According to the NIH, 17% of our nation’s children have trouble learning to read.  More than 2.9 million school-age children in the United States – approximately five percent of the student population – are diagnosed with learning disabilities.  When we first realized that our otherwise bright oldest child was not learning to read as he should, we began looking for answers.  That was 15 years ago.  He learned to read, graduated from highschool with honors {not necessarily academic} and has gone on to do amazing things with his life.  Our journey to discover what held him back in reading and how to help him had a steep learning curve.  Since then, we have 7 more children – 6 who have struggled in some way to learn to read.  Click on these links to learn more about our Dyslexia Journey and more about the Causes and Treatments of Dyslexia.

Best Books on Dyslexia 

There are many well-written books on the subject of learning differences.  The books I have listed here are books that I own and have read and reread.  (All images link to Amazon and are affiliate links meaning I make a very small percentage of the purchase price if you buy the book through my site.  It does not affect your cost.)

Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World by Jeffery Freed and Laurie Parsons

Written by a former teacher and educational therapist, this book explains the unique differences that predominantly right-brained thinkers possess.  Contains a checklist to determine whether you and your child are right-brained thinkers and a simple step-by-step program to help these kids learn and excel utilizing their unique strengths.

Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz

When this book came out in 2005, it turned the world of understanding dyslexia upside down.  Written by neuroscientist Dr. Sally Shaywitz of Yale University, it chronicles the ground-breaking research using the results from Functional MRIs to trace the cause of dyslexia to a weakness in the language system at the phonological level.  Don’t let the terminology scare you.  This book is written for the lay person and is a treasure of information well-grounded in science.  Includes exercises and techniques for working effectively with your dyslexic child.

Homeschooling the Challenging Child by Christine Field

Written by a former lawyer turned homeschool mother.  Chapters address how to deal with issues stemming from various learning disabilities, attention disorders, personality clashes, learning styles, discipline problems, managing stress and discouragement, how to plan a program, and the importance of keeping in mind the tenets of God’s love and forgiveness. Hands-on tips for managing a successful home education program, as well as how to find professional help from support groups.

Unicorns Are Real:  A Right-Brained Approach to Learning                                          by Barbara Meister Vitale

Don’t let the title of this book put you off.  ”Unicorns are real” was a statement made by a young student of the author that was the catalyst for leading her to begin to better understand the differences between her right-brained students and left-brained students.

Written in an easy to understand style and full of real life practical strategies for teaching the predominantly right-brained learner.  The book begins with an easily understood, yet surprisingly in-depth description of brain structure and function as it pertains to learning.  The book also contains simple, do-at-home procedures for testing your child for brain dominance.

Your Child’s Growing Mind by Dr. Jane Healy

Considered the classic guide to understanding children’s mental development.  She explains the building blocks of reading, writing, spelling, and mathematics and shows how to help kids of all ages develop motivation, attention, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.  She also looks at learning issues, ADHD, and the influences of electronic media – all through the lens of the science of childhood development.

Brain-Integration Therapy Manual by Dianne Craft

Brain Integration Therapy is a method to enhance brain function are by performing simple physical movements that cross the midline.  It has been found to profoundly improve ADD/ADHD/Dyslexic conditions as well as other learning struggles.  In a few minutes a day, you can vastly improve your child’s focus, reduce stress and improve school performance.  Yes, this works!

Parenting the Struggling Reader by Susan Hall and Dr. Louis Moats

A very comprehensive, practical guide for recognizing, diagnosing and overcoming any childhood reading difficulty.  Written by a mother of a struggling reader (who is also on the board of directors of the International Dyslexia Association) and an educational researcher, this book contains both the clinical information a parent needs but also the practical, everyday solutions and tips needed to successfully help your struggling reader.

Contains an extensive explanation of our role as advocate for our children.  Sections are as follows:

• Identify
• Testing
• Accurate diagnosis
• Determining what instructional approach will be most effective for your child

The Dyslexic Advantage  by Brock Eide and Fernette Eide

With inspiring testimonials, this paradigm-shifting book proves that dyslexia doesn’t have to be a detriment, but can often become an asset for success.  The struggles as parents of struggling readers are often immense as we work to advocate for them in a society that, more often than not, discards a dyslexic intellect as inferior and unlikely to succeed in life. This wonderful book explains through example after example how the complete opposite is the case. Dyslexic minds may have troubles with conventional ways of “doing things” but it is for that reason that they have been the pivotal forces behind discoveries and innovations that have led our culture forward for centuries.  Includes extensive coverage of accommodations (like speech-to-text software and digital books).

