Dyslexia

Hi

My wife has been struggling with our girl for some time.
She is in Primary 2 this year and we can see she is struggling with English, Maths and Chinese.

We have tried:
- Sending her to PSLE maths tuition classes (the teacher there says she is de-motivated because some other children in the class say, "har this type of sum you also cannot do"
- Sending her to Berries to beef up her Chinese once a week
- Giving he a one-on-one tutor in English once a week

This, on top of my wife's nightly coaching to her to go through homework and school spelling, tests, etc.

This week, before her Primary 2 final exam (which is next week), she came home with a 27/100 score for Maths and a similar low score for other subjects.

She tells us she wants to try to do well like her other friends, but is very demoralized she cannot.

My girl has an older brother, he's doing ok, average in school. She has a younger brother who is learning quite ok too.

It is not like she is totally 'off' in school - she says she wants to learn, interacts ok with friends, but is very 'borderline or just going to fail' kind of grade in her schoolwork.

We are at our wits' end and I sense we are going to break down soon from this pressure.

My questions:

1. Anyone has any suggestions on tutors / programs that can help my girl? I suspect tutoring more and more won't help as I think her confidence level is very low. Should we send her for some behavioural assessment or learning ability test, etc.?

2. We have heard of "Thinkers Box" which does a cognitive assessment, then has a 10 month program to help improve concentration / comprehension, etc. Does any know if this program is any good and whether it is recommended for someone like my daughter?

3. I am also worried about learning problems, e.g. inability to comprehend, analyze and think through problems. In general, my girl is very baby-ish, playing with Mickey Mouse, watching Barbie programs, playing make believe, e.g. and a little slow to catch on to things like jokes, logic and "real world" topics. Does anyone have similar experience here and can share some advice?

4. Also, to make things worse, my girl just clams up when she encounters a difficult e.g. Maths question and when you ask her "do you understand" after explaining a concept, she just keeps quiet. If she does understand she will say "yes" only after quite a long time. It is very difficult / frustrating for us to get through to her. She is also selective, doesn't like to listen to strangers, etc.

5. She is also very afraid to try out new things, indicating her confidence is very low. When we ask her, do you want to try this play activity, e.g. she will say "no, I don't want', etc.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can render.

As I mentioned, as parents, we are at our wits' end and are going to break down soon from this pressure ...

Does this sound like a dyslexic issue, does anyone have contacts for getting her assessed / diagnosed? Thanks.






"4. Also, to make things worse, my girl just clams up when she encounters a difficult e.g. Maths question and when you ask her "do you understand" after explaining a concept, she just keeps quiet. If she does understand she will say "yes" only after quite a long time. It is very difficult / frustrating for us to get through to her. She is also selective, doesn't like to listen to strangers, etc."

My son does that too! Don't worry. Try giving her more assurance and not look at her like she has a problem, this will make her feel more inferior than she already is (like you've mentioned)
 


I am suffering from dyslexia since young (and yes, I am still suffering from that now). We have problems reading complete sentences and normally needs to read very slowly to understand the sentences. However, as we grow older, we learn to adept to our problems and slowly we learn where are the possible place where we can make mistake and hence will be looking out for it.

p.s. That is one of the reason why I chose computer science. Everything is compiled by the computer and I would not be required to read very carefully.
 
Hi

My wife has been struggling with our girl for some time.
She is in Primary 2 this year and we can see she is struggling with English, Maths and Chinese.

We have tried:
- Sending her to PSLE maths tuition classes (the teacher there says she is de-motivated because some other children in the class say, "har this type of sum you also cannot do"
- Sending her to Berries to beef up her Chinese once a week
- Giving he a one-on-one tutor in English once a week

This, on top of my wife's nightly coaching to her to go through homework and school spelling, tests, etc.

This week, before her Primary 2 final exam (which is next week), she came home with a 27/100 score for Maths and a similar low score for other subjects.

She tells us she wants to try to do well like her other friends, but is very demoralized she cannot.

