Vision issues and Barton

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Ds lost most of his skills from vision therapy. He's not converging equally, not crossing midline well, not tracking smoothly, and he seems to be switching eyes and losing his place. His penmanship has gone down the drain, and he's lost the minimal stamina he had.

 

His current cyber school placement is not working. I'm going to be pushing to change language arts and math. On top of the content, it's too much on his eyes; back to back 45 minute live lessons, 20 minutes on 2 computer programs, independent reading (supposed to be 20 minutes! He can read for 10-15 seconds before major errors), and usually a workbook page or 2 in each. Then he still has science and social studies. We spend alllllllll day with him arguing, taking breaks, rubbing his eyes, fighting, more fighting, and lots of fighting, etc. School is taking from about 8:45am until sometimes 8:00pm. This isn't solid working, but it's absolutely exhausting to not ever be done. This is a heavily modified schedule; there's no art, PE, ed tech, skills for success, or science and ss live lessons. 

 

We can't fix the vision without a massive reduction on his eyes. We were homeschooling when he went through vision therapy, and it was so easy to just limit when he needed it. VT is not available anymore, so his OT will be working with him.

 

For the first 4 levels in Barton, how much is going on visually? Is it little enough that he *might* not be too worn out to work with his OT? 

 

For math I'm pushing R&S because we know he gets it, and it's not colorful or anything. 

[OneStepAtATime]

Are you intending to do Barton added to the long days he already is dealing with?  Because I will say that sounds like a resoundingly bad idea.  Maybe I am misunderstanding, though.  Are you pulling him out of the cyber school and replacing his language arts with Barton until after he finished Level 4 (as recommended by the program creator)?

 

Do you have VT exercises you could be doing at home?  

 

It sounds like he needs a pretty severe reduction in his schedule right now while his eye sight issues are dealt with.  Frankly, nearly 12 hours of work and never really getting done must be overwhelmingly, demoralizing and exhausting and a massive strain on your son in so many ways.  I know with the kids sometimes reducing the workload significantly is so uplifting for them that they work harder and longer and with more enthusiasm than if they were hit with never ending piles of stuff that goes on for hours.

 

As for Barton, specifically, it involves many senses including vision/touch/sound.  DD, because of vision issues, needed lessons to be short (15-30 minutes depending on the lesson/level).  It worked well but she wasn't doing much else in the way of Language Arts until after we had gotten through Level 4.

 

 

[PeterPan]

The OT needs to look for retained reflexes.  To have THAT MUCH regression from VT is a sign that there is a lot more going on.  He's probably low tone and has retained reflexes, vestibular issues, etc.  

 

This dc is 11 and in a publicly funded cyber?  They need to do an IEP.  

[amo_mea_filiis.]

He turned 12 earlier this month.

 

We're going for a cerebral palsy evaluation in a few months (2 docs have done a blow-us-off rule out), and OT thinks it could explain a lot. If no CP, he has dyspraxia ++ (OT doesn't know what the +'s are, but they're something. CP would be neater). I will ask her to check retained reflexes today.

 

He has an IEP! Well, technically his IEP's not finalized, but everything agreed upon is being done. I told them I'd give them time with LA and math, and that time is up. It's not working, it's too much and too little at the same time. 

 

I wouldn't ever think of *adding* Barton! I'm going to be pushing the school to use it as his language arts, with no other LA expectations except maybe audiobooks. 

 

Yes, we are both feeling very defeated at the end of the day, but like I said, it's nowhere near 12 hours of work. He once finished by 11am so he could play frisbee with one of his therapists. It's hard for him, but it's also too easy. The school has said all along that he's very splintered and may be hard to place, but they're still wanting to place him in "the programs we use." 

 

Part of the length is that we have way too much going on. He has 5 behavior people (An insurance BCBA, school BCBA, school behavior tech, 2 insurance behavior techs splitting the hours), but the techs are all new and learning him. Then in-home OT, and virtual speech.

[OneStepAtATime]

It is so hard to try and tweak it all out. I totally sympathize. One great thing about Barton is the print is large and there is a lot of space around the words. Visually it isn't nearly as much of an eye strain as normal language art material for a 12 year old.

