Other CM LA besides Barton for dyslexic 11 y.o.? Narration is really enough??

Christina,

I have a 10 year old dyslexic son who receives tutoring two days a week at our local Children’s Dyslexia Center. He’s nearly finished with the program, but still has some serious struggles, particularly with spelling and the physical act of writing. Technically speaking, he’s a rising 5th grader. However, he’s not necessarily working at that level. With that said, I love CM’s method and have been using it with him for some time in a modified version.

I pretty much read everything aloud. We still do narrations orally. Occasionally, I type his narration as he’s speaking. He then illustrates it or has used it for copywork.

I tried introducing grammar this past year in 4th grade using Easy Grammar/Daily Grams. It was an older book supposedly for 2nd/3rd grade…so a gentle introduction with plenty of repetition. We did nearly 60 lessons and it became very apparent that it was not working. He didn’t understand the point of it and I believe because it was so random, he couldn’t grasp the concepts.

I’m changing my approach this year. He absolutely loves to be read to! His idea of a perfect education would be me reading aloud and nothing else, LOL! I’ve always fed him great living books so he craves more. Because he loves the story, I’ve been looking at English Lessons Through Literature. I plan to review some things from Level 1, such as capitalization, but really start him in Level 2. I’m hoping by tying language arts to literature, it will make more sense and also be more natural. He’ll also be another year older, which may help. In addition, I do have Winston Grammar on the shelf, which I heard has been successful for kids needing that multi sensory approach.

We started cursive last year, slooowwwlllyyyy. We’ll pick it up again this fall and keep plugging away.

I definitely think Charlotte’s methods are enough! I keep telling myself, slow and steady wins the race 🙂 You know your child better than anyone. If something is not working, don’t be afraid to scrap it and try something else or wait. Maybe he’s just not ready. I finally realized, that if my son is only working at a lower level, he’s probably not ready for written narration since Charlotte didn’t advocate starting it until around 4th grade. Also, by 4th grade, most children are reading independently quite well, hence they are ready to start working on writing. If our children are still working on learning to read, adding a writing component may be totally overwhelming. I’m learning to teach my child and not the curricula :p

BTW, Charlotte continued oral narration all the way through high school, even after students were doing written narrations. Personally, I don’t know if our son will ever be able to write narrations. I will not give up trying, but I’m also a realist. I’m thankful we live in a day and age where there’s technology to help him. I’m not opposed, down the road, to something like speech to text software or Learning Ally. The accommodations may be necessary.

With your son, I would continue to work on…

Steady diet of great literature
Oral narration
Copywork to transcription
Slow introduction to grammar and mechanics
Cursive

This may not seem like it’s enough for some 11 year olds. However, kids working through dyslexia is a real struggle and I’m willing to bet, if you’re working through Barton, he already has a lot on his plate.

I feel like I’m all over the board here as I have some other things on my mind this morning. I hope this is cohesive enough to make sense. Overall, I want to encourage you to stay the course. Be sure he’s getting a steady diet of quality literature to feed his mind while you’re working through the rest of the language arts piece. Again, I think Charlotte’s methods are perfect for any child, including children with dyslexia.

Blessings,
Melissa
http://reflectionsfromdrywoodcreek.blogspot.com/

I would think that Barton is enough LA for him- the who phrases are nouns, the did what are verb phrases, etc.  He’s gaining practical knowledge, but not theoretical – which is OK for his age and stage.  In my opinion, you have all of high school yet (when he’s been through more levels of Barton) to attach the accepted names to the concepts he’s already learned (noun, verb, etc.).

As for having him write narrations, I wouldn’t.  I think verbal is enough – when he’s been through the upper levels of Barton, then you can have him write narrations.

My daughter is 9yo and we’re at Level 4, lesson 2 in Barton.  She has improved so much – she still doesn’t remember to think through everything before she writes ( letters, etc…..not schoolwork.  I don’t ask her to do much writing b/c of the dyslexia), but I think that’s due partly to her being 9yo, and like some 9yo, not really paying attention to little details.

I agree to keep feeding the best lit you can (reading sloud, audio books, etc.).  And keep him doing quality verbal narrations.  And I think you occasionally typing them out for him to do copywork is good, too.  But I wouldn’t stress over it too much……. lots of people are successful and have no idea what an adverb is.

I wa thinking about using IEW for my daughter, but you say your son didn’t get much out of it? Can you tell me more?  Susan Barton recommends it – what didn’t work for you?  I know very little about it. I did join the yahoo group to lurk and try to learn more, but it almost seems very hard to implement.

You’re not the only mom to keep something on the schedule for the whole school year and only get to week 7!  ☺  Last year it was Sign Language and Nature Study.  The year befoe that it was Spanish and Natur Study.  I can’t remember what it was the year before that, but I know something got oushed off!

Thanks for the snapshot of IEW.  I think I’ve decided that at next year’s convention I’m going to get to know the IEW people.

I have begun Spelling You See with my dyslexic 12yo daughter. There is dictation in SUS after copywork and vowel or consonant chunking. Although we are on!y a week or so into it, I believe this will be a better way for her to learn to spell. We used Barton for a while, which helped with reading, but all the spelling rules were too much for her. Reading and writing will work best for her.

I have been doing some grammar with her, but she has a hard time remembering parts of speech. I am trying First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind level 2. Not sure how this will work. I am interested in looking at ELTL. My daughter also loves when I read to her. She would be happy to have me read to her all day for school as well:) Her reading is getting better, but not to the point where I feel she is ready to read other subjects. I have books that she reads to me for practice. Writing is still basically copywork, to help her more with spelling and for cursive practice.

It’s been tough, but I too have had to learn to teach the child and not the curriculum.