My girl has an older brother, he's doing ok, average in school. She has a younger brother who is learning quite ok too.

It is not like she is totally 'off' in school - she says she wants to learn, interacts ok with friends, but is very 'borderline or just going to fail' kind of grade in her schoolwork.

We are at our wits' end and I sense we are going to break down soon from this pressure.

My questions:

1. Anyone has any suggestions on tutors / programs that can help my girl? I suspect tutoring more and more won't help as I think her confidence level is very low. Should we send her for some behavioural assessment or learning ability test, etc.?

2. We have heard of "Thinkers Box" which does a cognitive assessment, then has a 10 month program to help improve concentration / comprehension, etc. Does any know if this program is any good and whether it is recommended for someone like my daughter?

3. I am also worried about learning problems, e.g. inability to comprehend, analyze and think through problems. In general, my girl is very baby-ish, playing with Mickey Mouse, watching Barbie programs, playing make believe, e.g. and a little slow to catch on to things like jokes, logic and "real world" topics. Does anyone have similar experience here and can share some advice?

4. Also, to make things worse, my girl just clams up when she encounters a difficult e.g. Maths question and when you ask her "do you understand" after explaining a concept, she just keeps quiet. If she does understand she will say "yes" only after quite a long time. It is very difficult / frustrating for us to get through to her. She is also selective, doesn't like to listen to strangers, etc.

5. She is also very afraid to try out new things, indicating her confidence is very low. When we ask her, do you want to try this play activity, e.g. she will say "no, I don't want', etc.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can render.

As I mentioned, as parents, we are at our wits' end and are going to break down soon from this pressure ...

Does this sound like a dyslexic issue, does anyone have contacts for getting her assessed / diagnosed? Thanks.

Hi Hwtan,

You must be really anxious. My son's learning difficulties was highlighted to me since kindergarten and I had a family friend who recommended me an educational therapist who does informal assessments to find out his underlying academic difficulties. My son couldn't even read simple sight words at k2. I did intensive therapy with her for 3 months before he enters primary school. My son entered primary with struggles still but his reading age was significantly reduced. He could read and spell after 1.5 years and she discovered other learning difficulties my son has and referred us to other specialist for help. Now, I do not need to worry about his English as he is doing pretty okay. She is working on his math skills now.

I would highly recommend her. Her email is [email protected].

Hope you'll find the help you need.

Cheers,
Mabel
 
PRESCHOOL SEMINAR 2014
Saturday 05 July 2014, 0930am - 1300hrs
Venue - Health Promotion Board Auditorium, Level 7


Just to share some awareness to parents who may be seeking intervention and support for their preschoolers.

Organised by the Dyslexia Association of Singapore, as posted in their FB yesterday..

"Calling educators, parents and people who have a keen interest to know how to support preschoolers with learning difficulties. Our Preschool Seminar on 5 July 2014 is now open for registration! (Fee: $20 only, excluding $1 booking fee). http://www.das.org.sg/news-events/current-event "

Please view DAS's timeline page for more information and contact purposes.

https://www.facebook.com/DysSG/phot...1466673233911/672389992808240/?type=1&theater
 
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Just sharing my experience.

My son has been diagnosed as dyslexic and his condition quite severe. Found out his condition when he was 5 year old (year end) and started him on educational therapy in January (in the year he turns 6). After 1 year, he finally manage to recognize alphabets, although he may struggle at times and the frequency of writing in mirror image reduces substantially. He is also able to recognized very few sight words. I was of course delighted at that point of time but I was told point blank by the therapist that he is not ready for P1. He still has a long way to catch up.

Did a lot of research online for schools that is able to cater for his condition. Not much success though. Managed to get MOE approval & pull him out from SG mainstream school. He is currently schooling in a boutique international school that caters for children with learning difficulties. He is now a happy boy and I can really see a lot of improvement in terms of his reading & writing ability over this 6 months.

