A "press" as I understand it for when my (much younger and language delayed) son did it would be -- trying to engage a child with a toy. Trying to engage a child to look at the adult. Trying to engage a child to show interest. Joint attention-type things. Those are examples of "presses" I think. It is not pressing them ot show "autistic" behavior as much as to press them to show "non-autistic" behavior in examples I have seen. For an older child - an example might be, showing the child a picture of your familiy, to give them an opportunity to ask "appropriate" questions. Trying to start a conversation that will give the child a chance to respond "appropriately." Does that make sense? I doubt your son would be playing with a child's phone or asking for a balloon to be blown up, though!!!!!!!! But anyway -- I think a "press" is just an attempt to engage the child. Or something like that.

Our school district uses The Incredible 5-Point Scale for anxiety. It has an anxiety scale I guess. I don't know much about it, but I saw a presentation about it last year and it looked good. It is not something that has ever been recommended for my son. At least -- that is part of it. The presentation I saw was mainly about The Incredible 5-Point Scale but they said one of the things they found it successful for was anxiety, for kids who were a good fit for the program. I have a good impression. It is a program that is mentioned by the author of Zones of Regulation, like she incorporated ideas from it plus more ideas. They also have said that schedules and visual schedules are very helpful for anxiety, and social stories, and other strategies that let children be prepared and know what is coming up. I have been told ---- to sum up in a major way ----- that they see some kids like my son get anxious as they get older if they start to notice they do not always know what to do in a social situation. Right now my son does not really notice so there is no reason for him to be anxious for that reason. So I have been told it is a trade-off -- on the bright side, it is probably an increase in a lot of skills; on the negative side, anxiety might come along with it. That is a vast summary but apparently it is something they see with some kids. I have also read that sensory over-sensitivity in young children can be associated with anxiety in older children, b/c it is based in the same brain area, the amygdala I think. I think this info comes out of a Temple Grandin book (vague memory). I am not sure if that is a proven thing or just something I think I heard, but I do think I heard it or read it somewhere.

We had an initial estimate for how long he would be in private speech, of 3 months, and it was more like 10 months. When he exited there, he stayed in school speech for another year. Especially when he would "overcorrect" and start making new mistakes!!!!!!!!!!! He would start to overuse something he had just learned and been working on in speech therapy. Very frustrating for me!!!!!! But they told me it was normal and a good sign. They said he had to go back and re-learn things and get things sorted out in his mind, and it just would take time and involve making mistakes. But at the time -- it drove me crazy. Especially when he already was struggling at times with intelligibility. Not really badly -- but badly enough for it to be frustrating for him and something he cried about sometimes when he would be very frustrated, despite my best intentions. This is all with my older son. He had a long list of articulation errors, including g and k, and l, and all l and r blends, and ch and sh, and he had positional errors where he had a lot he could not say in the final position, or he could say in some positions but not others, etc. etc. His age equivalent for articulation, at the beginning of 1st grade, was 2 years 11 months. He has good speech now, though! I think he has improved on the cluttering, too. When he exited everything they were still mentioning it, but as a very minor concern. It is definitely no problem.

I would just feel bad not to mention this, even though it is random. LIPS is also used for speech/articulation. My son did not use LIPS, but his speech therapists (at the university clinic) used the same type of approach ---- and it really helped his articulation. They teach kids to see/feel the speech sounds instead of just hear them -- so if their hearing is not as good, they have the seeing/feeling, too, so it is multi-sensory.

