Ravi Method and FastForWord

[Oh4godsake1]

Hi has anyone tried the above, specialist teaching methods for Dyslexic kids.. How much did it cost? and was it easy to manage at home? I am sceptical and a tad wary they dont show any costs which makes me think its going to be expensive.

The Ravi method is a kineasthetic approach to teaching, not sure of the cost. which can help some who have auditory and visual information processing deficits as the underlying cognitive cause of their dyslexic symptom.

FastForWord or FFW used to be marketed back in the 1990s as the cure for APD, and there are some research papers with review its effectiveness in my Computer-based auditory training (CBAT) research paper collection and FFW is expensive. £2000 plus. FFW is now being marketed as an aid for all types of information processing issues.

I know someone who has a relative (about 9 years old) who did the Raviv method. I think it cost approx £2000.00 and was a six month programme every Saturday for about a couple of hours. I think it was a physical exercise type of programme - I'm not exactly sure and I don't know how much needed to be done outside of the session - anyhow the child made huge progress in reading after completing the course. The course had been suggested by another mother who had a daughter who struggled with reading and again great progress was seen. In our local area there is somebody who advertises the Raviv method and they have free open evenings for people to get more info.

Thank you the open evening sounds interesting I might have alook on the website to see if they offer anything near us.. however I am finding that there is precious little on offer for Dyslexic children in this part of the north east. 2k is a lot of money but if its effective the investment would be worthwhile. I am just wary... as I dont want find that I have to deliver the excercises ect myself as I am just not the right person to do it, being emotionally involved and all that, it just ends up as another stress on us as a family and we end up abandoning it.. I also find it difficult to keep the consistency going which is needed in a lot of the home interventions.. Trying to keep going with Toe by Toe at the moment and also Stareway to Spelling which is fiendishly complicated in my view. I just find that we dont do it everyday and then you go back to after a couple of days it and and its like starting again. My son 7 has a ds of dyslexia and so does my daughter 10 who is more complex as she has a hearing impairment too.. there seems to be attention problems also for both of them so its quite hard to get them on board.

Before going to either of those I would talk to Dyslexia action (they have a centre in Newcastle and I think one near Middlesborough) DA. They often to free consults/chats, or coffee mornings before setting up tuition.
I would always explore the conventional first. It is hard to tutor your own children, but some concentrated time from a professional can help.
The other people worth talking to are the BDA. They do also investigate some alternative treatments.

The BDA and Dyslexia Action, are only interested in promoting their own programs or the programs they endorse, which can help some who have the dyslexic symptom. They are worth talking to but that is the limit of their abilities. Their understanding of dyslexia is still at least 10 years behind international research, and as a result are not best able to advise all dyslexics.

Dolfrog I totally disagree! I think its worth looking at conventional intervention before going for the alternative. (BTW you message is the same as it was 10 years ago.)

mummytime

Unfortunately these organisations have not kept pace with International dyslexia research over the last decade or so, and as a result they have little understanding of the underlying cognitive causes of the dyslexic symptom, which is why the programs they suggest are not always what is required.
Basically they are only interested in marketing their programs and not looking after the needs of all dyslexics, which is the false claim they make.

When these organisation start discussing the three cognitive subtypes of dyslexia, auditory, visual, and and attentional. So when they will be discussing support for those who may have an auditory processing disorder, a visual processing disorder, an attention disorder, or any combination of the three as their underlying cause of their dyslexic symptom. And when they are willing to discuss these issues and the various types of support each cognitive subgroup of dyslexics may need, then and only then will they be providing the types of information real dyslexics need.

10 years ago, I was a dyslexic trying to understand the cause of my dyslexia, Auditory Processing Disorder. Now I have a better understanding of my disability and and its many symptoms including dyslexia. I now also have a better understanding of the underhand practices of the UK dyslexia industry, which you seem to support.

