Curriculum Choices for Child with Senosry Sensitivities

[AggieMama]

DD is in the process of being observed by her school's OT to see if she needs servicing. She loves to chew on things and is always having to touch things. She also has smell sensitivities. DD is very bright. We are in the process of gifted testing as well. She is in 1st grade and reading around 5th grade. Her math ability is around that of a 3rd grader. Spelling and handwriting have been a struggle for DD this school year. I was thinking of doing remediation this spring/summer. I was thinking about using AAS and Handwriting without Tears. There may or may not be some social issues, so I was thinking about using Superflex for teaching social skills. Do these sound like good ideas?

[Heathermomster]

Is this child in public school? If so, do you plan to keep her enrolled?

 

When my DS was enrolled in the classroom, they were using sight word reading instruction which affects spelling instruction. It was confusing for DS to learn at home with me while using divergent spelling instruction in the classroom. Even handwriting was a problem because I taught him using a different font. I wanted him writing in cursive while he was printing at school.

 

I think you should wait and discover what the school says first. If you do plan to keep her in the classroom, then use their curriculum for spelling and handwriting.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Heathermomster

[AggieMama]

Yes, DD is enrolled in public school. We are thinking about switching schools next year, but not sure yet. The school does not use a spelling curriculum and uses word patterns to devise the spelling list. Handwriting is not a strong emphasis at the school either. They may do one handwriting page a week and by 3rd grade it's used only as a time filler. I taught DD how to read using phonics, but she picked a lot of it up on her own.

 

If circumstances were ideal DD would be at home.

[PeterPan]

Since they're likely to begin OT, I would stay in touch with the OT and try to continue things she is doing or even continue private OT during the summer. The OT may bring in a sensory diet, work on handwriting, etc., and you can continue their path. Anything you can make happen privately, especially screening for retained reflexes, etc. would be good.

 

If they diagnose SLD writing, you might go ahead and work on typing.

 

I would not attempt to write the spelling but would do it aloud. I only say that because of how things have gone with my ds. I would just keep them disconnected. Fwiw, Phonetic Zoo is set up to do spelling that way. AAS is fine, but are you sure she actually needs it? I would want to see achievement scores before beginning that. It would be a real step backward if she doesn't need it. She might do just as well with something a bit faster (SWR/WRTR) or something based on patterns (Sequential Spelling). Again, all that can be done aloud or aloud with visualization.

 

The problem with interventions, especially in school, is they want the output and the final product without building the neurological foundation for what it takes to get there. So they frustrate the tar out of the kid or get a half product. Anything you can do that backs up and says ok, what is the foundation, will be good.

 

You shouldn't have to do social thinking intervention. Like it's good and I'm all in favor of it, but is the ps running a pragmatics eval and making social goals and doing intervention? They ought to be. If you signed a consent to eval form and pragmatics was not on there, you might see if you can make a stink about that. 

 

The Social Thinking.com materials are fabulous, but you might also see if you can make it to one of their workshops.

 

I hear you on not ideal.  :grouphug:  You may find, over the long run, that your shared burden-bearing, a team approach where you bring people around you like teachers, a private OT, etc. etc., and your advocacy, *may* turn out to be more ideal than you ever dreamed. It can be really strong.

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Edited January 15, 2017 by OhElizabeth

[kbutton]

I think I would want pragmatics testing too. It's usually in the "speech" section of the consent to evaluate, and you might have to ask for it specifically. The bar for passing a social pragmatics test is pretty low for kids her age, so I would want it run again at a later date if she's not progressing. 

[nature girl]

Does the teacher think her spelling and handwriting are a weakness compared to other kids in her class, or are you just comparing it to her reading/math ability? Have you noticed that she doesn't recognize spelling patterns after having been taught?

 

I agree with the others that AAS is probably overkill for a kid in public school...And although it's a good program, it always seemed incredibly boring and repetitive to me. Our school uses Fundations, which teaches patterns as your school is doing (as almost all spelling programs do), and I think that works quite well. If she's not remembering the patterns she's been taught, you might just look at the work she's bringing home and reinforce those same patterns using online resources, rather than diving into a separate curriculum which might confuse her.

 

At this point my daughter actually picks up most of her spelling from reading, so aside from more difficult words she'll get through spelling lists in the next few years, I don't think she needs a spelling program at all. Since your daughter also reads a lot, you may see the same thing happening. (I think that's how I learned spelling as well.)

 

If you're seeing issues when your daughter writes for fun, you might want to point to the words and ask if she thinks they look right. Nine times out of ten my daughter will figure out the mistakes she's made. (Today she wrote a story with the word "scaerd," then realized her mistake as soon as I made her look at it. I think sometimes they just get so involved in whatever they're trying to write that they just spell words phonetically without thinking. That should improve on its own as she writes more and more.)