Our system for K-3rd does not continue on for 4th-6th, and then middle school is different, too. So I really don't know. Here for my son's age, if a child is more than 1-2 years behind, and they are still capable of benefiting from being in the classroom and exposure to the instruction -- they could have an aide who helped them and they could have more extremely adapted work. If they are truly just sitting there and not getting anything out of it, and if they are truly feeling frustration by being in an inappropriate setting that is leading to behavior problems -- they would go in the resource room. But I have to say, for my son last year, I don't think it is quite a fair characterization to say he has an aide for behavior issues, like he gets no benefit from instruction. He could get benefit and still go to the resource room when he needed a break or it was a part of class where it was not appropriate for him. He improved over the year and is doing even better this year in all areas. So even if that is happening -- maybe it is a good thing leading to progress, and maybe it is a bad thing if it is not meaningful in any way. This is why ours changes, from what I have heard. It is a lot easier and more likely for kids to get benefit from being in a K-3rd class, b/c of the nature of the classes. It is true -- a small amount of the day is really academic, there are a lot of activities, there are a lot of stations, etc, that are easy to modify. When the teacher is just talking and kids are just sitting there for more of the day ----- it is not the same situation. I would not want my son just sitting and not understanding a lecture/discussion that he did not have the receptive language to understand. But if he could, I would want him to have the opportunity. But I do not know a lot about the middle school programs. Your son would not be in a separated program here ---- he just would not be. He might have a 1:3 or 1:4 aide in a classroom. He might have individualized work, and go have it explained to him in the hall or in a study carrel, and then sit in class and do his individualized work in the class while other kids did the general classwork. That is a thing they have here. My son has done that some. If it is deskwork -- he can have his own deskwork. If you think he benefits from being around his classmates and things like that, which are important, then that is something you could get -- 15 minutes of one-on-one and then he is back in the classroom doing his deskwork and possibly being helped by the aide in the room as needed. Or, maybe he would have a resource period as one of his classes, and get his instruction and assignment from the teacher. Then maybe he can work on his math in his regular math class and maybe there is some kind of accommodation for him to participate in some certain ways. Like -- if there is a multi-step problem, maybe he gets called up for a step that he knows how to do. But I don't know how that works in middle school, really. I hear about things like that, and I am aware of some things like that for 4th-6th grade. A lot might be done by having a resource period with a resource teacher instead of a study hall. That is a thing for middle school I think. That could be with or without an aide (or 1:3 or 1:4 aide or whatever). I think it depends a lot. I am a little surprised nobody has mentioned the resource period. That is a thing for older kids here, that I have heard of. I have thought it was common -- they even have "guided study hall" when I was in high school that was for people who needed actual tutoring and not just a place/time to do homework. Also definitely for 4th and up there is a huge stigma to *obvious* 1:1 aides. That is why there are non-obvious aides who are presented as a teacher's aide or a classroom aide ------ they are not presented as "these 3 kids' aides." That is really possible. That is a thing. The kids who have 1:1 aides and "need" an obvious 1:1 aide are probably spending more time in the resource room. I doubt this is storygirl's son's situation very highly. But the 1:3 and 1:4 aides are very discreet here, and it is a huge secret who the aides are for. It is very private. Sometimes people will say things like "this really good aide is in my child's room, I wonder who she is for?" and not be able to figure it out. Sure, sometimes you might know. Other times -- you might not know. Some of the kids on the 1:3 or 1:4 might have ADHD or something besides a SLD. A lot of kids not qualifying for aide support might be helped by the aide (my older son has been). The kids getting behavior support might have it in the form of a break-out group that is not presented to the class as "a special needs thing." So -- I guess I would say, there may be kids who have aide support and you don't know it. It is possible, if they have a set-up like that for some kids. It is a 4th-and-up thing at our school from what I hear. A lot of things are kind-of 4th-and-up while 3rd-and-under might be more "we are going to split into different groups." But I don't know. Partly b/c my son is young. Partly b/c so many people are secretive and don't want their kids "outed" b/c the stigma! They don't want other kids whispering, so they don't tell other parents who might gossip and it might get back to their kids. It is a big thing here. Plus some kids might not even know about it themselves! The kids might not know the details of their own IEP, and might not know they are on Ms. So-and-So-the-classroom-aide's list!!!!!!!!!!!!! This again -- maybe not storygirl's son's situation. But it can be a thing here.