I still engage a private dyslexia tutor for him, once a week for 45 min session. Anything longer than 1 hour doesn't work for him as he get distracted easily & he will start climbing all over the tutor.

I'm going to start sending him to after school student care from July onwards. I chanced upon this after school care (http://thelittlegreymatter.com.sg) while searching for affordable dyslexia tutor cum nanny whom can tutor him on a daily basis. I always believe consistency and making him go through him phonics & reading is key to build up his fundamental basics. He tends to forget words easily, even if it is the simplest ones (e.g good, bad, etc). Keeping my finger cross my investment in both the international school & the student care will bear result. I think such student care that cater for students with learning difficulties might be the 1st in SG, I can't seem to find any other similar centers.

I'm signing him up for the student care 1-week holiday program which will commence on 16 June to warm him up. My only concern is whether this student care will survive. I am taking a chance as this student care started operation last year but no sign up to date. My son will be the 1st & only student. Well, if I look at the bright side, he get private 1 to 1 therapy on daily basis and the rate is affordable. Just hope the centre will be in operation for as long as possible so that I have a place to put my son after school with special help.
 
Integrated international school. The school has both mainstream & support stream. My son is in the support stream, it's about 3k a month. I'm hoping that he will eventually promote to mainstream, which cost about 2k a month. The school has very low teacher to student ratio, as my son is not ready for grade 1, he is in pre-k and there are 3 teachers in a class of 10. The principal is a qualified psychologist. You can try to call up to find out more: http://www.iis.com.sg/
 
Hi everyone , I am specialist dyslexia tutor with more than 10 years experience, certified and trained., registered with MOH. Please call for a free freindly consultation and free first trial lesson. I currently have 7 dyslexia students under my belt
 
hi jiggling
I am a specialist dyslexia tutor currently tutoring 7 dyslexic kids. i am familiar with kids attending DAS . previously teaching in a special school too my charges are reasonable too and I am registered with ministry of health too I can come for a free consultation and we can discuss about how to help your child. I am very experienced and very patient with the kids. experts believe it is better to start intervention early. so pls email me at [email protected] i you interested
 
My boy is coming to 5 years old in oct. Currently in k1.
His alphabets are all mixed up. Mirror imaged . Numbers are read from the back to the front.
I have send in application to www.das.org.sg but was told that I need to wait for min of two months to enroll him in. They have classes for kids like that and full accessment by psychologist will only be when he is 6 years 4 mths old.
However I'm v worried about his future.
Principle at his sch have feedback to me about him not paying attention in class etc as well.
Any advice from the mummies here ?
Is there any course where I can attend to teach him the correct way to learn ?
Teaching him his numbers and alphabets can be frustrating at all times :(
I'm staying at pioneer mrt area. Any recommended classes I can sent him to ? Das have a long wait

hi jiggling
I am a specialist dyslexia tutor currently tutoring 7 dyslexic kids. i am familiar with kids attending DAS . previously teaching in a special school my charges are reasonable and I am registered with ministry of health too. I can come for a free consultation and we can discuss about how to help your child. I am very experienced and very patient with the kids. experts believe it is better to start intervention early. so pls email me at [email protected] i you interested
 
Hi all,

I am a certified Educational Therapist who is very familiar with DAS students and method of teaching. I have over 2 years of experience with teaching dyslexic students and have taught over 40 dyslexic students. I believe early intervention is key to helping the students achieve. Pls feel free to email me at [email protected]. Thank you.
 
Hi i have a dylsexic child in K2 this year. Please advise where can i find qualified and certified teachers to do home tuition.
Also, the child may be attending DAS/ kids dyslexia center on weekends. Will it be conflicting to go the center on weekend and weekday for home tuition?
Kindly advise.

Next, i would like to connect with other parents with dyslexic child....hope to have a whatapp chat group to discuss on the various types of help to cope with our challenges. Please PM me......
 
