Dyslexia

zeekids

New Member
Does anyone who have kids with dyslexia problem. Can you share with me how to cope. I don't have support from family except friends and son's teachers.
Thanks
 


HOw old is your kid?

All primary schools have at least 1 teacher specially trained in handling kids with special needs like dyslexia/ADHD etc.
MOE primary school teachers will have gone through some workshops in helping dyslexic kids too. Speak to your kid's teachers, if not, the principal. They should be able to offer you more assistance.

Primary schools also have reading propgrams to help dyslexic kids.
 
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.
 
Oh, and it's not the teacher who is trained in handling the special needs kids... it's the Special Needs Officer (SNO) - they are not normal teaching staff... they are trained to only support the special neeeds children, mostly dyslexic or autistic kids... then there is Learning Support, which supports the children who are behind in their academics... but who are not diagnosed as having any kind of Learning Disability. The two things are different.
 
Hi Dorie,

My son also have dyslexia and currently in P1.Like you, I did not bring him for formal assessment due to the fees. Would like to know more on how to conduct your own intervention.Myself had read up on the topic and very confirm that he is dyslexic.But now very lost on how to teach him.
 
Hi Cindy,

Thanks for the link. I'm aware of DSA in S'pore, but the fee they charge is still very high. Even assessment can cost $500.

If base on my husband's income, we are not considered poor. So don't think can get any further subsidies. The fact that my family not able to afford is the many committments like parents, 3 kids & myself not working.

This website do not teach us how to train our kids. What I'm looking for is to conduct my own intervention just like dorie.No need to be complete type of training, at least just let my son pass his exam can already.
 
Hi Ms Yan,

I just received your first PM have replied, but I'll post here anyway.

The training that I got was detailed. It's not easy, and not something that anyone can do. Not that I want to discourage you, but from the way you write, it is obvious that there are some parts of the English Language that you have not fully grasped, and to be honest, to be able to conduct the intervention yourself, you need to have a very good command of English, and you need to know what the words really sound like and how things are. I don't know what you meant when you said "no need to be complete type of training" - it doesn't work that way.

If you think your son is dyslexic, why don't you ask the school's SNO about it, and ask them to have a look at him and see if he can get a referral through school. If can get referral through school, he can be assessed at a very minimal fee, or even for free, I have heard.

The fees that DSA charges is considered not high already. Private places and institutions charge at least $1K for tests... and up to $1.5K, I have been told.

It's tough when you have many commitments and your finances are tied up... but sometimes, certain things, you have to re-arrange and try to make some sacrifices if you can...

Oh, and both my kids have gone through their formal assessments. I brought them to see an EP. So my son is now officially diagnosed as dyslexic, with exemption from Chinese. My daughter, we are waiting to re-assess her end of the year or early next year. Maybe that wasn't clear in my posts.
 
Hi dorie,

Thanks for your reply. May I know how much you paid for your child to be assess, the course fee of your training and where were you trained?Also what does EP stands for?Pardon me for asking so many questions.

I know its not easy to teach a kid what more a dyslexic. But I'm really left with no choice. When my son was in K2, I'm already quite confirm of his special needs. I tried teaching him using the minimum knowledge I had, but his progress was very slow. I can't even afford normal rate tuition and coach my kids all subjects myself. His teacher thinks he under perform is due to him not paying attention in class. I ever told his teacher regarding his needs but she don't seemed to agree. Nowadays alot of work are done after parents went through and corrected before handed in to the teacher. Plus his teacher only taught him for 2.5months, of course its not easy for her to spot his disability.
 
hi ms yan,
i dun think there's any assessment charges if ur child is assessed by the EP. u might wanna check with ur child's form teacher or the LSP coordinator for more information on how to refer ur child for assessment.
 
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 dorie,

Thanks alot for explaining in such details.I felt that nowadays parents know more then teachers on their kids as we are the ones who really sit down & guide them in their studies and therefore also the ones who knew best. I also felt sad when my son's teacher feels that he under perform due to not being attentive enough in class then his special needs.She even commented that he can read better then most kids in class.But she didn't see how overload his working memory is when he tried to decipher each word whenever he reads aloud.

If the school refuse to refer him to an EP, then I got no choice but to send him to DSA. But then again, so what if he is assess when I can't afford the fees they charge for these intervention. That is also why I'm in a dilemma.
 
But DSA fees should be quite affordable what... they only charge about 100+ a month, works out to be about 20+ an hour, for group class on weekdays. They charge about 500+, but that amount is for a term, and if you pay by GIRO, it's 170+/mth.

The assessment is about 500 or something... I was just looking at it just now. But you know what, if he is reading well and reading aloud, then you may want to hold back on the assessment.

I sent my girl for assessment when she was in P1, but only 6years4mths old. Because of that, she was tested using the test for the under 7yos. In the end, her scores are too "good" - her IQ is above average, and because she is clever, she can guess until she can get a higher score... so her language scores managed to just fall into the "average" category. Because of that, she cannot be classified as a dyslexic, even though the EP said she feels that she is one. That is why we have to re-assess her end of this year (P2) because by then she will be 8, and the EP will be using a higher level test for her.