I have twins who are my younger kids. I have a preference for changing the physical set-up. Is there any way possible, that the babies can be on one side of a room with their blankets or whatever, and then on the other side of the room, there are a different kind of toys, and parents sit in the middle? Or one of those baby fences around the babies? Is there any way that the physical set-up could change to kind-of eliminate this kind of wandering around and access to the babies? This is the kind of group I just could not join and would not last long at -- unable to keep track of 2 toddlers without always carrying one, in order to follow the other. And yet -- with a different physical set-up, I could easily monitor both my kids, just by being able to see both of them, and not having the access to major "they can't even touch it" trouble. If I can see them - -if one starts putting something in their mouth, I can intervene. If they start to grab at something, I can intervene. But if both kids are wandering and I can't see them both, AND there are babies, it is just really hard. So I agree with others. But I think - maybe this mom should just look for other kinds of groups for a few months. If this leaves her isolated and depressed, then oh well, I guess that is her problem. Depending on the type of group, I might feel bad about that, or I might not, just depending on the focus and aims of the group. But I would usually have one stressful/frazzled time of attending something set up that I just could not monitor two toddlers, and not go back. But I lived in a nice climate at the time, and I could do better with small playgrounds (babies would not be on the play equipment, I could see both kids, I could intervene, no fast trouble available for them, no toys to grab away from other children). I could also do better with some indoor things that had a section set aside for babies and then a section set aside for toddlers, just within a room (like -- in two corners) and then I could just sit where I could keep my kids in their section, far away from the babies. It also does not sound like she has any particular friends in this group helping her out. If she did -- I think other people would see that she didn't mind her friend re-directing her child and would follow that lead. If nobody is re-directing -- that is when everyone is afraid of re-directing in case the person turns out to be crazy. I have always gone ahead and re-directed since having twins. When I just had my oldest son -- it was outside my comfort zone, and I had never had to divide my attention or be in a situation where I could not have eyes in the back of my head. But now I am very comfortable, and when they were toddlers I started figuring out what set-ups would work and which ones wouldn't. But I do wonder, if there is not some way to just deny this toddler access to the babies, that would solve the problem and make this mom's life 100 times easier. My twins are almost 7 now, so it is not an issue anymore, but I do think that it could be easy to change how/where people sit, so that maybe some people just sit in a way that they can easily keep babies from getting past them in one direction, and toddlers in the other. It would not have to be a huge deal at all. If everyone is in a cluster and kids are on the periphery, or there are just clusters of kids all around, then it is a lot harder. If there is any leadership to the group, I would bring it up. It could be a pretty simple change imo.

Something to keep in mind -- a lot of times, once a child has learned a skill, it does not matter how long it took or what method. The child has the skill! They do not have a sign on their head saying "it took 3 years to learn this skill" -- they are just a child able to do something.

It will depend a lot. It varies so much.

Oh, my son was 7. I don't know unfortunately exactly what the counselor did. I think she talked to him about negative thought patterns he had, and helped him to think in a different way, and move past some mental obstacles he had. That is my impression. Then he got mini-goals and help getting started from his teacher, which were recommended for him by the counselor. He was able to earn marbles for the class marble jar for getting started and for reaching mini-goals, so the reward system part played into it too. But if that is all they were doing I doubt it would have done anything to help him.

My son had part of a program with a school counselor. He was working on "initiation" strategies. She taught him specific ideas for when he felt stuck with initiating. She suggested specific things to his teacher. It is way more than just a system of praise and rewards. There is a skill element also, of teaching skills. Sure maybe there is some praise and reward as part of the process of teaching the skills. But there are skills, too. I don't know much about it, to be honest. But if you see lists of steps of executive function, you can see recommended strategies for the different steps sometimes. My son was not starting bc he thought he would not be able to do a good job. Kind-of an anxiety thing for him. But the counselor said this section of the adhd program would work for him, and I think she was right. I think you might reward/praise kids when they use the strategies.... But the strategies are what are a big part of it I think. But honestly I think you are confusing "behavior modification" with CBT. You know my little son does ABA right now, so I do some things like that. He is not at a level where CBT is appropriate for him, so I don't know about it very much. But I think you are reading things that may also be recommended but are not CBT. If the counselor is helping my son change his thought process when he didn't think he could do his work ----- that is teaching him a mental process. That is also teaching a skill. Those two things may not be part of "behavior modification." But if you see her use a skill and say "I'm so proud of you" then you have added in a system of rewards and praise. But that without the skill and strategy level -- it would not be CBT. If you are addressing things that are not really about teaching a skill or strategy, just about encouraging some desirable behavior she is capable of -- then I think that is where the "system of rewards and praise" might be coming in. It can depend on the specific issue. What it is you are targeting. But I don't think you have necessarily gone through the systems and terminologies that people use. They do not always lay things out in the same way, or say "okay now this is a CBT strategy." But eventually you might read things and have more of an idea, just from reading more and having more experience. But C is for cognitive. If you are doing behavior strategies where you reward or praise, that is not addressing a thought process, it is addressing an outward behavior. If you don't see anything about C for cognitive, then it is not CBT. That is my understanding anyway. I am a little vague, but that is my understanding.

