E-mail Questions answered by the author, Don McCabe (continued)

Questions 1 | 2 | 3 | All in PDF

Here is a very simple solution.  Have her create her own 10 minute Guinness Book of Personal Records for speed reading.  Have her pick an easy reading book that doesn't have many pictures.  Have her (math problem) calculate the average number of words per line and the average number of lines per page.  Twice a day have her set the kitchen timer to 10 minutes and read as fast as she can.  When the timer dings, she must stop.  Now figure her words per minute and enter it on a chart or graph.

I'll bet she doesn't like to make mistakes either.  So, get books for her that are FUN books, whether they are stupid riddle books or elephant joke books.  Whatever turns her on.  And also try to convince her to underline AS SHE IS READING any word she is not 100% sure of either its meaning or its pronunciation.  Again, I have a chapter in my book about the importance of sending the correct message to the computer brain.  Skipping words sends the message the word isn't all that important to learn.  Important things we underline.
Another method that sometimes works is having a "drama" class or "Babysitting 101" in which we practice different voices and expressions and sounds using simple children's books such as Green Eggs and Ham.  Shel Silverstein's Light in the Attic or Where the Sidewalk Ends are great for this.

Sequential spelling should help build her self-confidence and help her computer respond automatically to patterns.

1.  If your child cannot print and write quickly and smoothly, I would recommend working with her handwriting, four fifteen- minute periods scattered throughout the day.  I would recommend the Let's Write Right series including the Rimes and More Rhymes companion book.  If you can't afford that, you might want to work with what is on the website and is free, Starting at Square One.
2.  If you child has access to a computer, she should learn the proper keyboarding techniques.  Her reading and spelling can improve with Individualized Keyboarding because it teaches spelling patterns AS she learns the keyboard.  Make sure you order the freebie that goes along with it that gives explicit instructions on how to help a dyslexic.
3. If you can only afford one book,  I would highly recommend If It Is To Be, It Is Up To Me To Do It.  The first seven lessons are on the website.

As there are 365 days in a year, it is very easy to cover two levels in just one lesson per day.  180 x 2 = 360.  That allows for Christmas, Easter, Hanukah, and two birthdays :-) !   You could do a lesson from Level 1 in the morning and a Lesson from Level 2 in the afternoon.  Then six months later do lessons from Level 3 in the morning and lessons from Level 4 in the afternoon.  Or you could just do one lesson from Level 1 in the morning and the next lesson in Level 1 in the afternoon and as long as you do the lessons every day, you will be able to complete at least four levels in one year!  Of course, you can repeat lessons but you should do so only after at least two hours have gone by.  You can remember anything if you forget it enough times!

This is what I have.  No bunny rabbits or balloons.  All the AVKO materials are designed for adults.  We believe that you can treat children as adults, but don't ever treat adults like little kids.   If you order, make sure that you order the teacher edition and not just the workbook.

You certainly are on the right track.  Orton-Gillingham is excellent.  I have received O-G training.  It doesn't hurt for a tutor or a teacher to know "all" the rules.  But I have found that it isn't necessary to TEACH all the rules.  If you were planning on becoming a certified O-G tutor or tutor trainer and wanted to make a living doing so, then by all means spend the $800.00.  However, I think you can learn to be an even better homeschooling mom for a whole lot less.  You can become a certified AVKO tutor for just the cost of the materials.  You would start with To Teach a Dyslexic to gradually learn how it was that a dyslexic learned to teach dyslexics and to develop materials for others to teach dyslexics.  Then you take the full course in teaching reading that is in The Teaching of Reading and Spelling: A Continuum from Kindergarten through College.  You would also need The Patterns of English Spelling and Word Families in Sentence Context.  Your examinations would be up on the website and answered by E-mail.
If you want to start from ground zero with your son, I would strongly recommend that you simply start with Let's Write Right.  You don't need the student's book.  It's better if you just modeled the letters and let him trace over them.  This way you can use all your O-G training to lock in the kinesthetic.  And by the way, I hope that you will use either Italic or D'Nealian (Modified) manuscript.

