[senco-forum] [SENco-forum] dyslexia -phonics training the second time around

The SpLD tutors may be teaching phonics, but at a pace the child can cope
with using multisensory paths with kinaesthetic movements reinforced with
the air, sand, cornflour, paint, sandpaper or whatever. So it is not more of
the same be it synthetic phonics or anything else.  Even then although it
does work it is sometimes easier to use whole word or word families, onset &
rime to instil some words while still working on a weaker phonic area.
Whatever it takes.

In the case of my own daughter both had to be supported to excessive lengths
as she seemed immune to both routes to reading.  First we started with
phonics, but she could not move on and blend so we tried rhyming families
(she could rhyme and manipulate initial sounds) and books like Mill on the
Hill.  Finally tried whole word flashcards which might as well have been in
Arabic. She could not see the difference between he/her/here. There was no
help to be gained from pictures/context and here I agree with you on the
uselessness of the whole sound out the first letter & guess method. I was
tearing my hair out. It was like living with a 7 year old with senile
dementia - literally in one ear and out the other, or one blink and it was
gone.  The first SpLD tutor tutted about mixed methods until she started
again with phonics as per the 44 chart and similarly had to change tack.
Eventually she agreed with us - all areas were weak areas!

Constant input from her laptop where the words she was seeing were spelled
correctly or flagged as incorrect (she cannot see the difference herself),
and where she could use the read back facility were one of the best things
that ever happened to her-thanks BECTA.  I think Eddie's Electronic Library
might have helped in this respect, but I didn't know it existed then.

I'd love to get her brain under an MRI.

Sharon

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