Adhd with reading dyslexia, 7th grader English Language, help.

[26Bluewave]

English Language discrepancies: How do I handle his English grades? The teachers and I often noticed discrepancies in his handwriting (which we are fixing), vocab, and editing work. I use IXL online coaching for his language, handwriting sheets, and workbook editing. His grades are 90 % on average. How should I prepare him for high school? He does not want to go to Kumon English, a traditional worksheet grinding. I was thinking of Varsity tutors, but I had mixed input. Orton-Gillingham's approach: does it work for reading dyslexia ? as advertised by Varsity tutors. Has anyone used this service or other services?

[Uptown24]

I have never used varsity tutors, but Orton-Gillingham works for my son. It breaks English down it to chunks that are understandable to him. The multi-sensory aspect, and repetition help as well.

Does Varsity Tutors offer in-person tutoring or only online?

[26Bluewave in reply to Uptown24]

Both , thanks

[26Bluewave in reply to Uptown24]

How did you incorporate the Orton -gillingham method ? was it through a tutor or what resource did you use ?

[Uptown24 in reply to 26Bluewave]

We initially started with an OG workbook that another parent recommended to me "Blast Off to Reading". I purchased it on Amazon, but you can also buy it directly from the author. We did the exercises and games together 5 days a week. After a lot of effort, I was able to get my school district to pay for a tutor for him. I am now training myself to become an OG tutor. I was so impressed by how it helped my son.

[26Bluewave in reply to Uptown24]

How old is your son ? if i may ask

[Uptown24 in reply to 26Bluewave]

He’s 14 now. He is a pretty good reader now. He does need periodic refresher on the strategies he has learned.

His spelling skills have slipped since the beginning of the school year. I am pushing his school to adjust his services to address this. I am also planning to supplement at home again.

[Mercurymom]

we used tutors with OG methods and it helped a lot.

[Onthemove1971]

Thanks for joining us!!My suggestion is Varsity Tutoring! 1000% they helped us so much all 4 years of high school. About 90% of their tutors were amazing and they set up a session to meet us on Zoom and go over his needs. We sent teachers syllabus especially to them in the beginning of each new block of classes. Some of them even made up pratice tests and really spent time going over things he struggled with. Word of warning make sure you can schedule tutoring in your same time zones so you don't have conflicts.

Nothing against Kumon (yes, I know when we move out of this house hidden Kumon worksheets will come out of there hidding places...), this is a supplemental program that helps build skills that is not in anyway connected to the school curriculum. So this did not work for us. He couldn't complete his regular work and we made him do more sit down work. We should be fired as parents.

I strongly encourage text to speech being allowed so he does not have to struggle to write down his thoughts.

Also, I strongly encourage audio books so he can enjoy reading without struggling to read. If you child has an IEP or 504 plan please look at bookshare.org (and it's free) you send them a copy of the educational plan and proof of disability and they get full access to thousands of books and text books for free and you can down load to any device.

Of course all of the normal accommodation should be set up before high school like extra time on tests, no penalty for late assignments, selected seating...

When he is editing he should use Read aloud, this is an add on so he can hear his mistakes not have to guess what is wrong.

Also, medication for focus helps a lot so he can not be distractions by things.

Hope this is not to much.

Glad you are hear, we are always here to support you.

[26Bluewave in reply to Onthemove1971]

This is so helpful. Thank you .

[Genetic in reply to Onthemove1971]

Hi-we are in private Catholic school. So no IEP or 504. Would he qualify if diagnosed by psychologist for the bookshare.org?

Thank you all for sharing these wonderful resources.

[26Bluewave in reply to Genetic]

pcp can fill the form

[Onthemove1971 in reply to Genetic]

This is a great question.. I am including a link for the page to sign up for bookshare. I find them an amazing organization to work with and the main focus is to get struggling reader to enjoy listening to books. I hope you are able to sign up. But if you have any issues call them they are very helpful.

bookshare.org/parents-and-s...

Enjoy!

