Hi, I'm new to this forum and have just successfully posted an intro. I am the mother of 2 children, one with Asperger's Syndrome, a boy, 10 and one with Dyslexia, a girl 8.

My husband and I are presently investigating DORE for both kids. This is going to be an extremely expensive project for us and I have done some reading and research, but at the moment it is all looking confusing.

My children are in tears over their current homework, I have employed a tutor for my daughter (who is also running the DORE programme) because she cannot read or spell and is 2 years behind her class average. The tutor didn't push anything on to me, only gave me the DORE book to read and when I questioned her about this, she gave me a dvd and some pamphlets.

My son gets intervening help in the classroom setting, though this does not help him with homework. He is stilted with his speech but has shown high intelligence, most of his problems are that he is too labourious with writing and keeping up with the class work and he daydreams quite often. He has informed me that he doesn't need to read anymore as he knows how to now - how do you argue with logic like that?

We are going to a presentation night tonight, to discuss suitability etc, but I would like to know some more personal opinions relating to how the treatment has worked for their children.

I am scared as this will be costing us over $10,000AUD, the sheer amount of money frightens me, but what frightens me more is that not signing up could be more detrimental/damaging to my children.

Could anyone please give me some advice or tips to follow so that I can make a balanced decision?

Thanks for your time.........

He has informed me that he doesn't need to read anymore as he knows how to now - how do you argue with logic like that?
Easy. Ask him if he knows everything. Or start asking him questions he won't know the answer to (geography, math, history, etc). When he can't come up with the correct answer, point out that he still has to read to learn more. :) Or you can pull out ye olde parent line, "Because I said so."

As for DORE, personally I passed on it for my son (ADHD/Asperger's). I could never find out any solid info on how/why it works, only people swearing that it did, or cursing that it was bunk. For us, the cost wasn't worth the potential for failure. Instead we opted for play therapy, and it's going well.

I would advise going over to 'Miscellaneous treatments and approaches' where you will find the thread 'Positive experiences with the Dore programme'. You will find there a wealth of experience and a lot of very supportive people, who will support your decision whether you go with Dore or not. It is not a thread for debate but support. I have two sons on the Dore programme and I have just put some quite lengthy posts on there regarding their most recent assessment, which you may find interesting.

Good luck whatever you decide

Thank you both so very much for responding to me. Lady Lark - yes, I have done the 'because I said so' quote, but I hate using that so much, as my parents used it on me and I always was angry that they didn't give me a reason, oh well.

I have managed to get him reading again, though it is more like comics than books, however, at least he is reading something. I suppose because he has so much reading to do at school, and is loath to use the library or borrow books that I am willing to encourage any kind of reading he does.

There are so many factors to take into consideration with the DORE programme. I have been researching DORE on the net but it is a very long and labourious process which is perhaps confusing me more.:confused:

Thank you Helen, I will check out the positive thread, thanks for providing me the titles to get there.

I went to the presentation night, the tutor will be coming to the house on Friday to fill out the assessments to see if the kids may be suitable.

I must say they seemed excited about having my son on the programme, they said that they could see he would do very well on it and we would notice huge changes with him.

Thanks again for the help, much appreciated

I don't like the "because I said so" either, but it has come in handy at times. I only pull it out occasionally so it's not over used, and they know I'm reaching my limit when it gets busted out. And hey, not all comic books are bad. :)

Back to DORE, I would just go with your gut. Mother's intuition is a wonderful thing that is accureate alot of the time. If it says go for it, then do it, but if your gut says no I'd hold off.

Either way, good luck. And feel free to come, vent, rant, ask advice etc.

Thanks Lady Lark. I don't use the saying much but the kids know I mean business when I do say it too lol.

It's funny you mention gut instinct, as I have been hounding my daughter's teachers since year 1 telling them that she has a problem and they kept telling me to stop comparing her to her brother or other kids, she is too young to worry about and all is fine.

It took until this year (year 3) for her teacher to grade her down to year 1 level. She has a different teacher each year. All the others had graded her as normal like the rest of the class.

I was concerned because I saw her work books and I couldn't read them. The words weren't even phonetically spelt, they resembled nothing - just a made up jumble of letters with no spaces between them, even my daughter couldn't read it back to me.

When I got in to see this tutor and told her the story, she said I keep telling parents that come in here to trust their gut instinct and do something about it, don't let the teachers talk you out of it or prevent you from getting a 2nd opinion.

Problem is, when you are a parent and the teacher is a qualified professional, parents tend to go along with the professional because they would have to know more about education - you'd think.:eyebrow:

Anyway, I think I will start trusting myself more, I always question everything I do and most times rely heavily on my husband to tell me what to do because I am scared of doing the wrong thing.

I am so grateful to have found this site, sometimes I need to just vent or talk to someone about the frustrations and trials of being a parent and trying to do the right thing by the kids.

OK, hopping off the soapbox now, and I see there is an icon for that lol:soapbox:

Teachers may know more about education, but no one knows their kid better then their parents. You may have to make a complete pest of yourself, but if that's what it takes then that's what has to be done (I parked myself in the office with no intetnion of leaving until I talked to the principal).

I'm glad you're fining a good home here. You may want to stop by the parenting section too, since we're all in the same boat. :)

thanks Lady Lark. This site is so great and there is a massive choice of forums here, it may take me a while to wade through them all - but I will lol.

http://www.addforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=7

That should make it easire to find the parent's forums. :)