The end of 1st grade approached and I was still seeing DD3 skip articles, prepositions, transpose words, decorate with silent e’s, and put capital letters in the middle of words. I was concerned, but I didn’t know what to do. The eye issues had subsided – it was obvious that she needed that therapy. But, these other things seemed so odd for a girl who was obviously intelligent and witty. I was talking to another friend and she asked me if I thought it could be dyslexia. I told her no – DD3 almost never reversed b’s and d’s. That was truly all I knew about dyslexia. She told me there was more to it and maybe I should explore it. And if DD3 had dyslexia, I needed an Orton Gillingham tutor. I had no idea what that was.
We sent DD3 to school in 2nd grade and she did great. She read fine. She was right at grade level – not ahead. But, she refused to read chapter books like Magic Treehouse. She told me she couldn’t remember what happened in the previous chapters. So, I just let her read what she wanted to. They were all small books. She actually set a goal for herself – to get 100 AR points. And that she did – remember that stubbornness? Yep….100.2 AR points ALL with easy reader books. But, she skipped words, transposed while she was reading, tired easily while reading and didn’t like reading. She just read so she could get the trophy.
I spent her 2nd and 3rd grade years researching dyslexia. I have my Master’s Degree in Counseling, but I’m not kidding when I say I put in more hours into researching Dyslexia than what I did for my Master’s! I was shocked at how much information and research is out there and yet how very little public awareness there is – especially considering that 20% of the population is dyslexic. That has been proven over and over again in studies. There are just a lot of people who don’t know they are dyslexic. In all this research, I discovered that I am dyslexic. That helped me understand why in my last semester of Spanish in college I barely passed with the lowest D-, much thanks to a very kind teacher. She knew I was studying more for Spanish than basically all my other classes combined. I was normally a mostly A’s with a few B’s student. But, Spanish was KILLING me! And I wanted to learn it. It’s also why I almost always say left when I mean right and I get other words confused. I also learned during this time about Dysgraphia. I had NO idea that your hand shouldn’t hurt when you write. I assumed everyone’s hands hurt. It was during this time that yet another friend suggested I look at www.dys-add.com. That is where I found out about the Barton Reading & Spelling System.
My daughter entered 4th grade and it was like she hit a brick wall. She thought she was stupid. She had no battery power left when she got home from school. She was flipping letters and words like crazy when reading and writing after school. I knew we had to do something. We live in the NE mountains in Georgia in a small rural town. We are a good hour from any Orton Gillingham tutors. I looked into that. But two hours a week of tutoring was required. That was 6 hours away from home – when she was already exhausted. Not only that, but the tutors charged way more than we could afford. So, we decided to bring her home after the 1st quarter of 4th grade to do Barton with her. We strove to do it 5 days a week during the school year, taking the normal school breaks. We completed levels 1-5 from October – May. Then, we decided to keep her home for 5th grade to finish as much Barton as possible. From August – May we did levels 6-9. We probably averaged 4 days a week the second year. We will be finishing level 10 as well. Barton has made a tremendous difference! I can hardly believe the difference in her reading and spelling. It’s still not perfect. But, that’s ok.
DD3’s 4th grade year I had a friend ask if I would tutor her son using Barton. So I started with him. He was more severe and we did two to three days a week. We were able to complete through most of level four in the school year. He has recently continued on and has just finished level 5. Then, in DD3’s 5th grade year I began tutoring another boy. He is currently in level 4.
Through tutoring these three, I came to find a passion of helping others discover hope with reading and spelling struggles. I learned about Barton Certification and decided to pursue that route so I could help more people. Then Covid-19 hit. I had to go online with both of the boys and learned I really like tutoring online. So, I posted on a FB group and got eight more online students. That filled my schedule as full as I wanted. I got my certification during that time as well.
So, now you know my journey. If I can help you in any way, please email me so I can help encourage you on yours!
