Name: Spreading the Feast Gathering
Start: 2025-07-11T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-07-12T23:59:59-05:00
Location: LaGrange, KY

Tagged: Dyslexia/Dysgraphia/Dianne Craft, free dyslexia help links

This topic has 10 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 9 months ago by sheraz.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

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August 19, 2012 at 9:27 pm
MariePowell
Participant
I previously posted a question about handwriting challenges for my 13 yr ds; and, after much reading and research, I am convinced he must have dyslexia and dysgraphia based on the struggles we have had all these years. He (and our dd) have been given many labels since 18mos of age, ranging from Aspergers to ADD. Both are very bright, loving children; but learning – particularily in math, spelling, reading and penmanship are a big challenge. Unfortunately, where we live the Sped. programs in public school were understaffed; so we felt a private christian school would give them more one-on-one help. This school did in fact give a good start for the basics; but, as the middle school years came, so did social pressures and a faster pace. We decided to try homeschooling last year for both my children using a basic curriculum kit for each grade (4 and 6). Needless to say, the kit approach is for the average child. We should have studied other choices for special needs, but until we brought them home, we had no idea how serious their academic delays and daily school struggles were! I think the teachers at heir previous school simply had too many kids and distractions to really know each individual child’s struggles. Our kids remarkably just kept passing along somehow, without any major warnings or concerns from their teachers. We truley thought they were doing OK considering their so-called diagnoses. I blame ourselves for not paying closer attention to their work. We should have realized sooner than the 5th/6th grade that both children simply could not keep up the Abekka pace any more. I am so thankfull we made the choice to bring them home, I only wish we had done it sooner. Since finding this forum, we have ditched the kits and adpated our own curricula using the suggestions from SCM. They love having History together (module 5), and the Math-U-See has been a huge breakthough for understanding. I just don’t know about the Spelling Wisdom, copywork,and reading. Since reading is already an effort, we simply read aloud (Science and History) and make gentle corrections along the way with just oral narrations for now. The spelling and copywork (Book of Mottos with Bible) are the biggest obstacles. They are ages 11 and 13; and, literally miss at least half the words in a Spelling Wisdom Book 1 exercise! We had hoped that using these same passages for copywork would help, but, my ds in particular has such difficulty just getting the words on paper that I hate to overcritique on the quality let alone the spelling. Most of our family and well-meaning friends would agree that these kids need public school to get the help they really need; but I disagree based on our 1st 2 years (K5 and 1st) and the lack of actual help received (vs the very impressive IEP’s on paper) I watched a video by Susan Barton on Dyslexia and it all seems to fit and tie together the spelling, reading, and writing challenges. Are there any SCM choices for these subjects, or, suggestions on how to modify the existing programs to help (for example) the spelling to stick, or ease the pain of handwriting and reading? There are a million (very expensive)”homeschool curricula” available to choose from, literally too numerous to count. I woud rather modify, if we could, the SCM choices to their needs if possible. Maybe, is there someone who has done this, perhaps with the help of a good reference book, a kind forum mentor, or a SCM staff member to give suggestions along the way? If I could just get the basics covered, to the best of their abilities, I would eel better. Ultimately, I know they are of no less worth to us or God if they aren’t academic giants. I would be well pleased if they chose the missiion field rather than college. Even so, they will need some basics to make it here, even if they go to Africa!
August 20, 2012 at 12:04 am
pinkchopsticks
Participant
I don’t have time to give a full response…but wanted to send hugs and will pray for guidance for you. Susan Barton’s site is great…I encourage you to read, read, read there. Also, Sally Shaywitz’s book Overcoming Dyslexia is very insightful. We will be doing SCM with our kids this year, but my dd with dyslexia will be have tutoring with an O-G based program for reading/spelling. I’ll try to stop by later,
Pink
August 20, 2012 at 1:18 am
4myboys
Participant
You are not alone. I have a nearly 12 yo ds with dysgraphia. He was diagnosised mid fourth in PS, but I already had plans to bring him home for 5th. I can’t speak to dyslexia, or how it inter-relates. He is a very good reader and is constantly reading. Writing on the other hand is such a challenge. Copy work is by far the most effective tool we’ve used for his printing. You have to be present and make sure he is forming letters correctly and gently catch him about to make a mistake, because having to redo or erase adds to the difficulty and frustration. We found copy work books unhelpful as they seldom used the exact font he uses, line size can also cause problems for spacing issues, and copying directly from a book was also unhelpful. It took me a little longer, but if I copied the passage down on to regular lined paper, taking time to exaggerate spaces so that he wouldn’t try to run all his words together, it was more helpful. I would indicate which lines he was to write on directly below what I’d written with an arrow and we’d make sure the page was double spaced. (My line, blank space, his line, blank space, my line, etc.)
We use graph paper a lot also, especially for math. He has trouble with keeping colums lined up, too little space on a page, and forming numbers. I print graph paper with 1/2″ squares from a website that allows me to choose how many squares per inch: http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/plain/
I didn’t even attempt spelling last year (our first year homeschooling) with ds. I really wanted to focus on the mechanics of printing — letter formation, spacing, alignment, uniformity, etc.– by using a model (copy work) and really getting them down before moving on to more difficult aspects of writing. You may find if he is still really stuggling with basic letter formation, etc, that holding off on spelling for a term or two, or event the year, is a good idea. We will begin using Megawords for spelling this year and will ease into written narration throughout the year.  Letter tiles — even Scrabble letters, can take some of the work out of spelling when handwriting is very difficult and can really help a tactile learner. Bouncing a ball while spelling words orally can help an audio or kinetic learner. Use as many sense as possible, and lots of repitiotion. We are also using notebooking. I will have him dictate to me what he wants to write in his Science or History, etc. and I will write it down. We will then polish a sentence or two (so it says exactly what he wants it to) which he will re-write into his notebook as copy work.
I’m always looking for new ideas to help him, so I will be really watching to see what other suggestions people have to offer.

