Hands On Learning Solutions

Education & Dyslexia Specialists

Need a solution to
academic struggles?
(253) 857-8188
We Offer Hope & Results!
(253) 857-8188

Is Your Child A Reluctant Reader?

My son was a reluctant reader. David did not like books during elementary school. He enjoyed them if I read the book to him, but he didn’t show much interest when it came to reading books himself.iStock_000009881952_Small

We tried to encourage him to become interested in books in a variety of ways. Each evening when it was time for bed my husband or I would read to him. We visited the library weekly. I made sure he saw us reading at home. I would ask him to help me read recipes or directions when we were going somewhere, and I would leave notes for him at home.

No matter what we tried to get him interested in reading nothing really worked, until he began to learn to read using an Orton-Gillingham (O-G) influenced reading program. Once things began to fall into place with the O-G reading program he began to read more on his own.

Even though my son was learning the tools that he could use to read and spell he would usually choose books that had stories with strong imagery. These kinds of books lend themselves to vivid pictures the reader can imagine while they read.

teen boy engaged in intriguing reading book under the blanket in night hour

Since many people with dyslexia tend to have great imaginations and be creative it stands to reason that they will often enjoy reading stories that promote the use of their imagination. Reading that does not contain a lot of visual imagery can be more difficult for some dyslexics to read, especially if it is not a subject they are interested in.

I constantly looked for books that David would be interested in reading. Sometimes it was hard to find something he would like. I can’t tell you how many times I wished I could find someone who could direct me to the kinds of books that would hold my son’s interest. Over the years because of the guidance from my son I was able create a list of high interest books that provided a lot of strong imagery and excitement especially for boys. I hope you and your child will benefit from my years of hunting down books.

Following is a list of books my son and other children with dyslexia have enjoyed. Please take into consideration the age level and subject matter before choosing one of these books for your child.

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

The Boxcar Children (series) by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Calvin and Hobbs by Bill Watterson61fM9j2P8KL__SX337_BO1,204,203,200_

Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey

Conspiracy 365 by Gabrielle Lord

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (series) by Jeff Kinney

Dragons in our Midst (series) by Bryan Davis

Freddy and the French Fries (series) by David Baldacci

Frindle by Andrew Clements

Gamer by Chris Bradford

George Brown Class Clown (series) by Nancy Krulik

The Ghost in The Bath by Jeremy Strong

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson

Hank Zipzer series by Henry Winkler

The Incredible Worlds of Wally McDoogle (series) by Bill Myers

Indian in the Cupboard (series) by Lynne Reid Banksindian

Inkheart (series) by Cornelia Funke

Johnny Delgado Private Detective by Kevin Brooks

Kingdom Keepers (series) by Ridley Pearson

Landon Snow Series by R.K. Mortenson

Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles by Julies Andrews Edwards

Little Britches by Ralph Moody

The Littles (series) by John Peterson

Meet The Weirds by Kaye Umansky

Mr. Birdsnest and the House Next Door by Julia Donaldson

Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater

The Number 7 Shirt by Alan Gibbons

The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riorda Stuart Little 1

Redwall (series) by Brian Jacques

Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary

Secret Agent Dingledorf and his trusty dog Splat (series) by Bill Myers

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodges Burnett

Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

The Snake Who Came To Stay by Julia Donaldson

Spiderwick Chronicles (series) by Tony DiTerlizzi

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Time Warp Trio (series) by Jon Sczieska

Tom and Ricky Mystery Series by Bob Wright

 Stuart Little by E. B. White

Who’s A Big Bully Then? by Morpurgo

Wild Song by Jane Eaglandhigh noon books_

The Word Eater by Mary Amato

High Noon Books – chapter books that are high interest/low level readers – bookshighnoonbooks.com

 

I’m sure there are many other books out there that reluctant readers love. If you know of some great books please comment below and let us know!

 

For more information on Orton-Gillingham reading and spelling programs give us a call at 253-857-8186

 

 

 

 

 

Did I Give My Child Dyslexia?

