Tokyomarie
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Posts posted by Tokyomarie
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OhElizabeth, there are so many newer names and math curricula that have come out since my children were young. I've been trying to figure out what items to pick up for future endeavors, including dialoguing with my daughter as she sorts out what to use for her children who are showing signs of needing a strong multi-sensory approach to learning. You have just convinced me that I need to check out Ronit Bird.
Oh, drat! I guess I can't use the e-books because I do not own an iPad.
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FairProspects, I wouldn't give up high quality instruction/enrichment through private arrangement just to participate in a program for the sake of having "government approved" documentation of the use of 504 accommodations during the elementary years. You have the documentation you need to establish a "history" of a disability. Doing a re-eval during middle school will provide a data set at a later point on the developmental timeline. Here are two things you might do:
1) if any accommodations are being provided during private instructional time, consider asking the instructor to provide a short letter which describes those accommodations. You can add that to the file for use at a later time, if necessary.
2) When you do get that re-eval during middle school, request that the evaluator note in the report that parent reports she is providing accommodations x,y,z during home instruction. Having this noted in one of our reports was probably helpful to our case, since we had no other documentation that certain accommodations had been provided through the years.
As I have noted before, I didn't end up filing the College Board paperwork myself because my son enrolled in a charter school and the school filed it. However, he only received his formal eligibility determination a few weeks before the College Board paperwork was filed, so had not used formal accommodations at school, though he did have some informal support at school plus assistance from an educational therapist for writing skills during that first school year.
Just as EKS mentioned, we also had thorough documentation from multiple sources. All of that documentation was submitted to both the College Board and ACT and our requested accommodations were approved by both organizations.
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How would I get something like that evaluated now without sounding like a crazy person (it's not a real crunchy area of the US)? If tongue tie can affect all of that, it would be nice to rule it out.
On a side note, I recently read about lip ties somewhere, and it sounds like my older son to a T. I had never heard of it before. It was not the only potential problem, but if what I read was accurate and accounts for what was going on, it was the biggest issue. I didn't make it past two weeks nursing him--the physical damage was awful.
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My oldest daughter is the one in my family who knows about tongue-tie and finding experienced personnel to deal with it. Sometimes pediatricians will clip a tongue or lip tie in infants, but often a dentist who has developed a specialty in tongue and lip ties will be the one to take care of an older child or adult. I'll ask my daughter about how to find the right person and PM you some info.
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I am not certain I made "good" milk, but all the BF books said that milk was milk, all moms make good milk (when I expressed milk, it had next to no fat in it). But my kiddo wouldn't eat any more formula than he would milk, so we kept BFing. We assumed he didn't have feeding trouble because he latched well and had my milk in before I was home from the hospital. However, maybe he had a weak suck, weak sphincter, and I had poor milk, and no one really knew. Bleh. Not fun times.
I have been learning about tongue-tie and how this condition can impact feeding and growth, even for children who seem to have a "good enough" latch when breastfeeding. If a child doesn't have an effective suck that draws milk deeply from the breast, the infant doesn't get enough "hind milk," which is higher in fat. In this case, the infant gets enough fluid from foremilk during a feeding, but the lower fat milk doesn't satisfy for long. These infants often seem to nurse very frequently.
Tongue-tie is still not a well understood condition in many medical circles. However, it can influence breastfeeding and bottle feeding, as well as eating solid food and speech development. It can also lead to poor development of the jaw and the neck, which can lead to head, neck, and jaw/mouth pain later in life.
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I agree that pursuing speech and OT evals would be the best choice for now. I would get evals from both disciplines, collate the data and recommendations, and then decide what to pursue in the way of therapy. In a few years, you will likely want to do updated psychoeducational testing, but for now, since academics is going well enough, you're probably ok waiting.
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This helps very much.
DS definitely has a maths disability. His issues are mostly processing speed and procedures, so we use math mnemonics a lot.
I've been wondering whether purchasing more algebra specific manipulatives would be worth the expense. I haven't located any Algebra Tiles but found these and this free paper alternative.