August 20, 2012 at 2:38 am
cedavid
Member
Check out Dianne Craft’s website http://www.diannecraft.org/  She spoke at our homeschool conference in OH a couple of times and is super nice. She was also a special consultant for HSLDA for a while and personally called a friend of mine to help her with her son.
August 20, 2012 at 2:39 am
jmac17
Participant
I don’t deal with this with my own children, but I was a Special Ed. teacher in my pre-children days. I loved the book “The Gift of Dyslexia.” It was written by a Dyslexic adult, and described in detail how his brain works differently. I would recommend it to get a grasp on exactly what is going on that causes the things that the rest of us see as ‘problems’. A very interesting read.
August 20, 2012 at 3:49 am
sheraz
Participant
A friend of mine sent me this – her son is struggling and she is working with some of the ideas from here.
http://www.bonnieterry.com/blog/index.php/2011/05/dyscalculia-math-disability-or-math-problems-what-is-it-and-what-do-you-do-about-it/
And this one too:
http://www.bonnieterry.com/blog/?p=93
My daughter has APD, which this lady addresses along with the whole dyslexia issue and we found that the CM philosophy and methods are the very BEST thing you can use to help them. Short lessons with as much repetition as needed, no competition with others, no grades, no “tests” (we call them something else), having them go at their own pace, and a large variety of subjects to include picture and nature study etc really helps them by giving them something to be GOOD at in “school” and look forward to.
My daughter struggles with reading, writing and math. She probably always will, but we go at her pace, we listen to many audio books, I read her assigned reading aloud (she’d be so snowed under in one day she’d never catch up and she would give up) but I make her practice reading aloud (focuses her on the words) her personal book list. We alternate days on that. Many books that you will use in SCM’s curriculum are available free online as audio books at http://librivox.org/ Audio for both of us is a life (and time!) saver.
We have found that she draws fantastic narrations and can give me wonderful details from those. It gives her time to process, organize and get it on paper. She is wonderful with science and animals. LOVES nature study and can remember lots of things she has learned from being in the thick of it all. She begs for Nature Study, lol. She enjoys Shakespeare and loves art. She is very good at Picture Study. She enjoys Music Study as well, and I think that it is because classical music has been proven to bring an over-active mind to resting points and it helps her to learn better if we keep it on in the background softly.
Give them time – and yourself too – as you learn about this. Go slow and add in all sorts of things. Picture Study is a great way to help them learn to focus and picture things in their minds – a skill needed in all the areas that they are not doing well.
I am glad that you are brave enough and strong enough to stand up for what your children NEED – it is not an easy path to follow. I know, because we’ve been down a similar road.
August 20, 2012 at 4:40 am
pangit
Participant
I am dealing with some of this with my DD8. For any ADD type issues, I would read the book “Stop ADD Naturally”. I am reading it right now. It discusses the deficiency of amino acids that can cause these symptoms. It goes through the different amino’s, what their deficiency symptoms are, etc.
For the dyslexia, I am looking at a program called Dynaread. They have a free assessment on their website that your kids can take. It only takes 10-15 minutes total. With my DD we were probably done in 5 minutes. We only made it through the first 2 sections when they had her quit. Her reading is such a struggle that they said it would’ve been too frustrating to do the comprehension part. It is all online whenever you feel like doing it and Dynaread will email you the results.
A friend of mine found AVKO to be very helpful for her struggling speller. They are also a help for dyslexia.
Hope this helps some. You are not alone. It is frustrating to see our children struggle and feel like we can’t help.
August 21, 2012 at 2:42 am
MariePowell
Participant