My son was diagnosed at the end of P2, when he was 8y5m old... he got his diagnosis straight away. I was actually quite surprised, because my son could read and spell much better than my girl.

Is your son failing in school? Otherwise, what makes you think he is dyslexic? What are some of his "symptoms"? Did he have any topical/CA tests yet? How is he doing in schoolwork?
 
Hi dorie,

Yes, DSA is the cheapest I can find so far. But still we can't afford due to the many committments we had.My hubby needs to support 3 kids, me & his parents. so total is 4 adults and 3 kids.My baby is currently taken care by a nanny who charge $800 per month for 5 days & nights as I need to coach the 2 elder ones in their school work.My son simply can't be left alone to do his work.If I'm not looking at him, his mind will wonder away & can't sit still till his work are done.My baby always wanted me to carry her till I can't even go through their homework let alone teaching them.Nowadays we can't leave their studies totally to the school like our times. My daughter's teacher ever told me that I can't depend on the school to let them have enough practise. I got to buy assessment books for them to do.We used to do that only in P6. But now even P1 also need.
I called up DSA and was told that I got to wait till June when my son turn 7 if I want accurate assessment. But he just failed his CA1 English.
Some of his symptoms are:
1) read b as d, m as w, u as n
2) read 'was' as 'saw'
3) read 'father' as 'after'
4) keep missing or jumping to line above when reading without finger pointing.
5) even as a baby till now he kept loosing balance and fell when he walks on flat ground.

Last year I already suspected, but was hopeing that he can at least pass his exam.Fact is, he can't though I teach him to read since middle of K2.Since K1 till now, all his teachers commented that he is fast learner, that's why they don't think there is anything wrong with him.In fact they says that his understanding on the subjects are above most kids his age.But because he is very active and inattentive in class makes them think that that must be the reason.

Since financially we can't afford, then I won't need to wait till he turn 7yrs to start intervention right. That is also why I did alot of research myself on how to help him. But looking at the course fee you paid to get trained yourself is not the solution for me.
 
Hi Ms Yan,

Sorry to ask so many questions, just trying to find out how I can help you. I know of quite a few of those people like me who have gone through training. If you will tell me more details like where you stay and stuff like that, I will ask around and see if anyone is willing to take on your son for free, or for a minimal sum... there are some out there who are newly trained, but who are looking for students to "practise" on. Not that they are not qualified. They are just not confident enough to charge, and may want to get some experience first.

Can you tell me more about your family? And what are your commitments like? Meaning, will you be able to take your son to classes if someone is willing to help him? How old are your son and daughter? (I assume both are in p sch, I know your son is P1, your girl leh?) Are they in the morning or afternoon session?

Wah, if you can somehow manage to settle your school-going children during the normal hours (that means not at night), then you can send your baby to infant care, so that you can use the baby bonus... then you will not be so tied up with th money right? But from what I read, you need the nanny because the baby needs to be taken care of in the night also right? Does that mean your children are in different sessions? What kind of a routine do they keep? I understand your difficulty - I also have 3 kids, although my youngest is now in K1 already. I kept her in childcare until end of N1 so that she would not disturb her jiejie/korkor during homework time, even though at that time I was no longer working also.

If you find that it's not safe to reveal all this info on the forum, then please PM me, and we can continue our conversation in email.

I'm also a bit confused. His teachers say his understanding is above average, but yet he failed CA1 English. What about Maths? Chinese? What about your daughter's results? What school do they go to?

Worst comes to worst, you may have to do that lor. Wait for him to fail then hope that the system will catch him so that he can go through the subsidized route. Sounds very heartless, but it's possible lor.

OK, most importantly now, I need to know where you stay and whether you can take your kid to class. I will go and ask my friends about the lessons. OK?
 
Being a dyslexic and a father of pre-school girl, I chanced across this chat abt Dyslexia and would like to ask, have anyone work with dyslexic parents.

I am concern of the traits that my girl is starting to show, and wondering if there are more as a dyslexic parent can do or mindful before it's too late.
 
Hi adrian,

I've never worked with dyslexic parents before... but we think my husband is dyslexic because he does show some signs.

But I'm not entirely sure what you meant by "if there is more a dyslexic parent and do or be mindful of" and what you meant by it's too late?
 
Ms Yan
For a start you might want to take up this course at DAS http://www.das.org.sg/index.php?option=com_dailymessage&Itemid=122&act=2&id=83
Dyslexic children needs to be drill on the phonics which will help them decode words. Through your research you might realise that Dyslexic child photographs words in his mind. He does not know that cat is c-a-t. He remembers how the word look like. You can tap on the Governments $200 care giver's grant to pay for the fees if you are tight right now. You can asked the trainer for a softcopy for the phonic cards and print them yourself at home. AFter that you can use it to drill letter sounds to your child. However, I still advice you enrol your child ASAP to DAS. Remediation is harder once they past 9 years old.
 