[Mom671 in reply to Onthemove1971]

This was so helpful thank you! Would you recommend anything else? My son has a 504 meeting coming up and I don't even know how to begin to wrap my head around it.

[Onthemove1971 in reply to Mom671]

My advise.. understand it will all take a long time to get everything set up. I think you are asking about what to add to a 504 plan to help.

One thing you should ask yourself is..

Does you child just need (accommodations) or does your child need specialized instruction? This is Key..

The answer to this leads you to a 504 plan ( things like extra time, best seating, stretch breaks, etc) or is your child really struggling to learn material/curriculum independently?

This can be answered by an academic, social emotional assessment- which the school is required to do if you put in writing you want these assessments.

So what worked for our son (we set up his 504 plan 7th grade ( although I worked with teachers k-6th they did not suggest a 504 plan until I brought in his diagnosis from a medical doctor and demanded a plan.

I would say the biggest help was tutoring.. even now he is a freshman in college and uses tutoring 2-3 times a week.

When I say tutoring I mean, not us parents, a different person goes over the material presented by the teachers, reviews for tests and presents the material in a different fashion. I think due to his lack of focus, it doesn't "sink" in for him the first time.

Other things teachers notice that helped was seating near front ( he always wanted to sit in the back), breaks as needed and no penalties for late assignments. He really used all of this young.

One last thing.. I have a great saying " when it works... it works". When he was in trouble he didn't have all the tools he needed to manage the symptoms of ADHD.

I also recommend for any parent new to this journey, search older post so you can read about any issue you are struggling with, there is most likely some parent who struggled and discussed it.

This group is always here to support you!!

Hope this helps someone, somewhere.

[Mamamichl in reply to Onthemove1971]

Omg!!! My daughter has a 504 and loves her warrior cats audiobooks. She won’t read manually, but her comprehension is amazing. Thanks for the awesome resource!

[Onthemove1971 in reply to Mamamichl]

There are so many great things about having a specialized service for Audio reading. They can increase or decrease the reading speed... they can highlight the words and it matches the voice. You can use it on a number of devices and they have their own new Apps. I should be a salewomen for them. One last thing, there is no limit on the number you download and read or how long you keep them. I really hope parents use this Free service.

Enjoy!

[Mamamichl in reply to Onthemove1971]

I usually use apple tts for screen reading. I hope this apps reading seems more natural and less robotic.w never changed speed yet either.

[Onthemove1971 in reply to Mamamichl]

Different voices sound different, but they are really trying for more natural speech. AI will change this in the near future, but that is an entire different conversation.

You should also be able to change and try a different pitch and tone.

[Genetic]

thanks so much to the both of you!!

[Mamamichl]

what seems to help my students with dislexia at that grade is to have them use text to speech and speech to text. Don’t force handwriting and allow typing. That’s how most schools I’ve worked at has done it. It’s not worth the stresses when we have technology as accommodations.

[Onthemove1971 in reply to Mamamichl]

I second this!! Also allowing them to "listen" to their print work while visually reading. One add-on for Google is called Read Aloud. This is free and it places a speaker on the ribbon at the top of the page and once it is added then you touch the speaker and it will read the passage selected ( any article or text file).

Google calls the speech to text ( this means person is talking and the device physically types out the spoken words)- "Voice typing"- look in Tools in their Google Docs program, then Voice typing.

What this does is it allows the child to not worry about the mechanics of typing ( both not knowing the keyboard, but more likely struggling with spelling and grammer).

Hope this is clear, if you need help or instructions for those whom use Apple/IOS devices just reply..

Keep them coming parents who find things that help...

Great discussion

[Mamamichl in reply to Onthemove1971]

I use text to speech on my iOS for my online schooling.i love it, though the speaker sounds a bit robotic.

[Lillianmcmcl]

It sounds like he is doing great! I would connect him with the library and all of the resources there he can use to enjoy literature and research his interests. He may enjoy audiobooks which are a wonderful way to learn, as well as a way to enjoy fiction. I also suggest learning different ways to take notes and find how he learns best.