I'd written off MUS as I dislike the way Demme introduces and uses math language. I will revisit MUS. Thank-you..
I used Borenson's Hands On Equations with two of my children to help them learn to think algebraically. Both of them also went through Keys to Algebra.
My son could not use any textbook or non-auditory computer-based curriculum (such as ALEKS) effectively. He HAD to have (and still HAS to have) auditory input keyed to demonstration on paper/whiteboard or a virtual whiteboard in order for anything to sink in. Tabletclass is one curriculum that actually worked for him. For my daughter, it was Teaching Textbooks.
The hardest leap for my son to make (other than developing automaticity in math facts) was learning how to organize his thinking for multi-step problems and to represent that thinking symbolically. The only thing that really helped was a full year of working with him on the process of writing each and every step and each and every character within a step to solve these problems. For a long time, I served as his scribe. He had to verbalize literally every number and character to me before I would write it down. As I scribed while he dictated, he could see the steps to the solution appear on the paper. Gradually, I transferred the writing process to him, scaffolding it so he was starting with a small responsibility and, little by little, writing more of each solution himself.
I also continued to do a lot of work with factoring and fractions- often using a whiteboard for practice as well as a fraction pie manipulative set I bought in Japan years ago- as we were doing early algebra work because reducing fractions (both with numbers and variables) was challenging.
Don't worry about taking as long as you need to get all those pre-algebra and early algebra concepts down. My son started out ahead in math but took a very.long.time to get through Algebra I. I fretted over whether he would ever get back on track, but he is now in Calc III at the community college.
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I love this thread and the List one. It is so inspirational to see the number and variety of acceptances.
I, too, love watching these threads. I remember back when I was first considering full-time homeschooling for my daughter who was a rising 10th grader back in 2000. We were returning from overseas and trying to figure out what to do. At that time, homeschooling parents still had major worries about whether or not students could get accepted into colleges, especially highly selective schools, with a homeschool diploma. It's nice to see the wide variety of acceptances our kids today are receiving.
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With that as a backdrop, I am pleased to say that my son, who is a 2E learner, was accepted to Michigan Tech and Florida Tech with merit scholarships. He is graduating from high school with two community college certificates, one in computer networking and one in computer security. He plans to major in computer science and intends to minor in astrophysics. We'll see what actually happens a few years down the road but he has a significant interest in the private space industry.
I am very pleased with my son's growth as a student over the last 3 years. His ability to handle all the "soft skills" of learning, not to mention the academics, is leaps and bounds ahead of where we were 4 years ago. I'm breathing a big sigh of relief!
I want to say a big thank you to all who have noticed my post about my son's college acceptances and clicked "like." I'm overwhelmed with joy at the number of you who are celebrating with me! Because this has been such a difficult couple of years for me with my mom's passing from cancer and my dad's ever-increasing needs, I was despairing of ever getting my son through the admissions process at all, but we have been blessed and I think my ds will thrive at either of these universities. Our Michigan Tech visit is coming up in a couple of weeks but I think this is already where ds is seeing himself come fall.
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Marie, I just want to put a plug in for Michigan Tech. The school has a GREAT reputation for working with students who need assistance. They like out of the box thinkers, provide lots of tutoring and mentoring options, have a wonderful learning lab, and we've personally known three families that have sent their sons who have Asbergers (sp?) there and they've successfully graduated on time with job offers. The school really helped their kids mature and shine. I am sure he could fall through the cracks there if he was unwilling to avail himself of the options for assistance, but I think the odds would be in his favor. If you can possibly make it for a visit, it might be worth it. Having a good fit is important.
It's good to hear this feedback about Michigan Tech! I've also heard some good feedback from a local parent, so it helps me to feel a little more at ease. My son isn't on the spectrum but there are some shadows of similarity due to his executive function weaknesses. I'm hopeful that the atmosphere will be such that opportunities he would do well to take advantage of are prominently noted with lots of encouragement to participate.