Hi Narak,

Thanks for your advise. Have not come to this forum for a long time as I had being doing plenty more research on how to teach my son to read. I realised that phonics will not help because reading is about comprehension and not just word recognition. He may be able to read all the words in a sentence after trying very hard, but due to the time and effort taken to sound out every word, he will not be able to comprehen what he is reading. And everything he read becomes senseless to him.Had applied the method taught in Read Right, a book which I borrowed from the library. He had since improved. And yes, he don't read by looking at all the letters. Infact all of us who are excellent readers don't sound out every letter in a word.We actually use a predictive strategy.Details I shall not write here if not it will be very long.

My elderest daughter on the other hand had taught herself to read even way before she was taught phonics. I found that the method discussed in Read Right is just exactly what my daughter did without even knowing it herself. And this is also why I believed its better that drilling on phonics. Phonics will only comes in when a person read with excellent and sound like conversational speech. We use phonics to decode one or two new words, but not almost all the words in a sentence. Think its a misconception that all along I had that we need to sound out every word in order to read a sentence. How wrong I was.

All along I had being looking for a method to coach my son myself due to financial reasons. I am aware that we can use the baby bonus. But sadly, my 3rd kid's baby bonus is meant for her childcare's fee. My son's baby bonus already withdrawn and put in my 3rd kids CDA so that gov can do the matching. All these alternative are already considered. What I am looking for is are there other methods that are tested and proven from other mummies or daddies like myself and not any private or gov intitution that can offers help but comes with a fee because I had considered them all.

Thanks for all the kind intentions or suggestions. Surely I believe there must be parents out there who are like me. Who did it on their own and succeed. By the way I haven't succeed. He just failed his SA1 English.
 
Dear parent,

I've came across a wonderful book entitled, "Reading Reflex" from the library. It focus on phono-graphix rather than phonics. Phonics has been very popular; however, as what ms yan's last posting here has revealed, phonics actually do not help at all, especially with dyslexia.

If anyone from this thread had come across this program before, please PM me to share more. Thanks.
 
Ms Yan, you are confusing the caregiver's fund with baby bonus.

They are not the same. You can use the caregiver's grant to pay for courses that will enable you to help your child better. But for you to be able to use that at DAS, your child has to be diagnosed at dyslexic in the first place.

Now that your son has turned 7 (he turned 7 this month right?) You can send him to DSA for a test? Or you can ask your school SNO to look at him again and see if you can get him referred through the school because then, the assessment is free, if I am not wrong.

With the diagnosis (and it shouldn't be hard to get, esp since your son failed SA1 and CA1), you will be able to apply for the courses and apply for the caregiver's grant which will pay for the course. Then you can properly coach and do intervention with him at home.

It would seem that your son desperately needs proper help since he is already failing. Is he already in the school's LSP program? Since he failed?
 
Hi Celia - I have the book reading reflex, and I have examined the content... but I think that because dyslexics tend to be kinesthetic learners, the phono-graphix may not help as much, although it may still help more than normal phonics instruction.

The OG method used as intervention for dyslexia is a multi-sensory program - and children with dyslexia need that to "input" the information into their brains. The problem with dyslexics is that their brains are wired differently, and with the multi-sensory program, they will over time, with consistent drilling, learn to read using the correct parts of their brains just like regular children. The dyslexic brain is physiologically wired differently, and it can be trained to be "re-wired". The OG method also covers more than just basic phonics - it goes into syllabication (how to read words that are more than one syllable, how to spell such words etc...) as well as morphology (where words come from and how it affects their spelling and meaning etc...).

Many OG teachers also incorporate comprehension into their OG lessons because that is an integral part of reading. As Ms Yan has discovered, we don't read by sounding out every single letter/part/bit of a word... but that is how a dyslexic child struggles. The OG program aims to make decoding automatic by helping them to internalise the decoding in the way they can, then OG teachers go on to helping them tackle comprehension as part of language learning and language arts. We also work on writing because the dyslexic mind is usually also not very organised - so we give them structure and scaffolding to help them work out what to write and how to go about padding their writing and so on.

I hope that helps to clear any misunderstanding. The OG program is NOT just another phonics program. It aims to rewire the dyslexic mind... and in most OG lessons in Singapore that I know of, the teachers will also work to incorporate comprehension and writing and language arts into the OG lessons as well, since this is absolutely necessary in developing language.
 
Hi dorie,

Thks for the clarification. Care to share more about this OG courses? I'm very keen to find out more. Please share the link or more details about this OG. Thanks a lot!!
 
Hi Celia...

The OG program for dyslexic children is for the purpose of intervention.

You can get yourself trained as an OG teacher, as I have mentioned in an earlier post. This can be done either at OG centre or at DAS. If you do it at DAS, you can make use of the caregiver's fund, if you have a dyslexic child who has been diagnosed... you will have to submit the Psychologist Report if you want to make use of the fund.

You can just google "OG centre" and you should be able to find the link. You can read my previous posts to see my comments about the current courses (which is slightly different from the course I took).

This post http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/cgi-bin/forumboard/board-profile.cgi?action=view_profile&profile=dorieme-users

You can PM me if you want to find out more. I don't want to do advertisement for anyone unnecessarily lah. OK?
 
Hi dorie,

Thanks for clarifying about caregiver's grant. But $200 per yr can be enough to pay for maybe 1 mth's fee?

