Good books, proof and more

So in a recently past post I was talking about how the way reading is taught these days simply doesn't work well for a lot of people.  (Some sources say 1/3 of the population).  I found more proof of this when I read the book: The Good School: how smart parents get their children the education they deserve by Peg Tyre.  I highly recommend that anyone having any sort of concerns about their child's reading check this book out of your local library. 

Basically what it says is that around 1987 states started switching over to a "whole language" teaching method (translation: site word based instead of phonics based). 

So reading that of course I had a big old AHA moment.  Thanks Peg Tyre.

I'm not claiming to have all the answers or even that many answers but I took this ole bull by the horns as soon as I could and in my case that means my child is only in first grade struggling to read.  If you are reading this and concerned about a child remember my mantra: EARLY INTERVENTION

So I have more to report.  On accident (at the nail salon actually) I met a lady who is a tutor for the Children's Dyslexia Center.  They are the organization funded by the Masons (Masonic Temple) that provides FREE tutoring services for children with dyslexia.  (Yes, I said FREE!)

She was interested in the school my daughter now attends (she suspects a grandchild has dyslexia although he was only diagnosed with ADD). At the same time I was interested to hear more about her work.  What I found out was really intriguing to me-  she tutors 2 children twice a week.  These children go to one of the more expensive Catholic schools in our area. 

Here is the catch folks.  To get the free tutoring you need the diagnosis- a good diagnosis is expensive. In our case it was $1500.00 with insurance only covering $450.00.  We went with the number 2 doctor in town because I didn't want to wait on the 4 month waiting list while my kid suffered for the Number 1 name brand Doctor (who costs $1700.00 incidentally). 

Friends the public schools are not doing a good job of testing our children in a timely manner (remember my local public school psychologist said it could be 2 years until they tested my kid and wrote the IEP for her and the public school tutor said she would only work off the IEP). This is ridiculous.  This is class-ist (money based) and it is simply unacceptable.

 Also I think I should point out that there is a reason the better doctors have waiting lists.  There is an astronomical amount of mis-diagnosing going on.  I can tell you that I know this to be true from a variety of sources.  There are standard tests out there but many many of the doctors and supposed professionals using them do not know the ins and outs of applying the information they get from the tests.  So simply having "testing" just is not enough.