Q. What kind of music should you have on the CD-rom?

A. Any kind the student likes, except rap. The student can't concentrate on the spelling exercise against rap. Rock and roll or classical are equally effective as long as they are not too loud.

Q. Does he use the I-Card when he is reading sentences in RfS Phonics?

A. Yes.

Q. How many pages should he do in one lesson in the phonics book?

A. Who knows? It depends entirely how easy the page is, how severe his dyslexia, and how fast he goes. You decide by time, not pages. He should spend about fifteen or twenty minutes in the phonics book. How far he gets is immaterial as long as he is working and not unhappy. You just write down where he stopped so you know where to start the next day.

Q. How often do you do EL?

A. Every day. You should do either the spelling discs or the I-Card every day, and you can do both in one day if you only have one student and he is more or less caught up in the rest of the material. If you have two students, you can put one in the earplugs at the end of the table and work with the other with the cardboard. A student works by himself in the earplugs, but you must work with each student individually when he is reading in the phonics book. After they have both put in their fifteen minutes, you can swap them or stop and do something else with both. Don't forget the workbooks.

Q. What workbooks?

A. There are two workbooks in the material, one with phonics and spelling exercises and one with syntax, grammar, and composition. It tells you in the material what to do with them.

Q. Can a student read books on tape or CD while he is in the earplugs? Would that help?

A. No. The tapes are designed to make the student match a sound with the letter that represents it - sound-symbol matching. The point of the tape exercises is for him to hear the sounds in the word and write down the letters that represent them, in the same order as he hears them. This is an ear to eye exercise. In the phonics book, it is just the reverse - eye to ear. He needs both. Hearing a book while he looks at words is not the same. Both EL exercises stress proper sequencing, which is one of the dyslectic student's worst weaknesses. If he is merely looking at words while somebody else pronounces them, he only sees them as a pattern - a right hemisphere activity which is a NO-NO. Dear me!

Q. The school told me my child had a visual perception problem. Why should he have all this phonics?

A. "Visual perceptual" is a phrase used when a person reads things in reverse (like was for saw) or omits syllables and endings. It is a misleading term, because the reason this happens has nothing to do with the eyeballs. The reason is that the right hemisphere is controlling the reading, and it doesn't care about letter order. It has no auditory criterion for judging whether HOUSE, for instance, is pronounced house, home, residence, or maybe igloo. The dyslectic individual has perfectly good eyes and sees the same as everybody else. It is just that he doesn't pronounce words according to the line-up of letters. Such people especially need training in phonics.

Q. Why can't I skip anything if my student is doing well?

A. For the same reason that football players don't skip the push-ups just because they do them well. Your dyslectic student needs the mental exercise he gets from sounding out words. If your student is doing well, just go through the material a little faster.

Q. The guidance counselor told my son that he would have to have two years of foreign language to get into college. He can't even spell in English. How is he supposed to learn another language?

A. The guidance counselor is mistaken. There are plenty of excellent colleges that will waive the language requirement for someone who is dyslectic. A dyslectic student can even get untimed college boards.

Q. How can I teach spelling rules when I was never taught them myself when I was in school?

A. A very good question.  For your convenience, here they are: Spelling Rules or see them at the end of Disarming Dyslexia.

Q. Where can I find the Reading from Scratch Program?

A.You can purchase the Reading from Scratch material here or by calling 1-888-848-6243 in the U.S. and Canada, or 1-603-621-7612 from anywhere else.  The package costs $234.45 and includes:

• 2 pocket earphones. Example: Radio Shack Catalogue #33-175B
• 4 RfS Spelling CD's
• Set of magnetic lower case plastic letters
• The RfS teaching material
• Disarming Dyslexia
• I-Card

You will also need:

• two inexpensive CD players
• a couple of music CD's of your choice