The blame game is something I see many parents start to do when they realize their child has a learning challenge like dyslexia. The experience of going through the process of identifying your child’s challenge can start a roller coaster of FAQ2emotions. If you’ve had similar challenges it may also bring back memories and emotions from your own childhood.

During one consultation, in which I shared results of screeners that showed an eight year old girl was struggling with dyslexia, I had a father who realized for the first time how much he had been impacted as a youngster. When he saw the screener his daughter had completed, in which she had to identify letters and numbers that were reversed, his eye began to fill with tears. I asked him if he had become that ten year old little boy again in school, confused, and frustrated. I asked him if he had dyslexia.

This was the first time he had admitted his struggle. He nodded and cried. He had forgotten the pain, hidden it away, and had pushed his way through school. Now he realized just how difficult it had been on him and he didn’t want his daughter to go through the same struggles. 

Years of Struggling

I struggled to learn to read and spell in school. I spent many years with reading tutors, pull-out programs, and doing Laura and David 2extra practice. When I realized my child had the same struggles, but much more significantly, I knew I had to do something. The thought crossed my mind that my child had gotten his struggles from me, but I wanted to focus my energy on how I could help him.

The most important piece of advice I can give a parent is if you spend your time feeling guilty, remorseful that somehow you have caused your child’s dyslexia, or that it’s your fault, you will be wasting precious energy and time that you need to spend getting your child the help that they need to succeed.

For me I kept my eye on the question, “What can I do for my child today, this week, and this year?”

If you’re feeling some guilt I have some news that might help.

Did you know:

Dyslexia is highly inheritable by no fault of a parent.

In fact, a child who has a parent with some degree of dyslexia will have a 40 to 60% chance of also developing dyslexia.

This risk increases when there are other family members that are also affected by dyslexia. If both parents have Dys 2adyslexia then the child will have a 100% chance of developing dyslexia. The tendency for dyslexia to run in families has been confirmed by multiple studies. The Dyslexia Research Trust says there are ten important genes that have been identified so far. Many of these genes are involved in the baby’s development of the brain during pregnancy.

A small minority of people with dyslexia acquired the condition after they were born. The most common causes of acquired dyslexia are brain injuries, stroke or some other type of trauma. 

Did you give your child dyslexia?

Perhaps, but today should be about what you can do to make learning more accessible and easier for your child.

Get specialized dyslexia screening that will help to better understand and identify the problem so that a better-targeted tutoring program can be provided. Outcomes tend to be better for children who are identified early and receive effective support and tutoring.

To learn more about the dyslexia screening that we can provide please go to dyslexia screening.

Dyslexia? Help Your Child Now!

If you suspect your child may have dyslexia you can start helping them today!

Believe your child if they tell you it’s hard to read.

Recognize that there are three ways to take in information and learn. Reading, listening, and watching/doing. Most classrooms are structured to provide learning through reading after the 3rd grade. Support your child by reading to them, allow them to listen to audio books, and provide experiences centered on the topics they are learning in school.

Blue paper B1Provide printed material on blue paper or purchase a blue overlay to place over the page of a book. This will reduce visual strain. Allow your child to write on blue notebook paper. You can purchase this on Amazon.

Allow your child to dictate ideas for larger writing assignments. The ability to produce print on paper is a separate skill from putting down ideas on paper. Separate the practice of these skills until your child can write letters and words on paper fast enough to be able to get their ideas down.

Get your child evaluated and find out what is really going on!  A screening or evaluation from someone who has training and experience with dyslexia can bring about a better understanding of the problem and will be more likely to lead to effective treatment.

If you suspect your child may have dyslexia it is always better to investigate and identify any issues now rather than waiting. For more information about our dyslexia screening please go to dyslexia screening.

 

 

Signs it May be Dyslexia

There will obviously be different expectations for a student’s abilities depending on their age, but these kinds of symptoms start to appear in the elementary years and can progress in severity as the student gets older.

Avoidance of Reading
If an individual with dyslexia has strong visualization and comprehension skills they may actually like reading because they can understand enough of the story to enjoy it. My question is, can they is my child dys.Bread something they are not interested in, finish it, and understand it? Difficulty reading directions without pictures or diagrams is also a telltale sign of dyslexia.