Yes.  This is a sensitivity to the "snow blinding" effect of white paper.  I have this sensitivity myself.  However, it does not interfere with my normal reading.  In fact, it helps me increase my reading speed.  I like to compare reading to riding a bicycle.  The slower you ride the bicycle, the harder it is to maintain your balance.  Increase your speed and you don't have to worry.  In learning to read, students with scotopic sensitivity stay focused on single words a bit too long and then the words seem to jump around.  They do that for me when I am tutoring and reading upside down.  So, I use a tinted grayish purple plastic sheet that I lay over the print.  You can pay all kinds of money for tinted lenses and for the evaluation.  If the school will pay for it, why not?  But don't expect that this will all of a sudden allow him to become a good reader.  If it does, great.  If it doesn't then he probably is a dyslexic and needs a different approach and not just tinted lenses or a tinted overlay.  For more information go to http://www.irlen.com.  From there you can find the nearest Irlen specialist.

Yes, your young man can learn with just your help.  In fact, he probably will learn faster with you as his mentor than he would with someone with all kinds of special training.  Much of what is taught at the university level is "theory upon theory."  And most of these theories just don't work.
If you can work with this young man fifteen minutes a day, six or seven days a week, you can really help him.  I would suggest that before you start you read my autobiography, To Teach a Dyslexic, so that you will understand why my very simple, common sense, approach is not widely used.  And more importantly, why it works!  Then I would start with If it is to be it is up to me to do it.  If you have any questions while you're using these materials, you can always e-mail me.

You're absolutely right.  That's why I believe elementary teachers should not be allowed to teach handwriting until they can demonstrate that they can write with either hand and upside down as well.  However, there haven't been studies concerning the effects of right-handed teachers teaching left-handed students--at least to my knowledge.

I agree that Isaac should not repeat kindergarten one more time.  If the techniques and materials didn't work the first time or the second time, why on earth would anyone think that they might work the third time through?  Something different must be tried.  By what you have said about Isaac's "inability" to remember, I wouldn't be surprised if Isaac would be a candidate for some form of "brain retraining."  Dr. Lyelle Palmer of Winona State University in Minnesota immediately comes to mind.  So does Benton Kurtz of the Kurtz Center in Winter Park, Florida.  If you live close enough to travel to Birch Run, MIchigan, I would be willing to see what I could do.  If your school system cannot or will not help your son, homeschooling seems to be about the only answer.  If you do elect to go this route, I might be of some help to you.  I would suggest a very careful modification of the presentation of letters (and words) in Let's Write Right. I would start with the letters A and a.  The names are "Big A" and "little a" and the letters make the word "uh" as in "a car," "a house," "a dog," "a cat."  You might start teaching a form of rebus reading.  Use the letter "a" and a picture of a car, house, dog, or cat.  You point to the letter and say "uh" and point to the picture and name it.  Do this for five minutes and take a break.  Let's say, counting pennies or fingers.  Five fingers, five pennies make one fist or one nickel.  One hand plus two fingers equal 7 fingers.  One nickel plus two pennies equal seven pennies.  Play, play, play for five or ten minutes.  Then back to the letter "AY" and how to read it whether Big A or little a.  Praise, praise, praise and not one bit of discouragement for not remembering.  Keep telling him he WILL remember.  You can remember anything IF you forget it enough times.  You don't go to the letter whose name is Big B and little b until Big A and little a are mastered.  Now you can have the words baa, BAA, and Baa.  After the B's are mastered, then we go to the C's.  And we now have "A CAB, a cab, A Cab, and A cab" and we can play with alphabetical order.  What comes first?  A.  What comes after A?  B.  What comes before C?  B.  Play, play, play.  Small periods of time with increasing lengths between the teaching.  If Isaac can remember after a ten minute break.  Great!  Continue extending the break times by intervals of one minute.  If Isaac fails (NOT CAN'T!) to remember after a ten minute break, reduce the break intervals by one minute each time until he can.  And then reverse and increase the break intervals.  After C you help him master D and d.  You now have added words of BAD, bad, DAD, dad, and the "nonsense" words of CAD and cad.  Then you go to the letters R and r.  After R and r go to S and s.  After S and s go to T and t.  Then return to teaching the letters of the alphabet and the words that they make in alphabetical order.  You also might want to read my life story.  I am a dyslexic.  I am ADHD and even at 69 can't sit still.  I should never have been able to learn to read, but I was "homeschooled" by my sister before I went to school.  It was that and an awful lot of unique experiences that enabled me to learn to read and learn to teach other dyslexics how to read.  Sorry about my plug for To Teach a Dyslexic but I really do think it might help you understand why schools fail to help children like your Isaac and why my methods have yet to become widespread.

