All About Dyslexia

[jo.010813ong]

Hi there,


Has anyone sent kids to Essential Lteracy Approach conducted by DAS? New course coming up in November. Any comments?

•Essential Literacy Approach
Please note new times!
22, 23, 26, 27 & 28 November: 9:30am to 5:30pm
29 November: 9:30am to 1:30pm
30 November: 9:30am to 12:30pm
Fees: $1,806
About the Course

The Essential Literacy Approach (ELA) is dedicated to all children with dyslexia. Children with dyslexia struggle with reading, spelling, and/or writing despite having adequate intelligence.
ELA is a multisensory structured language approach that teaches the structure of the English language at the level of sounds, syllables, meaningful word parts, sentences and paragraph organisation. It contains the critical building blocks of literacy that have been identified by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

[Gin]

Hi there jo.ong,


I have not had any experience with DAS. However, I have friends who have put their children through DAS. Many of these children have gone through years of 1on1 or group training (which costs a bomb). My friends have not seen much improvement in their children’s self-esteem, neither have they seen much improvement in their children’s progress, academically speaking.

Very often, it takes a lot of unconditional love, patience and effort on the part of parents to nurture a child with dyslexia. Having said that, I have also seen parents who put lots and lots of time and effort to do their own research on the topic of dyslexia, whether through reading books (there are lots of great books available in local libraries), or online research. These parents work with their children the best they can, according to the learning style that best suits their children. Trying to catch up with mainstream school pace can be very challenging as it puts added pressure on the children. but then again, there are those children who after discovering their strength is certain learning styles just goes on to excel in learning.

I must stress though, that no one method works for every dyslexic child as each one is different. The person working closely with the child on a daily basis (usually one of the parents) is able to judge which method is most suitable for the child as he/she would be able to see some visible improvements when a suitable method is applied.

All the best for everyone who is nurturing a child or children with dyslexia. I am one such parent and I know it is no piece of cake, yet there is certainly hope! I work with a number of children with dyslexia and I have certainly seen much improvement in my DD’s level of confidence and self-esteem.

[Gin]

Sorry, forgot to mention earlier that when a child’s confidence level is high, learning does not seem so frightening anymore. The child knows that he/she can learn, one step at a time and he/she is eager to learn.

[xfx]

[quote]Very often, it takes a lot of unconditional love, patience and effort on the part of parents to nurture a child with dyslexia. Having said that, I have also seen parents who put lots and lots of time and effort to do their own research on the topic of dyslexia, whether through reading books (there are lots of great books available in local libraries), or online research. These parents work with their children the best they can, according to the learning style that best suits their children. Trying to catch up with mainstream school pace can be very challenging as it puts added pressure on the children. but then again, there are those children who after discovering their strength is certain learning styles just goes on to excel in learning.[/quote]
Hi all. Just to share that I personally know someone who is dyslexia (mild) and the mother was what Gin describe as above. She did all the research and reading and even taking up courses to help her dc. She believes different learning style for different child and thus coach the dc personally.


The child had cleared the psle a couple of years back. Back then this condition was not \"well known\" and the child was diagnose at a later time, tink was P4. The child is now in JC and the psle score was 250 (excluding MT as it was exempted)

So all mummies dun lose hope and 加油！

[jo.010813ong]

Thanks for sharing, Gin.

[Gin]

jo.ong:

Thanks for sharing, Gin.

You are most welcomed :).

[mahes_gopal]

Hi I know of a therapist in Bukit Timah Shopping Centre she uses a few different methods like OG, Phonographix and Visualizing and verbalizing. She agrees that no one method works or any child. She combines a few methods to teach the child. She taught my nephew a few years ago when he was in primary school. He improved from about 20 marks to about 48 marks in one year. He became more confident and she also advises my sister on things that can be done at home. Progress with her is slow but steady. She covers more advance skills like comprehension and even does different genre of writing with her secondary students. My nephew sec 2 is still with her and she painstaking teaches every different type of essay writing skill. She even incorporates idioms, proverbs, vocabulary, phrasal verbs. But this is only after the students crosses a certain level. You try goggling "Dyscovery learning cove".

[busymum0607]

my ds has dyslexia, just went P1 few days ago. can anyone shed light about how to go about dropping chinese language? he cant seem to remember the pictorial form of the words. and i do not want to stress him with this language as it only gets harder as yrs goes by.

[Gin]

busymum0607:

my ds has dyslexia, just went P1 few days ago. can anyone shed light about how to go about dropping chinese language? he cant seem to remember the pictorial form of the words. and i do not want to stress him with this language as it only gets harder as yrs goes by.

Hi busymum0607,

Sorry, just a quick note.


Has your son been officially diagnosed as having dyslexia? I think you can discuss your situation with the school administration of the school your son is attending.

I know of one school (SAP) where they tried to discourage my dyslexic student from dropping CL (Chinese Language). So, the poor boy had to go through the first few years failing his CL. Of course, his family knew it was really tough for the boy, so they did not stress him out. He too had made up his mind that he was not going to stress over CL. Just focused on Maths, Science and English. Finally, in P5, the MOE approved of him dropping CL. Well, I must say, sitting and enduring those Chinese lessons in school has its good points as well. At least he is able to understand and speak Mandarin He is strong in Maths and Science but his English is borderline. Wish I could be of help but I only teach him Maths and Science. However, I really do think he is capable of better results for English, if he is properly guided in his English learning.

In the end, parents who work closely with their children know what is best suited for their kids. Brave on! Focus on our child's areas of strength and encourage improvement of areas of weakness.

Personally, my daughter is taking French instead of CL. I wrote to MOE - filling up Form 5-FL (Application to offer Foreign Language/Asian Language) from her school. As my husband is not local (he is not French though), I had to give proof of my proficiency in the French Language. MOE approved the application after about 6 weeks. She now attends lessons at Alliance Francaise - once a week). She is doing fine with English and Maths. P2 this year.

All the best.

[3boysdad]

[quote]
I know of one school (SAP) where they tried to discourage my dyslexic student from dropping CL (Chinese Language). So, the poor boy had to go through the first few years failing his CL. Of course, his family knew it was really tough for the boy, so they did not stress him out. He too had made up his mind that he was not going to stress over CL. Just focused on Maths, Science and English. Finally, in P5, the MOE approved of him dropping CL. [/quote](edit: There are SAP primary schools, wahhh, i am out of touch). The application to exempt from mother tongue is made to MOE though the school. If MOE approves, nothing the school can do about it. Of course the primary school can still request the exempted students to sit in the class and participate while the Chinese lesson is going on.

A school would be thrilled to exempt a weak performer from MT as exemption means that the weak student will not affect its PSLE results. There is no reason for the school to discourage the student from dropping CL. (unless the school believes that his poor performance is due to lack of effort)

I find it hard to believe that if a student is diagnosed with dyslexia in P1, he apply P1, P2, P3, P4 to MOE, cannot get exemption, then suddenly P5 get exempted. Maybe the truth is that the parents never got him tested for dyslexia until P5.