A Workbook for Dyslexics, 3rd Edition

I bought this book for my son to use the summer before fifth grade. He had been diagnosed with dyslexia and was receiving vision therapy and was just beginning to see a tutor. We used it every day for three weeks when we were on vacation. We got through about half of this book before school started back with wonderful results. When we returned, his teacher and tutor couldn't believe the improvement in both reading and spelling in such a short time. Even his handwriting improved from all of the required practice writing words in the program. Systematic phonics instruction is just a piece of the process we have gone through to get my son to be a reader. He went from struggling with first grade level passages in fourth grade to passing the state reading test at the end of fifth grade. More importantly, he ENJOYS reading now and is capable of reading the books that a guy at his age enjoys. He enjoys school more because he is confident that he will not be lost when his teacher asks him to complete a reading/writing task in the regular classroom. I feel like this book helped jump start the process, which also included vision therapy. This book does not address all the problems a child with dyslexia faces, but it was a very effective part of the puzzle for us.

This is a great book to help get your child go through a system of learning to read that builds on itself. Each section has a series of letter sounds to learn and then practices those sounds in reading, in words and in writing the words in sentences. What I love about the book is that it goes to writing those words in sentences so that it engages the child not just in reading, but in the writing process which is an important element in knowing if they are understanding this whole process. When I used this book with my newly adopted daughter who entered 2nd grade at the beginning kindergarten level in reading, she progressed 2 grade levels in 9 months! The school said "I don't know what you're doing, but keep doing it!". We also practiced regular reading for 30 minutes a day, and some days we broke that down in to 15 minutes of this workbook and 15 minutes of reading a leveled school book. My daughter worked hard in this book and it really paid off! As someone who works with a lot of kids with learning disabilities in the area of handwriting, this is the go-to book for reading difficulties. Helen Painter, Occupational Therapist and Author of Dysgraphia: Your Essential Guide

Our daughter is slightly dyslexic. We have used two programs and this is the second. We are still in progress, but it has helped. It is easy to use and you can do all of one lesson at one sitting, or two or more sittings. The whole "trick" is to be consistent, minimum 5-6 days a week. I can see that this program "fits" with the first program we used, because it has ended up being somewhat of an "exercise" book after the first program. The first program we used I found online, and it can be used for ESL (learning English as a Second Language), for adult illiterate people, or for dyslexics. It really helped to get us over the hump with dyslexia! It's called Reading Horizons. It's expensive but worth it. This workbook is a good follow-up to that.

I am the homeschooling parent of a dyslexic son aged 8 years. We had begun working on traditional phonics, spelling, reading topics around 3 to 4 years of age - the basics of alphabet followed by sounds, etc. - with all of our children. We quickly realized that our son was not progressing like some of the other children did. After two years of intense focus on phonics we were at wit's end when his achievement testing still indicated a reading level of Pre-K. We began researching curriculum that might be of assistance and came across this workbook which offered a downloadable trial version from the internet. Our son actually responded to the first few lessons quite well. We purchased the book and began using it for instruction. I will admit, this curriculum is VERY hands on. It's not a 'toss the book at him and let him do it on his own' type curriculum. Mom or Dad MUST work alongside the child daily in oral exercises and dictation in order to fully utilize this curriculum. This is VITAL!! Also, in our experience, we found that we would do a chapter and then our son would need to review it (oftentimes MULTIPLE times) in order to fully master the concepts. We spent an entire year of instruction only covering the first 16 chapters of the book! However, upon achievement testing, our son's results showed that he had progressed TWO grade levels in 6 months time! We were amazed! Since using this curriculum, our son has begun reading books on his own and is now reading at or above grade level. We still pinch ourselves to make sure we're not dreaming when he asks if he can stay awake just a little longer because he wants to read his book! We continue to use this curriculum, reviewing as needed, and highly recommend it to anyone educating a dyslexic child.

I started this book a week ago with my 11 yo dyslexic child. She can already read, but not that well. Even though we have concentrated on phonics, she still won't sound out long words, and it took us forever to get her to understand the long and short sounds of vowels. Previously we had tried AVKO Sequential Spelling, which while it has its plusses, usually ended up with her in tears (she wanted desparately to be able to spell all the words right the first time). This book has a very nice blend of reading phonems, writing words, filling in blanks (to emphasize vowels--very important), and writing sentences. While in some ways this book is a review of what she already learned, I can see where there structured approach is already helping her. Better yet--no tears!! She enjoyed doing the first Chapter so much that she the first day SHE chose to do 2 Chapters (not her normal pattern). My daughter is also dysgraphic, and this book is a great adjunct to another book we are working through, Italic Handwriting Series, Book G, by Getty Dubay. I like that not only is the student writing the word, but is also writing the words in sentences in the same lesson, and speaking the phonems. GREAT Book! We are satisfied customers.

