Program to help son's weak areas?

I forgot to say that my son is also inattentive ad/hd.

:)

You have one very bright student there. There are no guarantees, but the following programs usually result in significant gains for the areas of weakness you mention. The slow writing is the most difficult to predict because this often involves neurological differences which may be unresponsive to intervention. Spelling usually comes very slowly.

Interactive Metronome sometimes results in gains in writing speed and has an excellent track record with ADD. Website is http://www.interactivemetronome.com

For math facts, I recommend getting Quarter Mile Math software (http://www.thequartermile.com ) and having your son work for 10 minutes every day with it. Depending on how quickly he types, results can be enhanced if you do the keyboarding for him (can pack considerably more problems into 10 minutes than if he has to hunt-and-peck). I believe Sylvan Learning Centers are using this now to develop math fact fluency. It tends to be very effective, but the student should keep up with it daily for months (and after that may need to refresh a couple of times a week for a year to maintain).

For overall processing speed improvements, including reading, I highly recommend PACE or LearningRx if you can afford it. (See http://www.processingskills.com and http://www.learningrx.com — same program.) If you can’t afford PACE and your son is cooperative when working with you, I recommend the home version of PACE which is called BrainSkills (http://www.brainskills.com ).

For spelling, I highly recommend that you use Sequential Spelling from http://www.avko.org . If your son is a teen, the 2-book “Adult” version could be your best bet. Otherwise start with the first book of the regular 7-book series. If you decide to go with Sequential Spelling, post a separate question about it and I will post detailed tips on getting started and streamlining it. SS works for most poor spellers, with automatic carryover into daily writing.

Nancy

To help with writing speed and spelling while working with the various programs Nancy3 suggested, you might want to try a word prediction program. This can increase output with fewer mistakes and may give him more confidence. One that we found worked well for my dd is WordQ - http://www.wordq.com/ - you can download a free trial to see if it is helpful. There are a variety of word prediction programs available, so if WordQ isn’t helpful, you might try another one. You can also request an Assistive Technology Assessment from the school.

Thanks so much Nancy for all of your great suggestions. I forgot to mention that my son actually did Interactive Metronome at the end of 5th grade. At first, I really didn’t think it did anything much, except help him make the percussion section in band. That is probably because, at the time, summer was right upon us.

Now that I look back to the next school year, he had a 504 in place at that point, but only needed it in math and science for extra time on tests, generally. So it may have helped his speed somewhat.

The most puzzling thing about my son’s slow writing is that his handwriting is so neat! Usually I read about kids who write slow having trouble making it legible.

I’m glad that you mentioned Learning RX, because they just opened one in my town, and I have been reading and doing searches on it all morning. I just wish I could talk to someone who did it and had good results for some similar issues.

If anyone out there has done Pace or Learning Rx, especially for processing speed or coding, please let me know if it helped your child.

Thanks for the other references, too, Nancy. I’ll look at them all. It’s a jungle out there, and we moms can use all the help we can get! :)

Thanks, scifinut, I’ll check out Wordq. ! :)

My son is dyslexic and we did PACE with him two years ago. He made gains in all areas they tested him on. Specifically, he made about 2 years gain in Processing speed using their measure. He also, made a significant gain in Selective Attention.

My husband and I noticed a difference in his general schoolwork. Also, the Resource teacher reported that he completed a 12-week reading program in 6 weeks.

It is a big commitment in time and money though. I really think the best time to do it is over the summer.

I’ve been looking into the learningrx and I think you are right, edhmom. We will probably try it next summer. School already takes up a great deal of his time. I think during school, I’ll try a few of these home programs mentioned above.

Thanks so much for telling me about your son’s results. It is difficult to find people who have tried the PACE or learningrx program.

We did PACE when my DD was in 2nd grade. I was parent certified, which was more cost effective, but probably not as efficient (and I don’t think they do parent certification anymore).

We saw some gains - not huge though. It did get her over the next reading hurdle and she has maintained grade level in reading since then (although in my opinion grade level is still pretty weak).

