All About Dyslexia

[cnimed]

Hi, My son has suspected dyslexia and have been advised to go for screening. However DAS says he’s too young for screening, but based on doctor’s recommendation, they can put him in early intervention even before screening.


Can anyone tell me more about DAS early intervention programme and the charges? How is it different from other reading programmes like I Can Read. All I know is that it’s supposed to be multiple sensory.

For those whose kids have been going, do you find it effective?

[JonC]

You can refer my post http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/5/2001075.html?1266941600#POST9401190. Look for my post by \"JonC\" almost at the bottom.


We realised our child cannot read well at very young age, so my child went to I CAN READ during K1 & K2 in which \"progress\" from lower class to higher class, but still cannot read and even better, all the different teachers at different level did not mention or suspect Dyslexia.

I bring my child to a private psychologist for the test, heard its long wait at DAS. My child started with MSL end of P1 after the test and is considered mild case. Few months passed, my child from totally cannot read to able to read quite well now.

But its only reading improve, the rest of the EL, CL and MA skills still need to be taught and managed just like other normal kids or maybe even slower than normal kids as after able to read, still need to build Vocab, etc, etc.

For intervention, if you can afford, one to one is preferred as your child gets full attention and maybe more effective.

Above is just my experience, others may differ from mine.

[cnimed]

Hi JonC


Thank you for sharing. Dyslexia is something very new to me and it's mind-boggling the amount of information that is available out there. My son shows dyslexic tendencies, but at the same time, it's hard to tell - it's either very mild or he's compensating a lot. We are looking into this based on recommendation from the opthamologist following his complaints of moving words/letters. His phonological awareness used to be poor, but it sort of jump-started after I began using some resources for dyslexic children a few weeks ago. After two weeks he suddenly could spell many words and has less problems with sequencing. We also did drills, and I find that for words that he has been drilled on, reversals would not happen.
[quote] But its only reading improve, the rest of the EL, CL and MA skills still need to be taught and managed just like other normal kids or maybe even slower than normal kids as after able to read, still need to build Vocab, etc, etc. [/quote]I'm sorry I don't quite understand. Can you explain? What sort of difficulties will a dyslexic child exhibit for these? My son's maths abilities puzzle me. He figured out the times tables by himself and he could solve three-step problem sums as long as he doesn't need to write anything down. But the minute he has to write the steps down he gets lost and confused. Is that typical for dyslexic children?

Basically as long as it involves writing, it takes extra efforts because he has to sequence and order each number/letter in addition to everything else. When he is really \"thinking\" - playing with numbers, coming up with his own number patterns - the reversals would show up with a vengeance. [/quote]

[JonC]

Dyslexia is very complicated. Athough the simplest symptom is they cannot read due to failure to organise/put together phonics sequence. But this is due to the way the brain is organise when they are born, in other words, every dyslexic is different. Writing can be one of the symptom or it could be another disorder (I cannot remember the medical term). But early effective intervention (only for English) is preferred for any learning disorder.


You mentioned about word shaking, maybe you try reading up on Irlen Syndrome. Instead of using colour glasses, you can test your child using word processor, vary either the passage/text/word colour or background colour.

A skill a dyslexia will sure to develop is to use their rot memory to cover/overcome the phonics/read problem. But as they need to learn more things as they progress from level to level in school, you will realise they are having bad memory in our context as they forget things easily. And they also fail to understand what they are reading, affecting EL (English), CL (Chinese) & MA (Maths) in school.

What I am saying that they need to get the reading foundation correct and able to understand words, follow by understanding passage before they could effectively learn English. Chinese and Maths in school.

My suggestion is that you go to get you child diagnose by professionals (i am not) at either DAS (if you can wait which I advise not) or private professionals to really test the child where the problem really is.

After prefessionals confirm it, bring the report to show the school (dyslexic do have some previleges) and also get an appropriate intervention suitable for the child.

[cnimed]

Hi JonC


Thank you for the detailed information.
Our puzzle is that he can understand the page without being able to read one third of it. Contextual reading? He’s very good at guessing as well and can read labels by putting things he’s heard together with some words he can read.

I’ve discovered that his phonological awareness is poor so we’re now working on it and that seems to really help. DAS has his form but said testing is better at the end of the year, he’s too young now. Hopefully his is just a mild case and by working with him using dyslexic resources (which I’m now doing), he will be on track even if assessment is not yet possible.

[JonC]

Oh ya, by the way, how old is your DS?


From all your description, your DS seems to be dyslexia. It is best to start intervention in K2, the earlier the better. Do not wait until the child is in P1 and start failing his subjects.

