imagine.more
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Posts posted by imagine.more
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She often can't keep the "shr" sound and "str" sound straight, so she says "strimp" for "shrimp" and "stred" for shred."
I can see why these sounds are hard to keep straight. But the other day she said "thinger" for "finger", and didn't bat an eye. She can make the correct sounds, she just seems sloppy when she talks.
These are the types of mistakes my adoptive daughter makes too, but she has moderate-profound hearing loss in both ears. So yes I'd definitely get a full hearing evaluation (DD wasn't diagnosed until age 7.5, apparently she lost hearing sometime between age 1 and 5).
DD can make the correct sounds too, but it takes mental effort and frankly she doesn't see the difference enough to be motivated to fix it. We've had to get kinda blunt and when she blows us off for correcting her say, "look, 3 year olds say that....not 13 year olds, if you want to talk like a 13 year old and have everyone understand you I suggest you slow down and say it correctly." Of course if she *couldn't* we wouldn't be that blunt, but when it's a lack of motivation because to her it sounds pretty much the same and always will due to hearing loss we felt we needed to lay it out for her the consequences of continuing with lazy speech patterns. I tell her all the time that people will never judge her for saying a word slowly, they can see she has hearing aids, but they will be confused or judge her poorly if she goes too fast and outright says the wrong word because she messed up the sounds. Especially because once or twice she's said an inappropriate word accidentally by switching a sound, lol!
I'd say at 7 she's just crossed that line of "she'll grow out of it". My 4 year old sometimes makes these types of mistakes but we correct like crazy because we're so hypersensitive to speech issues now that we've experienced what happens down the road with DD. I bet because of her age she might qualify for speech therapy. And if she doesn't qualify through the school go elsewhere because the school's standards are really low! They were even going to drop my DD with a known HUGE language delay and hearing impairment from speech therapy in the public school. They said she'd made progress and no longer needed it.
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When I was in college I was responsible for all my own stuff (parents were 100% uninvolved once I turned 18) so I set up the following:
1. Small File Folder - Target has some cardboard and plastic ones with lids, I recommend these for college students since they move frequently. Hanging folders for all financial/school/medical records. Anything important went in there so it wouldn't get lost.
2. Planner - I'm a BIG user of paper planners. Most college bookstores sell a good one for the school that includes the academic calendar. I'd set it up with specific predictable dates at the beginning of the semester. Once I got my syllabi from professors I would put that info in as well. ONLY put in stuff that is actually needing to happen, never 'to do' lists or it becomes unreliable. If it has a due date, put it on the due date, even just for required reading like if a professor says we must have read Ch. 1-3 by Tuesday then Tuesday I would put "Discuss Ch. 1-3" under that class heading. Work schedules, doctor appointments, dates, concerts, anything that is definitely going to happen that day I put down. Maybes and ought-to's I do not or it becomes this big record of what I didn't finish.
3. Address Book with Folder - I typed up a list of passwords and previous addresses to slip inside my address book. I folded it in half so you couldn't see the words unless you happened to find my address book, open it to the pocket, and slip out the 'blank' folded slip of paper. Innocuous, my address book stayed safely in my apartment so unlikely to be lost/stolen, yet I had all my necessary contact info and passwords there.
Now I would add that a simple Bullet Journal can be a great place to put to-do lists. I don't use mine as a planner at all, it's simply an indexed to-do list because I need predated planners so I can look ahead. But in college I just had tons of post-it notes all over my desk for to-do's, lol! The journal helps contain and index all that nonsense so I can find it more easily. It would have been especially nice when planning out big projects or job-hunting or something.
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Ah, nevermind, I found the comprehension stuff online, duh! I remember seeing those before, must have pregnancy brain to have forgotten ;)
So I'm thinking maybe what I should do is this summer do Visualizing and Verbalizing just to make sure Ana is able to visualize things she hears/reads. Then this fall start with very simple narration of fairy tales/fables (I like the idea of fewer characters and simpler plot helping) and short passages from history/science (as in 2 sentences with the goal of condensing to 1 sentence). I'll also do some picture narrations to kind of extend V&V, where she looks at a picture and describes/tells a basic story from the picture.
