Does anyone have experience with the Wilson Reading Program?

Question

I am being trained this summer to implement the Wilson Reading Program into my classroom. Has anyone had any experience using this program with students? I will be teaching high school students with moderate to severe developmental and learning disabilities, but I'd like to hear about experiences with any age group. Is there anything you liked or didn't like about the program? I know the basic information, but I've never used this program. Thanks!

Answer 1

I didn't use it myself, but I discussed the program with the reading specialist at the high school where I work. We were thinking about whether to use it with one of my students. The negative with it was that it takes a long time to do the training (which is why I wasn't able to end up using it with this particular student). However, the reading specialist thinks very highly of the program - very individualized to the students' needs, and she said the ones she's used it with made a lot of progress.

Answer 2

It is very useful for students who have trouble decoding letters, or those with dyslexia.  

The Wilson Reading System is a research-based reading and writing program designed for students (grades 2-12 and adults) who have difficulty with decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling). It is a complete curriculum that has 12 steps, beginning with phoneme segmentation. Its main goal is to teach students language and word structure through a carefully planned program. The program was developed in Massachusetts in the 1980s by Barbara A. Wilson, based on knowledge gained from working with adults with dyslexia using Orton-Gillingham methodology at Massachusetts General Hospital's Language Disorders Unit, and with students in an after-school reading clinic founded with her husband, Ed Wilson. The Wilson Reading System, published in 1989, is now commonly used in various settings throughout the United States and several other countries.