Can you guys help me?

[Guest KaylaM]

BACKGROUND: My son, Elijah, is 8 years old and is a struggling slow reader and a very reluctant writer. He has had a life of medical issues that we battle every day. Elijah has a feeding tube and gets his nutrition from Neocate formula. He is eating a little and rice and apple, but even that makes him sick. Elijah also has lost the sight in his left eye. He wears glasses that are a +5 for his right eye. I do think he is adjusting because I'm seeing improvement in his reading and writing.

It's a daily battle, but we try our best to carry on with life and make the best of what we have.

 

Our homeschool group is having a mini conference August 23rd. We can not afford to bring in speakers so we are using our own long time homeschool families. I have nothing to do with the planning of the conference, but I have been asked to put on a Lapbook and Notebooking workshop and a Homeschooling with Special Needs session. I'm also doing a session on Using Games in Your Homeschool.

 

Our homeschool board has learned that we do have several NEW and YOUNG families with special needs children so they want to offer something for them so they asked me to do this. I'm not sure I am the best person to really minister to these families, but I will give it my best shot.

 

I'd like a list of curriculum's that seem to work well for certain needs.

 

I'd like to have a hand out of websites that might be helpful to families with special needs children.

 

I'm also trying to compile a list of resources that are local without going through the school system, but I'm having trouble find such. Do you have any ideas where to look?

 

Can you guys help me out? I'd really like to have something worth while for these families.

 

Thanks for any ideas, tips, suggestions and information you are willing to share with me.

 

Thank you so very much,

Kayla; mom to Elijah 8, Dakota 16

[Twinmom]

Well, I'm no wealth of information, but here's a few things I know. I applaud you for doing this for these families!

 

www.covd.org: Information on visual processing disorders and how to find a local developmental optometrist (KathyMD, I'll be forever grateful to you for suggesting this site! ;))

 

http://www.avko.org/sequentialspelling.html: Sequential Spelling, a great curriculum for dyslexics and those with other vision issues...or just those for whom spelling doesn't come naturally!

 

Good luck! Welcome to the board!

[EKS]

Some things that seem to help kids in the gray zone (by that I mean that the child is generally in the "normal" range when tested but they have issues that are keeping them from learning or participating fully in life):

 

Occupational therapy

Vision therapy

Things to help auditory processing disorders

Social skills groups

Homeschooling!

 

Some resources we've used to help my son overcome his dyslexia or that have worked well for him in his areas of weakness (language):

 

Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz

REWARDS by Sopris West

The Six Minute Solution by Sopris West

Reading Reflex by the McGuinnesses

Sequential Spelling

IEW

Hake Grammar

Getting Started With Latin

Druidawn writing club

Rosetta Stone Spanish (so far)

 

The thing that has helped most with his attention issues has been homeschooling.

 

I hope this helps.

[Kathy in MD]

For local resources, I suggest you contact some individuals in some of the following areas. They should be able to direct you to other local programs and resources:

 

Hippotherapy stable (horse therapy)

Local parks and recreation departments

OT & PT's specializing in developmental problems (any area OT or PT should be able to direct you to a specialist)

ST

Dev. pediatricians, DAN! doctors, neuro-psych (talk to staff)

Children's hospital or pediatric departments, possibly the social workers in these departments could help also.

Local summer camps (may know of camps specializing in spec needs)

Special ed dept. head or teachers - for groups and resources outside of the school setting.

Youth groups - scouts, 4-H, Y etc. sometimes they have special groups for spec needs.

Research librarians

 

 

Young parents of children with LD's will probably be pushing academics too hard and too soon. I'd include a pyramid diagram showing the steps to academic learning. The pyramid illustrates the importance of remediating underlying skills before worrying about "readin', writin' and 'rithmatic". If the foundation is weak, the academics resting on it will be weak. For example, it was frustrating for my ds to try to learn to read when he couldn't follow a line of type across the page.

 

The broad base of the learning pyramid (bttm third) would be sensory imput, the middle third would be cognitive skills and the top third is academic skills -- reading, writing, math, science, etc. To the pyramid, you could tie various therapies and cognitive skills programs. Help for the bottom third would include things such as OT, PT, VT, ST, removing food and other allergiens, medication (seizure, ADHD, etc.), etc. For the middle third, PACE and LearningRx would be included. I'm not sure where Earobics and FastForWord would go, either in the bottom or middle third. These programs might actually bridge the two areas. Only for the top third would I include phonic programs, reading programs, math programs etc.

 

The parents will want to teach some academic things, but the emphisis in the early years should be on remediation and then cognitive skills development. Academics come in a distant third. Any academic subjects should be heavily adapted for the underlying LD's and be covered lightly. It's much easier, faster and less frustrating to learn academics after the worst problems have been remediated.

 

If some of your group will not be parents of special needs children, you might hand out Laurie4B's celebration cake letter, with her permission.

[Becki in IN]

Well, I think it's important to be evaluated by a pediatric neuropsychologist or a deveopmental pediatrician. Our neuropsych made some excellent suggestions on how to teach Britt to read, how she needs to do most of her writing on the keyboard, and how she needs to read directions out loud. I wouldn't have known those things about her.

[Iris]

too soon. I know because I am, regretfully, one of those parents.

 

I think encouraging exercises such as those found in Dianne Craft's book, Brain Integration Therapy Manual found at http://stores.diannecraft.org/Categories.bok?category=Books and books by Paul Dennison, such as Brain Gym and Edu-K listed here on Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/102-1469019-3212960?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=paul+dennison&x=17&y=20 would be appropriate.

 

Another website that might be helpful now or down the road is http://www.home-school-inc.com . It offers free web based (admin type) planning and there is a special needs section.

 

Lastly, after all these years thinking I was dealing with severe learning disabilities, medical testing has proven that my ds is indeed on the autism spectrum. Mercury and lead poisoning showed up as well as very high measles and mumps titers (he did not have the wild type of these illnesses, only the vaccinations). All this to say that a book mentioned here previously, Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Allergies and Asthma by Kenneth Bock, MD, was a real eye opener for me as far as what was to follow medically. Our library system had the book, and yours may as well. It can't hurt to rule out these things, and can sure help a ton!

 

Blessings and praying that everything goes well...

 

Iris

[Pepper]

Thank you for this thread! I will be visiting many of these links. I am all but giving up on classical education for two of my kids -- as one has Asperger's syndrome and has very concrete thinking skills -- abstracts seem to not exist for him, and for my daughter who has visual processing problems and is a poor reader.

 

 

I wish I had something to offer, but I don't yet. I just wanted to say thank you.