I think I'll wait and start the Barton comprehension questions around Level 5, just to give me time to really solidify the V&V skills and introduce narration.
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Or back that up one step further and get sequencing cards. I got a Lauri set at the education store. I did them with him a bit, thought big woop, and then the SLP showed me that we could be taking them a lot further to work on more complex skills. So it's not merely can she put the 3-5 steps in order, but can she tell the story for them, add details, use conjunctions, etc.
Or do the reverse and take the Red Riding Hood and break it down into steps with a graphic organizer and use it to retell. Oh, duh, that's what the Barton comprehension exercises from Supporting Dyslexia do. :)
Jenn (the one whose boy has apraxia) used this story board game that I keep dreaming of buying, sigh. Basic idea is two people with identical boards and figures (anything will do) and you give each other directions and then see at the end if your pictures match. Crazy how much you could milk that for. You could cut out pictures for your history story, science, whatever, work on sequences, prepositions, anything. If you start with a background (cave and forest), then you could tell stories. Made up, from literature, copying the cover of an intriguing book, anything would do. With a 12 yo, maybe something super hip she's been listening to like that Owls of G'ahoole or something, kwim? Like print an owlish looking habitat on 11X17 pages and pics of the different owls and then tell scenes. Just put magnets on the back then those 16X20 magnetic whiteboards ($8 at Target, LOVE) would work.
http://www.superduperinc.com/products/view.aspx?pid=GB180&s=magnetalk-barrier-game-stand#.VYBf4usSv88 This is what I'm saying you could do your own knock off version of using your child's own interests or things you're reading together.
Ooh, I like the idea of sequencing cards. I used to have a set when I taught K-1st grade and it was fun to use them with the kids!
Where do I find Barton comprehension exercises, I must have missed those somewhere? We just began Level 4 so can they be used already or should I wait until Level 5 when she can read more sensible stories?
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Jenn, she's very unfamiliar with traditional fairy tales/fables. No stories or books growing up... We're starting to fill in that gap but it's not quite the automatic knowledge you expect from a typical american kid, even Disney movies are new to her. Growing up she saw Chuckie but never The Little Mermaid, so sad! Maybe I could have her narrate Frozen ;)
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Elizabeth, btw I totally sent a friend of mine over here because her son has Apraxia because I know it is so rare and know so little about it. I figured a couple of you guys could help her sort out a good plan for his early school years (he's 4 like my Peter) :)
I actually have contacting the deaf school on my agenda for this week, been sooo busy! We'll see if anyone is there since it is June of course. It's 1.5 hours from our current rental house but our hope is that if it looks like we'd like to send DD there for high school we'll buy a house within 1 hour of the school. I'm going to see what kind of services and resources they can connect us with here in the city.
I'm also curious how her reading might change her language over time, and just the long-term effect of being in a language-rich environment. I think her language is below her IQ, by her IQ she should be functioning like a 9-10 year old right now but her language is at a 5-6 year old's level. So there is room for improvement but her current level is not uncommon for a HOH child so I agree we're not doing things wrong per se, I'm just always looking for better. It's that firstborn tendency in me, haha!
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I have to laugh at sharing being the newfangled narrating :) It's true! We do that during dinner, try to ask the kids specific questions about their day and she has gotten a bit better at it over the last year. It seems to help her process and remember events too. It just hasn't carried over into oral comprehension of stories or info.
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So far all attempts with speech therapists have been a bust, none have even had experience with hoh kids, just autistic and little kids whose speech lags for whatever reason. It's been very frustrating. They keep giving her the Peabody Picture Vocab Test which I just found out isn't technically approved for use with deaf or hoh kids, oy! Once ins gets going here I'm hoping to find someone better but the process will take a few more weeks at least.
Her single word vocabulary is low and so is her sentence level comprehension. I have some test scores somewhere, might need to dig those up. I know from evaluations and just everyday experience that her working memory is low as well as passage comprehension. Her WM for letters and numbers is far higher now because of Barton, yay! But it still is low in other areas like even remembering faces. Her IQ is overall borderline low and her language scores are consistent with that.