I have a son in Primary 2, currently a student at DAS. He went for the assessment last year and was put on the literacy programme since... 2 lessons per week. He is not progressing and unable to apply skills in mainstream classroom. He performed very poorly in all his subjects recently... seems to be far worse than a K1 child unable to read & write anything sensible. He is my third child, so the comparisons are based on the experiences of his older siblings. He exhibits other intelligences, just not in literacy. I am unable to intervene effectively.

I am looking for a special needs tutor for individual sessions to give him support in addition to the DAS lessons. Would anyone out there be able to provide contacts of effective tutors to meet his learning needs? Thank you.
 
I have a son who was diagnosed with dyslexia who was 5 years old when I came to Singapore. when we arrived he couldn't cope as he had a very limited reading ability and was scoring near zero for all his test in school. he just left some of the papers blank. My colleague of mine introduced me to this tutor who was a teacher at a special school. but now doing sort of free lance full time tutoring for special children. He tells me that he does all sorts of special kids autism , Aspergers down syndrome and especially Dyslexia. Well to cut the story short short my child started to show signs of improvement after 2 weeks as he managed to complete his paper and at least he attempted all questions. within 6 months he managed to get a 50% on his maths and 52 for English language. at least the form teacher doesn't call me and giving me negative feedback. my son is still struggling but at least his head is above water. Now that's what I call a real effective tutor. If anyone wants the contact you can pm me
 
I have 2 dyslexic kids - we caught the middle one first at age 5+ (in K2) and started intervention immediately with great results, even though we didn't have a formal diagnosis yet (we still don't - she's too smart and scored average in her testing, and MOE won't accept unless is below average... she's now in P2).

We only caught the eldest child this year (P3) because he was struggling with maths and chinese (never above 40%, cannot string sentence together) even though he can read and spell (found out he do through memory - strong visual memory skills)...

I am giving them their dyslexia intervention classes myself - 2x a week. If I don't do it myself, it would cost me $140/h to send them to private center to have their intervention class. I got myself trained at the center to be able to do this kind of intervention - I used to be a mainstream english language and literature teacher, so teaching is no problem for me.

Right now, my 3 kids all in morning session (youngest is K1, goes to morning school from 8-11) so I have a boy in P2 whom I give "tuition" to - actually it's also dyslexia intervention class. But of course, I don't charge as high as the center... because that kind of fees are crazy.

Can PM me if you need advice or need to know more about the signs and symptoms.

Dyslexia is best intervened as soon as possible - the children are very frustrated and develop poor self esteem and low confidence because they find spelling and reading and writing such a chore. My daughter went from a child who kept saying only korkor can read and was very stressed over phonics lessons to a child who would willingly read simple story books to her meimei in just 3 months of intervention.


Hi, I am Shirin, would like to find out more from you how to tell signs of Dyslexic? my boy is in P2, he is reading but very slow and not sensitive to words especially Chinese. He is able to cope with P1 so far, but I see that P2 is getting tougher... I am getting worried and frustrated. I tried to teach him but he keeps forgetting what he reads or learns. I never really considered him as dyslexic, just searched online for slow readers and found this post. Maybe he is dyslexic? I dont know. Please PM me more information.
 
I have 2 dyslexic kids - we caught the middle one first at age 5+ (in K2) and started intervention immediately with great results, even though we didn't have a formal diagnosis yet (we still don't - she's too smart and scored average in her testing, and MOE won't accept unless is below average... she's now in P2).

We only caught the eldest child this year (P3) because he was struggling with maths and chinese (never above 40%, cannot string sentence together) even though he can read and spell (found out he do through memory - strong visual memory skills)...

I am giving them their dyslexia intervention classes myself - 2x a week. If I don't do it myself, it would cost me $140/h to send them to private center to have their intervention class. I got myself trained at the center to be able to do this kind of intervention - I used to be a mainstream english language and literature teacher, so teaching is no problem for me.

Right now, my 3 kids all in morning session (youngest is K1, goes to morning school from 8-11) so I have a boy in P2 whom I give "tuition" to - actually it's also dyslexia intervention class. But of course, I don't charge as high as the center... because that kind of fees are crazy.