[PeterPan]

That's a frustratingly complex situation!  Did they diagnose SLDs?  If you've got a discrepancy between IQ and achievement right now, it seems to me you're going to need to have a portion of each day that is positive and working at his IQ level.  Then he can have 2-2 1/2 hours a day working on intervention materials (math, reading, writing).  Are the in-home behavior people allowed to do academics with him?  Like not teach maybe, but supervise, help him use his tools, etc.?  My ds gets a LOT more done with his in-home ABA tutor than with me.  We can get stuff done, and our stuff is cool.  But honestly, for anything that is SLD-related, my ds just does better doing it with the tutors.  It's HARD.  

 

The other bummer, and I don't know how you're handling this, is that my ds doesn't know why it's hard.  He doesn't care.  He just has this extreme, b&w reaction, like it's hard so I shouldn't have to do it, end of discussion.  That's a really hard wall to bust through!  And I try to keep things in-reach and pleasant, but it's hard.

 

I do have my ABA tutor doing some of the Barton stuff with him.  She's not super-amazing at it, but what I did was copy off specific pages and say do THIS.  So mainly right now I have her dictating words for him to spell with the app.  We had skipped the spelling for several lessons, and when we tried using the app he was having a lot of behaviors.  

 

Your cyber program seems frustratingly inflexible.  If the days are long (I'm sorta confused there), then obviously you want to get that down.  If he's not being given any instruction that is IQ-appropriate and barrier-free, then obviously that should change.  He needs to have some balance to keep the joy.  Joy improves compliance.  To me, it sounds like you have a complex situation where the demands are so high and the joy so low that it overwhelms his ability to self-regulate and choose to participate.  So then it drags on forever.  

 

I think you have to think like a tutor.  If you were hiring a $90 an hour tutor (and I forget, but it's $80-90 an hour for a high end dyslexia tutor in our town when you have additional, more complex labels), they would come in FRESH.  And they would be FRESH for that one hour, total joyful, totally in the moment.  And it STINKS, because as homeschool moms we're NOT fresh and not completely in the moment.  We're like no we have bills and dinner and a headache and couldn't you please just go do SOMETHING independently because you're old enough...  And it's very hard to be in the moment and as fresh and joyful as that person would be coming in who only has to do it for one hour for one subject.

 

But to me, that's how I think.  It's like ok, if you're going to do it today, you're going to have to turn it on and be fresh and all the way there.  Or hire it out.  For my ds, it really matters.  And that STINKS.  I wish it didn't matter and he could just cope with random woman energy and reality, lol.  

 

Are they diagnosing SLDs and providing intervention specialists?  

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I spoke with an advocate and figured out how to at least get them to change the program. The SDI, not goals, is where the focus is. If I can get the SDI to describe orton-gillingham, then Barton is the most cost effective way to do that.

 

OT said yes some retained reflexes, not many, and very mild. His preferred activities are actually targeting his retained areas, so there's not too much more we can do.

 

I'll reply more from the computer later.

[PeterPan]

My dd is low tone, and after VT, when her eyes were regressing for convergence, we moved on to bifocal contacts.  They're super easy to use, horribly expensive, unobtrusive, and fix the near vision problem.  In her case it was the low tone.  She's not diagnosed with dyspraxia, but she really pushes to the edge of that.  Your dc sounds like they go even farther.

 

I'm saying at some point they give up and accommodate.  So he should be given audio of stuff (accommodation), optics (bifocals, prism glasses, whatever), and more layers of accommodations.  The school has to kick in with what's really happening.  The IEP can't be like oh well it's your fault and if you'd kick in the VT then he wouldn't need this stuff.  Reality is, he has these problems and must have the supports.  The IEP ought to be supporting him like this is an unchangeable vision problem until anything happens miraculously to determine otherwise.  Not everyone's vision gets better.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Never got to my computer! Lol

 

His iq is borderline at about 78. He's also autistic, ADHD, and possible CP or dyspraxia. Because of this, the school will not dx learning disabilities.

 

His reading class is blended Read 180 and System 44. The lessons have a massive focus on comprehension, which is not a problem for him. I had them change his reading goal, but forgot to focus on the SDI.

