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After Dancing Bears C?
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Hello!
My DD8 went PK through 2nd grade in private school until this year when we pulled to homeschool. Her former teachers did not throw up any red flags about her reading because she was getting A’s, though I noticed a number of issues when she would read out loud, and a general reluctance towards reading itself. When I brought her home and had her read out loud more regularly to me (it was like pulling teeth trying to get her to read to me when she was in school), I began to notice certain patterns and characteristics. From my research, I strongly suspect she has “stealth dyslexia” – high comprehension, very poor speller, hesitant to sound words out, guesses, skips or adds small words, letter reversals (b/d, j), hates the physical act of writing. I found out about the Dancing Bears series, and I have seen quite a bit of improvement since we began with it. We started with Fast Track, and have now moved on to Level C. I also started her in Apples & Pears A, and she is just about through that one as well.
What I am wondering is, what type of program should I pursue after DB C ends? Should I go straight to a more traditional reader type program? Or are there other programs that pick up where C leaves off and will help her gain more multi-syllable word skills? I am afraid that if I don’t have a program to guide me, she just simply won’t read as much or as regularly as I’d like her to. She is a very hands on and creative type of learner. While I try to honor that as much as possible in what we do, I also want her to be able to read and enjoy good literature, eventually independently. For now, we read good books aloud every day.
Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Megan
I would go through all the phonemes with her. I read well but finally learned to spell when I took an Orton Gillingham class in college. All about spelling or all about reading or both would do this. The teacher books are very easy to follow and lightly scripted. I have used AAR1 and plan to start AAS 1 whenever i think my son is ready:) Check them out at http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/all-about-spelling/
They have excellent articles and costumer service. They also know a lot about dyslexia. Let me know if I can help more.
Roslyn
Hi Roslyn,
Thanks! I am actually using AAR1 with my son, who is 6. DD can read, and I think she can read right around grade level. She says she reads better in her head than she does out loud. If I give her something to read independently that she has not read before, she can read it (after much moaning and groaning) and give me a good enough idea about what she read that I know she understood it.
Dancing Bears was really helpful in that they do go through phonemes, and using their flashcards, I was astounded at how many caused her problems initially! She has mastered all the DB flashcards now, though it seems they do have slightly different ones, or perhaps not as many, as AAR does. The Apples & Pears program we are using is the companion spelling program to Dancing Bears. These programs aren’t as explicit about *how* they work as are AAR/AAS, but we are seeing good results with them. Problem is, DB C is the final level.
I really like the AAR program, and taking the phonograms she knows into consideration, Level 4 would probably be the starting point. However, I think there are things that previous levels of AAR covered (syllabification rules, etc) that she hasn’t had before.
I also just stumbled upon Logic of English, which looks interesting.
Sigh. It is so hard to know what to do!
What about just doing aas starting at level 1 or 2 and going as fast as she needs to? It isnt as expensive and not babyish at all to be striding spelling. It would give her a good phonogram review without being redundant. I know that anything with a copyright of 2008 or newer is compatible with all their cards and stuff.
For the read aloud I saw a suggestion somewhere of having the student read aloud to a younger sibling while you unobtrusively listened. like maybe while you made dinner? Would that help?
<p style=”text-align: left;”>I have looked at logic of English and dismissed it for some reason…I can’t remember now… Pray about it. God knows your daughter.</p>Sopris Rewards is a program designed to teach multi-syllable word reading skills. I used Rewards Secondary with my then-10 yo with mild stealth dyslexia last summer and it was quite helpful for her. You can buy the teacher’s manual and student book on Amazon for much cheaper than from the publisher. I think you could keep using A&P for spelling if it working for her. Dictation + markings (like Spelling You See) is helpful for my DD for spelling but she seems to have a good visual memory for words, which most dyslexics don’t. She mainly has trouble reading unfamiliar multi-syllable words, and her spelling has improved greatly in the past year or so.
If you are planning to continue AAR with your other child (and thus will use the other levels eventually), it might be worth doing the placement tests with your DD and trying a level to see how she does with it. I researched reading programs for dyslexia about to death this summer and fall (it appears that all of my school-age kids have dyslexia, I have an 8 YO DS and 6 YO DS also). Both DD and DS8 used Abecedarian last spring and it was helpful for both, but Rewards worked better for DD, and DS8 made a big jump in reading with it and then peaked and I could tell he wasn’t going to make much more progress with Abecedarian. AAR was one that I looked at for him, but it seems to be quite hit-or-miss for dyslexic kids from reviews I found, as in, it works well for some kids but just isn’t enough for many. Dancing Bears is another I looked at. In the end I reluctantly bought Barton Reading & Spelling for him, because it seems to be the one program that works for the vast majority of dyslexic kids, and I didn’t want to start yet another program with him and find that it wasn’t enough. We have only been doing it for about 6 weeks so it is really too early to say how it’s going to work for him, but it has largely corrected his b/d reversals.
Have you looked up symptoms of dysgraphia? The “hates the act of writing” part makes me think of that. I have no personal experience with that though as I don’t think any of mine have it.
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