Case Studies
I've been using READ to teach preschoolers to read
for nearly 3 years in my home daycare. In the beginning, I had concerns
that the child(ren) might be confused by a different teaching method or
the teacher would be offended. But this didn’t happen.
Some kids pick it up fast
and enter kindergarten anywhere between ARI 2-4.
We continue through ARI 4 and that's usually all they need. No school conflict
with methods or turf. The teachers here have been impressed and supportive but
no one has asked what the program is. They seem to prefer to believe that I'm
some sort of teaching genius. Ha ha. My point is that if kids enter school reading
proficiently or nearly so, balanced literacy isn't even an issue.
Other
kids are a bit (or lot) slower. They seem to require much more repetition and
it seems to me that without exception every one of them doesn't get the extra
practice at home or has more irregular
attendance, but that's another story.
I've had two children start to read with
me and leave to attend different kindergartens. Both returned after the school
year and, surprising to me, neither had advanced. In fact, one who had nearly
finished ARI 2 felt more comfortable going back to the tweens. She did finish
ARI 4 during her 1st grade year with no conflict at all from the school's reading
program.
The other had almost finished BRI 2 before kindergarten and we reread
it this summer when she returned and almost finished ARI 1. I don't believe
balanced literacy was the culprit, but more like
not having appropriate reading material.
[A later update:]
M./5yrs old/set 7(ARI 5), book 10/starting 1st grade in 2 ½ weeks.
K/6 yrs old/starting
1st grade. Started reading instruction same time as M but left daycare
to attend full-day kindergarten (the only one in this area). Returned this
summer. I quickly determined that
she hadn't learned anything new in kgtn reading and started her in ARI
2 book 1 It was achingly hard so she ended up reading the tweens and is
now in ARI 1 She was happy with this decision, btw.
T./5 yrs old/ ARI 4, book 7/also starting
1st grade.
K2l. /5 yrs old/ARI 2, book 13/also starting 1st grade.
K3./5 years old/ARI 2,
book 20/starting kindergarten. SLOW going. Started BRI 1 January 16! Starting
to improve.
B./4 years/BRI 1, book 6.
A./4 years/learning sounds and words for 1st book.
I
'd like to share my experience
with my son and BRI.
D. is in his second year of kindergarten. He
was identified as developmentally delayed by the age of 2.5. He was in
the Early Intervention Preschool at the age of 3. He was placed in a regular
Kindergarten with resource help but it did not work out and within two
months he was in a full time "Exceptional
Education" class. In that class they did a Scott Forsmann Early Intervention
Program and got him to the point where he recognized all of the letters,
knew their names and their sounds. But, over the summer he did not retain
that. Oh how I wish I'd found BRI and could have worked with him over the
summer!
I had D. repeat Kindergarten this year. He gets pulled out for resource
help. He has been in school for 3.5 months now. And he has not even regained
his previous knowledge of the names of the letters of the alphabet and
their sounds.
I did read "Bob Books" with D. over the summer and he NEVER "got
it". He would sound out words each and every time as if he had never
encountered the word before. Even if it read, "sit Mit, sit Mat".
When he encountered "sit" the second time it was as if he were
seeing it for the first time.
I am 100% convinced that unless I intervene, D. would never achieve anything
but the poorest of education and would end up tracked for one of those "Special" diplomas.
I haven't decided if I will homeschool or just supplement what the school
is doing (I'm leaning towards homeschool) but I know that reading, writing,
and arithmetic are going to have to be taught by me - he certainly won't
get it at school.
Well, finally to my report. I am SO EXCITED (sorry for shouting). Although
he tried a few times in the beginning to call "ee" "e" (like "eh" as
in met), it did not take him long to learn that when there are two ee's
together the sound is "e" as in see. I also had to teach him
that "big" I says its name, not "i" as in him.
BUT, within 5 minutes of working together it was like magic! I'm so excited
I've probably had him read the book 7 or 8 times over the course of today!
He's got it down cold!
I love the fact that he can't use the pictures to give him clues (but boy
did I see him trying to do it). I also noticed that when he said a word
that was not there and I called him on it, his eyes were searching the
text. It did not take him long to find that he had to keep his eyes on
the text in order to get it right.