Can PM me if you need advice or need to know more about the signs and symptoms.

Dyslexia is best intervened as soon as possible - the children are very frustrated and develop poor self esteem and low confidence because they find spelling and reading and writing such a chore. My daughter went from a child who kept saying only korkor can read and was very stressed over phonics lessons to a child who would willingly read simple story books to her meimei in just 3 months of intervention.


Hi, I am Shirin, would like to find out more from you how to tell signs of Dyslexic? my boy is in P2, he is reading but very slow and not sensitive to words especially Chinese. He is able to cope with P1 so far, but I see that P2 is getting tougher... I am getting worried and frustrated. I tried to teach him but he keeps forgetting what he reads or learns. I never really considered him as dyslexic, just searched online for slow readers and found this post. Maybe he is dyslexic? I dont know. Please PM me more information.
 
Hi Ms Yan,

Assessment - I got my children assessed by a lady who works from home, but who is also a part-time consultant with KK. She charges just under $1K for children above 7 years old, I think (cos children under 7 use a different set of tests).

I trained to teach OG intervention at the OG Centre, and for the first part of the course, which teaches until the 2nd level, they charged me $3K. That was for a 2wk full-time program. Then I attended 2 follow-up sessions - One on the 3rd level, and another on Maths. I think all in all, I paid over $5K or $6K for everything. Comparing this to the $140/hr charge they quote for intervention for lessons twice a week, I'd have spent about $1K per month on intervention, so the $5-6K was well worth it lah.

EP stands for Educational Psychologist. This kind of psychologist will assess learning disabilities and other things like ADHD, Autism and so on.

The school's spcial needs officer must think that your son has special needs before she will be willing to refer your son to the EP (but if that happens, then I am told that that assessment is FOC). But there are many children out there who are actually dyslexic or whatever, but because they are also bright enough to sort of cope, they fall through the cracks and don't get picked up by the system. So they are never given the access to the EP as they should be.

The child that I am teaching is one such student. He is in P2 now, but the SNO (Special Needs Officer) in his school feels that even though he has problems reading and spelling, he is not LD (Learning Disabled), and so refuses to refer him to an EP. So he is stuck, because the family cannot afford to send him to a private EP. Because they are from my church, I was asked to go and informally assess the boy. In my non-professional opinion (non-professional because I am not a trained psychologist), I think he shows many signs of being dyslexic, but he is also bright enough to cope, so he comes across as just being slower than others. Sad. So we started on OG lessons with him, and he is making quite a lot of progress. I'm quite pleased with him.

But like you, his parents are more anxious about him passing exams. Sometimes they are concerned that I am not immediately teaching him the complicated things, and that he can only read the simple stuff, even though he can read the simple stuff really well, way better than when we started 2 months ago... so I have to keep telling the parents to be patient. OG is not about passing exams. OG is about helping the child to overcome his dyslexia by teaching him to read and spell through ways other than the "normal" ways of teaching.

Also, to prevent the teacher from having the mistaken idea that the work my children pass up is the result of their own work (without any help from me), I actually have an agreement with my son's schoolteacher that whatever I explain to my son, I will write down in purple ink (cos teacher uses red and orange, and son uses blue and green) and I will usually also circle those that he had some careless mistakes in. This gives the teacher a better idea of what he is weak in. Maybe you can discuss with your son's teacher to see how you can also do this with your son's work...

Hope this helps. I'm sorry I didn't reply sooner. Been busy. But feel free to ask questions. No problem there. I'll try and check back everyday.
 
Hi everyone, just sharing my experience. I once thought that my daughter is dyslexic too. She cannot read and write and had difficulties with ABCs and colours. I was worried and sending them to expensive childcare centres did not help. At 5, she received brain training and things improve a lot. PM me if you need the contact. All the best!
 