My 7-year-old son is struggling with dyslexia, and we've been taking a "try lots, see what works" approach. He gets special education services at school, we have him using Lexia Learning software, and lately he and I have been working through this workbook, spending about a half an hour a night on it. Since we began using the workbook, I've been shocked at how much more quickly he's been picking things up. (Hooray for well-thought-through exercises!) The workbook is fairly straightforward. Each lesson has several components that focus on a particular type of sound -- short vowels, for instance, or /sh/ and /ch/. The adult reads text that introduces the key concepts, the child practices reading words containing the sound in question, and then there are writing exercises where the adult reads to the child and the child uses the rules they've just learned to figure out how to write the words they hear. Straightforward, right? But the exercises are designed in an order that seems to work very well for how my son learns, and they're just the right length that he gets plenty of practice without reaching a critical level of either boredom or frustration. I'm thrilled so far. It's not terribly fancy, but it's certainly sound, and it's helping my son.

Ok, for every parent that feels like they are at their whits end, this book is for you. My daughter (13) has always struggled in reading, but can read, maybe not at the level I would expect. I would however be frustrated to hear her not be able to sound out words properly. I could not quite put my hand on it and do not feel she is dyslexic at all. I have purchased so many programs to help her I cannot even explain. Again I thought this was going to be a waste of some more of my hard earned money, but for my child I will make that sacrifice and take that chance. When I received this book it looked simple in the beginning and I thought it might be a little less challenging than I expected. But, me and my daughter are now only half way through all the lessons and her reading has improved tenfold. She has not only focused on learning sounds and combinations but also her confidence has been boosted where she is confident to attempt to sound out a word first instead of blurting out a guess. I do not know how to explain how much this has helped my child. It is not a book that you give to your child to sit and work on alone. I have been there at the table with her for every lesson and I see the improvement. I recently spoke with her reading teacher and even she says she has improved greatly in the last month. I highly recommend this book to parents of all ages. Please do not be distracted with the fear of labeling your child as a dyslexic, this book works!

My kids didn't enjoy these workbooks at all. They all wanted help learning to read better. They all love stories but often struggle to read the words fluently. These workbooks got to be just another chore or assignment though... nothing more than busy work. We didn't even make it through half of the books before we gave up. Their reading has slowly but surely been improving with practice with actual stories that have interest. There's nothing interesting in these sadly. I was disappointed.

Excellent workbook for parents whose children struggle with reading. Not only recommended for children with dyslexia, but all children. Lessons are easy to follow and kid friendly. It arrived before its expected delivery date.

I bought this in March having spent a fortune on Dyslexia tuition books - it's excellent. Easy to understand and follow, the lessons are all there for you, it's well structured and paced. Our 9 year old son recently diagnosed as Dyslexic, enjoyed and found this book easy to work through. Other books focused on "sound the word out" which just didn't work for us. Experts said "Dyslexics learn differently" but nobody tells you how. This book helps them to understand why we spell as we do. This book helped improve his reading, spelling and literacy to above average for his age confirmed by an assessor, which is amazing as my son has severe Dyslexia with a short term working memory. The reason I credit the book with the improvement is I am not a teacher, he was taken out of school and tutored by me at home March to June using this book to improve reading/writing. Reading improved by 4y 2m and literacy 3y 8m in just 3 months. He is now looking forward to going back to school. The book for age 8+, has 55 lessons starting with short/long vowels, teaching the foundations allowing them to understand the sounds in a more technical format not the standard repeat/memorise method (they move rapidly through this section). Each lesson has a review element to make sure the lesson has been understood. The pace quickly moves to silent b's and g's etc moving to more complex mixes like "tion & sion" to understanding "i before e except after c" and rules for homophones, French derivative words such as "ballet" to decoding words. The format is consistent throughout. The lessons gave my son confidence to read large complex word lists, write them and incorporate them into sentences. We did 1 lesson every day for 20-30 mins 5 days a week. His reading speed is average but the thing that astonishes teachers is he is able to read words way in advance of his age - he has learnt the "mechanics" of the language in a very short space of time and can decode words quickly to read and spell. The book is American English so you will find the very occassional American spellings and expressions which is not a problem providing they are pointed out to the child ie neighbour spelt neighbor. I hope this review helps as this book has helped my son catch up with his curriculumn English.

Amazing resources by this author! I own then all and find them all extremely valuable!

A colourful, structured programme of support for dyslexic learners. Perfect for busy teachers as the planning is done for you. Just add multi-sensory resources and, of course, a student!

I am a high school teacher and I wish that all parents would use something like this with their dyslexic children. My daughter is in P7 (year 7) and this is her final year before high school. I don't know if I would have started at 8, but I could easily have started a couple of years ago. She has had her wobbles, but we have loads of flash cards on the go with envelopes for old words she knows so they can be put back in her current pile from time to time. She raced through the first chapters because of starting at an older age, but she can spell so much better already! Words are reapeated as well in other chapters, but not as much as I would like. One chapter was on itch endings and the only word she has been practising is 'witch' because that was the only one she misspelled when it was repeated in a later chapter. We haven't come across it since that really. So, I would suggest going back to older chapters from time to time as well and repeat certain dictations again. Otherwise fabulous. The trick I think it to not give them too much at once and do it often enough so that they see progress. I bought my daughter stickers to reward her each time she does 10 minutes at least on one day. We have had wobbles when she didn't want to or was too tired so coming doing it when they have enough energy and motivation is important AND encouraging them with plenty of high fives etc. When they know they are making progress, then that motivates them too. Having them catch you telling granny on the phone how well they are doing..... Don't beat yourself up if you skip a whole number of days from time to time. Just pick up where you left off.