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All in PDF
Dear Dr.
McCabe, I have just found out that my 15 year-old
son has dyslexia. He is a tenth grader and is
reading between the 5th and 6th grade level. I have
been reading you book "To Teach a Dyslexic" and
would like to order some the AVKO products to help
him improve. I will be trying to tutor him myself. I
was going to order "If it is to be it is up to me to
do it". I would like to know what sequential
spelling lesson are for 5th grade and up? I will
order these plus the response book after I hear from
you. What other materials would I need for home
tutoring? Thank you for your time.
Your selection of "If it is
to be.." is a good place to start. In regards to
Sequential Spelling, the volumes are not
arranged by grade level. The reason: words like
ice are 4th grade words and nice
is 1st. I believe in teaching words of the same
patterns at the same time. So, the easiest
patterns to learn are in the early volumes and
the more difficult patterns in the later
volumes. If your son hasn't already
learned touch typing so he can use a computer
keyboard without looking at the keys, I would
strongly recommend that you use my
Individualized Keyboarding to teach him.
If you plan to homeschool him, I would also
recommend that you use as your own text for
learning how to teach reading: "The Teaching
of Reading: a Continuum from Kindergarten
through College" If your son is reading at
the 5th or 6th grade level and he's in the 10th,
the reason is probably because he doesn't know
the "FANCY" patterns such as the "cial" being
the way we spell the sound "shul" as in special,
crucial, racial, and commercial. In both "The
Teaching of Reading..." and "If it is to be..."
I have lists of these patterns and the pages in
"The Patterns of English Spelling" that
the words containing these patterns can be
found.
Dear
Mr. McCabe, My son will be turning 7 years old in
just a couple of days. When he was 4 he was
diagnosed as ADHD. It was recommended that he be
medicated but my husband and I chose to try other
things that seemed to work. Last year he completed
Grade K with great success; however now that he is
in first grade and the load is much heavier he is
having a lot of trouble! Yesterday I received
a note from his teacher saying that he can not
continue this for the rest of the year. After
staying up all night last night researching the net,
I'm almost convinced that he is dyslexic instead.
Your site was one of the best that I ran across
however it seemed a little advanced for a child just
entering 1st grade. Do you have anything that is
directed towards this age group. It'll have to be
something over the net that is free because I don't
have the money to order some of the things I found
last night on some of the other sites. Even if you
do not, I still want to express my approval of your
site, it is the best I've found so far. It seems
more people should be more concerned about our
children vs. making so much money on other peoples
misfortunes. Again thank you so much.
I am glad that you avoided
the drugs for your son. As far as helping
your son, you might want to help him in making
his handwriting (probably printing) automatic
(fast but legible). You might want to
visit our web page
http://www.avko.org/write_right.htm and check
out the concept of teaching reading and spelling
as we teach the printing of the alphabet using
D'Nealian, Getty-Dubay Italic, AVKO, or any
"continuous" stroke manuscript printing that
makes the transition to cursive handwriting a
lot easier when it's taught in the third grade
(probably). I would start with the letter
a, letting him know that it is the word "uh" as
in "a book, a man, a dog, a glass," etc.
When he can write "uh" and spell it "AY"
automatically, then go to the letter B.
Now, you can have him write "baa, baa, baa" as
in Baa, baa, Black Sheep." and then the name
Bab. When the writing of the letters b and
a are automatic as well as the reading and
spelling of these simple words, work with the
letter C. Now we have "a cab." When
the writing of c and the spellings of the words
available are automatic. Add the letter D.
Now we have dad, bad, cad, dab, cab, and baa.
When this is automatic, add the letter R.
This gives us car and bar and card and bard.
When this is automatic add the letter S.
Wow does this begin to open up possibilities.
We have "ass (the donkey, of course), bass,
dads, cabs, dabs, cars, cards. With T
comes a tremendous explosion of words. We
have the at family: at, bat, cat, rat, tat bats,
cats, tats as well art, cart, carts, tart,
tarts, start, starts, Bart and tab, stab, tabs,
stabs, etc. Then continue on slowly
working through the alphabet with e,f,g,h, i, j,
k, l, m, n, o, p, q & u together, v, w, x, y,
and z.
Hi, my
name is Kim and I have a 14 year old son by the name
of Jimmy. I believe he is dyslexic and would like to
see if there would happen to be any tutors in my
area that could help me. I am home schooling Jimmy
and have been for two years, we have made some
progress but very little. When I started
homeschooling Jimmy he was on first grade reading
level going into the 7th grade. now he is about on
3rd grade level at his best. I took Jimmy out of
school because he had been in SLD classes for
"learning disabilities" they said he was ADD and put
him on several meds but they altered his mood and
personality so I took him off the meds. Anyway, the
public school system does not have SLD classes when
you get into middle school here so they put him in a
class with 50 kids and an extra teacher for kids who
needed help. This made my
son so upset that he was physically ill. What kid is
going to put his hand up and ask for help in front
of 50 kids? Plus Jimmy couldn't even read his
schedule or what was on the board. After several
meetings and one which included school board
members, they told me to quit babying him and that's
why they had two teachers in there to help the kids
who needed it and "anyways" they said "we don't
teach 7th graders how to read, he'll just have to
catch on". I figured they had him for 7 years and
couldn't teach him to read , I could do better but
now I'm not so sure. A little personal info.
on Jimmy; he is 14 yrs. old as I said, over 6 foot
tall, 225 pounds, he thinks he is stupid, fat and
told me he thinks he will never learn to read. Jimmy
is very smart, a lot more common sense than his
sister who made a 4.0 in school. No one knows of his
learning disability unless I would tell them.
