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

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

Typically when a child has difficulty with spelling it is due to problems with the auditory processing areas of auditory discrimination, auditory closure, auditory memory, auditory visual integration. Visual processing may also impact spelling, specifically visual memory problems.

However, learning to spell doesn’t have to be hard. All children can learn to spell when you teach spelling in an auditory, visual, and tactile method that teaches the structure of the language at the same time.

One of the hidden secrets of spelling is that we only put letters together 8 ways to make words. See an example of how I teach the first of the 8 spelling patterns.

Hope this is helpful.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

P.S. Be sure to leave a comment below or ask a question to your right.

I would be interested to know more about how you make your
visual clocks and what they look like.

-Susan

Susan,

As a teacher of K- H.S. age, I have a lot of resources and supplies. I’m a learning disability specialist and educational therapist as well as parent. I have ADD & have worked with ADHD kids for over 30 years. So, I have a number of telling time work sheets that are blank as well as a large blank clock stamp for making clocks.

The stamp can be gotten from

https://educationalinsights.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?

And, I just did an online search and found this site where you can program in your times on the clocks and then print the sheets.

http://www.time-for-time.com/worksheets.htm

After making them, I would copy them on card stock paper to make them more durable and cut them from the sheets so I can tape them across the top or side of their desk.

You can even color code the hands of the clock or copy them on different colors of card stock to make it even easier for your kids to follow.

Hope this helps.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

P.S.: Don’t forget to sign up for the 10 FREE homework & teaching tips – right above my photo.

Written by: Great Schools Editorial Staff (2007)

Hiring a private specialist to conduct a psychoeducational evaluation of your child is a big commitment of time, effort, and money. To find someone competent, ask other parents or school staff for their recommendations. You’ll probably want to interview more than one specialist before choosing the person who will work with your child. If you get a recommendation from someone outside the school, make sure the private evaluator has the qualifications and/or credentials your state or district requires.

Before hiring a specialist to conduct psychoeducational testing, you will want to interview her about her professional qualifications, procedures, and fees. The responses will allow you to screen a prospective specialist to see whether you feel comfortable with her, and to discover any potential “mismatches” with your child’s needs. The conversation can also help you prepare your child for the evaluation process.

You’ll be better prepared to interview an evaluation specialist if you have some background information on evaluation for special education eligibility and/or learning disabilities.

In order to get the most benefit from your initial conversation with a psychoeducational evaluation specialist, you’ll want to have a good basic understanding about why and how evaluations for learning disabilities are conducted-and how to understand the results.  For the rest of the article, go to LD Online.

…………………………

Get the parent friendly LD Dyslexia Screening Tool to help you identify your child’s learning problems.

Hope this is helpful.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

Hello,

I’m interested in a couple of your products.  Regarding the Spelling Sense book 1, what ages is this appropriate for?  How are the words arranged and how many do you give weekly?  I have tried a word family approach with my 9 year old  ( just turned 9).  He’ll do fine for that week and the next week, but after that he can’t remember them.  Do you have any suggestions?

Also, we just found out he has a visual processing disorder and recently began vision therapy.  We are doing vision therapy homework each day.  I’m wondering about your “How to improve reading in 5 minutes a day” to see if that would help as well.  Or I am thinking that maybe I should wait on it and focus just on vision therapy at the present time.  What are your thoughts?

Thank you.

Leah Cheshire

Hi Leah,

The Making Spelling Sense book covers the 500 most frequently used words. That is a basic vocabulary for 1st – 3rd. The Making Spelling Sense II carries on from there and gets into prefixes, suffixes, and root words which is a 4th – 6th level. I would start with the first one to give him a solid foundation. There are about 10 – 12 words per list.

The Five Minutes to Better Reading will actually augment the vision therapy you are doing as it also works on visual tracking at the same time as visual closure and fluency. You only do it for 5 minutes a day. Here is a link to a video where I’m using it with a student. How to Improve Reading in 5 Minutes a Day

I hope this has been helpful.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

Sincerely,

Gena Smith

Gena,

I always like to start with understanding exactly what is going on…why a student is struggling and what areas are they good in. This helps me to be more patient and efficient when I’m teaching them. I want to be sure that I’m addressing all of their needs.

For instance, you work on phonics with a student and he really gets it, but is still struggling, the problem may be visual tracking, visual memory, visual closure, or any of the other areas of visual, auditory, or tactile/kinesthetic processing that were not addressed with the phonic program. So what you actually needed to do was to work on those areas. Ultimately you spent time, effort, and money and haven’t solved the problem. And, in the meantime your son gets more frustrated because learning is still hard.

Another example would be when a student has trouble remembering their multiplication tables, knowing if they have visual memory or auditory memory problems makes a difference. If the problem is one of understanding the concept of what is mathematically happening with numbers when you multiply them you would do something different to help them. Spatial awareness comes in too with the understanding that 4 x 5 is the same as 5 x 4 (They take up the same amount of space if the boxes below were all the smae size. Unfortunately the size changed when I put the tables in.)

4 x 5

5 x 4 = 20

So, when I created my products, I created them in such a way that each of them would address multiple areas of auditory, visual, and tactile kinesthetic processing sub-categories. That would ensure that I would be addressing their problematic areas, even if I didn’t know what each of their specific problematic areas was. Just using these materials would ensure that I’d be hitting the critical areas that students have problems with and at the same time teach them the specific skills they needed.

That said, no the learning pack does not include the Learning Difficulty/Disability Pre-Screening Tool and Informal Comprehensive Identification Tool. That is sold separately. It is very reasonably priced at only $37.00. Remember, taking your son to someone for testing can be anywhere from $500.00 to thousands of dollars.

