My question is what is the best sequence of teaching spelling patterns to dyslexic students?

Which spelling patterns in particular will be the most tough for the dyslexics to grasp & what knock-on effect can they have
on the learning of other patterns?

Which doors would be opened in reading & writing by knowing a certain pattern & which would be closed if the pattern was not known??

Kindly explain.

Thanks

Aisha.

Aisha,

There are only 8 spelling patterns in the English language. I teach spelling with the spelling books – Making Spelling Sense and Making Spelling Sense II. The spelling books are designed to work with dyslexics of all ages. In addition to teaching spelling patterns it addresses both auditory and visual processing at the same time.

I always start with the vowel/consonant spelling  pattern as it is the easiest one to learn and the most predominant spelling pattern in the English language. Then I go on to the vowel consonant silent e spelling pattern. The other spelling patterns follow.

As you gradually introduce the patterns with multiple lessons per spelling pattern, I don’t think there is really one pattern that would be considered the hardest one.

When you understand the structure of the language you can not only spell thousands of words, you can also decode thousands of words. Teaching spelling with this spelling program addresses both encoding (spelling – writing the word down) and decoding (sounding out words – reading) simultaneously.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET
http://bonnieterrylearning.com

Join Bonnie Terry’s call and find out what you can do in just 20 minutes a day to boost your child’s reading, writing, and math skills and have fun at the same time.

I’m hosting a FREE Live Teleseminar on Wednesday July 14th at 8 pm Eastern, 7 pm Central, 6 pm Mountain, and 5 pm Pacific. Upon registering you will receive a FREE Handbook on the 5 steps you can take to help your child over the summer even if they have a learning problem, LD, dyslexia. The activities and steps are for all age students – kindergarten through adults.

Those that attend the Live Teleseminar will also receive a surprise FREE gift. And, of course, if you can’t make it live on the call, you will get access to the recording!

Mid-Summer Training Call
FREE Live Teleseminar on Wednesday July 14th at 8 pm Eastern, 7 pm Central, 6 pm Mountain, and 5 pm Pacific.
Space is limited. You can attend via phone or via internet!

Reserve your space for the Teleseminar now at:

Title: Searching for Summer Activities to Improve Your Child’s Learning Skills and Still Have Fun?
Time: Wednesday, July 14th at 5pm Pacific, 6 pm Mountain, 7 pm Central, 8 pm Eastern.
Listening method: Phone + Web Simulcast

To register, visit:
Mid-Summer Training Call

Learn About:
1. How to improve your child’s reading, writing, and math skills in just 20 minutes a day
2. 5 steps you can take to help your child
3. Activities to do at home, in the yard, or in your neighborhood

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

We spoke on the phone when I ordered your materials, which I’ve since received. Thanks very much!

You mentioned at the time that you are open to questions as I began using the materials–and, of course, I now have those questions!

-My son will be entering 3rd grade. His 2nd grade teacher noted his reading fluency as low proficient at end of year (technically passing, according to the DRA2-28 which they started using this year). At some point in the last few months of school, some one of his reading teachers at school appears to have told him that he read at 120 words per minute, and he adamantly clings to this.

However, I clearly see where he is still skipping or guessing at words inaccurately (and I don’t know if they measured that). So, when I put the 5 minutes to reading book in front of him, he was insulted–very put off. I tried explaining to him that we were not measuring speed so much as accuracy, and that we could chart his accuracy as it improved. I explained that even adults use this program. I offered to let him start with one of the later exercise if we would then go back to the first and didn’t get much more cooperation than I had originally gotten (though he did a fairly good job of reading exercise 45). Do you have any thoughts on how to break the resistance without forcing him to do it?

-My son’s other complaint about the exercises is that they feel to him like tongue twisters because all the words sound the same, and he really doesn’t like that. Do you have any suggestions for changing that perception?

I am very interested to see if I can get him to use this program, and interested to see if we will see results–but I am meeting with HUGE resistance up front. I really don’t want to force him to do it because I think that will diminish the results.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Joan

Hi Joan,

I’m glad you see that he isn’t actually reading 120 words per minute with accuracy. I never understand how they are measuring the kids when they say things like that because you can see from what you’ve done already, that is NOT the REALITY! When you time him, you can show him what he actually did. That should start to get him to see the reality – his words per minute and mistakes per minute. Explain how you are scoring him. If you need to press the point, you can even have him total his words up after you time him, so he knows how many there are. I’ve had to do that with a few students over the years. I don’t do it to be ‘mean,’ but sometimes they need a reality check so you can move forward.