My daughters needs are very complex her reading is ok but not always acurate,so dont think any visual difficulties but she has poor phonics ability, ie. she has a lot of trouble decoding a new word but has good sight recognition. her spelling is very weak, she can do quite well in a test when words have been learnt and then written out in a list but will then go on to spell words she manged to get right in a word test wrong when trying to compose a sentance.. and will not be able to diffrentiate between sounds like ou or ow, er ir. and so on. the biggest problem as I see it is her planning and orgainisation her handwriting is very slow and she loses her way very quickly. She wears a hearing aid as she has mild underlying sensorineural hearing loss (Both ears) but this is regularly made worse by conductive hearing loss (glue ear) which can last for up to 6 weeks, pretty much a whole term. She has been on SA+ since year 3 and is now about to move into year six I am trying to get her a statutory assesment which has intially been refused although the LA EP went in and also a hearing specialist from the LA, whos assessment took place in a quiet room on a 1-1 basis so she came across quite well. She also has a lot of trouble with instructions and will forget what she is meant to do especially in maths. We are due to go to tribunal in Sept. My son age 7 is more a classic dyslexic if I can use this rather clumsy term. He was statmented straight away but the statement is a bit wishy washy.. He is nearly 8 and has repeated year 2 he came across as a child possibly on the Autistic spectrum but he was seen by a multidisiplinary team at GOSH and they said he's not, his behaviour is caused by the difficuties he is having trying to access the curriculum. They also advised that he should be taught in a specialist school for SpLD, however there is nothing around here (North Essex / Cambridge) that fits the bill and his statement does not support this view, 2 hours a day for 1-1 it doesnt even specify that the support teacher should be qualified in SpLD. There are couple of private schools in the area that say they can help children with SpLD but we cant afford them, as many charge on top of the fees for the learning support. I am anticipating that we may not win our appeal for DD and really want to explore what would be the best way to give her and DS the coping stratagies needed for them to feel that they have control rather than the difficulties controlling them and what they can achieve. I have looked at the BDA site and wasnt really convinced and have to agree mummytime: they seem to be plugging their own programmes.. as both my children have been recognised at school and the interventions that they have been offered do not appear to have helped them, they are both on IEPs my son is still in the aquisition stage of reading hence my attempts with TOE by TOE. (he hates it). So I think perhaps I need to be looking at more diffrentiated approaches. Both children have had EP and SLT and OT reports done which diagnose SpLD. My daughter is currently being assesed for ADD they did the vandabilt scale of tests which indicates a strong possibility of ADD note they dropped the H. This terrifies me as I really do not want her to be medicated and I feel that OT would help her enormously but dont think the NHS offers this as I guess its expensive and will offer the medication first. I feel that they really need an expert and not just mum and sometimes dad to help them I just dont have the skill set and or the emotional strength if I am honest and I dont want to make it a battle at home, this is our sanctuary.

Hi Oh4godsake1

I hope you do not mind but i need to copy and paste your post here, due to my APD, which causes my dyslexia i have problems with that type of text format, and can not process it.

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My daughters needs are very complex her reading is ok but not always acurate,so dont think any visual difficulties but she has poor phonics ability, ie. she has a lot of trouble decoding a new word but has good sight recognition. her spelling is very weak, she can do quite well in a test when words have been learnt and then written out in a list but will then go on to spell words she manged to get right in a word test wrong when trying to compose a sentance.. and will not be able to diffrentiate between sounds like ou or ow, er ir. and so on. the biggest problem as I see it is her planning and orgainisation her handwriting is very slow and she loses her way very quickly.

