Comment Exercises to teach prerequisites to reading (Score 1) 330
Take a look at the Audiblox website http://www.audiblox.com/ .
They have a program that's about the same price as "hooked on phonics" using just plain old colored blocks. They use various exercises to teach sequencing, foreground/background recognition, left/right, counting, etc. These skills that are taught are all must be mastered before it is possible to read and/or do math. Most kids master them automatically, but some require special exercises like these to master the skills.
You are supposed to do it for 1 hour per day, in cases of a severe problem. It requires one-on-one human coaching, though some of it could probably be computer automated.
I'm currently using it with my mildly dyslexic son, but haven't been using it long enough (only a few days) to see any progress.
Some of their case studies are amazing, but as always, YMMV.