Random aside, I used a level of Abecedarian and it also uses cue words. If a child forgets a sound, you can prompt by giving the sound, or by pointing to the cue word. It was a good feature for my son. For multi-syllable words..... we did the different kids of 2-syllable words very explicitly, and I introduced one at a time. I introduced some major prefixes and suffixes very explicitly and one at a time. Then he went from there to just being able to read longer words on grade level (so far). There is some kind of rule I went by, about the number of syllables per grade, where I think in 3rd grade you should be mastering 2-syllable words, in 4th grade be mastering 3-syllable words, etc, but I could be a year off. It might be 3rd grade for mastering 3-syllable words that followed a pattern (like prefix + base, and the base is 2 syllables). I don't remember. But I had a rule of thumb that gave him about a year per syllable. (This rule was tied to my goal of having him be fine to read grade-level school books in social studies and things like that -- at his school, it is just social studies that seems to have the longer content words. Math, too, but they go over those words a lot with the kids. My son is not in any kind of advanced literature, and he is fine for the age-level vocabulary words that they have in reading, or he is at the level of other kids where the words he might not know are ones the class will go over.) This year in 5th he told me his teacher complimented him on how well he can read the social studies text, which has the harder words he would be expected to know, and it is words like culture and technology. For the word culture, I remember spending time with him working on "-ture." He had a lot of trouble with the word "nature" a while ago and we practiced with words that had -ture in them. My son can read nonsense words, well enough to get through the Dibels screenings at school that include nonsense words. He did not need them to make sure he was not memorizing, or just matching parts of a word to a known word instead of using the strategy. He just did not do those things. That was a factor for me in not doing Barton. A factor for me in not doing High Noon was that I thought he was young for the books at the time, b/c he was 6 when I was really looking. He was 6 and 7 when I used Abecedarian Level B, I think. I was able to sign up for a log-in for a company that sells Rewards, and see a powerpoint that gave a lot of information about it. I thought it looked good. For a long time I was satisfied with how things were going with introducing one 2-syllable pattern at a time, and one prefix/suffix at a time. I thought Rewards could come later. Then, he went on to other longer words kind-of on his own (without the level of instruction he would need for other things) and I didn't think he needed to work on it at home. He does Math in Focus at school. They are set up so that most math is done in class on whiteboards (dry erase boards). I think they hold up their whiteboards so the teacher can see their answers as they work problems in class, and that kind of thing. It seems pretty good for him. I have only helped him a few times with concepts. Math facts have been a different story. Math facts have taken a long time. Two days ago I was scribing for him and he did not know 45 divided by 9, but I think it was just "one of those times he forgets a math fact he really does know." But I am going to check up on that and whether he needs to review division. I feel pretty good about his addition, subtraction, and multiplication now. Not that he is really fast or that he always remembers them at random moments -- but he is pretty solid on them. I think he may not be as solid with division. I am afterschooling on a certain level -- where I just want him to be on grade level and successful in school. I do not afterschool in areas where my kids are doing fine in school.

