Diane Craft books and info...anyone?

[Pensguys]

I wanted to bring my questions here from the cursive writing thread.

 

Some said that her materials really helped them a lot with their child. Can you expand on the changes you've seen and what materials you used,etc?

 

Thanks!

[MtnTeaching]

Hi Penny,

This is one of my first times on this particular thread, but I thought I'd try and answer you. I have two dc that I homeschooled this past year. DS 11 w/ADHD and dysgraphia, DD 9 w/ a reading/dyslexia/audio processing problem (we haven't been able to put a diagnosis on it).

 

I attending several Dianne Craft workshops last year and really connected. (I am also ADHD). I bought several of her books and tried to implement it during the year. Unfortunately, due to starting late (my dh had a sabbatical) and just trying to figure out how to homeschool two kids in different grades, I did an abysmal job of the Dianne Craft implementation.

 

I do have to say that I am definitely going to do a better job this year. When we did do the exercises - it gave us a great break during subjects.

 

Another big part of her regime is vitamins and supplements. I did do a very good job of following her recommendations for the children, as well as myself. I wasn't sure it was doing any good until we fell off of our routine this summer and stopped taking them. Boy, what a difference I can tell in my children, as well as feel myself. No energy, and a definite drop in focus. We will be starting our vitamins/supplements again this week.

 

Sorry, if I wasn't much help, but I did want you to know that I will be focusing on Craft's materials this year because I do believe she has valid ideas.

[Splash1]

I've never posted here before but thought I would answer you.

 

I have attended Diane Craft's seminars and found them interesting and agreed with a lot she said so I made an appointment for my dd when she was 6 almost 7.

 

Evaluation was helpful as she was the first to comfirm my dh and my concerns were valid about dd. She gave me a program to use with dd at home as well as some pointers for ds who also struggles. We did the suppliments and various things she recommended. It did help but we got from not reading at all to just cvc words and couldn't progress any farther. Ds is still dysgraphic and after a year doing the figure 8 exercise is better but no miracle. We definately hit another wall with dd and were not moving ahead at all.

 

Last year dd was 8 and we had an educational therapist who specializes in dyslexia test dd. At this point she tested in the 1% for her age. This is after 18 months of working very hard on everything we'd received from Diane Craft. With her tutor she attends once a week. She has made great progress and actually sees words and attempts to read them (and actually can most of the time) this is huge. Before she didn't even seem to see words around her and recognise them as such. Even family members who haven't seen her in awhile comment on how much progress they are noticing. Tutor uses some of the methods that Diane Craft uses but has a much larger toolbox of ideas and tricks. My dd still has a long way to go before she is at grade level but we are hopeful and so is she.

 

Long story to say, we were not overly impressed by Diane Crafts products. I think her heart is in the right place but if your child truly has a LD then what she has to offer will only get you so far. We have found the personalized tutoring to be far superior and worth the time and money.

 

Just our experience

Kimberly

[Pensguys]

Thanks to both of you for your input. I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens. We finish OT in Sept for this calendar year (all that our insurance will cover) so out OT said she would look through this and give us some things to do until we come back in January. I started ds on supplements recently and whether the really help or not (outwardly) is of little consequence since our family feels they are good for him no matter what. We'll be starting the figure 8's this week and I think I'm going to keep a calendar so ds can get the satisfaction of crossing off an "X" each day that he has done it. I figure it can't hurt anything.

[Ginger]

I started my ds8 on her supplement program about 2 1/2 months ago. I feel that it has made a huge difference in him. I also started doing the figures 8's, eye 8's, and the brain check thing(the word has slipped me). I worked on that for awhile, then got to busy and it fell to the wayside.

 

I did find out my son is left eye dominant--which I'm thinking may be a big problem in his reading. He did vision therapy last year--and all seemed well when he was done. But now I watch him struggle while he is reading, and it almost seems as if that left eye is trying to read ahead in the word, and picking up sounds that come later in the word..so it is like he reads the sounds out of order. I have debated having a vision re-eval. Dianne Craft doesn't suggest changing the eye dominence--but I know other types of educational therapists think that you need to be right eye dominant. For the record, my daughter is also left eye dominant, but she is a great reader.

 

I bought the right brain phonics cards, and surprisingly those didn't help him at all. I thought for sure they would do the trick. I do think he is right brained since he is extremely creative...and I wonder if his vision issues have anything to do with the cards not clicking.

 

I will definitely be sticking with the supplement program. He is a much calmer child and more enjoyable to be around. That has been worth it.

[ChristineMM]

In March my DS was diagnosed with an eye tracking problem and needing prescription eyeglasses for a mild farsightedness. He had light therapy for the convergence insufficiency and it is working GREAT!

 

In April I heard Dianne Craft speak. I had no clue who she was when I went into the lecture hall. When she spoke of dysgraphia I recognized nearly all symptoms in my son (age 10.5). My son had been tested with a verbal aptitude on IQ test of age 17. Yet his writing composition was below grade level. He also had terrible penmanship. His oral narrations were fantastic and his vocabulary was great but his written anything was horrendous. Also right then in his math work with multiple digit multiplication he was making errors due to sloppy writing, not being able to read his own writing and misaligning columns. Bottom line, I think he has dysgraphia.

 

That son also had numerous 'food sensitvities" starting at age 2 with positive allergy blood tests back then. I thought he grew out of them. When I heard Craft speak about yeast overgrowth he has the symptoms. Some of the issues happening I thought were testosterone surges due to the start of puberty.

 

This son is also a right-brained learner.

 

Lastly that son is right handed for some things but left handed for others (eating, batting) but is left eye dominant. He is clumsy and has the issues Craft speaks about with mixed eye dominance issues.

 

In May I began the nutritional plan of Craft's for yeast AND essential fatty acids. It was a nightmare. I kept it up for about four weeks then it all fell apart. I had a really hard time doing 4x per day supplements (one that needs refrigeration) with all the running around we do including meals away from home. Although I saw good results I was frustrated. I am going to retry it.

 

I feel confused about expectations for writing composition. Also my son has had years of grammar including FLL1-2 and half of FLL3. Yet he does not put into real life use the info he knew (another symptom of dysgraphia).

 

I called Craft for a consult in July and was told there is a 15 month wait. I keep crossing voice mails with Pam (her scheduler). I am now entertaining a private consult with someone else who is available sooner. I feel I need help not just with a verification of the diagnosis but the right-brained learner thing and someone who is homeschooling friendly who can help with curriculum picking, setting ed goals and such. I fear that expensive local regular testers cannot help with curriculum picking and ed goals as they punt that off to the public school's special ed staff.

 

For example yesterday I was reading TWTM for 6th grade and added the hours of their proposed schedule and it came to 40 hours of instruction. Are you kidding me? And that is not including more work in penmanship, more work in writing composition, and yet more review of grammar. And no time for the OT at home either.

 

Oh and I was planning to implement the brain integration therapy in September. I tried it in June and had HUGE cooperation resistance from my DS who found the figure 8 exercise very hard (no matter how simple it seems to me).

 

Anyhow I wanted to say I've tried some of Craft's suggestions and have hope in some ways but it is hard to do it all and also I still feel I need guidance. I don't really feel supported but since our family is new to the LD label I have not yet sought out HS support from others with LD children.