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St. Hedwig's School for Exceptional Children
(Harry Potter reference, saint name, and all three of my kiddos has been classified as twice-exceptional)
Okay, I couldn't possibly love this more :)
As for us, we recently moved to a state that asks for a name so we picked one. Imago Dei Classical School. I figure it's descriptive enough, not cutesy (I wouldn't be embarrassed to put it on a diploma) and suits us.
But for this year my kids *think* they're attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, they already received their letters and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and I'm in the midst of planning our start-of-term feast for September :)
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Heather, unfortunately she doesn't know sign language at all. She's got about 50% hearing loss in both ears and with her aids is at 80% and with lip reading at about 95%. When I do straight dictations from Barton she gets 95% or better on them. I just ensure I'm sitting across from her while I read and that I am speaking clearly and she can see my mouth to read my lips. We've only had her 1.5 years and where we lived previously there was no place to learn sign language. We're hoping to learn as a family later this year, but first we need to focus on having a healthy baby (I just failed like every blood test on my pregnancy screening so I've got a lot of work to do to sort out thyroid and GD and anemia) and DH finding a steady job here in our new city. DD has zero interest in learning sign language but I figure it couldn't hurt so we'll try as soon as things settle down.
I like the picture idea, I might try that this week just to trial and see if she's able to do that at all because it would be a good starting point if she is. I am hopefully going to do LMB's Visualizing and Verbalizing with her, I actually just ordered it off ebay when I finally saw a really good deal. It should be here in 10 days then I'll look over it. My gut says it'll be good and useful for her based on her particular issues and the description. If it looks good I'll be trying to do that with her this summer so that come fall she's done with Visualizing and Verbalizing and will be better prepared for her work in her regular subjects.
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I'm wanting to get back to a more Classical TWTM-ish education with my younger kids this year and I really would like to bring DD13 along with that at least a little bit.
Specifically I really feel like Narration is a critical skill to have in everyday life and in school. But, is it possible with a child who has poor comprehension and memory? I feel like if I could take her through incrementally maybe it could even help her comprehension and memory, but how to do that?
Right now, if I read a short passage to DD, maybe one short 3-4 sentence paragraph, and then asked her questions she would look at me blankly. She would be unable to answer a single question and she would be unable to recall what I said. The basics she would get might be separate words or phrases, often inaccurate or mixed up, but no complete sentences because frankly she rarely speaks in complete sentences on her own anyway. Her sister and brother are the same way with no official learning disabilities so I think it's a neglectful environment/teen laziness combo (both lived with birth mom until 3 years ago).
Anyway, has anyone here had success teaching narration to their children who are struggling learners? Any ideas for breaking it down into teeny tiny steps?
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We've not gone yet but these are some good posts from larger families who have:
http://www.catholicallyear.com/2014/02/big-family-disneyland-hacks.html
http://teamwhitaker.org/2015/05/hdydi-plan-a-multigenerational-disney-vacation/
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That TSH is very high. I would ask for a Free T3 test and both thyroid antibody tests.
My TSH has never been over 2.0 but my Free T4 was always borderline low and I had tons of symptoms but doctors ignored me because of my TSH. Finally a PCP after I moved said "hm, have you ever had your thyroid antibodies tested?" and when I said "no" she ordered them for me. Turns out my antibodies were over 1900!!! The normal range is 0-25!! So yeah, I was promptly diagnosed with Hashimoto's and found a decent endocrinologist who got me on Synthroid and then Armour replacement hormone. I felt tons better on Armour, no longer tired or brain fogged, my cycles regulated, and my hair started growing back soft and healthy whereas before it had been turning wiry and falling out like crazy. I suffered with symptoms and borderline low T4 for 5 years before I was diagnosed.
So for your daughter I would bet with her TSH so high her T3 is likely low, in which case she'll either need Synthroid + Cytomel or Armour. Synthroid is just T4, Cytomel is just T3, and Armour has T4 and T3. There's another one, Naturethroid? which I think has T4 and T3 like Armour.
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I am rather shocked that neither the CPS workers nor the first doctor knew about Mongolian Spots. They are rather common birth marks, I have family members who have them. More common in people with some racial and ethnic backgrounds than others, but it upsets me a lot to think that people responsible for the health and well being of children would not be familiar with them.
I'm so sorry for what you went through.