Just some advice: I still preview names for my son. Names are hard. Previewing is a thing. *If he was reading in a school setting he would be getting previewing.* I think at home (and this is with me at home) I can feel like he has to do stuff "all on his own" that in the reality of the real world or a school setting -- he would not have to do all by himself. This is something for me to keep in mind. If you see he may memorize word lists (kind-of). You need to account for this. One option -- possibly mix up flashcards. Another option -- possibly have 5 lists with the same pattern in different orders, so that the pattern is practiced with enough lists and variety that he does not read the same list and memorize. It is really possible for kids to go through a list one time and then be remembering -- so maybe you can't even use a list twice in a row. Maybe you just know you need to make multiple lists and mix them up, use multiple lists from different sources, whatever, blah blah. But given you might see this -- then make sure you use a variety and mix things up. You may not be able to take for granted that he has mastered something just b/c he has read a list from a curriculum -- that might not be adequate for him to have mastered it the way they want. Or maybe they have a post-test that is the first time they see a different list. There are a lot of ways to vary this practice, and you probably need to just plan on varying it. You might (I don't know) try to do a lot with nonsense words. There are nonsense syllables and nonsense 2-syllable words that follow certain syllabication rules. It is not AS good, but b/c I really like Wiley Blevins, I got his book that goes into multi-syllable words. He does have nonsense word lists (iirc at least -- I think he definitely does for 2-syllable words, or has enough examples you can see how to make up nonsense words that follow a pattern of syllabication for 2-syllable words.). He does some with "syllable chunks" which turned out not to be something that went anywhere with my son -- even though I wanted it to. It turned out not to be helpful for my son, though. http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Phonics-Study-Intermediate-Grades/dp/0439163528/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442686669&sr=8-1&keywords=wiley+blevins I have never done nonsense words with my older son. He is not a memorizer. But they do exist for harder/longer words, too. It is an option I guess. Those are just two things I have an opinion about. For some other things -- I don't know, it doesn't necessarily sound like my son. Edit: Oh, you may have different goals ----- but for the "confuses characters" issue -- if he can read a series, you can invest in previewing and stuff in the first book, and then boom, the characters, with their pesky names, can stay the same in later books. Their personalities can stay the same, too, which can make it a lot easier to tie personality traits to a character. Especially -- with how sometimes the younger-kid books can see to have kind-of wooden and stereotyped characters -------- well, that is a positive when it comes to keeping track of different characters. This was a natural phase for my son in a lot of ways. It still kind-of is -- he is still reading these kinds of books. You can see this as a level of complexity issue, as well as a "what are their names" issue. Maybe it is both. Maybe it is really just their names. But if you can preview names by reading with him at the beginning, or pre-reading for him and listing the names and going over them, or anything like that -- it will just help, imo. I have read the first 8 or so books of Animorphs to my son, and they are pretty good I think. My son never read them on his own (I think he read some sentences) and never went back to them. But they were good for keeping track of 4 different characters. That was just with listening. If you see he is fine with listening and this only happens with reading, it may just be a "reading their names" issue. But keeping track of a plot and characters while reading -- it is a higher demand than keeping track while listening. It may be something where you see he can keep track when he is reading at a lower level, but not at a higher level that "seems like" it is within his capabilities. That can be where the frustrating "plot complexity" ratings come in. I am frustrated by them, they are not helpful to someone who is looking at decoding level. But I do think it exists and is a factor, even though it is not decoding. I think my son was 7 when I was reading him Animorphs. He was a picky reader then, but he liked them. They also have really short sentences, which I think can make text complexity go way down, which might mean more mental space left to track characters. I also wonder about your using color-coded templates for the directions in math. My son has had no directionality issues, but he has had various things in math where just having the template on his desk or on the kitchen table has really helped him.

Two main uses of the word fluency in reading: I just googled and saw someone calling it "decoding fluency." I have seen it called "fluency at the word level." This is ---- can a student quickly and accurately read individual words. Can the student read a list of words. Can the student go between mixed words using two similar patterns (that the student has a history of confusing in reading). There are specialized word lists targeting different things. There are different forms of practice, like: rows, columns, flash cards, I think some things on computers. I have used "sentence level fluency." (I have also seen "phrase level fluency.") This is just practicing to read one short sentence at a time. Maybe a list of sentences that use similar words. But they are not telling a whole story. The sentences just make sense as individual sentences. It is just "practice reading individual sentences." That is all a little bit at the level of "can you read the words" but it starts moving into the other kind of fluency (even though they are kind-of the same, they are different). The other kind of fluency asks children to follow along with the plot of the story as they read, to notice punctuation, to notice if something doesn't make sense, to notice all these things. And, notice and take them into account as they read. This is very demanding and there are a lot of moving parts involved. There are a lot of ways to separate out some of the moving parts and work to improve them. At a certain point, you are just trying to see what individual things are contributing, and then try to work on the individual things. Or, if the individual things seem good, you are working on integrating them. If you saw there was a persistent pattern with missing a certain pattern or confusing a pattern, then you would probably not *only* work on it by doing "here read a list of words" or "here do some flashcards." That might be just one way to work on it. For the more "putting it all together" fluency, in general that is what 3rd grade is for. In K-2 you are (in theory) learning how to sound out words and read words, and covering all the phonics and stuff. Then in 3rd grade, the whole year can be doing fluency. My older son did this in school -- he was in readers theater and plays that year, and they read silly poems, and other things like that that are "things to do for fluency." Then 4th grade is "reading to learn" (instead of "learning to read"). But you just have to see. Does he need to go back to phonemic awareness? Is this profitable? Does this make sense? Does he need to review some things from decoding (maybe as part of spelling)? Does he need to practice telling apart some word patterns? It is different for every child. For word skipping ----- you will hear different things, b/c it is really different for different kids. It is really different and different things make sense. For me, first off, my son did OT and addressed midline issues that were causing him to have a tracking problem -- and that was really important. Second, I saw that he skipped more words when he was reading at a level that was more taxing for him. If he was reading at a level that was less taxing, he skipped way less words (and would self-correct). This was at a certain point -- we worked through "the sentence level" b/c he wasn't already reading Magic Tree House. But anyway -- I saw him miss more words as overall demands increased (the demands would be the various things to keep track of as he read and the component skills). Anything that increased a component skill, would lower the overall demand. More practice in general at the appropriate level would also help. They both helped. So I have seen that as reading, overall, has gotten easier for him, he skips fewer words, b/c the whole reading process has gotten easier for him. This is really *not at all* what some other people report with skipping words. My son has never reversed the order of numbers, either, as far as confusing 14 and 41. He has written backwards 4s (and still does sometimes), but he doesn't put the numbers in the wrong order. You do have to try to see what it is like for him, I think. In good news there are a lot of resources for fluency. But you do probably want to make choices about if you go back to other skills, what level of fluency to work on, etc. But if you know the kinds of mistakes he makes, or give him a pre-test or something, there are ways, I think, to try to figure out what to target. There are a lot of books for fluency, and stuff on tpt, and stuff on the Internet. It is not one where you are going, "well it costs $$$ and nothing is available." So that is good news. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fluency-Speed-Drill-Packet-Word-Lists-More-297672 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fluency-Boot-Camp-A-Fun-Introduction-to-Fluency-208597 Those are the kinds of things you might see. For the second one she targets "pace, phrasing, punctuation, and expression." I did that with home-made stuff or just by reading and using recommended practices (that are found in books and on the Internet). But my son had issues with pace, phrasing, punctuation, and expression. He had a lot of trouble with phrasing. There are a lot of ideas just to work on phrasing. We did a lot of them. It took a long time. But -- he was always making progress, too. This is all what I think is kind-of traditional/mainstream ---- and it is what I have had a good experience with. But I read things here where people are just not talking about the same kind of problem with skipping words, I think. I think you just look at it and try to see what is going on. Btw my son did read at a VT eval with the infrared goggles. His eyes were "all over the place." The VT said to try OT and that he thought it would have a good chance of working (or a bad chance) and said we could try him if the OT didn't work. But after about 3 months my son made the first show of progress with his tracking with OT! Then he just got better and better. I have not been back to VT -- this was the only issue he saw and it is easy to tell he does not do this anymore. (This gets to be a long story, lol. But the short version is "midline issues." But he is not one where *all we had to do was midline issues.* He still had to spend all this time working on fluency.)