To be precise, I am looking for something free or very low cost, but my family income is not low. So where on earth or in S'pore has such thing. And why I can't afford. Said this a few times already.... My husband just got too many mouths to feed. I can't even afford normal tution rate.

So the only option I had is myself. And that is why I had been reading up alot. Really appreciate all the suggestions and advise.And do hoped to hear of success cases from parents who are in the same shoe as me.

Oh yes, had approached the SNO in his school. sadly he didn't get through. He is 6.5yrs this month. They suggest assess him again after he pass 7yrs.
 
Ms yan, nooooooo, the caregiver grant is not for paying for your son's classes - it's for you to use to subsidise your own courses that you take that are related to his disability. So if he is diagnosed with dyslexia, then you want to take course to learn more about how to help him with intervention, then you can use that grant to pay for some of the course fees.

Eh? But last time you said, "I called up DSA and was told that I got to wait till June when my son turn 7 if I want accurate assessment." - I thought he turned 7 in June? How come now he only 6.5yrs? When is his birthday?

Yes, it's true. Assessment must wait until past 7yrs of age.

Is he on the LSP at school? Are they already giving him some sort of intervention?

Yes, I know about your financial background. Maybe can go and approach MP and ask for help? Your situation is a little bit different... per head the income perhaps is not enough... see whether they can hook you up to some cheaper tuition or something... or see if can get some kind of financing? I also dunno much about this kind of thing. Cannot help you much. Sorry.

Maybe you should reconsider taking up my friend's offer to do intervention with your son for free. You just have to pay her a little to cover her transport...

Not that I want to discourage you or put you down, but based on the language you use, you might still not be the best person to help him... you want to help him, but you also want to make sure that he gets solid help right? Just consider it lah. For your son's sake...
happy.gif
 
Hi dorie,

Sorry, I miscalculated his age last time. He is a dec boy. born dec 2002. At DSA, he can get assess if he hits 6.5yrs. But school recommend 7yrs. That's how I keep confusing his actual age.

Recently I got to know a P5 boy from his school who is dyslexic. He had attend intervention classes in KKH since K2. Until now, he never pass English before. And since last year, He failed all subject except Maths which he pass by a few marks. So KKH recommend him to DSA, but sadly was rejected due to his disabilies not severe enough.His parents already spent a bomb for him in KKH. And after paying >$100 to DSA and this is all he gets. Can't help but felt very disappointed. So does this means DSA is only for those "hopeless" case only? That boy failed so many times till he don't believe he can ever pass. And he is still considered not severe enough.

The school did not give my son or that P5 boy any intervention.

Of course I am not the best person to give my son any intervention. But I don't really have a choice.
 
...ok, I will back off... I can tell you are very stressed already.

Yes, better to be 7plus to get assessment, than pay for first assessment then can't get diagnosis.

to me, it seems you have the choice of paying someone a very minimal sum to get your son the intervention that he needs, but you don't seem to consider that as an option... so, if that's the case, then you really have no more choices lor.

I don't know about the P5 case... but I also know of many diagnosed dyslexics who have good home support in addition to consistent and solid intervention, and they are doing well.

I didn't know they had dyslexia intervention in KK. Perhaps that is some other kind of intervention?... because I don't think they do dyslexia intervention in KK specifically. I know the kids there get intervention in terms of Occupational Therapy (for kids with other things like ADHD or dysgraphia or dyspraxia) and speech therapy and stuff. Not sure those are OG classes, targetting specifically at dyslexia.

Anyway, then there is nothing else, but to wish you all the best... should you change your mind about getting help from my friend, you know where to find me.
happy.gif
 
Hi dorie,

Thanks for your help.Why I reject your friend's help cos I don't know her and don't know you personally. I will feel bad if I accept your friend's help.

And why I think I am able to help him cos I believed you don't need to be a English teacher to teach English so long your education is not too low.Though you are trained in OG, but you can also not be the best person to handle your kids as you lack of the many experience those teachers in DAS had. But to teach them is your best option. So to teach my son myself is also my best option so far.

Actually I am not stress and infact feel more hopeful for my son after I applied the method on the book I read titled "Read Right".He had improved so far though still fail his exam.Now he can read short stories like Clifford and able to fully comprehend. But still can't spell.

What type of intervention KKH had, I do not know.But I know OG is not the only method for dyslexia intervention though DAS uses OG.I saw the worksheets he did at KKH. Looks like phonics and very short comprehension that is not even up to P1 level.

Actually I am looking forward to hear from other parents like me who succeed on their own.No point discussing on something that is not my option.What is the best solution for others may not be the best for me.
 
Hi dorie,

Wondered if you like to share your kids results after intervention. I remembered you said your elderest who never get >40% for Maths & MT. How long did he take to just pass. Can PM me if you don't want to share openly.
 
Hi all Mummies & Daddies,

Would like to share another book I read recently written by a local author that had changed my expectations on my kids. Sorry.. read so many books till I can't remember the title and the author.

