ABC Read

I’m sorry, but more than likely the only reccommendation you’ll get for a homeschooling phonetic teaching system is the book Reading Reflex available for about $12- 16.00. The system is called Phonographix and the webiste for it is www. readamerica.com. (Sorry readamerica is right but not sure of other bits at mometn-still readamerica in a search engine will get it. Has a board to ask questions if you need help teaching or would prefer to find a tutour. Prob best chance of teaching LD kids to read unless they have very low phoneme awareness. Then check out Lindamood-Bell website. Wilson, Orton Gillingham methods may also be reccommended but for a parent wanting to teach a kid with a ld it always comes down to PG. Don’t waste your money on anything else.

One reason it “always comes down to it” is because the staff at readamerica.net have been told to monitor boards like this. It also comes down to Coke or Pepsi too but that doesn’t mean they’re better.

From what I read from parents and special education teachers whom I have gotten to know here, Reading Reflex is a good basic program. It’s not the only one, and it isn’t everything. RR will give you that vital basic foundation in relating letters to sounds. Then you have to go out and get books and work through the long process of learning to read books and developing vocabulary and comprehension and all the rest of it. Without the foundation, you stall on square zero. So a good foundation is the most important thing you can do to start, but it has to be followed up, whatever program you use.

There are many other books and programs that give the same foundation. I use a set of workbooks that are published in Canada by Scholar’s Choice (Check and Double Check Phonics) because they are inexpensive, complete, and reasonably varied in presentation. Other people use other books or homemade materials. All can work if you know what you are doing, or follow the instructions. One of the advantages of RR apparently is that it is clearly outlined even if you are a beginner.

Some kids need extra help. Orton-Gillingham and Wilson (more for older students, I am told) are more detailed programs to work with those kids. Some people complain that they are slow, but that’s part of the idea, to take your time and do things right. If your child is not picking up with PG or RR or other basic programs, then you may want to try OG as well as checking into vision and hearing details.

Thanks to everyone. I have told this mom to check Reading Reflex out at our local library to see what it is all about. Her son has speech/language problems, too, but she says he has been in speech therapy in public school.

Good luck to her. PG did not work with my son so i am not a read america endorser. Some of their attitudes irritate me. But if your only option is teaching your kid yourself it’s still the best bet. I have seen Mom’s with no background post their progress on this board and I have seen enough elsewhere to say it’s where a parent begins.

If she’s thinking of doing mroe multisensory stuff, there’s a Yahoo group “MSSLathome” and they’ve got really good stuff on their files online - lots of teaching materials and ideas and strategies.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MSSLatHome/ is the address.

She heard about the program & looked at it online. It is a visual mnemonics program for phonics. Pictures, such as a goat with a bow for the long o sound. to help kids remember. I don’t know anything about the program or her child, so I don’t know what to recommend for him. I will pass this site on to her.

Thanks!

I don’t know about coke or pepsi but I used reading reflex to remediate my child. The school could not even teach him beginning sounds by the end of first grade.

If you ever have a chance pop on over to ERIC and do some research on phonemic awareness and reading.
I would endorse any program that used a systematic method of teaching phonemic awareness to children.

Brenda, I am sorry but I am really tired of your snide remarks periodically when someone mentions Phono-Graphix on one of these bulletin boards. I have asked you to email me directly but you haven’t and I can’t email you because you don’t put your email address on your posts. No, Read America doesn’t monitor these boards, they don’t have time to, nor do they care to. The people who recommend PG to the people on this board are those who use the program and know that it works for a lot of kids and it doesn’t cost lots of money. For your information, there is a good possibility that PG is going to be independently researched because it is based on the research presented by NIH. It is a good program, fast and simple for a parent to teach her child. I want to apologize for this private email on this public board but I don’t want parents to get the wrong idea about a good program. Read America has their own bulletin board to discuss JUST their programs. They don’t like to compare PG to any other program because that isn’t the reason for the boards. They will help anyone using the PG with their child or their students.