It’s alot of work(twice the work when there’s not a 3rd party to implement the core of the program)! We never did completely finish Master the Code and even had a few more levels on some of the PACE exercises. After 5 grueling months, we just burnt out.

I think one of our challenges was the age, as she was on the young side. I felt MTC was getting just too complicated for her age level to finish the program.

demarti,

To get the reading level more solid, you might want to try Rewards from Sopris West. I guarantee it’s a *lot* easier than PACE or MTC! It is scripted so there’s virtually no prep, and the scripting makes it easy for a parent to do. Rewards Intermediate is designed for elementary school students reading on a 2nd grade level or better. Rewards Secondary is designed for middle school and high school students reading on at least a beginning 4th grade level.

Website is http://www.rewardsreading.com

If you decide to order this program, you will need the Teacher’s Manual and a workbook for your student. (An additional workbook if you want to re-sell the program on a swap board.) It’s a good idea to place your order by telephone, as the website is horrible to navigate for ordering purposes (or was the last time I ordered).

Nancy

Nancy - thanks, I will bookmark that site. I wish I had known about the program 4 yrs ago! I definitely chose those programs that had the script to them. That was one of the things I liked about MTC when I chose to do that vs. LMB. (I just didn’t get the whole lip popper, tongue tapper thing). But MTC just got too ‘complex’ from her ability to remember all those rules and sounds toward the end of the program. I did think it was pretty easy to implement though.

For right now, I’m keeping my eye on the reading. She seems to be reading great when she is silent to herself(and I do believe she is comprehending well). Matter of fact, just starting this school year, she has developed a LOVE of reading!! She can’t wait to get to her book at night. (never thought that day would come!) Her problems right now, are more misreading some words when she reads out loud and sometimes I see that when she reads directions. It’s like she reads too fast outloud, just needs to slow down some. Her mind is going faster than the words can come out.

What she really needs help with is spelling in writing. I’ve been tempted to get that avco Sequential Spelling program, I just don’t know when I can fit that into her homework and activities schedule. (I’m telling ya, PACE just completely burnt me out, haven’t been able to pick up a therapy program since then).

Can you tell me how intense Avco is? How much time does it take per day/ per week to do the program and how long before you start to see progress?

Demarti,

I have had good results using Sequential Spelling in a very minimalist way. Have you been to the website? There is a sample week’s program there so you can test the philosophy. The student should be reading on at least a beginning 4th grade level before starting SS or the multi-syllable words will be frustrating. Here’s how I recommend using it:

You say the word. If that’s not enough, also use the word in a sentence. The student writes the word. You look at the word. If it’s right, you move on to the next word. If it’s wrong, you point out which letters need to be changed (usually the vowel). The child crosses out the incorrect word and writes the word with the correction you have provided. Usually the correction is right, so you move on to the next word in the list. Typical list length is 25 words.

How long one of these lessons takes usually depends on: (1) how many errors the student makes, (2) how quickly the student can write, and (3) student age. (Older students can usually get through lessons much faster than younger students.)

There are children for whom this streamlined approach won’t work, but it works well for most. It is not labor-intensive at all for either student or teacher (you), so I would suggest giving it a try at some point.

Nancy

Forgot to add that carryover from Sequential Spelling is automatic. Parents usually start seeing improvements in spelling (in everyday work) right around lesson #60.

Should also mention that some families can get the lessons in book #1 done in less than 5 minutes. To help get to this point, it can be a good idea to have the student cover preceding words in the lesson so he/she cannot copy patterns. Covering the words already done forces the student to use short-term memory to remember the pattern, and using short-term memory repeatedly tends to reduce the number of errors (which shortens lesson length).

Website for the program is http://www.avko.org

Nancy

when you had your son tested, did you receive a copy of the report? the report should have some recommendations for improving the weaknesses highlighted through the testing. your son scored well on the test - even in the areas that require faster or timed responses he scored within the average range which is unusual for someone with ADHD. Have a look at this website, it has some tips for managing behavior and time: [url]www.aboutmh.com[/url]