I have a client who is above 85% consistently on all other games at Level 4 except for the Isolator, for which she is only between 50-60% accuracy. I'm trying to decide what to do. I wish I had the flexibility to keep her at one level for Isolator and increase the level for the other games. Looking for suggestions.
p.s. Also, for some reason I can't find a list of her words on her plan now. Can someone clue me in?
Thanks, Leslie
This happens to me all the time, too. Isolator requires (and develops) phonemic awareness and, as we know, that is often the core deficit. If the child can't demonstrate phonemic awareness for the words the only strategy she has for learning to read and spell words is visual memorization and we know that kids who rely on straight memory hit a wall. It just won't support upper level reading and spelling.
She is good at the MatchStar games because of strong visual working memory. It's still good practice as it is building up her orthographic memory for the Level 4 word patterns. Research suggests that kids with dyslexia need to see a word 12 to 40 times before they make it fluent, so this is one way for her to do that amount of reps. reading the words. You might consider making her a Spoken Word-to Spoke-Word MatchStar Game (Station 3) as that will tax her auditory working memory for Level 4 words .
But, more than anything, she needs your to help scaffolding phonemic awareness skills....the skills that the game Isolator requires. :