Ds has been up to Houghton once. He participated in the summer youth program a couple of years ago, so he is familiar with the campus, including the computer science facilities. He hasn't had a chance to visit during the school year and talk with anyone about program specifics.
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Talk about extremes! What is it going be: snow board or surf board?
Weather extremes- isn't that the truth!
The final decision is yet to be made. We made a visit to Florida Tech a couple of weeks ago and are planning to get up to Michigan Tech in early April. I will say that Michigan Tech is where his dad did his undergrad studies so there's just a teensy bit of pull there. ;) In reality, my son is not an outdoor sports person, except that he does play Ultimate Frisbee. I suggested that he could play Ultimate outdoors year round in Florida, but he says both schools have clubs/teams so he's not worried about having someone to toss a disc with.
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I haven't posted much on the high school/college board in the last couple of years- I'm mostly at the Learning Challenges Board. My son was homeschooled K-10 and entered a 3 year middle college high school in 11th grade. This resulted in his having an extra year of "high school," though he will graduate with somewhere around 80 community college credits.
Because of difficult family circumstances for the last two years which have had me significantly tied up with eldercare responsibilities, my son's college search and application process has looked nothing like the detailed, meticulous process I coached my daughters through when it was their turn. In fact, my son applied to exactly two schools and, because essay writing still requires significant coaching which I was unable to provide, he did not apply to any schools or submit any scholarship applications that required essays.
With that as a backdrop, I am pleased to say that my son, who is a 2E learner, was accepted to Michigan Tech and Florida Tech with merit scholarships. He is graduating from high school with two community college certificates, one in computer networking and one in computer security. He plans to major in computer science and intends to minor in astrophysics. We'll see what actually happens a few years down the road but he has a significant interest in the private space industry.
I am very pleased with my son's growth as a student over the last 3 years. His ability to handle all the "soft skills" of learning, not to mention the academics, is leaps and bounds ahead of where we were 4 years ago. I'm breathing a big sigh of relief!
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I consider "no calculator" beneficial if the problems are designed to be worked through problem solving and not number punching.
There are currently problems on the test that have no value as problems and are simply an exercise in pushing the right buttons fast. These problems do not test math understanding, but solely how fast a student can operate his calculator.
I would like to see the questions designed so that they test mathematical understanding and not computation.
This is entirely possible.
I completely agree with you that all math problems should require math reasoning skills, not merely basic calculations. In the end, the vast majority of math problems still require some calculation to get to the answer.
Students who have a documented disability in the area of rote memory which affects basic math facts retrieval skills should not be penalized for that disability. By the time they get to late high school & college, most of these students are able to use their reasoning skills to get the answers to basic calculations, but it's not unusual for them to have to use two or more mental steps to get the answer to 7x8, for example, rather than simply being able to recall the answer of 56 by rote. That significantly impacts their ability to complete a timed test, even when they have the reasoning skills and concept formation to eventually get the correct answers.
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the only real improvement is prohibiting calculators on some sections (but it does not go far enough; it should be no calculator at all.)
I agree with many of the comments made in these threads, but I'm having difficulty with the "no calculator" statement. What would you suggest for students with dyslexia/dyscalculia? I sure hope a calculator will be an accommodation with students who have significant rote memory difficulties that affect math calculations. Some of these students are excellent math problem solvers but are still quite slow in basic calculation. Prohibiting a calculator for these students will stack the test way against them. My son, even with a calculator and extra time, did not pull out a score that is commensurate with his actual math achievement. He is successfully completing his community college Calc III class but didn't get an SAT/ACT math score that is typical of students achieving at that level.
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DawnM,
I enrolled my son in school when he was 16yo. We submitted his documentation to the school before he set foot in the school for the first time. I had hoped by being proactive that we could get accommodations in place from the beginning or soon after school started. Nope. Didn't happen. The first statement was, "We can't even talk about the specifics until your son is occupying a seat in the school," meaning, no action at all until at least the 1st day of school. They also said they would need to observe him for a few weeks but indicated that perhaps within 6 weeks we could be drafting a document. Didn't happen. There were a couple of complicating issues, but in the end, we didn't get to the eligibility team meeting until 8 months into the school year.