 

His 20 hour a week tutor can do academics with him, but she feeds him answers and he's been manipulating her. They can do science and social studies, but I really need to keep math and reading. He has plenty of behaviors with her and the demands are crazy low.

 

His 2 other tutors aren't supposed to do much academically, but they wind up being with us during school stuff. Another reason we need a reduction is so the non-school behavior people can do their stuff.

 

I'm not going to pull him, but I want the school to send me Barton and let me use it as designed.

[PeterPan]

Have you thought about calling Barton and talking with her?

 

[amo_mea_filiis.]

IEP revision meeting scheduled! About darn time!

 

I've drafted the basic SDI for LA and math.

 

Reading- multisensory, hands-on, not visually cluttered, emphasizing decoding and fluency.

 

Math- multisensory, hands-on, not visually cluttered, mastery of arithmetic facts through practice and memorization (a strength for ds), gentle (?) introduction of new concepts. (This basically describes R&S)

 

LA- not a clue. Lol. Same as above with emphasis on spelling, grammar, I don't know.

 

I'm going to ask that for science and social studies, there are no open ended/essay type questions. Fill in the blank, live lesson discussion with teacher, an assignment for him to work on with his SLP (teacher gives SLP key concept being looked for).

 

He's in sign language with no academics. No quick checks, tests, or anything else. He learns the signs, goes to live lessons. Easy.

 

His BCBA will be adding PEAK goals to the IEP as well. PEAK is kinda sorta like an extension of the VB-MAPP, with much, much higher skills. The problem with this though is that his BCBA will have to run those sessions because I don't see his tech being capable.

 

The 20 hour tech is also passing off science. The vocabulary alone is too much for her to get ds to understand. There's vocabulary within the vocabulary and she doesn't understand well enough to explain to ds. Science now goes to dd. She knows ds, and knows the content. Perfect match, if only ds wouldn't be such a butt. Lol.

[PeterPan]

If you're using Barton, you'll have grammar and composition, if you milk it.  Barton has IEP goals on her site for each level.  Search around there and find them.  In B3, you're writing words, non-sense words, phrases, and sentences on paper.  So right now one goal is for my ds to be able to write an original sentence on paper.  Barton introduces grammar with a phrasing approach.  So you read phrases and identify them as who, did what, where, etc. You mark sentences for the grammar this way.  You notice the punctuation and caps.  So it's all brought in with the spelling dictation, because they step it up.  Spell a single word, spell words following those rules in phrases, spell words following those rules in sentences.

 

There are reading comprehension packets you can buy to go with the Barton reading pages in the book, so you don't *necessarily* need extra reading.  Now I *choose* to bring in extra reading pages.  I'm using pages from Teacher Created Resources to target inferences, etc. But the comprehension kits you can buy are really good and hit a lot of your normal school stuff.  Then you're milking what you can do within Barton.  I'm always looking for idiot-proof things I can hand an entry-level, not-OG trained tutor.  That's why I use the TCR stuff.

[PeterPan]

https://bartonreading.com/tutors-pdf/IEPgoals3.pdf

 

Googlefu popped this up.  She has IEP goals for all the levels.

[OneStepAtATime]

If you're using Barton, you'll have grammar and composition, if you milk it.  Barton has IEP goals on her site for each level.  Search around there and find them.  In B3, you're writing words, non-sense words, phrases, and sentences on paper.  So right now one goal is for my ds to be able to write an original sentence on paper.  Barton introduces grammar with a phrasing approach.  So you read phrases and identify them as who, did what, where, etc. You mark sentences for the grammar this way.  You notice the punctuation and caps.  So it's all brought in with the spelling dictation, because they step it up.  Spell a single word, spell words following those rules in phrases, spell words following those rules in sentences.

 

There are reading comprehension packets you can buy to go with the Barton reading pages in the book, so you don't *necessarily* need extra reading.  Now I *choose* to bring in extra reading pages.  I'm using pages from Teacher Created Resources to target inferences, etc. But the comprehension kits you can buy are really good and hit a lot of your normal school stuff.  Then you're milking what you can do within Barton.  I'm always looking for idiot-proof things I can hand an entry-level, not-OG trained tutor.  That's why I use the TCR stuff.

 

Yep.  :)