We start with easy words – because we are working on accuracy as well as speed. Big words are just little words (syllables) put together. If you can’t read the small words accurately, you won’t be able to read larger ones efficiently and accurately either – which will mean you will end up re-reading your social studies book or science book 3-4 times in order to be able to answer the questions.

I know this, this happened not only with many students, but with my own son. In fact, he flung his 3 pound social studies book at me saying, “Mom, I’ve read it 3 times and still can’t find the answers. You do it.” This was because of his skipping, repeating, or mispronouncing words. Once we consistently did the 5 Minutes to Better Reading he was able to read his book one time and get the answers – because he read with accuracy in a quick amount of time. Doing the program – 5 minutes a day, will end up saving hours and hours of homework time. We are looking at the big picture here – making his life easier for the rest of his schooling – which at a minimum is the next 10 years (through high school).

But, you really need to start at the beginning – even though it may seem easy at first. Even my adult students start at the beginning! You are competing against yourself, no one else! And, yes, some of the drills are like ‘tongue twisters’. That is on purpose – to be sure you learn to read exactly what is there. Your son may think it is ‘too easy’, but his ‘fussing’ about it is actually telling you how much he needs it – that it is actually taxing and stretching his visual processing system. Hang in there! And remind him, it is only 5 minutes a day. It is not like you are expecting him to work for 2 hours or even one hour. You are only asking 5 minutes. And, when you are consistent, you will see results in just a few days.

The more you do it, the easier it gets and the more they see themselves improving the easier it gets.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

Should you do your own summer learning program?

Fact: More than half of the achievement gap present in 9th grade between lower- and higher-income children can be explained by summer learning loss.

Make Learning Stick with learning games and reading fluency training over the summer. There are many things you can do at home to bridge that summer learning gap.

1. Reading Fluency using Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills…and Yes…it only takes 5 minutes to do. Sally Shawitz, author of Overcoming Dyslexia states, “I urge parents to make fluency training their number one priority.”
2. Take a weekly trip …to the zoo, a local park, the pool, the river, a local factory…and afterwards as a family write down what you did and what your favorite part was…using the fill-in-the-blank forms from Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills and create a booklet to keep for all of your weekly trips.
3. Do some nature activities such as listening to outdoor sounds, nature rubbings, shape hike, incher hikes … again use the fill-in-the-blank forms from Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills to describe what you found or did.
4. Activities to do at home like making puppets and putting on a puppet show. Bake cookies together, have a backwards day where you eat dinner in the morning and breakfast in the evening, do add-on-stories. Again write down your favorite things or worse things about the activity.
5. Have a Game Night or a Game Day…choose learning games…they are fun as well as work on skills. Some great ones are The Sentence Zone (play & learn sentence building and grammar while having fun) , The Comprehension Zone (play & learn reading comprehension and listening comprehension), or the Math Zone (play & math calculation practice).
6. Read books together…and write a review or report on it, or have a review night where you all act as book reviewers of the book you read.

Check out the books, games, and guides here:

Reading

Writing

Math

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

When I tell parents that there are only 8 spelling patterns they are usually quite surprised. But, we only put letters together 8 ways to make words. Then, they become curious as to how I teach the patterns to my students. They ask me all the time to show them how to use Making Spelling Sense.

Here is a home schooling family using Making Spelling Sense with their younger kids. They use Making Spelling Sense II with their older kids. You can even see one of their older kids helping the youngest (who is in preschool) join in the lesson. Spelling is really a family affair! Watch the Woods family using Making Spelling Sense (with one of the first lessons) and see how easy spelling can be. They are doing the spelling lesson with multiple age kids.

Scroll down and watch a family learning the 1st Spelling Pattern:

Hope this was helpful. Be sure to get your FREE teaching and Homework Tips – go to the upper right side to get them!

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

The term dyslexia means reading difficulty. Many children have reading difficulties. The key is to understand what the underlying causes of the reading or writing difficulties are. Some children have difficulties with one or two of the areas of auditory processing that affect learning. Some children have problems with one or two of the areas of visual processing that affect learning. Some children have a combination of auditory and visual processing areas that aren’t working as efficiently as they should be.

There are several things you need to know as a parent to help your child in addition to the type of program that is best suited to help your child.

1. You can help your child when you know what the underlying causes are
2. You can help your child have greater access to learning
3. You can give your child a 2 – 4 year advantage in reading, writing, and math in just minutes a day

Find out what you need to know to help your child in minutes a day at http://dyslexiahelpnow.com.