Hi

My DS, Primary 2, is dsylexic. She was diagnosed last year, after I find her having difficulties with her spelling and homework from school. We went to MOE aproved psycologist, submitted her report to school.

I did not send her to any early intervention program, cos timing consuming, so I did intervention with her at home, using OG method and abit my own method. Though she is not the top in her cohort, but she is definately above average and enjoying learning.
 
My child has dyslexia too but I am not familiar with OG methods. I decided to get a qualified therapist to help her. He is very patient unlike me. I get very flustered and it doesn't help my child. Anyway he gives me tips to help her and I can see some steady improvement in her school work and work attitude even her form teacher stopped calling me. Thank you to Mr B her helpful tutor. Ps I don't find DAS helpful but that's just my opinion
 
Hi my child who is 4.5 years old has been having difficulty learning alphabets be it naming the letters or phonetically. She speaks well and seems like any other 4 year old except her total lack of interest when it comes to alphabet learning. We suspect she is dyslexic as her OT has highlighted visual processing issues and directional confusion ( symptoms of dyslexic children). Her OT sessions are focused on core muscles development and bilateral focus ( looking at a 6 months timeframe ). She just started therapy and it involves a lot of balancing, tunneling, swinging and following sequential instructions. OT thinks it is important to have strong core foundation before she is ready to learn alphabets as it requires both visual, auditory inputs and sequencing ( for words). OT has also advised I should stay away from teaching her alphabets anymore as she has developed a slight aversion because she is aware of her incompetencies.

I am not sure whether I should jump the gun and engage separate a private OG trained tutor or 1x1 educational therapy to accelerate her academic progression. At K1, her teacher is going to start word blending and poor child, she can't cope even with single alphabets. I am more worried her self-esteem would be affected.

Would gladly appreciate if anyone has experience to share if they had undergone a similar process for example undergo therapy to strengthen core learning ( no academic) and whether such therapy is effective in helping dyslexic kids ? It doesn't seem to be directly correlated to learning and I hope to maximize any early intervention benefits.
 
My girl is in p2, she went to DAS for assessment at $745. Due to her high IQ in some areas, they do not consider her as dyslexic and thus they can't accept her as subsidise. She can get 0 for her dictation and her English Chinese subjects are a struggle to her and for us to teach. She also consider mild ADHD by her kk pd. Quite disappointed like some post here that mentioned seems like only if ur condition is very bad then das will consider ur child dyslexic. Very contradicting to the norm where a high IQ child doesn't means the child is not dyslexic. I'm lost what to do next. Can anyone advice??
 
HI eyevee
Your child may have some sort of mild autism. I am not sure as i am not an expert. My childs occupational therapist cum educational therapist is very good. He has made great improvement in my child and he gets to the root of the problem easily and can motivate\ explain to my child in clear terms. However he charges about 150 for the first consultation. He is a registered therapist with the govt so you do not have to worry. If you are desperate you should give it a try,
By the way he words as a consultant for a govt special school so i am sure he knows what he is doing
 
Hello! I am an experienced EdT with over 3 years of teaching and tutoring. I have taught over 40 students from Pri 1 - Sec 4, with dyslexia and am OG-trained and certified. I specialize in English and Chinese language, but I do teach Math and Science. I currently tutor students from Primary 1-6. Early intervention is key to success.

Do drop me an email at [email protected] if u wish to enquire on rates and availability!
 
Hi I'm a special needs educator who was previously a Senior Educational Therapist with the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) and will attempt to answer some questions here as objectively as possible. You can find out more about me at my website: https://thealternative.education/
 
My girl is in p2, she went to DAS for assessment at $745. Due to her high IQ in some areas, they do not consider her as dyslexic and thus they can't accept her as subsidise. She can get 0 for her dictation and her English Chinese subjects are a struggle to her and for us to teach. She also consider mild ADHD by her kk pd. Quite disappointed like some post here that mentioned seems like only if ur condition is very bad then das will consider ur child dyslexic. Very contradicting to the norm where a high IQ child doesn't means the child is not dyslexic. I'm lost what to do next. Can anyone advice??