It wrote:
results > expectations = satisfaction
results < expectations = fustruation

So are we having too much expectations on our kids? To fail in the exam does not mean he is going to fail in life.I used to think I only want my son to pass. So I am not expecting alot. But to him, a pass may be just something out of reach. So I got to lower my expectations and don't give him all the undeserved stress.

Success = {love + time + knowledge + health + money} opportunity

1st : The child must love to study
2nd : Parents must give them the time to help them
3rd : They must know where to get the knowledge they need.
4th : Physically they must be abled
5th : Financially sound to pay for courses etc
6th and most importantly,opportunity. There are many people who did well in school, but simply lack the opportunity in life to succeed.
 
Hi Ms Yan,

My eldest never got more than 40% for Chinese. Not Maths. And no, no improvement for Chinese - he has dropped that subject now. He is exempted from taking Chinese as an examinable subject. Same for my daughter.

My son still struggles with Maths because he is learning new topics all the time. However, with intervention and the right teaching methods, he has been scoring above 70 for his SAs. His English is the same. He will always score about 70 as well. Because I was a teacher, I was able to see from the time he was in kindy that he needs to be taught differently, and thus we have always used creative methods as well as manipulatives to address his difficulties in maths. When I went to attend the OG course for Maths, I realised that the things I was doing was similar to what was suggested... but they provided better tools (manipulatives) for teaching... so that helped.

My daughter is the same. She was a very reluctant reader - didn't want to read. Now she reads quite well. It's not perfect yet, but it's much much much better than when she first started. She's still struggling with her Spelling though, but her achievement in Primary 1 was to get 10/10 for SA2 Spelling, after much hard work. This round, she didn't do as well because her P2 teacher didn't give her any special accomodation (she had to learn a list of 30 words and be tested only on 10), and she only got 1/15 for spelling &amp; dictation. However, she still managed to score 66/100, which means, now that she has her official diagnosis, and she can officially get proper accomodation, she can go back to scoring about 70+, like she was doing in P1.

She's much better at Maths, so she scores about 80% for Maths generally speaking. Her English is usually in the 70s as well. All this is with intervention in place.

Generally, the teachers of both my older kids feel that my kids are coping very very well despite their disabilities. They can see that they are struggling, yes. But despite that, they are still scoring in the 70s, so that is wonderful.

Hope that helps.
 
Oh, and btw... OG is very structured and sequenced. So because our school system teaches and tests word thematically, many of the words that our kids are tested on they may not have learnt the rules/sounds for during OG yet. So that is why my daughter's spelling is still not very good. Because a lot of the sounds are not learnt to the point of automaticity yet.
 
Hi dorie,

Its seemed like your kids results are not too bad even without intervention. At least they didn't fail English. But don't understand why your son fail Chinese. I thought Chinese is by word recognition. My son's English is 40+, Chinese is 60+ and Maths 80+.

Btw when I say my son can't spell, I'm not referring to his exam spelling list of 30 words. That one he can score full marks. I'm talking about when I ask him to spell a simple word using the sound he hears, he can't. Or rather he spell using other letters that have the same sound.

Eg : "carry" he spelled "carri" or "put" as "poot"
 
that's where OG comes in actually.

Like how no English words ends with 'i' or how 'u' there is 2 long sounds. one of it which is 'oo'.

All the rules might look complicated but I call it the 'kung fu' for dyslexic children. With this they can attack any words!!!

Then again. OG does not work best for all dyslexics. It is just the one that works for most dyslexics that's all
happy.gif
for now....
 
Actually there are words that end with "i" eg. broccoli &amp; stimuli.

My son knew "u" had 2 sounds and one of which is "oo". Infact he knew all the sounds of letters including those with more then 1 sound. But he don't know when to use them. That's why he is better at reading then spelling.

I ever read a book on how to teach dyslexics. And that is it must be explicit &amp; systematic. There are also rules like when 2 vowels surround 2 consonants, we got to split in between the 2 consonants read them as 2 syllabus. eg "collect", we read as 'col' 'lect'. All these rules does help , but only a little. Firstly, they are not full proof. Just last wk, my son ask me why begged is not read as 'beg' 'ged'. There is also another rule that says a vowel, followed by a consonant and end with 'e', we need to pronounce the vowel as the long vowel sound and the 'e' shutup. eg 'bite' the 'i' is pronounce as the letter name itself whereas 'bit' the 'i' is pronounce as short vowel sound.but ever come across words that don't follow this rules too.can't remember them now.

I only introduce him a few of these rules that I know,but already realise that when he reads, he is very busy looking out for all these at the same time trying to sound out every word. Therefore even if he can read, his reading is slow, laborious and can't comprehen.

That is also why at the beginning of the year, his teacher commented that he can read better then alot of other kids but didn't realise that he can't comprehen. And she thought he fail is due to his inattentiveness in class not not some disability. But being someone who guide him in his school work,though I'm not a teacher,I already knew his problem since last yr.

During the June holiday, I applied the method learned in "Read Right", I find that it worked better on him. It's not a method to teach reading infact because reading is self taught. It only teaches me how to provide him an enviroment where he can &amp; will teach himself how to read even without knowing all these rules of English.