Best Web Sites for Dyslexia: For Parents

Get Ready to Read  A wealth of information and tools to educate parents on how younger kids (ages 3-5) learn, the stages of reading readiness and tips, webinars and links to more excellent resources than I can name here.  Includes a free online screening tool that you can do with your emergent reader right at home to asses the skills of your child.  The screening results let a parent know whether or not to take specific actions such as introducing new skills, offer additional instruction, practice or support or if further assessment is needed.

LD Online One of the best informational sites on learning disabilities and ADHD.  The site features hundreds of helpful articles, multimedia, a comprehensive resource guide, discussion forums, and a referral directory of professionals, schools and products.   Also offers information and resources for the transition from highschool to college and from college to the workplace for adults with learning disabilities.

Dyslexic Advantage  From the writers of the book of the same name.  This site is full of information, current research and forums to start and contribute to discussions of issues important to you. 

The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity  Concise site full of information for parents, educators and policy-makers. 

Bright Solutions for Dyslexia  Susan Barton is the developer of the Barton Reading & Spelling System.  This is a science-based program that you can easily do from home.  Be sure to have your child tested before beginning any treatment program to know for sure what your child’s specific areas of weakness are.  Her site is full of information on everything from defining dyslexia to finding a tester or tutor in your area.

Best Learn-to-Read Web Sites: For Children

Starfall  A free public service to teach kids to read with phonics.  Starfall combines phonemic awareness practice with a systematic phonics instruction and highly engaging visuals.  My kids love this program.  Check out the Starfall iPad app too.  

Reading Eggs  For children from 4-7 who are learning to read.  Focuses on a core reading curriculum of phonics and sight words using skills and strategies essential for sustained reading success.  Free 14-day trial and then costs about $10/month.  

Best Computerized Reading Instruction For the Older Struggling Reader

Older struggling readers have the same problems as younger readers and need to learn and master the same skills.  The good news is that all kids {and adults} can learn to read.  The key is to find a program that is not ‘babyish’ and that systematically teaches at an intense enough pace to keep progress steady thus motivating the student.  Reading Horizons is all of these things.  Click here for more information, my review and purchase options.

 

Best Blogs on Dyslexia

Dyslexic Advantage  From the writers of The Dyslexic Advantage book, their blog is full of news and current topics about dyslexia.  Focus on successful dyslexics and how they ‘made it’.

Solutions for Struggling Readers  Written by educational therapist Carleen Paul, this blog is full of practical, do-it-yourself activities to help your struggling reader.

Help for Struggling Readers  Parent and educator, Joan Brennan, has lots of ideas for parents and teachers of struggling readers.

Abundant Life Blog  Me!  While my blog is not exclusively about dyslexia, I will be regularly posting about how my family handles our reading struggles as we homeschool, trying {and reviewing} different curriculums.

 Best iPad Apps for Dyslexia

Web Reader HD   Text-to-speech app that can read web page content.  Super easy to use and mostly effective.

Dragon Go! (FREE)  Allows you to speak what you are searching for on the web so Google, Wikipedia and YouTube are defaults.

Dragon Dictation (FREE)  This is a voice recognition app that allows the user to see the text generated through speaking instead of typing.  Can be used with some popular social networking sites.

Soundnote ($4.99) A notetaking app that basically turns your iPad into a Livescribe pen.  (See above under Compensation Tech)  Records lectures and then syncs the audio to what you type or scribble in.  The audio recording is time-locked to your typing and drawing.  You may want to use a keyboard or stylus for this app to be more functional.

PaperDesk ($2.99)  Another notetaking app like Soundnote but that has more options like inserting photos, importing pdfs, organizing pages into notebooks, and an option to export.  More complicated to use than Soundnote.