I never heard of Mongolian Spots until DS was born. I was so confused thinking it was a bruise from the birth?? It totally looked like a big bruise on his butt/lower back. Luckily we were in AZ and the pediatrician was familiar with it and said it was common in different ethnic groups, though she looked at me funny when I insisted I was just caucasian. Turns out I'm part Native American and never knew until 2 years after that...hence the dark features. My mom always just said it must be from the french side of the family. Anyway, I am so thankful we had DS in AZ and not later when we lived in super-white MN where I got asked if his name was something "from my culture". Lol!
So I can see how a social worker might confuse a MS for a bruise, but I would hope any social worker would educate themselves on it and do due diligence before going any further than a simple visit! Any pediatrician could confirm, and MS take like 2 years to go away so they're obviously not a bruise if you watch it for a few weeks and see it doesn't change.
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I plan EVERYTHING! It took me a while to find a system that worked, but now I can plan all subjects down to the page number and not need to worry if we need to speed up or slow down because the way I plan (by subject) isn't dated and only gets crossed off once it's completed. If we need to dwell on one topic it just stays as the current lesson until we finish. Here's my blog post about it: http://www.theplantedtrees.com/2013/08/how-i-plan-our-homeschool-subjects-part.html
Yes, this is exactly what I'm doing this year! Thanks for posting about it on the blog, I'm a visual learner and it really helps me to see what others are doing with specifics. I'm in the process of filling out my subject planners now and my weekly planner is on its way in the mail thankfully.
Btw for any planner geeks Plum Paper Planners just created a large sized teacher planner option and it is excellent! It's pretty generic so easy to customize for homeschooling and you can tell them what to label the 7 subjects....could label them by subject or kid or whatever works for you.
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Could definitely be heartburn or growing pains but it could also be heart palpitations or something, which are no big deal a lot of the time but good to know if you have them. I'd have the ped. do a basic check-up and maybe next time she complains of it check her pulse and see if she has a racing heart or is skipping beats. I felt breathless and dizzy and wrote it off as another pregnancy symptom. Then I happened to have an endocrinologist appt during a breathless time and my doctor noticed my heart was skipping beats a good bit so it seems it was just a little arrhythmia, which totally explains my symptoms.
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I plan out the "big picture" for content subjects (history, science, etc.) for the whole year, then plug it in to the schedule a few weeks at a time throughout the year. This allows for life to happen and not mess up the lovely plans I've made. I also print/copy any maps, worksheets, etc. and have them ready to go in the order I'll need them.
Skill subjects (math, phonics, etc.) I can't schedule out too far in advance. No way I can predict how my child's brain will work all year... :biggrinjester:
This is kind of what I'm trying to implement this year. I want a whole year planned in advance because clearly planning week by week failed me this past year, lol! But, i need to take into account interruptions and my advanced learner and my struggling learner like to throw me for loops regularly so I can never predict how their brains will work more than a week at a time.
I think I'm going to do the Donna Young Subject Planner for each subject this summer, have it all planned out into daily lessons and then cross them off and quickly plug the next few lessons into the next week's schedule over the weekend. That way if we need to take a week off or a day is a bust I don't have to ruin my whole planner or my own mood by re-writing everything or dealing with crazy white-out all over the page. I *think* that should work even for the skill-based subjects like math and phonics.
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You can do a letter of the week format, but it's important to keep the "Language Exploration" parts of each lesson sequential--these build on each other, so you don't want to change the order for them. For more information and to find out why the letters are introduced this way, check out this thread from the AALP Forum. HTH some!
Ah, I see, a bit confusing at first but that totally makes sense. I'll do that then, thanks everyone!
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Has anyone used AAR Pre-reading with their Preschool/Kindergarten student and combined/switched up the order of lessons? It seems tedious to go through all 26 letters in capital form, then all 26 in lowercase, then all 26 sounds separately but I don't want to rush too much if there's some good reason for introducing them in this way. I was considering using it like a Letter of the Week format and introducing one letter per week using all 3 of the lessons for that letter.