Even though your child may not have dyslexia, she seems to have trouble with her academic subjects. I have a network of tutors who are previously from the DAS who offer private home tuition services and also a centre at Jurong East. Let me know if you'd like to find out more about our services at [email protected], or call/text/Whatsapp me at 8749 2441.

You can also find out more about us at our website: https://thealternative.education/
 
Hi my child who is 4.5 years old has been having difficulty learning alphabets be it naming the letters or phonetically. She speaks well and seems like any other 4 year old except her total lack of interest when it comes to alphabet learning. We suspect she is dyslexic as her OT has highlighted visual processing issues and directional confusion ( symptoms of dyslexic children). Her OT sessions are focused on core muscles development and bilateral focus ( looking at a 6 months timeframe ). She just started therapy and it involves a lot of balancing, tunneling, swinging and following sequential instructions. OT thinks it is important to have strong core foundation before she is ready to learn alphabets as it requires both visual, auditory inputs and sequencing ( for words). OT has also advised I should stay away from teaching her alphabets anymore as she has developed a slight aversion because she is aware of her incompetencies.

I am not sure whether I should jump the gun and engage separate a private OG trained tutor or 1x1 educational therapy to accelerate her academic progression. At K1, her teacher is going to start word blending and poor child, she can't cope even with single alphabets. I am more worried her self-esteem would be affected.

Would gladly appreciate if anyone has experience to share if they had undergone a similar process for example undergo therapy to strengthen core learning ( no academic) and whether such therapy is effective in helping dyslexic kids ? It doesn't seem to be directly correlated to learning and I hope to maximize any early intervention benefits.

Hi,

The OT that I work closely with informed me that core muscle exercises will help with handwriting as it involves a series of different muscles working together, and they are part of them. The OT training you described also touches on bilateral focus and that will help with reading and tracking, which are also components directly related to writing. Hope that helps.

In any case, if you'd like to engage a private OG trained tutor, we have some ex-DAS Senior Educational Therapists you can tap on. Feel free to email me at [email protected] or call/text/Whatsapp me at 8749 2441 for more details.

Also, you can find out more about our services at our website: https://thealternative.education/
 
Hi, I am Shirin, would like to find out more from you how to tell signs of Dyslexic? my boy is in P2, he is reading but very slow and not sensitive to words especially Chinese. He is able to cope with P1 so far, but I see that P2 is getting tougher... I am getting worried and frustrated. I tried to teach him but he keeps forgetting what he reads or learns. I never really considered him as dyslexic, just searched online for slow readers and found this post. Maybe he is dyslexic? I dont know. Please PM me more information.

Hi Shirin,

Some signs your child might be dyslexic include the following:
  • Doesn’t recognise rhyming patterns like ‘cat’, ‘bat’, ‘rat’.
  • Complains about how hard reading is.
  • Confuses words that sound alike such as saying “volcano” for “tornado”, and changing “lotion” to “ocean”.
  • Has trouble finishing tests on time.
  • Is able to do word problems when read to him/her, but unable to do it on his/her own.
  • Is very articulate and creative when narrating an story, but unable to write as rich a description.
You can get the form teacher or school counsellor to schedule an appointment with the Educational Psychologist with MOE to get him tested. Although they have a long waitlist and might take months. Alternatively, the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) provides assessment services too at $749+ and you only need to wait a couple weeks for them to contact you. There are also private psychologists out there who can do assessments immediately.

I wrote more about it in an article "How to spot dyslexia early and what it's important" over at http://www.kidsandparenting.com/kid...-to-spot-dyslexia-early-and-why-its-important

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Rachel Tan
https://thealternative.education/
 
I have a son in Primary 2, currently a student at DAS. He went for the assessment last year and was put on the literacy programme since... 2 lessons per week. He is not progressing and unable to apply skills in mainstream classroom. He performed very poorly in all his subjects recently... seems to be far worse than a K1 child unable to read & write anything sensible. He is my third child, so the comparisons are based on the experiences of his older siblings. He exhibits other intelligences, just not in literacy. I am unable to intervene effectively.