Anxiety

Students shouldn’t be anxious about school. A kindergartner shouldn’t get upset when it is time to practice letter sounds. Having to read a book should not cause your 7 year old to crawl under the table and cry. A fifth grader shouldn’t be avoiding reading books of interest and instead pick out books that contain few or no words most of the time. Anxiety about school isn’t just an indication of dyslexia, it can be an indication of several other issues, but it’s always a big clue to me that something is wrong.

Poor Spelling

Some students with dyslexia will be able to read to a point, but dyslexia almost always will show up in spelling. Some students with dyslexia will be able to memorize their spelling list just long enough to pass a spelling test, but the next week will misspell many of the same words. They may also spell the same word differently each time they write it.

Difficulty with Arbitrary Sequences

Students with dyslexia will often have difficulty learning arbitrary sequences like the alphabet, their address, phone number, days of the week, months of the year, and multiplication tables. Many students with dyslexia will have some memory challenges especially for information that does not have imagery or a 3-D component.Articulation B

Articulation Issues

Dyslexia begins as a deficit in phonological awareness, which is an auditory skill. Difficulty speaking clearly, needing speech services, trouble saying the sounds in the correct order in a word when the word has 3 or 4 syllables, and word finding problems may be an indication of dyslexia.

Challenges Being Organized

Many students with dyslexia tend to have organizational problems. They may be clumsy or have difficulty with small motor skills such as using a pencil to produce legible print. They may have challenges when it comes to keeping their room clean, things neat, turning in their work at school, being on time, and certain kinds of patterns like tying shoe laces. A delay in learning to ride a two wheel bicycle can also be a sign of dyslexia.

Discouraged

Most of the kids I see with dyslexia are discouraged. Some have given up. Some feel betrayed. My son felt betrayed by his teacher and by his mom. When I asked him one day if he read mostly by shape or by sound he became angry. He told me he had tried to read by sound for several years, but it just doesn’t work! Of course it didn’t work for him, he couldn’t hear the individual sounds in a word, he had dyslexia.

Does anything here look familiar to you? For more information on signs and symptoms of dyslexia go to dyslexia – probably not what you think. For help now call us at 253-857-8188.

Next time I will share five things you can do for your child right now!

 

 

Could My Child Be Dyslexic?

Did you know that about 40% of students will learn to read without any difficulty, 40% will learn to read but will have to work at it, and up to 20% of students have dyslexia?

Years ago, before I began studying dyslexia, I assumed it just referred to flipping letters. When I was teaching in the classroom I rarely noticed my students reversing letters or numbers and figured it was not very common.

Reading 2At that time I had a son who was struggling a lot in school. His reading and spelling had not been developing well for several years and we just felt stuck. I tried all sorts of teaching methods and curriculum, hired tutors, and worked with his teacher to help him improve. Nothing seemed to help.

I often received advice from his teacher, friends who were teachers, and relatives that the reading would come…I just had to give it time. I was also told that my child just needed to try harder, study more, or do extra reading.

Dyslexia is a neurological and often genetic condition which is highly heritable, marked by difficulty with reading or spelling, which is surprising given a person’s intelligence. In other words, an individual with dyslexia has difficulty with reading and spelling even though they are average or gifted in intelligence.

Unfortunately, because people with dyslexia are smart, it is assumed that the reason they are not reading or spelling well is a lack of effort. If your child just needs more practice, then their skills should improve within a few months. If practice is not improving their skills, dyslexia may be the cause.

Some symptoms of dyslexia may appear to be random, but there are actually patterns that dyslexia experts look for in both testing and performance. There is some predictability in the way someone with dyslexia will read and especially spell.

Students can be screened for dyslexia as early as five and a half years old because this is the age that the underlying skills for reading and spelling should have naturally been developed. These underlying skills I’m talking about are phonological processing skills.

Reading is actually an auditory skill that is applied to print. This is why many children who have speech challenges early on end up having reading, spelling and writing problems in school.

I hope you’ve found some of the information here helpful. If you are looking for help now please give our office a call at 253-857-8188 or contact us through our contact page.

In my next post I will talk about signs you may be seeing at home or in school.