I could really use some help, I'm not sure where to go from
here. Time is slipping away, Jimmy will be 15 in
Jan. and things don't seem to be getting much
better. In the mean time I stopped working to try to
help Jimmy and we are struggling financially. Any
help you can give us will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, Kim J
Good tutors don't come cheap.
They often charge anywhere from $20.00 an hour
to $80.00 an hour. And that is a real
problem for those on limited incomes.
That's why at AVKO we use trained volunteers to
tutor on a daily basis. If there is
any chance that you live within driving
distance, I would suggest that you make an
appointment and bring Jimmy with you to the
foundation. Here we will train you in some
very simple (but effective) techniques and how
to use those AVKO materials which are most
appropriate for him. If coming here to
AVKO is out of the question, then I would
suggest that you first purchase my
autobiography, To Teach a Dyslexic. That
will help you understand why Jimmy's school has
been unable to help him learn to read and also
understand that it's never too late to learn to
read. If you would like to have a
course in the teaching of reading, you might
want to purchase The Teaching of Reading: a
Continuum from Kindergarten through College.
However, you probably can begin to get good
results by starting first with If It Is To
Be, It Is Up To Me To Do It, which only
costs 22.95 plus shipping. If I can be of
further help, feel free to either e-mail me or
to call me on the phone.
Mr.
McCabe- Please share your opinion regarding the
teaching of reading to high school students and
adults who have learning disabilities and/or mild
intellectual disabilities. Does research support the
practice? Thank you.
It is my opinion that nearly
all high school students and adults with or
without learning disabilities or intellectual
disabilities can benefit by systematic
instruction in reading. My personal research
does support this practice. When I first started
out in the reading field as a high school
teacher at Flint Northwestern High School in
Flint, Michigan, I secured permission from the
school to pre and posttest the entire student
body of over 2,000 students in both reading and
spelling and compare them with my five classes.
You can find the results of this study in my
book, To Teach a Dyslexic. Mind you, I used a
"canned" direct instruction method developed by
SRA years ago using Power Builders, Rate
Builders, Reading for Understanding, and
Spelling. If I were in the same position today,
I would be incorporating much more systematic
and sequential instruction and achieving far
greater results. But is there a decent body of
research in this area? No. It's much easier for
reading researchers to work with children and
work exclusively in the early years where
vocabulary is limited to a few thousand words
most of which follow simple phonic principles.
If you would like to find out more about my
opinions regarding the teaching of reading to
high school students and adults, you might want
to either read my book The Teaching of Reading:
a Continuum from Kindergarten through College or
at least read its table of contents and a few
selected chapters on our website.
Hello
Mr. McCabe, I really enjoyed reading sections of
your book in the Internet. I will definitely buy it
soon. My son is fifteen and he has dyslexia, I have
known about it since he was six years old. I, at the
time, did not have any idea what that was. I since
bought many books and read many articles about the
condition. I am still, a lot confused, about
what I had learned. I am from the Island of Haiti,
and in my homeland, kids were either smart, average
or slow. When I heard, that the school system here
recognized that learning disabilities were to be
taken seriously and a lot of work were devoted to
help the kids in that situation, I was very happy.
But I am very disappointed, all those years, I had
to fight for Ari to receive the extra help that was
due. You see Mr. McCabe, Ari is also gifted with an
IQ of 130. I have been trying to tell those teachers
that he needed extra help but for some reason they
keep saying "this boy is too smart for his age and
he just don't want to work " Ari really would like
to go to college, but we worry that his grades might
keep him from that goal. Ari, wants to be a
psychiatrist and work with children. I will keep on
looking for a way to help him succeed and reach his
goals. Keep up the good work, and God Bless!
Does AVKO
have a position on the teaching of handwriting
skills for elementary students - manuscript vs.
cursive, D'Nealian, italics, etc?
Yes, AVKO does have several
different positions regarding the teaching of
handwriting skills to elementary students. Many
of the positions are stated on our web page
http://www.avko.org/write_right.
Also, what
is the best age to teach manuscript, cursive, etc?
Ah, the ubiquitous "it all
depends..."
Do you
know of up-to-date research on these topics?
There is almost as much valid
research on handwriting as there is on spelling.