I am SOoooo EXCITED!!!
Ottakee's Children
Ottakee has been posting on the BRI Yahoo Forum: Beginning
Reading Instruction since the year of its inception in 2004.
Her two remarkable daughters are the only known children in the world with
both a nuclear DNA mutation and a mitochondrial DNA mutation. Both daughters
have severe and multiple special needs, most especially the older girl
who ‘looks and acts more like (a child with) an IQ in the 60s but tests
out at 38 with scores ranging from 20-120 – so quite the range’.
With kind permission of Ottakee. Case Studies have been lightly copy-edited.
Names have been changed to protect privacy.
2004
I am hoping to use BRI with my 8dd Jane who is borderline mentally impaired.
She knows her letters and sounds down pat, can spell 3 letter words but can not
READ the same words…. She has a short attention span and I don't see her focusing
on this for longer than that-at least at first when it is really difficult.
So
far NOTHING has worked with Jane (8) as to reading words – even though she knows
all of her sounds and can spell the words.
I taught my son with fetal alcohol
and an IQ of 53 to read and that was EASY compared to my dd. What is the best
way for a newcomer to get started? I have not yet used it myself but will be
starting in 2 weeks with Jane who can not read at all and has some language delays.
If it works with her I think it will work with just about any student.
I started
today with my 8dd, Jane. She has multiple issues including IQ of 63, LDs, severe
stuttering, mild hearing loss, and word finding issues. We are taking it very
slowly. Today we just did the sounds and flashcards for book 1. …She knew all
of the sounds already except ee but picked that up quickly. She did read "I
see Sam" today and was very proud of herself.
I figure that I will have to move very slowly with her. My ideal goal is 2 books
per week. I figure on Monday we will introduce the new stuff and read the story,
Tuesday repeat the story, work on spelling the words, review, etc. Wednesday
a new story with Thursday review and Friday maybe games and reviewing the previous
stories. I don't think she will mind at all rereading the stories.
Maybe over time we can move faster but even at 1 story a week she will be making
more progress than we have with any other program.
Interestingly, though, I had
Sue, my 7-year-old old daughter (IQ 85) who is reading some of the books to me
just for fun. She stumbled more than I thought she would with the books. I think
it is because she can't "read" the pictures and the words like sit,
sis, Sam, etc. all look close so you can't just use the first letter to guess.
I am thinking about working her through the whole set just at a faster pace –
maybe 1-2 books per day as she picks up things more quickly.
Any other hints for
using this at home with my girls? We can do 1-2 session per day 5 days a week
and even some review on the weekends if we need it.
We just did book 12 of set 1 with Jane today. It is still slow going but the
word ‘I’ that I thought we would never get a few weeks ago is down pat as are
some other words that we struggled with. I just think that she is a child that
needs LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of exposures to a word.
BRI seems to give her a REASON for tracking left to right. She really struggled
with that even after vision therapy. I noticed yesterday she is slowly tracking
left to right and it makes SENSE to her now that she can read a tiny bit.
Jane
has severe speech and language delay, severe stuttering (worst possible score),
complex-partial seizures, ADHD, bipolar, mild hearing loss, and a huge host of
medical issues which require 5-8 different medications per day. She also tests
like a brain injury child and may have been a shaken baby. We do know that she
had very little stimulation/nurturing during her 1st 8 months of life. She was
kept with her hands strapped down and her face covered much of the time.
The
neuropsychologist was very impressed yesterday when we went in to see her. Jane
is now reading a tiny bit and even read some things out of a standardized test
that she has NEVER seen in BRI. They were things like green (she knew the ee
sound from see), red box, etc
My just turned 8 last week daughter Sue is basically
repeating 1st grade. I am home schooling so we just go at her own pace. She is
on book 6 of BRI 3 since the start of school this year. I am very pleased with
her progress.
I think one problem with the public school system is that everyone is expected
to learn at the same pace in all of the subjects. If you learn faster they don't
know what to do with you and if you learn a little slower you are special needs.
This is one of the reason I am homeschooling – my girls can learn at their own
pace and feel good about their learning..
