• jennifer carter says: 
June 19, 2011 at 1:02 pm( ) 
I have a question. I have 3 sons 2 of which have slow processing skills. My youngest was tested yesterday for dyslexia. I am a teacher and I want to know, if I get certified to teach children with dyslexia will this help also with processing skills, organization and writing. I have spent countless hours and read every book that I can to figure out how to help them. They have been tested, and we have seen 3 specialist and they have been wonderful to us but I have no concrete answer. I need a plan or system to follow. If I have an experts opionion on whether a program (Wilson Reading or Susan Barton or S.P.I.R.E) would help children, not necessarily tested as dyslexic but have other delays in reading. I would get certified to help my boys and other students with reading delays. My school, at the moment, does not have these programs. My boys already qualify for special servies but they need more. I would like your input, if it would be benefical to use a dyslexia program or would there be little gain and more frustration.
Thank you so much
Jennifer Carter
  • Melissa Mullin, Ph.D. says: 
June 20, 2011 at 11:55 pm( ) 
It is difficult to answer your question without more information about your boys. Slow processing speed alone does not cause a reading issue. However, if the slow processing speed is caused by eye tracking issues that slow down the ability to take in visual information swiftly, then reading fluency will likely be impacted. So, Question One: is this a visual input issue? If so, I recommend vision therapy first to get the eyes better at taking in visual information. Next, you mention organization and writing skills. This leads me to consider fine motor skills ( writing) and executive functioning skills. Is the motor part of writing difficult for them? if so, I like the Retrain the Brain program (RetraintheBrain.com). Are your boys able to break tasks down and do one step at time? I have posted blogs on executive functioning, so hopefully you can find more information to help you. I am also available as a consultant if you would like to have me review the testing you have had done and give specific suggestions to you. The reading programs you are considering are all good programs. The trick is to find the program that build the skills that your boys need to develop. Most reading programs focus on building auditory processing and phonemic skills. It sounds like your boys may need to build rapid naming skills. The only program I know of that focuses on Rapid Naming is the RAVE-O program. The PACE program is also good at building visual skills. I hope this helps!
• Anna Marie Pederson says: 
October 12, 2011 at 2:16 pm 
This article describes my 9th-grader well. She has been to many doctors and participated in many interventions. Her neurological disorder manifests itself like a severe dyslexia. I noticed that you mentioned vision therapy in one of the posts. It is one of the few therapies we haven’t tried because I could not find clinical documentation for its effectiveness. The most definitive response given regarding its impact on their children by two or three parents I interviewed was, “I think it helped.” Do you have personal experience with this therapy? On what basis might I reconsider it?
FYI: My daughter learned to read, her miracle at age 11, through F.A.S.T. Reading System, created by Steve Tattum.
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  • Melissa Mullin, Ph.D. says: 
October 12, 2011 at 10:17 pm 
I have seen vision therapy make a big difference in a number of students. What I have found is that vision therapy is most helpful for students who have tracking issues. When the eye muscles have trouble scanning a line, or moving smoothly from one word to the next, eye exercises can help.
In my experience visual memory, visual spatial and visual attention issues do not always benefit from vision therapy. I only recommend vision therapy to students who have tracking issues. I have also found that students who have attention issues that are not addressed have a low success rate with vision therapy.
So, vision therapy has a high success rate, from what I have seen over 16 years, with the students whose profiles include low processing speed and/or low reading speed due to difficulty with eye tracking.