I ever ask my eldest how she know when she needs to pronounce letter C as "k" sound and when to pronounce it as "s" sound or her teacher ever tell her when 'c' gets together with 'e','i',and 'y' it must pronounce as 's' sound? Her answer is no. But why she know, her answer is "it just don't sound right". Yes our brain will tell us when it don't sound right.

Currently my son reads to me 2 simple stories and in return I read to him 1 story that he choose. He always choose Mr Midnight. I told him to stop when his brain tells him the sentence or story don't make sense and see if he misread any word or skip a sentence.It kind of work. Because he don't need to be busy looking out for all the rules and he can comprehen better. But he will apply those rules he learnt only on the few words that he don't know. But most time I will just tell him, cos his brain will figure it out itself.Why I read not books his level, but books he is interested is actually to create an "enviroment" for him to be interested in reading.
 
There are always exceptions to rules. Words that don't follow the rules are taught in OG as "red flag words" or "learned words". These words are to be taught by sight, not sound.

Like I said previously, the whole aim of OG is to make decoding automatic - just like it is with normal kids. Thus, the whole program works at having the kids practice until their visual memory bank is oversaturated with the words - what they look like, how to read and how to spell. The reason it doesn't work for your son is because it is not saturated to a point of automation. It doesn't mean that it doesn't work.

The whole idea of intervention is to make decoding automatic for these kids. And you can't achieve that unless you systematically teach them everything there is to know, making sure to teach until they are very familiar with one thing before going on to another. So you cannot teach the various rules all at once. You just get a very confused kid.

And if you teach only some rules without knowledge of other rules, you then find yourself in the position of being unable to answer his questions - because the things he brings up follow other rules.

For example - begged is not two syllables. It's one. because "ed" is a suffix that shows past tense, and in this case, it ends in a voiced consonant, so it takes on the voiced sound of /d/. The "g" is doubled because of the fact that it is a one-syllable-word with one vowel followed by one consonant, so the "g" gets doubled.

The root of the problem Ms Yan, is that while you're trying your best, you are using at best partial knowledge and this only serves to confuse your child more when you teach one part without realising there are a whole lot of other parts to teach, and are unable to explain the whys and hows. And yes, there are many many methods out there, but if you pick and choose methods from all over the place, it's going to confuse him all the more, and he might end up more and more frustrated.

I don't think it is very useful to keep comparing your girl with your boy simply because their brains are wired differently.

with regards to my children "doing well without intervention" - I don't know if you misread or did not understand what I wrote. My children are doing well because they are receiving intervention from me. I have been using differentiated methods to teach my son maths since kindergarten because I realised even from then that he couldn't be taught maths normally. This was way before he got diagnosed. His english has always been strong - his dyslexia affects his english more in the area of comprehension - and again, i have always used other methods to teach him that at home. My girl has received OG training since K2, and she also receives special instruction in maths whenever she gets stuck, although she is much better in maths than her brother.

Both of them are bad in Chinese. My son can write the words, but he can't associate the words with the meanings. Since he cannot comprehend the language (whether written or spoken) he cannot put sentences together and so on, and does not understand it no matter how it's conveyed. So that's why his chinese is bad. But if you drill him, he can memorise the way the characters are written for a spelling test, and if there aren't too many that sound the same (same pronunciation and tone) then he might well ace the test... but he still doesn't understand what he is writing.

There are rules for syllabication, for affixes and for all sorts of things - and there are always exceptions. Some of these rules are directed more at spelling, while others are directed at reading. You must know what you are doing.
 
Err... did I say OG doesn't work? I'm just saying the method I learned to teach a dyslexics, which I do not know its OG or not, not full proof. Why...those exceptions to the rules.A normal child may not even know all the exception, what more someone who has reading problem.
So that being the case, if I can help him read w/o even knowing all these rules and exception, why not? By the way, I did not continue the 'not full proof method' after knowing its not full proof.So that my son will no longer be confuse or frustrated.

By the way, I never compares both my older kids. How to compare when their results are in the both extremes. I'm just saying it works with my son as well, as his brain also tells him when something's not right when he reads, just like his sister when "its just don't sound right".

By the way, I jolly well know what I'm doing and thanks for everyone who is concern.Am also happy with my son's progress.

Why I wrote is only to share with parents who may be in the same shoe as me. I am here not to challenge any other methods, be it OG or what.Or even to argue with "believers" of other intervention.I'm only here to "promote" my new found method which I saw results.

Many apologies to those who had previously misinterpret my intentions.
 
Note: Below are just my own views and experience that I like to share with all parents.Not directed at anybody or to argue over anything.

The method I applied on my son is also about making decoding automatic. And it can be acheive even without him realising it or knowing the rules of English. And that's how he comprehen. Actually strictly speaking, its not even a method as nothing about sounding out words are taught.Its just about providing him an enviroment to learn reading as reading is self-taught.I read about this in June and see improvements in him even less then a month.Its much better then all the costly methods so far that I knew of.

Recently attended a talk by Fei Yue on how to identify our kids learning styles. Would like to share on what the speaker taught on todays education.At first I thought I only want my son to pass his exam is not something too much.But after listening to the talk, I realised that to achieve a pass for him may be just too difficult.

