SJW Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 Hi Has anyone had any experience using the Easy Read system???? I'm trying to help my 6 year old son with reading and writing. Have also seen some information on Toe by toe and sound foundations. Anyone used any of these before i open my purse?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beau Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 Hi SJW, I used the 'Toe by Toe' many years ago with my dyslexic son and it seemed to work quite well in conjunction with other techniques. This was something I got through his Educational Psychologist - she photocopied the whole lot and sent it home for me to do with him - so I have no idea how much it was and whether I would have thought it worth the money! I found it easy to fit in, in small easy to manage chunks which didn't take too much time. Unfortunately I have no experience of any other schemes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 Hi. I don't know about easy read. Toe by toe costs about £6.99 (rough estimate). It is highly-structured and a child has to work through the book methodically. We have used it with children for 20 minutes, five times a week. One child I teach, works through toe by toe at home with parents and works on beat dyslexia at school (twice a week). Another child has two toe by toe sessions at school and three with parents. Improvements have been seen with childen who have used this - one child lost confidence for a while and found it frustrating (as three consecutive ticks are needed before you move on to another exercise). The class teacher usually links the class spelling test with whichever spelling pattern the child is on with toe by toe (where possible). At first glance toe by toe looked very dry - just a lot of exercises to go through every day but it is based on increasing word building and introducing new sounds. The exerises are short and most children enjoy them. Other schemes like active literacy and beat dyslexia have timed challenges and more game based learning. Toe by toe can be used by parents - completely separately to what is being done at school. Although having links between home and school to discuss progress and strategies has had a great impact. I have just purchased a book called "Dyslexia Guidance" by Phillipa Bodien and Martin Turner to increase my knowledge of specific learning difficulties and strategies to develop dyslexia friendly classrooms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 Improvements have been seen with childen who have used this - one child lost confidence for a while and found it frustrating (as three consecutive ticks are needed before you move on to another exercise). The class teacher usually links the class spelling test with whichever spelling pattern the child is on with toe by toe (where possible). One of my colleagues did her BA reseach project on how Toe-by-Toe supported struggling readers and she found that over a six month period every child in the study had advanced their reading age significantly (I can't quote the actual figures but I could find out if anyone is interested). I've often seen the little Toe-by-Toe book in Waterstones, so its easy to get hold of! Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Hi Maz I would be interested in figures of how reading age increased with use of Toe-by-Toe. If this is not too much trouble. Thanks, Louise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJW Posted October 25, 2008 Author Share Posted October 25, 2008 Thx for all that feedback, i've heard some great things about toe-by-toe, but also heard that children can find it abit boring. My son hasn't been diagnosed with dyslexia just struggles and doesn't enjoy reading and has no confidence. The easy read is a computer based scheme where a lesson is sent each day to the children. Each lesson lasts about 15mins and its all done on the computer, we have signed up for the 5 day trial and where as he has quite enjoyed doing it i'm not sure if its helping him that much. The sound foundation books i found from a link from C4 can't read can't write programme and sound similar to the toe-by-toe. Not sure what to do to for the best, guess just try and see. Thx for all the advice, would elcome any more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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