Dyslexia

mommyof4boys

We got Jon's confirmation.  I wasn't sure if I shared.  We had educational testing done through the developmental peds office.  She has someone who does the ed testing in the school system do it and the doctor reviews it to make the medical diagnosis.  The school asked for the report so they had a copy; they knew we were going and said they agreed with the diagnosis before we had the confirmation.  The report suggests Orton-Gilliangham principals for direct reading instruction.  Since I can't go into the school and expect they do that particular program, we have to figure out a different method.  The school does Wilson so I'm now looking into the differences between the two.

mommyof4boys

-auntie-:

Are you trained as a reading specialist?

 

Yes, I am a reading specialist but can't diagnose my old kid.  I've been saying since last year that I felt he was.  His kindergarten teacher did as well. 

-auntie-: 

We've done Orton Gillingham with Columbia trained teachers at Lewis School along with a side of Lewis Reading, some Slingerland and Wilson. DS also got some Wilson in public elementary and some Scholastic 180 in high school.

Orton helped DS master the decoding necessary for written English and took him from pre-primer at the end of first to just beyong grade level going into fourth. I'm all about Orton. Wilson was useful for some conventions of English, especially around spelling. Read 180 didn't help DS's reading, but really helped him find his voice and write well. He got an A in his first English Comp class in college.

They'll say that Wilson is based on the foundation of O-G, as is Lindamood Bell, but IME it just wasn't as effective. All of these are multisensory reading programs in theory, but O-G was the most effective.

They really don't teach about different reading programs like O-G, Wilson, Lindamood Bell while getting a reading specialist degree at ESU.  I was trained, somewhat, with O-G but it was 13 years ago when I first started teaching.  I had a friend who was a O-G trainer and we would do things together, as in I would cook her a yummy supper in exchange for her teaching me about O-G  I also had the 3 day overview of Wilson, but again that was almost 10 years ago.  The limited exposure to Lindamood Bell has been in meetings as I was VP of an Advocacy group in NJ up until recently.  Looks like I'm digging some more, going to change goals to reflect O-G style principals, then saying that would be the only program that would work for those goals  

mommyof4boys

-auntie-:

I had no idea that there was no instruction around the basic reading programs in terms of philosophy and application as part of a reading specialist degree. The ones DS had at Lewis were all Orton trained and his resource teacher was Wilson trained so I figured it was part of what was covered.

 

We get instruction on how to assess a kid, how to pin point specific reading issues, how to remedy those issues using multiple ways, how to infuse reading in science/social studies/math and help kids who are struggling with comprehension in those subjects, how to plan lessons to remedy issues, etc.  There was one day I can remember in different types of reading programs that are out there.  I had started my program in 2002 and was warned most of the women who started single ended up meeting their future husband within a few weeks and end up getting married, stopping, and restarting the program a few years later.  I laughed because I didn't have a boyfriend at the time.  A few weeks later, George and I went on our first date.  We got married in 2004 and I stopped to get settled.  I was only taking one class at a time since I paid for it while working.  I remember that one day overview vaguely during one of those classes.  I started back up with the program when Chris was 2 and graduated when he was 3 One of the professors has written countless books so it was always a push to use her materials.  I think they are valuable but there was no real info on kids with disabilities and how specifically to teach them/programs to use. 

-auntie-:

I've known a couple of moms who did the Lindamood Bell training in order to help their own kids on spectrum; could that be an option for you? One mom claimed it was cheaper for her to do the teacher training than pay for all the help her son needed.

When I called Lindamood Bell to get info (for a kid I tutored), they said it had to be done in their facility to make sure it complied with the official Lindamood Bell philosophy.  There is a local college that does specific O-G training for teachers for free IF they assist in their tutoring center.  The only reason I didn't sign up was because I didn't have time to do everything.  Looks like I'm making time  

tmrchi

I've taught both OG and Wilson.  You are lucky to have a school district that uses Wilson!  My school uses Reading Mastery and I want to cry for my students, along with beat my head against the wall most days since I wish I was teaching something better...anyways.

Wilson is based on O-G. (so is SPIRE, SLANT, LANGUAGE! and others)  Pretty much a bunch of different people took their OG fellowship/background and published materials they could sell as packaged curriculums that are more conducive to teaching small groups in a school setting, as OG is totally teacher created, and is really meant for one to one instruction.  They will both cover the same concepts, just in a different order.

Having taught both, I personally like the order concepts are introduced in traditional OG scope and sequence better, but really like the presentation that the Wilson "rules" and "exceptions" are taught.  I also like Wilson's focus on nonsense words, so you know that kids are really understanding the concepts and are able to apply them to any word they encounter.  

The main downside to Wilson is that certain letter patterns are introduced very late in the program (like vowel teams don't show up until Step 9 out of 12) this makes it a bit harder for a kid to pick up a book from the library and rely solely on their Wilson knowledge to read it.  I think Barbara Wilson was thinking about rearranging some of her program to address this, but not sure if it's happened yet or not.  The other downside to any O-G based program, is that they are great for teaching decoding and encoding (spelling) but don't really get into much comprehension.  Most teachers supplement that part by encouraging audio books so kids can enjoy books at their interest level, but might still be above their reading level.