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ManagerMom, my antibodies are recently *down* to 900 :) haha! That's a 50% decrease from 1.5 years ago unfortunately. Anyway, if your doctor uses natural desiccated thyroid you're already on the right track for sure. My endocrinologist prescribed Synthroid and then when we didn't see as much improvement as we'd hoped for he switched me to Armour at my request. Armour sits much better with my system, doesn't make me nauseous, and works better. Just being on Armour and one short 2 week burst of steroids (prednisone?) is what has brought my antibodies down from over 1800. So I think medicating is a good move even if you don't have symptoms yet because if you can decrease the antibodies early (and levels of 900 definitely is pretty far gone!) then you can hopefully slow the damage to your thyroid.
I do think it can't hurt to try gluten free or dairy free or an anti-inflammatory diet on top of the medication, but I wouldn't substitute diet in place of medication. With high antibodies really your best bet is to try and get the immune system to calm the heck down asap ;) I'm actually about to try gluten free to see if I can't knock my antibodies down a bit lower because I'm having issues with my nerves that I suspect may be related to thyroid. There are also supplements you can take to boost overall health and there are general diet/exercise guidelines you'll want to take into account with Hashimoto's. Many people with thyroid problems will also find they have vitamin D and B12 deficiency and/or autoimmune anemia so b12, D, and iron supplements are sometimes good.
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Tiramisu, wow, you had a crazy year! Praying this coming year is a lot easier for you, it sounds like you're due for a break! That's really encouraging that your DD who struggles with depression hit a point where she got help though, sometimes that step backwards can really help get things rolling so it can improve. I've always had depression as well and actually the last time it got awful it ended up helping me tremendously because I found a medication that works great for me when I need it and I learned some good coping mechanisms to prevent it from happening again or at least mitigate the depression a bit. So hopefully your daughter experiences the same, and it really sounds like she is.
AFM, our year was kinda crazy though not as bad as Tiramisu's :) DH lost his job at the beginning of the year but hobbled together part-time stuff and severance to get us by for the year. We sold our house and moved this past week which has been stressful but is also a step in the right direction for DH's career and our family as a whole. I'm excited to get DD13 even better services here too! Oh, and we learned that baby 5 was on the way back in November, so that meant I was suddenly very sick, 17 full weeks of vicious morning sickness, and school was on the back burner.
With DD13, our kiddo with special needs, I was trucking along okay until the pregnancy then things kinda got complicated and tough for the winter. But come spring we got back on track and I realized we hadn't fallen behind as much as I'd thought thankfully. This year we got DD's official neuropsych evaluation and diagnosis of Intellectual Disability, which was a blow but will be helpful overall. She completed Barton Level 3 and we found out Math U See works really well for her and she's halfway through Gamma (multiplication). We also started ADHD meds and those really helped with the tantrums over schoolwork (well, and everything) and her ability to focus overall which is nice. She participated in swim team, lost weight and for the first time in 4+ years she is in a healthy BMI range for her age! And she does the dishes (her one chore) properly now, even wiping down the counters, yay :)
The other kids survived, DS6 ended up sort of unschooling with me enforcing daily math, spelling, and grammar and then him just reading lots. Not my ideal but he's fine and this next year I'll be focusing on him more now that I feel like I have a handle on DD's needs and realistic expectations. Right now I'm focusing on finding that balance between providing remediation and recognizing that our goal is not catching up to grade level but rather making good steady progress towards an adult level of functioning.
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My plans for DD13 are:
Language Arts: Barton Level 4 and 5 (possibly 6 if we get that far before next June)
Math: Math U See Delta (finally tackling division!!)
History: Our United States from Catholic Heritage Curricula (I'm hoping this 4th grade curriculum from a 'gentle' provider will be gentle enough for her, lol)
Science: Behold and See Science 4: Human Anatomy and Health (again, hoping that going back 3 grades AND in a gentle curriculum will be sufficient. We'll also be taking this very slow)
Speech/Language: I'm considering doing LMB's Visualizing and Verbalizing program with her to help with her vocabulary/comprehension (her language is at least 6 years below her age) and then tackling some of the LMB vocabulary workbooks to start building her expressive and receptive vocabulary.
Religion: Faith and Life 2 (hoping to get her prepared for her first communion/reconciliation so she and DS can do it at the same time and then she'll be all caught up on her sacraments)
I'm also hoping to get her back on swim team because I saw a big improvement in her ADHD with that rigorous exercise and it really kept her busy and tired her out in a good way so she wasn't bored :) We just moved so we'll see what I can find in our area.
