to me. I'd be very happy to hear your advice about
excellent reading programs. I am particularly interested in programs
that have a multi-sensory phonics approach that can be implemented by
a novice instructor. I will be happy to pay you if your answer is
fairly responsive (>80%) to the question posed. I am not looking for
vision therapy, listening therapy, cognitive skills training or
balance exercises, but if you feel compelled to comment on these I'll
read it.
Thanks for your concern.
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