I'm glad that I had learned how to accept my son as he is before I can cause any harm on him. I'm glad that despite his failed results, he is still a happy and lively kid. Usually kids his age will not bother about their results too much if not for the stress parents put on them.Even my girl who always get good results never think much of her results. It seemed that they only did what they did to "please" or gain approval from the parents as they don't think much about their future.They are only frustrated when they can't hit their parent's "target". I haven't hear of a child who thinks he/she is lousy just purely because their results are poor. Its usually the parents who put high hopes in them and when they can't achieve, they will feel bad. During my pri school days, alot of us are stress free. Not because we all get good results or we can think for ourselves. Simply because most of our parents are too busy to bother too much. But many of us still succeed in life.

Failure in school does not mean failure in life. Hoped that all of us as parents not be so caught up by todays education system that we forgot that our kids may be suffering in our hands.
 
Hmmm... there seemed to be little response/sharing in this thread. Thought Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disabilities. Or is it all other parents had out source this to professionals.

Today I brought my son out for breakfast. It happened that he spotted a sticker with the words "NO PETS" on a glass door. But the problem was, he read it on the wrong side, which will be read as "ON STEP" with all the letters mirrored. Then he came and tell me "mummy, why did they put no step. Thought it should be 'no pets'. Firstly, when he saw 'ON', he knows it should be read as 'no' then he can't figure out "STEP" as his brain tells him it should be pets. Yes, his brain seemed to be beginning to "program" like normal kids. No more reading what he sees which can be wrong and don't even know when it doesn't make sense.

After school, its the first time he picked up a book and read without me telling him to or exchange it with a Mr Midnight story. Also the first time he borrowed a book from the school library without his teacher insisting.When I ask him why he didn't choose to play which usually he will do when having no homework, his reply was "I like the story. It's like playing."

dorie, glad that you saw my intention. Thanks alot also for your sharing on OG.
 
Hi dorie, have PMed you.

My younger son turns 6 this sep. Has not been able to read much but with the phonics program i started him on (less than 2 months ago but doing everyday), he is able to decode words pretty fast. But the teachers and principal said that he is always unattentive in school, always dazed and not listening. And they wonder why. The school uses whole word approach to teach them and I find that this approach cannot work for him. The teacher said she put him right in front of all the spelling words in class and yet he cannot spell.

I am already amazed at how much phonics can do for him. But i think he may be dyslexic cos he sometimes mix up "b" and "d", "p" and "q". One day, he told me, "Mummy, letter e and g look the same hor!". and I got the shock of my life. Sometimes he flip the letters left to right, so that they are the mirror image. He has much much less of them now compared to when he started school a few years back.

He has no problem socialising, talking, listening to instructions. Able to follow sequential instructions. Playing lego is his forte. Makes beautiful and unique constructions out of them. Uses cardboard boxes to make rockets, ships, etc. Even able to give me drawing instructions on how to build a house for his bear - just like the instructions in the construction book.

Last year, my older son was really sick and in the hospital for 3 months. It took us about 1 year to get the family back to where it was. Wonder if that had affected my younger son. Definitely academic wise we didn't help him at all at home. And I think emotionally he was really affected cos he keeps drawing pictures and praying for his kor-kor to recover all this time.

Hope to learn more about dyslexia so I can help him.
 
Mmm... actually, it doesn't sound like he's dyslexic... maybe just a little behind because you were not able to coach him at home and he was left to his own devices while your older son needed you.

Reversals are normal up to age 7. Very common when they are around 4... so it sounds like he's fine.

The fact that the phonics program, without any kind of special methods, worked, shows that he probably isn't dyslexic. He just needs to learn how to sound the words, break them up and put them back together. Whole word approach... I'll have to research on that a little more. Must say I don't know much about that.

Dyslexic children may sometimes have issues with rhyming. Also when they read, they may omit words, or transpose letters (change the places of the letters around) or omit them altogether. When spelling, they may be inconsistent in their spelling (as opposed to being consistent wrong), sometimes getting it right, and other times getting it wrong.

I would suggest that you continue with your intensive phonics instruction and see if he can be up to par by end of the year. If he can cope with regular phonics instruction, then chances are, he should be ok. Even if he is mildly dyslexic, or is affected by dyslexia in other ways, he'll only be "picked up" when he is older, when they have to do free writing, and when the comprehension passages and questions become a little more difficult.

Which phonics program is he doing? Don't forget to teach him sight words as well (these are either words that do not follow the rules of phonics - the exceptions... and there are plenty of those, or the very very common words that chlidren are expected to recognise without relying on sounds). I find the ladybird peter and jane series pretty good for teaching sight words, or commonly used words.

I teach my 4yo using a combination of both phonics and the peter and jane series... but because I am busy with the older two, we are not progressing as fast as I'd like. Still... she is reading better than my older girl ever did at her age... so I'm hoping that she's not dyslexic...
happy.gif
She has reversal issues (she's forever turning her "J" in her name around... haha) but that is common. She can count easily forwards and is learning to do so backwards... she can figure out letters before and after when I test her using the alphabet... so it's looking good.