I’ve listed the areas of perception that each of the products addresses.

Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills

Addresses: auditory and visual perception difficulties, specifically visual closure, visual tracking, auditory discrimination, auditory visual integration, auditory closure, and auditory memory. It is phonological, incorporating every vowel and consonant combination in the English language, with lots of review built in. It also includes a retrieval automaticity component that is critical in ensuring that children understand what they read.

Making Spelling Sense and Making Spelling Sense II

The auditory areas addressed are: auditory discrimination, auditory closure, auditory visual integration, auditory memory, and auditory visual coordination. The visual areas addressed are: visual tracking, visual closure, visual discrimination and form constancy, visual motor, and visual integration. The tactile-kinesthetic areas addressed are: laterality, directionality, spatial-temporal, and sensory motor integration.

The English language has a specific structure. There are eight spelling patterns in the language and the patterns are taught with story explanations. The process used shows students how letters come together eight different ways to make words. It takes the guess work out of spelling.

Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills

Addresses the following visual, auditory, and tactile-kinesthetic processing areas: visual memory, visual figure ground, visual closure, visual language association, visual language classification, auditory-visual coordination, auditory language association, auditory memory, laterality, spatial temporal, and sensory motor integration.

Writing and study skills it covers include: note taking, paragraph writing, essay writing, research paper writing, and letter writing. You will be able to teach your students the secrets to improving their reading comprehension as well as the secrets to improve their studying and the seven steps to take on test day to improve their test scores.

The Sentence Zone

Addresses visual motor, visual language classification, visual closure, spatial-temporal,
laterality, directionality, contact, and sensory motor areas of perception.

The Writer’s Easy Reference GuideTM is an individual resource for all students. It includes paragraph writing hints, essay writing hints, steps of the writing process, words to make your writing more interesting, common prefixes, suffixes and root words, grammatical and literary terms, how to write a bibliography with examples and much, much more. It “unlocks the code” of how to write a sentence, then a paragraph, then a better paragraph, then an essay. The guide helps all to be confident and competent writers.

The Comprehension Zone

Addresses visual memory and auditory memory too! Students read short passages of materials, identify the main idea and details, and rephrase the content in their own words. That is exactly what students do when they play the Comprehension Zone. Bonnie has created a visual/kinesthetic method for teaching kids of all ages how to read for meaning. They play for main idea, details, both, or to sequence what they have read or listened to.

The Math Zone

Addresses spatial awareness, visual form constancy, and visual motor areas of perception.

The BT Easy Math Reference GuideTM starts with addition and subtraction. Then, this 16-page guide shows step by step how to solve all elementary math calculations right up to fractions and decimals. Also covered are all those “other” math topics, such as word problems, bar and circle graph, rounding and estimating, place value, geometry, measurements, money, and averaging. You’ll learn the how, the why, and the memory tricks to help your students remember. Simple, clear examples, all in a sturdy, 3-hole-punched format you can slip into a binder. It’s a great supplement to any math program, for both parent and student.

B & D Posters are used by families as well as classrooms, typically one per classroom at the primary grade levels. The B&D Stickers come with 10 in a pack and are used with primary age children, typically placed on their desk as a reminder. Middle Grade and High School students who still have reversal difficulties love them and usually put them inside their binders as a reminder.

Hope this is helpful.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

]]> http://www.bonnieterry.com/blog/index.php/2009/05/my-son-is-8-and-has-really-struggled-with-learning-what-do-i-do-where-should-i-start/feed/ 1 http://www.bonnieterry.com/blog/index.php/2009/05/how-to-improve-reading-in-5-minutes-a-day/ http://www.bonnieterry.com/blog/index.php/2009/05/how-to-improve-reading-in-5-minutes-a-day/#comments Wed, 20 May 2009 23:01:51 +0000 bonnieterry http://www.bonnieterry.com/blog/?p=461 Can this really be done? Yes, it really just takes 5 minutes a day to improve reading skills. Research has shown that short quick sessions that last only 5 minutes does improve reading fluency tremendously.

Cecil Mercer, a researcher from the University of Florida, published his results from his study Effects of Fluency Intervention for Middle Schoolers with Specific Learning Disabilities in (2000) stating daily practice can be for as little as five or six minutes.

Here is a short video where I show you how you can improve reading fluency in just 5 minutes a day.

Substantial gains in reading fluency came from repeated oral reading of various sorts such as letters or words for five or six minutes a day. The key to the success was doing the repeated oral reading over a period of time e.g. six months to twenty-three months.

So, now view the video that shows you how you can help your children improve reading fluency in just 5 minutes a day.

Hope this was helpful.

Be sure to ask your questions by using the button under my photo to the right.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

Yes, the school can test your child, but the tests used by the schools don’t always give you the whole picture. For example, sometimes a child is shown to have poor auditory memory because they were not able to repeat nonsense syllables or random digits. These activities have absolutely no meaning to your child. You know that your child can often tell you a long story about something that happened the day or week before.

Using an informal assessment in the comfort of your home that utilizes parent observation can give you the opportunity to do an assessment from your own observations of your child. Remember, you are the one that knows your child best. Then, when you have the results of your evaluation, you have a starting place to approach the school if formal testing is indicated. You can even suggest areas that need to be tested more thoroughly than might otherwise be tested, so the school can get an accurate picture of your child. (The LD Dyslexia Screening Tool gives lists of suggested formal tests that can be requested if indicated upon scoring the informal test.)

There are no strings attached.  www.thehomeschoomagazine.com