Once again, thank you so much for your help. I had a call in today, and our regional rehab has a 24mos. waiting list for screening…I will definately check out the Dynaread; and all the book and web suggestions you all have taken the time to post. I had no idea about the free audio books from SCM; he would probably love that for a change. Sheraz, you voiced the very core of the problem my son faced-a dread for school because he wasn’t good enough. Even today, he expressed his disgust with himself, that he can’t read with out “sputtering and messing up the words,” he calls it. I just reassure and hug him. He had apparently been picked on terribly at school for his lacking abilities, and it is still hard for him to show his weaknesses even with us as the teachers. I will take your suggestion and try to tie into our studies the things he is an “expert” in- trains, planes, and animals.. He can tell you anything and everything about the Southern Pacific Railway, or a Gallapagus Turtle (for as long as you can bear to listen), but, could never spell out or have the patience to write the words to tell about them. 4my boys, pangit and sheraz; it made me feel better when I read your posts; you have so many of the same challenges it seems. 4myboys, your son sounds so simlilar to ours it’s uncanny. Your suggestions are so helpful because they have been tried and tested for a son that sounds alot like ours in age and special needs. Thank you all for your time1
August 21, 2012 at 1:28 pm
chocodog
Participant
I just wanted to suggest Sue Patrick’s Webinars. She shows you how to put together and find curriculm for all sorts of problems. Her son has Autism and she had to go threw similar problems. She saw how he grew in different areas and she expanded on those. I have 3 of her webinars and I must admit her style of doing it is much faster and they learn faster then getting out the books. Use of computers and Dot Pens are a large help. I will leave you with that. I really encourage you to check her out. You can call her and ask her more about how to help him.
    She also is great at organizing but I think her idea of school is Phenominal. There are different ideas to learning. They could type out their answers. This way they are building on thier English skills ect… and not their handwriting. Work on that seperately. Sue suggests Typer Shark. I also ran across a program that you say the spelling word in your own voice on the computer. They type it in and they see if they get it right or wrong. I don’t remember the site but it was a neat idea that I was going to use with my son’s. We need a new computer though. I thought I would wait and go back and get it when I knew if it would take the program. You could probably just google it though.
         I sure hope you find a solution. I hope this helps.
                                              Blessings on your endevour!
August 21, 2012 at 4:34 pm
4myboys
Participant
HTH — I don’t think that I mentioned that even though we didn’t do formal spelling of any kind this past year, I have still noticed an improvement in his spelling which I credit to the copy work and heightened interest in reading.
ALso, I found pages with too much information too overwhelming for him, especially a page with a whole lot of math problems, even if he’s not expected to do it all. I will seldom copy more than 6 problems on to a sheet of graph paper for him at a time. I may fold the sheet in half to hide some of them or cover with a sheet of white paper to help with the sensory over-load. You can do the same if he tends to panic at a full page in a book. It wil help him to focus on just the line he’s reading, not how much there is to do, as well as help him to keep his place. My ds has a habit of skipping a line while reading aloud, and then he stumbles because he’s noticed he’s missed something, so this has helped with that, too.

August 21, 2012 at 4:52 pm
sheraz
Participant
Oh, yes. We do make sure that there is a book marker or index card in every book she is reading. It helps her stay focused, hides the rest of the page, and makes it look do-able.
Something else I noticed is that when she comes to big unfamiliar words is not too let her stress too long over trying to figure them out. I just say it and she keeps on track reading. She has learned some nice big words this way. Her reading levels went up 2 AR levels the first year we brought her home. She is a much more fluent reader aloud now – and a great part of that is that she participates in reading aloud a few verses of our family scriptures every night (everyone take turns reading a few verses). Also, she is starting to hear when she is not reading something in the correct tense and will go back and look at it again and correct herself. Loving that she’s not feeling the pressures of being different anymore, so she is willing to work at it in her way/time.
Sometimes when she is struggling or notices something is “off” we do talk about her challenges so she understands that she has a real issue and is not “stupid” – that has helped her a lot emotionally. Another thing that has helped is taking my other dd who is a year older aside and explaining what is going on. She was on her sister’s side before there was any real issues in our homeshcooling efforts and she is a great support and encourages her.