Unlike her siblings, she's also quickly picking up Mandarin, and doesn't seem to have much of an issue, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Heh.

I hope that helps. I have replied you in the email - that was before I saw this... let me know if you have any more questions...
 
Hi dorie,

I am so happy to see your "diagnosis". I will still be continuing on our intensive phonics program at home. Sometimes we do more sometimes less but I make it a point to do it everyday. You know, my neighbour used to train teachers to teach blend phonics to their students. Now she has quit and come out on her own. I sent my son to her and after 4 lessons, she found him learning too slowly. He was attending 2 lessons a week. She decided that I should be the one coaching him everyday so that he can pick up speed on his reading. She teaches me and I go on to teach my son, with lots of reading on my part too. When I don't understand, I go back to her for queries and advice. She actually does not charge me a single cent for all her tutoring to me and I am so so so grateful, knowing how expensive phonics classes can be, especially when I am a SAHM.

And now I know, OG is Orton-Gillingham. We are using the phonics program from The Riggs Institute. It is in the same phonics family as Orton-Gillingham, using multi-sensory approach. I am so glad that I know this is the one that really can help children with reading difficulty or just to do a really quick kick start on their reading.

One question, where do I find a list of sight words? Do a search on the internet? My son has already done phonems from A to Z and we have just started 7-8 double letter phonems. Do you know of any good readers that are able to cater to this limited word range? Sometimes it can be boring reading and playing the same games so I wonder if graded phonics readers can help to fill in the gap.

And where do I get a complete list of spelling rules? Is there a convenient one on the web? Maybe they are in the Riggs training manual. I got to go search through it. I don't want to bother my neighbour too much cos she is also very busy.

Btw, I noticed all the letters with curly tails always curl to the left. Only q will point to the right. We learn phonem "q" together with "u". So I tell my son q is special, it likes to kick the letter u. Then he gets it right all the time. My son is really playful. It takes a lot of effort to teach him.

I am also using the book "Phonics Pathways" 9th edition, by Dolores g. Hiskes. I ordered it from Kinokuniya at Liang Court. The lady heard that this is a good book so she brought in another copy. I bought the book just a month ago. Also, I went through resources put on the web by "don potter. He is also an advocate of phonics and all his material are free. He even has some really old documents by "Hazel Logan Loring" etc. I am picking up phonics as I teach my son and I read along so I can understand more.

Thanks so much for your advice. Your posts have been informative, encouraging and very useful.

Btw, whole word approach just skips the phonics part of the word. They believe that by looking at them many many times the children can just get it - at least this is my understanding of whole word. It did nothing for my son. Reading was so laborious. We were all reading to him, my hubby and I, my elder son and even my domestic helper. We also tried onset-rime but nothing works like blend phonics.
 


heehee... as long as you realise that I can only share with you what I know... and that I'm in no way a professional psychologist. Heh.

Wow, you're very blessed to have such a wonderful neighbour... that certainly helps.

Sight Words - you might be able to find lists on the internet, but they may not be comprehensive. However, it would definitely be a step in the right direction.

Readers - I actually bought the "Go Phonics" system which is based on the OG scope and sequence of things to supplement my materials for my OG lessons. They've got pretty good progressive readers. I like their games and their readers, although if you need a complete program, including lesson plans and worksheets and everything, that is a good resource. I shipped everything over from the States and it cost me close to 700 in all, including shipping and GST. But my girl and student enjoy the games.
happy.gif


Complete list of spelling rules - Hmmm, not sure if that information is readily available on the internet... don't think so though, cos then it would make all those courses and training resources obsolete. Haha. So I doubt anyone would want to post a very comprehensive thing on the net, available for free public use. Besides, there are sooooooooooooooooooooooo many of them.

Heehee, boys are playful. Well, most boys anyway. That's just part of being boy...

Hmm... will check out Phonics Pathways as well as Don Potter's materials. Heh, before my children's difficulties, I must say I never knew there were such specific rules... guess since it all came naturally to me, I never stopped to think about it. Yes, we are all learning as we go... afterall, we just need to be one lesson ahead of the child... haha.

Oh ok... I get it. Much like how we learnt the language when we were kids. Nobody ever taught us "phonics" as it's known today... you just kinda picked up the patterns along the way yourself, without really knowing you were doing it. I think the closest I ever came to "learning phonics" was when my father taught me to see that words came in chunks, and that you could break those chunks up so that spelling was easier. I still remember - the word he used was "chocolate"... so he said, just remember "choc" "co" and "late (pronounced lert still)... not exactly right phonics instruction, but I still got it. Haha.

I think the whole word approach is based on building up the visual memory bank... which is also part of OG. For kids who have trouble blending, you need to also build up their visual memory bank, so that they will be "alerted" when a word "looks wrong". And that takes a great deal of repetition...

So glad that you've found something that works for your son... the ladybird peter and jane is in part whole word recognition I suppose. But because my girl uses phonics as well, it helps her to decode when she can't remember the word just by looking at it... and in a way, that's what reading is all about... a mix of the two.

Thanks... I have as much to learn from you as you from me... thanks for sharing too! It's been refreshing sharing with you too!
 

Back
Top