 

I could say the same thing about handwriting as well...When my DD writes slowly she has good penmanship (better than my husband's!), but when she's jotting off stories and thoughts it's often a complete mess, sometimes she'll even have reversals because her focus is on composing. I was also concerned when she entered ps, and so the school put her in OT for a half hour once a week. She only needed it for a month though (and now I wonder if she actually ever needed it at all), but that may be something to consider asking for if her teacher thinks it's warranted. It's seemed like they do so much writing in 1st grade that, unless there's an actual motor planning issue (which your school's OT should be able to recognize), handwriting/fine motor just improve through that practice without them having to segregate handwriting instruction.

 

As far as social skills...I commented on your other thread, but do you notice issues when you watch her interacting with other kids? Has her teacher said anything? With my daughter, it was quite obvious last year. She had friends, and loved to socialize, but she just wasn't observant of other kids' reactions to her, could be bossy and was definitely impulsive. It was accepted by 4 and 5 year olds, but less so as she got older. I had her in a social skills group for several months last year, and that helped a lot...I think more than the Superflex program, because there's only so much about other kids that children can learn from a book. (We did try the program, but I don't know that it had much, if any impact...It seems more for kids with more severe pragmatics issues.) For us, it took an adult directing my daughter to notice how kids were reacting to her, so that she could learn to slow down and pay attention to those reactions. Now I'll also watch during play dates at our house, and afterwards praise her for the things she did right, then bring up the issues I might have seen. We're still not all the way there yet, but for the first time in her life she has good friends, and is now at the point she can learn to socialize from other kids, in the way most kids do.

 

I should mention too that our school also set up a weekly lunch bunch where she and another child of her choosing would eat lunch and play with the school psych. That's tapered off quite a bit recently, but I think having the one on one conversations/play, with adult oversight, was also quite helpful.

 

 

[AggieMama]

DD has a couple of close friends who her teacher says they are inseparable. She does have a tendency to get in other people's space, but so do most kids. I think maybe just working with her on boundaries and how not to overact to things (which should clear up with OT for sensory issues).

[PeterPan]

Just to back up what kbutton is saying, I think on a pragmatics at that age you can pass with a raw score of *2*. I kid you not. Like it's totally absurd. Pragmatics testing isn't really halfway reliable even (statistically) or predictive until around ages 10-12. At least that's what I read. At that point there's enough of a spread that they can discriminate. But yes, they did it on my ds at that age and it was absurd what happened. A year later, different test, we got much more interesting results. The Social Language Development Test was the one the ps used, and it had the absurdly low bar for that age (7). A year later we reran with the CASL pragmatics portion, which also has the eval'er write everything, and although it's a simpler tool the data shows that it corresponds well to scores from other tools. Anyways, by that point, a year later, things were becoming more obvious. Actually, it was pretty shocking to listen to the testing, because my ds' replies tend to be rather atypical. I just sat there laughing, like YUP, that's how he responds in real life!

[PeterPan]

Yes, the social thinking materials will go better with someone experienced. I've been to the training, but our behaviorist just brings a lot more experience to the table with how to apply them to real life. 

[PeterPan]

DD has a couple of close friends who her teacher says they are inseparable. She does have a tendency to get in other people's space, but so do most kids. I think maybe just working with her on boundaries and how not to overact to things (which should clear up with OT for sensory issues).

 

No, I think when you're noticing it it's because most kids *aren't* doing that anymore. And while the OT can help with self-regulation, it could be a longer haul.

[AggieMama]

I don't really notice that she's in other's space, but her teacher does. Social emotional learning is suppose to be part of the school's curriculum. I teach social skills everyday in my classroom, so I have some experience with social skills. I just talked with my friend, who's daughter is more severe with sensory issues, and she said her DD didn't qualify for OT in the same school district. This is sad, but hopefully the OT will give some good recommendations.

[nature girl]

DD has a couple of close friends who her teacher says they are inseparable. She does have a tendency to get in other people's space, but so do most kids. I think maybe just working with her on boundaries and how not to overact to things (which should clear up with OT for sensory issues).

 

 

By overreaction, do you mean overreacting to sensory stimuli, or is it emotional regulation issues? If the former, OT can help (and there's much you can do at home even without official OT...I don't know that seeing an OT really did much for my daughter, but we still use heavy work at times and it helps calm her.)

 

If it's issues with emotional regulation...well that's a little more complicated. Mindfulness training can help, I've noticed a difference in my daughter now, she's slowly learning how to recognize and (at times) calm emotions before they get out of hand. And we've done Zones of Regulation...although we didn't delve deeply enough to make much of a dent. She just wasn't self-aware enough at the time, but it's an excellent program. Six to seven is a great age for it, it might be worth picking up the book and giving it a try.