I am looking for a special needs tutor for individual sessions to give him support in addition to the DAS lessons. Would anyone out there be able to provide contacts of effective tutors to meet his learning needs? Thank you.

Hi,

Your son should be in Primary 4 now. Hope you've managed to find a special needs tutor for him. If you haven't, we have some ex-Senior Educational Therapists from the DAS who can help your son.

Do contact me at [email protected] or call/text/Whatsapp me at 8749 2441 for more details.

Regards,
Rachel Tan
https://thealternative.education/
 
Hi,

I just changed upon this thread. Should have find it earlier. I really would like to find out more about the GO course. I hope to learn about it n teach my twin girls who are really slow and higher likely to have dyslexia. They have been attending DAS for preschooler now. Shown improvement but the elder twin is still having difficulty reading and her writing is still in the oppo direction.
 
I suspect my P3 girl have dyslexia. I’m lost without family support as my Husband don’t wish my girl to be label. What should I do now?
 
If.you are thinking of going to the Dyslexia Association of Singapore for your child, you might want to reconsider.
Have you observed any of DAS' online learning sessions recently?
Throughout the HBL session, what was covered and how it was done did not seem unique or any different from any lesson conducted by normal teachers in tuition or enrichment centres, or by a competent undergrad tutor.
I could not really see how the DAS method or curriculum is differentiated to specially cater to support the learning needs of a child with dyslexia.
I was also concerned that I could observe how the other children performed in the same class too. Maybe some parents are OK with having their child's weakness seen by others, but it's a big no-no for me due to privacy concerns.
 
I suspect my P3 girl have dyslexia. I’m lost without family support as my Husband don’t wish my girl to be label. What should I do now?
Did your girl get the help she needs? Interestingly, it has been thought, for the longest time, that more boys are dyslexic than girls, but as it turns out, it is the same proportion! Just that boys will give up or act up while girls keep trying. Hope all is well now.
 
Hi,

I just changed upon this thread. Should have find it earlier. I really would like to find out more about the GO course. I hope to learn about it n teach my twin girls who are really slow and higher likely to have dyslexia. They have been attending DAS for preschooler now. Shown improvement but the elder twin is still having difficulty reading and her writing is still in the oppo direction.
This is 3 years late, not sure if anyone responded to you and if you are still active on this forum. I suppose you are referring to the OG course. I took it and worked as a therapist for some time. I also taught my son - it worked for him and he can read well now
 
Do kids with dyslexia usually have trouble learning Chinese too? What are the signs and where can we go get help for them to learn better?

My child is 5 by the way.
 
This is 3 years late, not sure if anyone responded to you and if you are still active on this forum. I suppose you are referring to the OG course. I took it and worked as a therapist for some time. I also taught my son - it worked for him and he can read well now


Hi, could I PM you to ask more about the OG course? My girl is suspected to be highly likely to have it and she's only 5. I'm thinking of taking this course and want to explore career options with it in the future too.
 

Was searching for some info on dysgraphia and came upon this thread.
I was wonder aside from children, does anyone here continue to suffer from dyslexia till adult.
I am at my 40s. Only last few years i found out that i have slight reading problem and realise it is dysgraphia or part of dyslexia. During my younger days, my parent do not know there are such children problems, they are hawkers and they dont study much.. It is very frustrating and alot of hardworks over the years to correct this... till today.

I am wondering anyone has the same problem even as adult, facing this problem day to day.
example i can write an email, and reading it over and over,ensuring they are fine. But the moment i sent out, my nightmare began. I read my email the next day, full of errors and the my sentences structure all go haywire..... It happened so many times in my life. I pondered why i didnt captured my mistakes earlier, despite double, triple vetting my emails....
 

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