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If you just need the stories the Wilson books are quite good and geared towards older children (so much so that she has 2 sets, one that excludes the inappropriate teen references, lol!) I'll see if I can find the link for where to buy them but anyway that's one resource.
Like OhElizabeth my first thought for a likely-dyslexic child for whom AAR is too fast is Barton. But if you've got a good OG program already then you truly might just need extra readers like the Wilson ones. Also, not sure if you can buy them separately but Barton does have a new set of leveled readers that are like little books and excellent! I got the first one for DD and it's basically a retelling of some fables but with easier words that fit the OG order of introducing phonemes. Plus she feels cool having a real book in hand that she can read independently :)
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Crimson Wife, I think it's definitely a valid point to look at language ability with Barton. Especially for a younger child it could not work for them if their IQ/Language Level was lower than average. I'd say if a child has a 6 year old's language ability they can do Barton, but that means a 6/7 year old who is delayed might not benefit from it because their language, to be delayed, would generally be at a 5 year old level or less. But for my language delayed 13 year old her language is at a 6 year old level exactly, so she squeaks by and does benefit just fine from it even though she has a language delay. If I'd tried back when she was 8 and had the language of a 4 year old I bet she'd not have benefited past Level Two of Barton honestly.
I'd say finish the LiPS tutoring and see what her language level is at then. If it's equivalent roughly to that of a 6+ year old you might be more comfortable using Barton as it's more teacher-friendly. But if she's far below a 6 year old in expressive/receptive language then I think you could confidently say that Barton would not be the right thing for her and a more deaf-oriented curriculum would be better even if it was a lot more work or expense. Your bachelor's in SLP should help with your own ability to implement any O-G program and I'm confident you could easily learn the basics of O-G if you had just a bit of exposure to some training or materials you could read through online.
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Dr. Hive - Elevated thyroid levels?
in The Chat Board
Posted
Gaining weight sounds more like hypothyroid, and that would be a crazy high number for say Free T4's, whose lab range is usually 0.6-1.6. TSH on the other hand often has a range of 0.5-5.0 so it would be a pretty normal 'high' result for a TSH. Anyway, my guess is he's talking about your TSH. TSH is technically a pituitary hormone and it's the hormone that tells your thyroid to make more T4 and T3, which are the hormones that kinda energize your body. So more TSH means your thyroid is under-producing T4 and T3 and your brain is telling it to get off its lazy butt and make more ;) But then again the heat intolerance sounds kinda more like hyperthyroid? And if your brother has Graves you could too, which would cause hyperthyroidism.
High TSH = hypothyroid
Low TSH = hyperthyroid
Low Free T4/ Low Free T3 = hypothyroid
High Free T4/ high Free T3 = hyperthyroid
Hypothyroid is often associated with Hashimotos Autoimmune disease, Hyperthyroid with Graves disease. If you're postpartum sometimes it can go high or low unrelated to those, it's just your body going out of whack from hormones and will usually get better by 1 year postpartum. And I think theoretically you can get hypo or hyper without having Hashimotos or Graves but I'm not sure.
I would ask for your results asap and maybe if they didn't already ask for a follow-up lab with Free T4, Free T3, TSH (can't hurt to check again), and the hashimotos and graves antibodies tests.
I went undiagnosed for 6 years because my TSH was always kinda normal but when they finally checked my antibodies they were over 1900 with a healthy range of 0-25 and so it turns out my immune system had been attacking my thyroid, essentially killing it, for awhile. I was diagnosed with Hashimotos Autoimmune disease. Once I got on thyroid replacement meds my symptoms went away, my antibodies started calming down gradually, and my blood thyroid levels looked a lot more ideal.
I tend to have insomnia with hypo levels, but I'll be dragging and exhausted during the day. Some other symptoms are weight gain/inability to lose weight with exercise, dry skin, feeling cold all the time (if you for example did basal body temperatures for TTC charting you would see unusually low normal body temperatures every morning, like my 'normal' was 96.5). You can also have brain fog, depression, and hair loss.
For hyperthyroidism you tend to see insomnia, anxiety, heart palpitations, feeling hot, losing weight/inability to gain weight, etc.