Would you believe that the last time a study was
done on the 5,507 basic spelling words in
English was done in November, 1953? You might
want to contact Kate Gladstone about whatever
research is out there, or Getty and Dubay, both
of whom you probably are well aware of.
I am doing
research for the curriculum office of the Medford,
Oregon, Public Schools. I came across your website
in doing web searches on the topic of handwriting
research.
My personal preference is to
expose all children to all the major styles of
handwriting and allow them to use that style
that fits their ability to make their words
legible. I also strongly believe that
handwriting practice can be used to teach
"phonics" and spelling and decoding. With such
emphasis on legibility to make it clear that
dear and clear, dean and clean, and cling and
ding, should not be confused because the c and l
must not touch to make the letter d, phonics and
spelling can be taught especially with student
self-correction.
For a handwriting "mini" curriculum I would
strongly advise using the order of presentation
in Let's Write Right for the first year of any
handwriting program. Handwriting books for the
children are really unnecessary expenditures.
Handwriting charts and exercises that emphasize
legibility and speed (automaticity) really are
all that is needed.
Can
you tell me if I can just purchase a word list from
you to go over with my son who is dyslexic?
We have all kinds of
different word lists. Each is designed for a
specific purpose. If you can tell me what it is
that you wish to accomplish, I would be in a
better position to recommend a specific word
list. Actually, I think you might want to visit
our web site and to download http://www.avko.org/First_seven_lessons_from_if_it_is_to_be.htm.
This allows you to try before you buy.
From a
homeschooling mom: I am thinking of ordering some
material, and have a few questions first. I have an
11 year old who has very poor spelling, poor
handwriting, and poor word-attack skills, though he
can read in context fairly well. I am thinking of
getting the first few levels of sequential spelling
to see if that will help him.
I am
curious about Let's Write Right. How does it
correlate with the spelling?
This book teaches both
reading and spelling AS it teaches the alphabet
both in manuscript and cursive. I would strongly
recommend that you use it with him. If he writes
stick/ball instead of D'Nealian, I would even
more strongly recommend that you teach both the
manuscript (printing) and the cursive at the
same time.
My son
can write, though not cursive yet, and I am more
hoping for sentence copying type of practice with
the cursive.
There will be plenty of
sentences for "copying" but remember unless your
son knows and reads what he is copying, the
"copying" will not help either his reading or
his spelling. The dictation of sentences with
immediate student self-correction is what will
help him the most.
Would
your sequential spelling be a complete spelling
program? I cannot afford your Patterns of English
Spelling as well.
For the most part it is.
Every consistent pattern in English spelling is
covered somewhere within the seven volumes.
Would
The Tricky Words be good to get at the beginning?
That set does have a lot of
"fun sentences" and plenty of preview and
review. I'm using it now with a 61 year old
dyslexic lady from Germany who came to the AVKO
Educational Research Foundation to learn
English. She is enjoying it.
Mr.
McCabe,I was thrilled to find your website today. I
worked as an assistant Reading Teacher in Virginia's
public school system for 4 years, but still don't
feel like I KNOW how to teach phonics!! Of course,
it was taboo to use boring old phonics techniques
with students. Must use the new Whole Language
methods recently discovered. It was very frustrating
as a teacher not to be able to use phonics with my
students. I am now a homeschooling Mom with 4 kids
and am trying to teach my 4.5 year old son how to
read. I've noticed that he does have dyslexic
tendencies, and often forgets his alphabet letters.
What am I doing wrong?
You may be doing nothing
wrong at all. It may be that he isn't quite
ready. It may be that you might be trying to
teach too much too fast.
Is it to
early yet to peg him as a dyslexic?
It probably is too early. If
I were in your shoes, I might want to begin all
over again with Let's Write Right and slowly and
methodically teach reading and spelling and
handwriting AS you teach the letters of the
alphabet and not burden your son with learning
52 different printed symbols (Upper and Lower
Case letters) before you begin the reading and
writing process.
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.
- Call Toll Free:
1-866-AVKO-612
Fax: (810) 686-1101
E-mail: Webmaster:
avkoemail@aol.com
or Write:
Don McCabe, Research Director
- AVKO Educational Research
Foundation
3084 Willard Road, Suite W
Birch Run, MI 48415-7801
All
donations are greatly appreciated. If you
would like to support our mission which is to raise
the level of literacy to the point where the words,
illiteracy, phonemic awareness, learning
disabilities, dysgraphia, family literacy, adult
literacy, and illegible handwriting will no longer
have relevance, please mail your tax-deductible
check (in U.S. dollars) to The AVKO Educational
Research Foundation, 3084 Willard Road, Suite W,
Birch Run, MI 48415-7801. The AVKO Foundation is
recognized by the IRS as a 501(C)3 publicly
supported organization working with teachers,
parents, tutors, and homeschooling parents,
publishing materials developed by its research, and
providing free daily tutoring at its local reading
clinic.
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