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• CCA says: 
February 27, 2014 at 3:36 pm 
 My son is in 5th grade and has been struggling in the area of reading and writing since 3rd grade. His most recent WISC IV tests :
VC-112 (subtests: similarites-15, vocab-11, comprehension-11)
PR-121 (subtests: block design-14, picture concepts-14, matrix reasoning-12)
WM-91 (subtests: digit span-7, letter-number seq- 10)
PS-109 (subtests: coding-11, symbol search-12)
GAI-120
Comprehensive Test of Phonolgical Processing-2 (CTOPP-2)
Core Subtests Scaled Scores:
Elision-11
Blending words-11
Phoneme Isolation-13
Memory for Digits-5
Nonword repetition-6
Rapid Digit Naming-7
Rapid Letter Naming-9
Composite Scores (average is 85-115)
Phonological Awareness-112
Phonological Memory-73
Rapid Symbolic Naming-88
Test of Written Language (TOWL-4)
Subtests (8-12 average)
Vocab-7
Spelling-6
Puctuation-8
Logical Sentences-7
Sentence Combining-8
Contextual Conventions-5
Story Composition-10
Composite Scores
Contrived Writing-85 -below average
Spontaneous Writing-87-below average
Overall Writing-84- below average
At one time he was thought to have ADHD but in his recent testing they have ruled that out. He has dyslexia and is getting tutored in an Orton Gillingham program at a dyslexic school. He has had 50 sessions of neurofeedback to help with his innattentiveness. His biggest issue in school is his abiltiy to get his thoughts down on paper with proper spelling, punctuation and detailed information. He also does poorly on tests. He is having an IEP meeting in a week. Any thougths on the best accomadations or other thougths as to how to help him become a better writer would be appreciated. Thanks!
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  • Melissa Mullin, Ph.D. says: 
April 10, 2014 at 11:10 pm 
Many dyslexic students are visual thinkers.You can read my post titled Do visual learners have more difficulty with language organization than verbal learners? 
Educational specialists, tutors or a speech and language therapist can help with organizing language and writing skills. The writing skills that a student with this profile needs to learn, include pre-writing skills to help him organize his ideas before he writes.
Mind maps or advanced organizers such as graphical organizers are great tools. It is too much for your son to think of his ideas AND think about the sequence of spelling. I often tell parents, let them write and underline the words they think might be spelled wrong and then when they are done they can go back and check their spelling. I would also ask for technology accommodations ( use of the computer with spell check) and extra time on tests to allow him to proof read.
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• Jim Space says: 
August 30, 2012 at 1:23 pm 
 Mullin:
Thank you for this informative website. It is so generous of you to do this and help all us families trying to figure out the best way to educate our children.
I have a 7 year old son diagnosed with ADHD and Double deficit Dyslexia.
Here is his info:
Full scale IQ= 108 (70%ile)
Verbal Comprehension= 124 (95%ile)
Perc Reason: 100 (50%ile)
Working Memory: 99 (47%ile)
Processing Speed: 97 (42%ile)
• On further tests of processing speed, it showed that he scored:
16th percentile when it had high working memory and fine motor demands,
84th percentile when it had minimal working memory and fine motor demands
75th percentile when it had minimal fine motor demands but greater working memory demands
He scored in superior ranges on measures of verbal comprehension and has a great vocabulary (he talks like he is wise beyind his years), but very low on processing speed.
On The GORT:
Rate: 16%ile
Accuracy: 9%ile
Fluency: 9%ile
Comprehension: 5%ile
Oral reading quotient: 4%ile
Testing showed significant retrieval deficits and rapid naming issues.
DIBELS Oral reading fluency: 14 words per minute (at risk)
Standardized Reading Inventory: Word Recognition (Fluency)= 2%ile
and Passage Comprehension 5%ile
What would you recommend?
• He is now in second grade and is on an IEP, but we want to target his specific type of dyslexia.
What strategies/programs are there for retrieval issues as well as rapid naming?
His school does Wilson, but he has had exposure to RAVE-O, which he liked.
Thanks for your input.
Jim
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  • Melissa Mullin, Ph.D. says: 
September 22, 2012 at 4:35 pm 
RAVE-O and Wilson are great programs. It appears that working memory and fine motor skills are average on their own but when they are combined with high demands each skill is hindered. Additionally, you have the reading issue. I would recommend that you focus on remediating the reading issue and then revisit the working memory and fine motor skills once your son is reading well. The RAVE-O program and Wilson combined would be wonderful for him. The two programs are slightly different and the RAVE-O program is designed to be done with a phonics based program like Wilson. Given his high verbal score I would like to see your son reading in the high average or above range.
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