2005
Just thought I would give a progress report.
8dd Sue is on ARI 1. She is doing OK but slowing down with all of the word endings.
Also her meds for ADHD are not at the right dose. We are increasing it starting
tomorrow. We will see if that helps as well. Over all though her progress is
good – she started with set 1 in September.
9-year-old Jane read book 19 of set 1 today. I was very surprised at how well
she did.
Just as an aside I showed this program to my sister. She started the books with
her 5 -year-old son and 3-year-old daughter last week. Today they called to say
they had both just read book 3. These little tykes have no learning disabilities
and the 3-year-old is very verbal/bright but I thought I would share their success
so far.
Well, we are now on book 4 of BRI 3 with 9-year-old Jane. So far, so good.
She is struggling a little with blending 2 sounds together like the /d
r/ in drum, /s l/ in slip, etc. but once we go over it once or twice she
gets it for the rest of the story – and even the next book.
My 8-year-old daughter Sue started the program last September so she has been
doing this for about 12 months now. She is on book 3 of ARI 2. She is also doing
a lot of off BRI reading.
My 9-year-old Jane is on book 12 of BRI 3 now. She started
last September as well. At first it was taking us one week per book then we went
to 2 books a week and now we are up to 1 new book per DAY. Yes, she is still
quite behind but she is transferring this knowledge to other books. Also,
she was never expected to be able to learn to read so we are pleased with
her progress.
2006
Just another note since my daughter Jane is (also) in ARI 1. I honestly
don't think she would test well in other books. YES, she can read the words
she knows from BRI in other easy readers and even some with the same code
BUT throw in too many of those hard sight words/advanced code words that
many K/1st grade kids learn and she would be totally lost.
Even with my 8 1/2 daughter Sue who has a low average IQ and LDs didn't really
start reading off BRI stuff until about mid ARI 2. Even now she still struggles
with some words that she hasn't gotten the code for yet.
Just want to encourage you to keep going. It IS slow moving but look at how much
your daughter has learned with you compared to what she would have learned without
you and your BRI books.
BRI can't be beat for teaching them to READ - decode the
words.
You were not around 18 months ago when I started this process. If you
can go back in the messages that far you can see just how TOUGH this was
for my 10-year-old daughter Jane back then. It took us 6 MONTHS--not weeks
or days, but MONTHS to get through set 1. I thought we would never ever
ever get the word ‘I’ down. Fast forward, 18 months. My 9-year-old daughter
Sue is reading just about anything she wants - about a 3rd grade level
and 10-year-old Jane that struggled so much is working on ARI 2 which is
the end of 1st grade.
Use the NOTCHED CARD and show her only ONE sound at a time (remember ee/th/sh,
etc are one sound). That way she HAS to say the sounds as if she just sees the
‘S’ she won't know if the word is sit, sat, set, see, Sam, etc. If she sees the
m the word could be meet, men, me, mat, mit, etc.-she has to blend the sounds
one by one. Then show the next sound, then the last sound. Have her then blend
the word. If she still doesn't get it - model it over and over and over again
- then start again.
….Try to keep the sessions short - maybe 10-15 minutes twice a day would be best
but no more than 20 minutes at a time for ALL of the activities-reading, flashcards,
and spelling work.
…one more note, with tough kids it can take WEEKS to get through the first few
books. I modelled the blending over and over and over and over again for my dd.
It took her likely 100+ tries to get Sam down. We would get through it on page
one and then do it AGAIN on page 2. I just kept working in 10-15 minute session,
once or twice a day, and SHE GOT IT. She is now in ARI 2 and doing great with
the blending of new sounds into words. This might not be easy but it does work.
2007
Here
are the updates for my 2 students that happen to be my 2 daughters.
9-year-old Sue (LDs, low average IQ and VERY ADHD) started out with ARI 2 this
fall and read through set 2, 3, and most of 4 when she transitioned to LOTS of
library books. She is now reading just about anything she wants from the children's
section. She is not doing much with chapter books as she really like picture
books – but will sit and read 5 or more picture books in a sitting (non fiction
too). ….
