Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michelle on May 26, 2009 at 6:11pm

Thanks for the link. My son will be five at the end of Aug and has dyslexic tendencies, this will be great!

Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on May 30, 2009 at 5:21pm

Another popular program for phonics is Lindamood Bell's LIPS - We'll attach a paper summarizing the different programs, including LIPS.

LIPS stands for Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing:

An excerpted overview:

1. Setting the Climate:
Help students learn to feel, see, and hear speech sounds in order to make reading and spelling easier.

2. Consonant Labeling:
Simple, high-imagery labels are attached to each category—Lip Poppers /p,b/, Tongue
Lifters /l,r/—to enable teacher and students to communicate clearly about sounds within
words in subsequent steps. For example, "When you say /clasp/, what are the last two
sounds you feel? (Student labels those sounds.) How do they change when you say
/claps/?”

3. Vowel Labeling:
Help students to discover how the vowel sounds are articulated, e.g. Smile, Open, and Round.

4. Tracking:
Develop phoneme sequencing for single through multisyllable words.

5. Decoding and Spelling:
Integrate phonetic processing with an ability to predict how words will be spelled or read. Sight words.

References: http://www.umanitoba.ca/unevoc/conference/papers/lindamood.pdf
http://teachers.plainfield.k12.in.us/tcox/Lettersbytheweek.htm

Attachments:

• lindamoodprograms.pdf, 61 KB

Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on June 26, 2009 at 8:22am

Online / Cdrom Phonics Programs:
HeadSprout.com

Reading Horizons

Help Me 2 Learn

Permalink Reply by Cassidy Meyer on July 20, 2009 at 6:33pm

We have a reading tutor, who is using Alphabetic Phonics, based on the Ortho-Gillingham method. I hope we see progress, but the repetition and coding are completely boring to my 4th grader. He wants to like reading but overall, dislikes working at it to get better.
I have grown frustrated in jumping through all the hoops it takes to keep him interested and progressing.

Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on July 20, 2009 at 9:35pm

This is a big problem - phonics IS boring and it requires a significant amount of tedium and hard work. If you need to switch gears, you might want to consider a program with more playfulness, imagery, and associations. By the 4th grade, usually you will want to do other sorts of reading activities in parallel so your child doesn't get turned off from reading all together. I've always thought Phonetic Zoo was more interesting, but would love to see if anyone else has favorites to contribute.

This might mean read along books you may be the main reader, but he can read certain words by context or by visual cue (e.g. Geronimo Stilton) where he 'chimes in' at certain times. Other types of books for this type of reading might include e.g. a simple book adaptation (e.g. simple Star Wars reader etc.) or screenplay (they have surprisingly many screenplays free online - e.g. http://www.imsdb.com/genre/Family) because characters' dialogue tends to be easier to read than descriptive passages, poems, selections from kids' joke books, or kids' magazine items (picture cues).

Permalink Reply by Doresa on August 22, 2009 at 4:10am

Thankfully I am a curriculum junkie! We used starfall for a few months with my eldest (almost 4). Now we have the "Help Me 2 Learn" CD-ROM series (he likes that when he uses it), Rock N Learn Phonics DVD's (my almost 2 year old twins like those), some phonics music CD's we play in the car, All About Spelling Level 1 (we have been using the phonics cards) and probably a few more tricks up our sleeves. Mixing so many programs may not be the best method, and we will probably choose one and stick with it exclusively if he isn't embracing reading by the end of this year.

Permalink Reply by Cassidy Meyer on August 22, 2009 at 4:21am

I have not had success with sticking with one thing frankly. My kids seem to need the variety. But it is tiring finding and remembering to use it all!

I need to try Phonetic Zoo. But the cost of all these different things adds up.

By the way, wondering if I have the wrong tutor. She mentioned that my kids attention span is not so good. I chalk it up to boredom and a little frustration during the 60 minute tutoring session. That and summer time! She was hinting at ADD, but my gut tells me that is not the case. I read your (The Mislabeled Child, by the Eide's) book, but need to check it out again from the library or purchase my own copy for reference. It seems with Dyslexics, there is so much more going on than just ADD. So I am not inclined to jump on this ADD/RX bandwagon. I personally think, even though she is a reading specialist and dyslexic trained, that she has spent too much time in the PS and expects attention that these kids just can't give on reading, phonics and spelling. Perhaps smaller doses are needed or a different program for us.
Cassidy

Cassidy

Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on August 22, 2009 at 8:32am

Thanks for more phonics programs that we can check out and add to our curriculum review section (under construction), Doresa!

I personally prefer 'novelty-learner' to ADD if it is more apt. And confess to being one myself (Brock also has his 'issues'). It is hard with strong novelty learners as the kids get restless and want to switch. Playful tutors going a long way - but lots of playful bright people also switch their careers a lot - so you usually won't find that personality type in one place for long (and perhaps especially not career-long workers in the public school system, but of course there may be lots of exceptions).

If you have your own business, one way not to keep spending a fortune on curricula is resell it, for instance on Amazon.com (you have to register as a business - but with a UBI number) - it is free to post if it has been sold on Amazon before. We did that with some Writers Workshop DVDs from Institute for Excellence in Writing - and it was if the course was about $15...rather than over $150 (prices are higher now)...more like a lending library. If you do not have your own business, there are also places like the homeschooling swap boards at vegsource.com - most of the popular curricula will resell quickly, although my sense is that you have to lower your price a bit more there.