In order to send you anything, I must have your snail mail address.  Your name would be handy also.  There's something about e-mail that just doesn't like books and pamphlets.  And yes, you're right.  Your children's problems are not your fault. Inherited maybe, but then again, you never picked your parents either.  I happen to be a dyslexic, a very lucky one that was able to learn to read.  I also passed my "dyslexia" gene onto my son, but I was able to teach him.  He gave it to one of his sons, but again, I helped my grandson learn to read.  He will be graduating from high school with honors.  I would suggest that you start by reading my book, To Teach a Dyslexic and then begin using Sequential Spelling with your kids.  As you can tell, there are a number of things on our website that you could use. But I wouldn't advise trying to get them all at one time.

The biggest misconception is that dyslexics see differently. This misconception comes from not understanding why b's, d's, g's, p's and q's are so frequently confused in reading and writing by dyslexics. The dyslexic mind tends to be more rigidly logical than the "normal" mind. Position in real life means very little. Picture a dog in your mind. Is the dog facing you? Is the head pointed to the left and the tail to the right? Is the head pointed to the right and the tail to the left. Is the dog standing on it's hind legs? Is the dog lying down? Does it make any difference? Of course not! To illustrate this point, when I am lecturing, I pick up a chair and twist it all around in different directions to that the audience can see how the position of a chair can relate to the position of the ball (o) and the stick (l) when it comes to the letters b, d, p, q, g. It is merely the processing of what is seen that is different in the dyslexic mind, not WHAT is seen.

Read my analysis of the teaching of the alphabet in http://www.avko.org/write_right.htm and in http://www.avko.org/spell_key.htm.  Also, in both public schools, and the private expensive schools for dyslexics in which tuition can be $45,000.00 a year or more, the methods of teaching do not reflect the knowledge that there are five different types of words in the English language and all five cannot and should not be taught in the same way. These five types are the simple, the fancy, the tricky, the insane, and the scrunched up.  The phonics that allow a person to decode cat and city and fish are insufficient to allow a person to logically pronounce insufficient. Although you have no problem with that word, you probably are not conscious of the fact that the letters fici in sufficient are pronounced "fish!" We do not teach the ci digraph that is pronounced /sh/ in words like precious, efficient, and crucial. Although we teach insane words like was (wuzz) and does (duzz) we do not teach lough and quay and victuals and about fifty more words commonly mispronounced by college "educated" people.

Starting with Sequential Spelling 1 would be what I would recommend. If you plan on teaching your child cursive or just to practice manuscript, I would also recommend using the Let's Write Right. However, whatever style of continuous stroke handwriting (or combination thereof) that your child prefers is perfectly okay so long as it is legible. The Getty-Dubay Italic is a great system, as well as Don Thurber's D'Nealian. If and when you plan on having your child use the computer keyboard, I would strongly recommend using Individualized Keyboarding. You might want to later on combine these with a lot of just plain fun reading. All of the Dr. Seuss books should be read. They have such great morals. The same as all the books by Theo. LeSieg (Note: LeSieg is Geisel spelled backwards and Dr. Seuss's real name is Theodore Geisel). The Berenstain Bear books are also great for kids that age. For composition, I would suggest that you first start with the easiest type of practice which is what the "experts" call Language Experience. After completing a Sequential Spelling Lesson, have your child make up a few sentences using some of the words in Sequential Spelling. You might want to start with just one or two sentences. Make sure YOUR CHILD doesn't worry about "correct" spelling. You can provide the correct spellings without any criticism for not knowing. His spelling will automatically improve provided no undue pressure is put to bear. As sentence composition improves (You can always help him make his sentences funnier or more sophisticated), then add the number you do in any one assignment. After sentences become easy, then you might try simple paragraphs. So you can see my sequencing is from letters to words to sentences to paragraphs and then to stories or essays. You can always find other ideas in my book on The Teaching of Reading and Spelling: a Continuum from Kindergarten through College.

If you have comments about this website, you are encouraged to e-mail DonMcCabe@aol.com.  We appreciate any comments that will help us make this website even more useful. 

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