10-year-old Jane (mild mental impairment, seizures, severe stuttering, speech
and language delays, ADD and a host of other medical issues, and a rapidly changing
eye glass prescription). She started out the year with BRI 3. We worked our way
through BRI 3, ARI 1 and part of ARI 2 but the stories were just getting too
long. We re-read BRI 3 and ARI 1 but the stories in ARI 2 were still too long.
No real problem with the code, mostly just the length of the story. We are again
re-reading the Boosters and she LOVES that as they are easy for her (no sounding
out). She is really trying but … everything is a huge struggle for her.
Just thought
I would share an update on my 11 ½ -year-old daughter Jane …..
For those who are new here is a little history:
Fall 2004 started BRI 1. It took us over 6 months to get through BRI 1 - yes
6 MONTHS. I think we did 1000 repetitions of the word ‘I’ before she got it.
Spring 2005 started BRI 2.
Summer 2005 did the Booster books.
School year 2005/2006 did BRI 3, ARI 1 and got part way through ARI 2.
Summer 2006 made changes to her seizure meds.
Fall 2006 [following change of medication] started over almost at square 1. She
could NOT read the BRI 1 books without a great struggle.
November 2006 restarted one of the seizure meds we had stopped. SLOWLY worked
through BRI 1 and 2.
Winter/Spring 2007 – made it through the Booster books and BRI 3 – now at a pace
of 1 new book a day.
TODAY - read story 1 in ARI 1 with NO mistakes and able to sound out the new
words on her own!!!!!!
We are still not to where we were a year ago BUT this is HUGE progress for a
child that could hardly get through the 1st story of set 1 in the Fall.
Her neurologists are baffled. They say she is the most complex case they have
in the office. This seizure med has made a huge difference in her academic abilities.
My goal now is to read through ARI 1 and 2 over the summer (or as far as we can
get) and then keep going as far as she can. I am hoping she can make it through
ARI 5 and become a fluent reader.
Another interesting side note, she struggles with severe stuttering – at times
she can hardly get anything out. The speech therapist said she rated the worst
on the stuttering scales. With the increase in the seizure meds her stuttering
is getting much better but is still moderately severe BUT..........when she reads
she is TOTALLY fluent.
I don't know if you remember my 12-year-old daughter Jane
or not. We started the BRI program 3 or 4 years ago now and are just up to ARI
2. She is almost done with this set now. It took us a YEAR to get through sets
1-2 ….. the farther along we go, the better and faster she is moving. It is hard
to imagine that the first few books of BRI were more difficult for her to
learn than reading ARI 2 books. Now in ARI 2 things are starting to really
click with her reading (except that pesky b and d thing).
And as an update on my now 12-year-old daughter Jane. She is up to ARI
2, book 5 and moving along nicely. She still tires easily when reading
so now that the stories are a lot longer we break them into 2 parts with
a short break in the middle. This is my child who lost all reading ability
last year (was up to starting ARI 1) and has come this far in a year.
2008
Just thought I would send out another update on my 12 -year-old daughter
Jane…..
Yesterday she started ARI 3. She is doing very well with the actual reading but
is getting frustrated with the full pages of text with no pictures. I wish that
they had more 1/2 pages of text with more pictures as it would look easier to
her. She gets stuck on a few irregular words but otherwise is getting most of
the new words totally on her own.
For those of you new, she started BRI and got up to set 3 then due to seizures
and med changes lost EVERYTHING and we started over in the fall of 2006 with
set 1 and it was a struggle. Since then though it has gotten easier and easier.
I think that it is pretty good that in 1 1/2 school years she has done 5 sets
of books and is working on ARI 3.
Now, if they only made a BRI math program we would be all set.
Today 12-year-old
Jane (in book 4 of ARI 3) was sitting in the "reading room" (aka bathroom)
reading a picture book from the church library. It was a simple book but she
was READING it---all on her own (minus the proper names) and without being prompted.
This weekend she was also trying to read my emails as I was typing.
I think after ARI 3 we might start buddy reading some easy books.
Oh, she is also reading headlines in the newspaper and tiny bits of magazine
captions, etc.
The BRI work is transferring to "real" life now for her.
It has been
a LONG road getting her reading ……