To read and understand means it is just purely reading by the child alone, be in aloud or silent with no external help from any one, so that no contextual nor hearing from someone else. They try to remember as much as possible, but that is not the way to remember word. Decoding phonics by reading word by themselves is the correct way.

[cnimed]

He's in K2 this year. His way of decoding the text does not depend on someone sitting next to him, but yes, I do think he shows some dyslexic tendencies. Thank you for your sharing.

[Veiled]

Hi… my lil girl will be in P1 next yr. She’s a year end baby & what is term as a late bloomer. She’s been going thru periodic therapy @ KKH namely Occupational therapy & speech & language therapy.


Motors skills & speech wise she has shown a lot of improvement. Main problem is now she’s still unable to read, despite the fact she’s been going to school since the age of 2 and since last year she has been going for extra phonics classes. Recently she has been diagnosed with the possibilty of having mild dyslexia. Currently still on waiting list for the P1 Readiness Test & Dyslexia.

Anyone knows of school in the north east (Punggol, Sengkang, Hougang) that has a good special needs teacher esp those specialising in Dyslexic student?

Appreciate any feedback/recommendations/suggestions. Thanks

[cnimed]

Hi Veiled,


we’re in a similar position. My son is also K2 now. Is the P1 readiness test a screening test for dyslexia?

Anyway, just wanted to share that I worked with DS1 on phonological awareness and he’s now reading and writing. I used a couple of books from NLB, photocopied the exercises and after a few weeks (but definitely less than a month) he could read and spell decently for his age.

The main thing is to keep reading to your child. We read to DS1 a lot even before this because he had some focusing issues and his eyes fatigue easily. We did not stick to simple readers, but anything that may be interesting to him so his vocabulary was never limited by his reading ability. So once his ability to read catches up, he just took off. He’s now reading The Fantastic Mr Fox.

I continue to work with him occasionally using resources for dyslexic students. In the beginning we do 15 min everyday. (I also picked out certain words that he had trouble with and we worked extensively on just three words for a month. These are his "trigger" words, an idea that I picked up from the Ron Davis method, but is controversial. I find it true for him, but the verdict is out so I don’t make any claims for anyone else.) Now it’s three times a week, according to the day’s events and his interest. According to the latest research, it is possible for the brain to rewire that reading part and for them to gain fluency comparable to their non-dyslexic peers. So that’s my aim. The guidelines I read is to keep up the reading programme and practices for at least two years. If you stop too soon, they can read but they will not gain the fluency and normal reading speed.

Good luck and all the best!

[Veiled]

deminc:

Hi Veiled,


we're in a similar position. My son is also K2 now. Is the P1 readiness test a screening test for dyslexia?

Anyway, just wanted to share that I worked with DS1 on phonological awareness and he's now reading and writing. I used a couple of books from NLB, photocopied the exercises and after a few weeks (but definitely less than a month) he could read and spell decently for his age.

The main thing is to keep reading to your child. We read to DS1 a lot even before this because he had some focusing issues and his eyes fatigue easily. We did not stick to simple readers, but anything that may be interesting to him so his vocabulary was never limited by his reading ability. So once his ability to read catches up, he just took off. He's now reading The Fantastic Mr Fox.

I continue to work with him occasionally using resources for dyslexic students. In the beginning we do 15 min everyday. (I also picked out certain words that he had trouble with and we worked extensively on just three words for a month. These are his \"trigger\" words, an idea that I picked up from the Ron Davis method, but is controversial. I find it true for him, but the verdict is out so I don't make any claims for anyone else.) Now it's three times a week, according to the day's events and his interest. According to the latest research, it is possible for the brain to rewire that reading part and for them to gain fluency comparable to their non-dyslexic peers. So that's my aim. The guidelines I read is to keep up the reading programme and practices for at least two years. If you stop too soon, they can read but they will not gain the fluency and normal reading speed.

Good luck and all the best!

Hi Deminc
P1 readiness test is different from Dyslexia test. P1 readiness is a IQ test, to see if a child is ready to go to P1. Otherwise, the child may be retained another year.

Currently, my girl is able to sound the alphabets (phonics) but unable to blend them. So i tried using flash card, it works to a certain extend but she has short retention span. Learns today, forgotten by the next. Even the class teacher complained of her short attn span. She tend to \"drift to her own world\" Speech wise & motor skills she has improved a lot.

Currently she's attending reading/phonics class where the student teacher ratio is very small: 3 student to 1 teacher. And she also attends Speech & Drama.

Sorry, but what is Phonological awareness? And who is Ron Davies? :?

Deminc, thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate it very much