In today's education market there are abundant of programs that offer help in learning difficulties with math, reading, spelling and writing. Teachers, parents and tutors should try to avoid if programs:
1. It offers a cure or a set amount of time for drastic improvement.
2. Does not employ a multisensory approach, with structured phonics and definite methods for teaching the dyslexic the structure of the language.
3. Requires the dyslexic to learn most words as whole units through sight-recognition.
4. Emphasizes on speed.
5. Relies heavily on spelling lists that must be memorized by rote.
6. Requires pages of unsupervised work in workbooks.
7. Promises problems will be solved by purchasing a series of reading texts.
8. Uses a reading approach that depends almost exclusively on color coding of words or sounds or uses some other code system that changes standard letter forms.
9. Attempts to improve the dyslexic's academic achievement by having him perform coordination tasks, such as creeping, crawling and walking on beams.
10. Uses eye-movement exercises.
11. Uses arbitrary and inflexible groupings of children for teaching purposes.
12. Uses punishment or ridicule to "discipline" the dyslexic when he makes an error or becomes confused.
13. Isolates children and requires them to work on their own.
*Abstracted from "Remediation: Procedures for Helping the Dyslexic"; Rome, Paula & Osman, Jean*
I hope this list would be a good reference for parents who are thinking or already have a child in a remedial program. I really wish my mom would have access to this kinda of information or checklist - it would have saved her lots of money and time that she spent to help me throughout my school years.
My mom tried hiring over 4 different tutors which I just ended up getting frustrated and annoyed since all they made me do were worksheets. My mom spent another thousand of dollars on audio programs that proved to help my grammar by listening to them daily. She even enrolled me into Kumon math which was probably the worst year and a half. Every saturday for 2 hours was spent at the center timing myself and trying my best to get at least 85% before I could even leave. I think I cried most of the time and just ended up cheating so I could leave. It only taught me to do math FAST. My mother even spent money on buying herbal pills that supposingly made us smarter - I'm sure she was hoping that would cure our bad grades. Thinking back I can say nothing worked and the only thing that improved my writing was going through the OG training.
I'm not saying that OG is the only and the best program out there but I know and experienced the reward and difference it has made in my life and the student's life. I believe a good remedial program incorporates a multi-disciplinary and multi-sensory approach- this is the key in helping children with their learning difficulties.