Ds was determined to be eligible for a 504, but by that time, he was feeling very embarrassed about accommodations. The way the school behaved regarding getting accommodations in place prepped him to believe he didn't need them and shouldn't use them. It has carried over to this day, nearly 3 years later. He still isn't able to accurately assess his needs either for support in writing or for accommodations because he is completely shut down to the whole conversation.
Thankfully, the program (a non-traditional high school) has turned out to be a good choice overall. However, I've learned a few things about how the process works and one of them is that the school really won't put the process of determining eligibility in motion until a student is actually attending class.
My son's 504 accommodations are extra time for timed tests, computer use for essays, technology for note taking (his choice of technology), and accessible textbooks. In reality, he hasn't needed to get special permissions in his community college classes because of the way the instructors handle testing and laptop/tablet use in the classrooms. But it's good to have this all on file. He has used his accommodations for ACT/SAT testing.
My son also does not like using Learning Ally recorded books for the same reason you mention, though he did give it a try after the app came out and it was easy to use on an iPod/iPhone. When he has to read full length novels (not often now because he is in an IT program), he usually uses Audible. He hasn't come up with a good plan for textbook reading, though I notice he uses a textbook more when he has a digital copy- even w/o using TTS. Otherwise, he'll just try to slide by with just paying attention in class.
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Oops. Yeah, it's a journey for sure, getting everyone to be aware of which foods are "safe" and which ones are not. My daughter uses the word "safe" when she's talking with her 4yo son. "This food is safe for ...." and "This food is not safe for ...." It really is helping him to see that certain foods are not necessarily "bad" for everyone, but that HIS little body can't tolerate them. He is getting to the point where he is beginning to recognize for himself what is OK and what is not. This whole idea is new for your daughter, but soon enough she will be able to know for herself whether a food is OK or not.
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Don't even think about trying to compare your son to some of the kids/families on the high school board. Some of those kids are clearly academically gifted- even highly gifted- and have no LDs. Our kids are NOT early bloomers. They usually take longer to develop their full potential.
9th and 10th grade boys with LDs often "look" the most delayed that they will ever appear in their life. If you can let go of trying to do rhetoric level work at that age, you and your son will be much happier. My son is at that level now at age 19, but he's only truly been there for less than a year, I would say. He's doing well now, but 9th grade is the time when I struggled the most with him, trying to make him perform (esp. in output) at a higher level than he was ready to do.
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For your DH, if he works outside the home, he should be able to get his cheese and bread fix at lunches (that's how my hubby gets his meat fix).
My dh works at home, so that doesn't work for us. Hopefully, Tiramisu's dh will be in better position to eat his bread and cheese when he's out. :001_smile:
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Also, FWIW, I would not make 2 meals at home. I don't know what your diet is, though. If you build a meal you can eat, you can have some of the things you can't available as add-ons. My DH has not been dairy-free at all, but I have not cooked separately for him (occassionally I will do something with some non-dairy and some dairy, but that is more like half a dish has it and the other half doesn't). Cheese can go on top. Sauces can be added at the end. I hope that helps. If I understand that you are gluten free, I know that makes a whole new level of vigilance, but if you can somehow leave the things you can't have to be put on at the end, that might make it work.
Right now, my diet is three 4oz servings of lean protein per day (lean meat, fish but not salmon, eggs, and 0% fat Greek yogurt), 2 servings of vegetables (but no starchy veggies- potatoes, carrots, corn, etc), and 2 servings of fruit from apples, grapefruit, oranges, and berries. No added oil or sugar is allowed. When I get to the next phase I can add brown rice, other fruits, and some other veggies but still no starchy veggies, legumes, or other grains. In the maintenance phase, I assume I will be allowed gluten-free grains and other starches in moderation.