Hope this is helpful.

Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET

Hi Bonnie,

I’d like to place an order for a product of yours, but I have not been able to locate any age or grade range for any of the items.  Can you tell me for whom the Comprehension Zone is appropriate?

Thanks,
Susan Taber

I recently found you on the web and just watching your vids, I’m VERY interested. To wit: I’m homeschooling my 16 year old nephew who has been diagnosed ADHD and dyslexic. With the phonics reading materials I’ve found on the net and at my local library, I can only find elementary school age relative materials. Money is tight or I’d simply order EVERYTHING you offer.

Any suggestions?

Thank you for your time, and more importantly your efforts to bring REAL EDUCATION to this nation!

Sincerely,

Rich Brewer

Hi Rich,

Sorry for the delay in responding. I was out of town visiting my mom in Chicago.

I know what you mean about phonics reading materials being geared to elementary students. In fact, most are geared to kindergarten through 3rd grade. That is why I designed mine for all ages. I’ve always worked with students from kindergarten through adult ages. I figured that my younger students would feel like they were doing older kids stuff and my older students wouldn’t feel like they had to do little kid stuff.

You can always start small and gradually build what you are using. The first things I would get are the Making Spelling Sense, Making Spelling Sense II, and Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills. The Making Spelling Sense teaches all of the phonics, word attack skills, auditory processing, and word structure. The Five Minutes to Better Reading works on reading fluency and accuracy as well as visual and auditory processing skills.

The Spelling Pack saves you $4.00; the Five Minutes to Better Reading Set saves you $9.00

When you purchase all of them as the Reading Pack – which includes the Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills + the Comprehension Zone you get a $20.00 discount, plus you then have the comprehension piece in place. You also get a copy of my new e-book: Understanding LD and Dyslexia as a bonus with the Reading Pack.

Hope this is helpful.

I’m glad to see you signed up for the free teaching and homework tips from my blog. BTW: You can subscribe to the videos on You Tube too.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

http://bonnieterrylearning.com

You would be amazed at the number of children I’ve seen over the years that have needed reading help that didn’t have a solid foundation of reading readiness skills.  This goes for children that are in kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th grade. So, when I received the following question from Karen, I thought it would be a good idea to shed some light on reading help and reading readiness.

I just received a letter from Karen regarding activities for teaching her triplets.

Karen writes:

“My triplets are 5 yrs. old and in kindergarten this year.  One is a special needs child.  I could use ideas for teaching multiples.  There is no older sibling to model.  Also, trying to work with our special needs daughter and the others creates many challenges.”

Hi Karen,

I know what you mean about challenges – working with 3 kids at the same time and one of them being a special needs child can be difficult.

Here are some tips for working with  kids at the same time – whether they are in kindergarten or any of the primary grades.

I would pick a time to work with each of the kids individually – for 10 to 15 minutes so they get some individual time with you. While working with one of them the other two can be doing something like coloring or listening to a book on tape.

In fact, you can even read their favorite books into a tape – at a speed that is comfortable for them to listen to and then they can listen to you reading to them – following along with your voice – while you are doing some individual work/activity with the others. Then you are still being ‘present’ to the one/s you aren’t working with.

You might even set up a special spot with their stuffed animals and a large pillow where they get to listen to the books. So it winds up being the ‘special place’ where they get to listen to stories.

Also, I would do things like playing Simon Says, bean- bag toss, hop-scotch, or red light green light – games that are relatively easy to do with all 3 that would also work on listening skills and following directions.

You are at the perfect time for doing reading readiness activities with your kids. Remember, all kids need the following readiness skills in order to do well with school tasks. These specific readiness skills  are critical to being a successful learner. Reading help is lessened when these readiness skills are in place.

Readiness skills can be categorized into the following areas:

1. Matching – objects and or sounds
2. Size – small-medium-large; big-little; long-short; fat-thin
3. Shape – circles, squares, and triangles
4. Action – start – stop; slow-fast
5. Position – top – bottom; under-over; forward-backward; up-down; inside-outside
6. Relationships – same-different; parts-whole
7. Configurations – patterns & sequencing
8. Classifications – sorting objects into categories or arrange them into groups – by size, shape, or color
9. Combination Concepts and Time – positions & shapes or positions and matching and time
10. Listening & following directions (These skills are utilized in all of the above activities.)

Hope this helps.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

P.S. Be sure to ask your questions by clicking on the Ask Me a Question Button.