Speller (FREE) Allows you to type in a word phonetically (based on how it sounds) and it will come up with the actual spelling of the word.  It also provides definitions to help you understand the meaning of the word.

Reading Trainer  ($1.99)  Helps improve reading speed with fun exercises.

Read Say  ($1.99)  Teaches grade appropriate Dolch sight words (the 220 words that appear most frequently in reading) by showing each word, speaking it aloud and tracking your progress.  We LOVE flashcard apps!

Sound Literacy ($24.99)  Open-ended design for teaching phonemic awareness, phonological processing, and more sound awareness activites  - all weaknesses in sruggling readers. App features phoneme tiles for hands-on manipulating.  See their web site to see if this is a good fit for your family www.soundliteracy.com

Idea Sketch (FREE)  lets you draw a diagram (mind map, concept map, or flow chart) convert it to a text outline and vice versa/  It can be used to brainstorm ideas, illustrate concetps, make lists and outlines, and more.  Great for visual thinkers.

Best Compensation Technology for Dyslexics

(Click images for more information or to purchase – contains affiliate links)

Livescribe Smartpen

An amazing device, this is a pen that captures everything you hear and write while linking your audio recordings to your notes.  Great for a student sitting in a lecture hall.  Later, playback the recording or tap your notes with the pen to go back to just one particular area.  Our daughter used this in her first college classes and loved it.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

This is a speech-recognition program that can be used to, among other things, dictate everything from answers to schoolwork, to a five-paragraph essay.  You can even dictate emails, surf the web with voice commands or dictate on your smartphone.

Best Sources for Audiobooks

Books Should Be Free  Free public domain audio books and ebooks for use with iPhone, Kindle and mp3 players.

Spreadsong  Free audiobooks from iTunes

Bookshare  An online library of digital books for people with print disabilities.  It operates under exception to US Copywright law which allows copyrighted digital books (not just public domain) to be made available to people with qualifying disabilities.  To become a member you must prove that you have a need for their service by completing a proof of disability form (available on their web site).

 

Pinterest Boards to Follow

Abundant Life – Homeschoolling & Dyslexia

Dyslexic Advantage

Amber McMeans

J’s Treasures – Literacy/Dyslexia

Ann Osterling-Dampier – Reading/Dyslexia/Language Learning Issues

Angela Kosolofski – Dyslexia Education

Best Nation-wide Dyslexia Treatment Program

National Institute for Learning Development  Many treatment/tutoring services for the struggling reader are focused on teaching sytematic phonics instruction.  There is nothing necessarily wrong with this approach.  However, a program that enhances and strengthens the struggling reader’s weak auditory and visual memory and other specific weaknesses (determined by accurate testing) improve in their reading ability much faster.  Check out the NILD web site for more information and to find a tutor near you.

Best Reading Curriculum

All About Reading  We began using the All About Reading curriculum this year with our dyslexic kindergartner.  Now this is a fun program!  While Reading Horizons is intense phonics instruction and practice geared for the older struggling reader, All About Reading is hands on, simultaneously multisensory introduction into the written word.  Every lesson comes with an engaging phonemic awareness activity that is so fun, my son doesn’t know he is learning one of the most foundational skills of reading success.  Lessons are completely scripted so there is little prep time for mom.  The customer service at All About Learning Press is top notch.  Specifically designed for the homeschooled student that struggles with reading.  This program has all of the elements of a research-based reading program.  For more information, click the image below.

 

 

This post is part of a link up with the iHomeschool Network.  Leave a comment on this blog post to be entered in a drawing to win one of:

• two copies of Rachael Carman’s How to Have a HEART for Your Kids
• two copies of Debra Bell’s The Ultimate Homeschool Planner

 

The fine bloggers of iHomeschool Network have joined forces to create some epic content in the form of Ultimate Guides. Week after week, iHN bloggers deliver quality content to their audiences. They enrich the homeschool community with their tutorials, freebies, and personal stories.

Now we are taking it a step further with these Ultimate Guides. Each blogger has curated a wealth of online information all in one convenient link.  With everything from homeschool to homemaking to marriage, I encourage you to head on over and enjoy the Ultimate Guides from iHN.

 

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