Prior to this, I avoided milk products except for aged cheeses and yogurt because of lactose intolerance. For the last few years, I've used milk substitutes for liquid milk in recipes. I've been experimenting with eating gluten-free bread products for the last year. I've avoided the burger joints for a long time now and haven't had more than 3 or 4 sodas in the last 18months. I've always been big on fruits and veggies at home, but when eating out it's not always possible to include them.
I seem to be doing fine with Greek yogurt in my diet, so I will probably resume eating other yogurt and cheese when I get to the maintenance phase. I am not celiac, and as far as I know, I am not wheat allergic, so being thoroughly vigilant about gluten may not be necessary, but I definitely do feel better.
Before going on my current diet, I have tried cooking gluten-free pasta, etc. I'm fine with them but every last time I serve gluten-free products, I get comments from the peanut gallery. It just gets old after awhile, and trying to make a 55+yr old man and a 19yo teen eat what they don't want to eat is frustrating for us all. I'd like to think that neuroplasticity means they can adapt, but I'm not feeling terribly confident. :001_unsure:
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FWIW, when we have needed to cut dairy out, I found that changing my mindset from "cutting out" to "building a diet" helped a lot. I started with fruits and veggies, meats, and built from there. It seems a lot more do-able when you aren't trying to modify and cut everything, but are instead using whole foods to build a meal.
HTH
I love your mindset about "building a diet!"
Here are two of my main obstacles with this whole change.
A) I am "old." I'm a grandma and my youngest child is 19yo. So many of the "go to" meals I've used for 20-30 years for when I don't have 2 hours to prepare a meal are now "off limits." I don't know what to cook to make a quick meal appealing, especially for my husband who is not doing this with me. I end up just grabbing a couple of boiled eggs and some broccoli or something and calling it good and letting him fend for himself. But eating is NO FUN that way!
B) I'm feeling very frustrated with trying to eat out. My current place in life means that I often find myself away from home for at least several meals a week. At one point, in earlier times, I would skip a meal or just have a quick snack and eat a meal later at home. On my current diet, I must eat a protein-containing meal 3 times a day at normal mealtimes. Right now, I cannot have any grains, starchy vegetables, or legumes. One time, I went to one of our regular diners and could barely put together a meal of any kind that was "legal" on my diet. I ended up with boiled eggs and romaine lettuce. It will get easier when I can add some things back in.
I am still feeling very unhappy about cutting out all of my favorite foods. I won't be able to eat this, I won't be able to eat that. And I'm realllllly, reallllly unhappy about the fact that I will now have to cook 2 meals for practically every dinner I make. I swore early in my marriage that I would NEVER, EVER become a short order cook, but now that's what will have to happen because if I'm going to do this, it will be just me. My husband isn't willing to do it with me.
I want to feel more positive about all of this change. After 6 weeks, I definitely feel better and have lost the weight I wanted to lose. I've been motivated, but now I'm at the responding from my emotions stage. My emotions are realizing that it has to be a whole lifestyle change to keep feeling better. But it's starting to feel like deprivation.
How do you keep it from feeling like deprivation when all the favorite foods are now "No, no."
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My grandson is wheat and dairy allergic (plus peanuts). His family all eats gluten & dairy free. They all feel better. I am on an anti-inflammatory weight loss diet and have lost a nice amount of weight. It's all meat, eggs, 0%fat yogurt, veggies, and fruits. No grains, legumes, or starchy vegetables, oils, or sugar. I feel a lot better now. Not sure whether I'll add back any gluten when I'm finished with the diet. It is so hard to eat out at all when you have to be gluten free (or at least on the restricted diet- I went to one restaurant where I could eat almost nothing at all!)
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Hope it goes well and you feel at ease with the professional you are seeing today!