What you are describing above is dyslexia.
Probably caused by an auditory processing deficit.
Those who have auditory processing problems have a poor auditory memory, and have word recall problems, or not being able to find the correct word when needed and having to find a different word or way to express what she wants to say either in speech, or when writing.
Those who have auditory processing problems can have problems processing the gaps between sounds that can make up a word, or the gaps between words in rapid speech. this makes phonics a non starter, and the BDA phonics based program of little use.
Those who have cognitive deficits such as Auditory Processing Disorder, need to develop and use alternative cognitive skills or coping strategies to work around our deficit. These coping strategies have to be run in our working memories (short term memory) which has limited capacity, (Like the RAM of a computer) and something has to make way to allow our coping strategies to run, usually our self organisation programs, so planning can be a problem.
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She wears a hearing aid as she has mild underlying sensorineural hearing loss (Both ears) but this is regularly made worse by conductive hearing loss (glue ear) which can last for up to 6 weeks, pretty much a whole term.
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Glue Ear (or Otitis Media with Effusion) is a way of acquiring Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)
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She has been on SA+ since year 3 and is now about to move into year six I am trying to get her a statutory assesment which has intially been refused although the LA EP went in and also a hearing specialist from the LA, whos assessment took place in a quiet room on a 1-1 basis so she came across quite well.
She also has a lot of trouble with instructions and will forget what she is meant to do especially in maths. We are due to go to tribunal in Sept.
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Auditory Processing Disorder is about having problems processing all sound based information including speech. Which means we have problems processing and following conversations, and following multiple verbal instructions.

My son age 7 is more a classic dyslexic if I can use this rather clumsy term. He was statmented straight away but the statement is a bit wishy washy..
He is nearly 8 and has repeated year 2 he came across as a child possibly on the Autistic spectrum but he was seen by a multidisiplinary team at GOSH and they said he's not, his behaviour is caused by the difficuties he is having trying to access the curriculum.
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Dyslexia is a man made problem or a social construct.
Dyslexia is about having problems using a man made communication system, the visual notation of speech, or decoding and recoding the graphic symbols society chooses to represent the sounds of speech.
Dyslexia is language dependent, as was demonstrated by the case of a bilingual child fluent in Japanese and English, but only dyslexic in English.
There are three cognitive subtypes of dyslexia: auditory, visual an attentional. So may be you need to identify the underlying cognitive cause(s) of his dyslexic symptom.
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They also advised that he should be taught in a specialist school for SpLD, however there is nothing around here (North Essex / Cambridge) that fits the bill and his statement does not support this view, 2 hours a day for 1-1 it doesnt even specify that the support teacher should be qualified in SpLD.

SpLD is a new code for dyslexia used by those who wish to confuse life for all. Enables them to avoid scientific research on the topic.

I am anticipating that we may not win our appeal for DD and really want to explore what would be the best way to give her and DS the coping stratagies needed for them to feel that they have control rather than the difficulties controlling them and what they can achieve.

I have looked at the BDA site and wasnt really convinced and have to agree mummytime: they seem to be plugging their own programmes.. as both my children have been recognised at school and the interventions that they have been offered do not appear to have helped them, they are both on IEPs my son is still in the aquisition stage of reading hence my attempts with TOE by TOE. (he hates it).

Each cognitiver subtype of dyslexic requires different types of support and help, from what i can remember Toe by Toe is a Kineasthetic program, which was one of the BDA fads, may be he needs a visual approach have a look at
Teaching Reading to Visual Spatial Learners
I could be wrong.

So I think perhaps I need to be looking at more diffrentiated approaches. Both children have had EP and SLT and OT reports done which diagnose SpLD.

My daughter is currently being assesed for ADD they did the vandabilt scale of tests which indicates a strong possibility of ADD note they dropped the H.

Many who have Auditory Processing Disorder, have been miss diagnosed as having ADHD. Those who have APD can quite easily loose the plot of what is being said by not being able to process all the sound based information, which is very different from having an attention or concentration problem. And if you lose the plot and are ignored for a long enoug htime you can become disruptive to try to have your learning needs met and to be understood.

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I hope you can follow the short and long lines, but that is the only way I could reply.

thank you that was a brilliant way of getting through to the salient points. very impressed I will have a further look at the APDUK site.