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I think that's where she's at right now, realizing that there is more than just a spelling issue going on. To this point it's maybe been a matter of not knowing what is normal for her age, and also trusting the standardized tests results and believing everything is okay with her reading. She has mentioned that she suspects dysgraphia and is now wondering about dyslexia. I think she needs some affirmation that, yes, her DD needs to be evaluated. I'm sure those of you in similar boats can sympathize with the desires to not "label" your child and to prevent your child from feeling inferior in any way. I'm not in her shoes, but I'm sure having your child evaluated can be a very emotional thing for both parent and child. Any encouragement in that area that I can pass along? Does all that make sense?
Worry about "labels" is common. We had that worry at our house, too. It was the thought that if you called a student's difficulties by a name, it automatically meant they would be considered "defective" and the possibilities for their future were stunted. In today's world, that is the furthest thing from the truth, if the information is handled well. When a family begins to grapple with the idea that assessment means "now we can better understand how the child's brain works" and "plan educational intervention to match the child's specific learning needs," the worry of having a diagnosis or label dissipates. Sure, if significant weaknesses are found, the first emotions can be pretty weighty. But there is also relief, knowing that the parent isn't imagining things, that the child really is struggling in some way for good reason.
For us, getting an assessment also meant getting connected with professionals in the community who could help. We waited WAAAAY too long for an assessment and by that time our child had significant social and emotional consequences from going so many years feeling like he was dumb, stupid, and incapable. Thankfully, with the an evaluator who also could see our son's strengths, and the help of specific professionals, we got started on a path towards a better life. Our life post-assessment IS better. Our son has grown so much academically, but he also now views himself as a capable student and his motivation for learning has returned.
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OneStepAtATime and Liberty H have listed lots of my favorite resources for learning about dyslexia and specific resources for teaching children with dyslexia.
DyslexiaHelp, hosted by University of Michigan, is a tremendously helpful resource for learning more about dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities in general. One specific part of DyslexiaHelp that I like is its descriptions of tests that are often included in evaluations for dyslexia. Before you look for an evaluator, it is good to have an idea of what a good evaluation for dyslexia is like.
International Dyslexia Association was mentioned, but here is the direct link to their Fact Sheets, which are quite helpful, and probably are the most helpful part of the IDA site for a parent just starting to get a handle on dyslexia.
As others have said, evaluation is a key part of the process. Some symptoms that are common for dyslexia can also point to other kinds of difficulties. Even amongst dyslexic people, not everyone has the exact same areas of weakness, so having more information will establish the diagnosis and inform the process of choosing strategies for teaching. Because your child is so young, if there aren't too many difficult behaviors, you might consider finding a speech & language pathologist (SLP) who specializes in language and literacy to evaluate your daughter. A language and literacy eval by an SLP will be less expensive than a complete neuropsychology assessment.
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There are two "types" of dyslexia (some say 3, but there are many variations of severity regardless). Double Deficit Dyslexia is an extreme version of dyslexia, in which the child struggles with both regions.
Type 1: Phonological processing - difficulty hearing and or placing phonemes in short term memory (making sense of the bits of sound)
Type 2: Processing speed - difficulty rapidly recognizing symbols and retrieving their corresponding sounds (recalling the meaning of the images)
This is what we dealt with for one of my children. Same child also has had visual memory and tracking/accommodation weaknesses. We did not have the advantage of the availability of programs like Barton when we first started (you folks with young children today have sooooo much more available to you than I did 13-14 years ago!) but I used a lot of O-G strategies and a general O-G progression for phonics. The experience of teaching this child to read was excruciatingly painful.
To the OP: Though the progress seems slow, if your child IS making progress now that wasn't being made, I would stay the course with the Scottish Rite program.
Class of 2014 college acceptances
in The College Board
Posted
Sorry to hear about the rejections and waitlists- it seems like the tough has become tougher as far as acceptances to the tippy-top schools. Congratulations though on the nice choices your daughter does have.
I hear you on the U of M vs. Olin College choice. Olin has an amazing concept which can be terrific for the right student. The daughter of a friend of mine was looking at Olin a few years back and the mom thought Olin had a lot to offer, but the daughter made the choice for a school with a more traditional program.