You probably have headed off problems by working with him that way. You may have never gotten to *see* what it would look like if you had *not* done things this way. If you have intensively taught him these skills -- then you have intensively taught him these skills. It doesn't matter if you had some special program or not -- if he has learned the skills, he has learned them. Edit: Oh, you should google "stealth dyslexia." I just remembered it and googled it for a second, and it sounds a LOT like this could be stealth dyslexia. I think you might start a new post with "stealth dyslexia" in the title, if you think this fits.

http://www.amazon.com/Phonics-2nd-Scholastic-Teaching-Strategies/dp/0439845114/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442619239&sr=8-1&keywords=phonics+a+to+z This is a favorite of mine. Edit: It was good for my son's level around the time we were starting out. It does not take the place of other books. It is just a favorite of mine, and has good information. But it doesn't take the place of finding out about a structured curriculum -- you can google to find the scope and sequence for Barton and with google and one thing and another, it is possible to find out what all the rules are from the Barton scope and sequence. I have used it to make sure we are not leaving holes. I got Barton Level 1 and really like it, but did not go one with Barton for various reasons (not really good reasons -- just reasons -- including that I kept him in public school!). My older son had some individual quirks related to his speech therapy and his articulation. He took a long, long time on things that other posters have mentioned breezing through. He has never had other problems that I see mentioned. He had a big fluency phase that I think some kids seem to not need. I have read a lot. I have gotten a lot out of non-dyslexia materials that are modern and about "the big 5" which are (iirc): phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. My son had major struggles with the first three of these. I have gotten a lot out of dyslexia-specific materials. I have gotten a lot out of materials written about "struggling" readers. It is helpful to know what is meant by "phonemic awareness, decoding, and fluency." Those are important terms that are used all the time. Fluency has multiple meanings so context matters for what people mean when they use the word (something that took me a while to figure out!).

There may not be a lot of new information for you, on the other hand. If you have limited time available to read -- probably you can skip it. I am a fast reader and would not *dream* of not reading/skimming every book in that section of our library, so that is also part of my perspective. If you have already clicked around the Barton reading site -- you may not find a huge amount of new information. If your purpose in reading is to get practical advice -- I do not think its strength lies in practical advice. But still -- it is a good book!

http://dyslexia.yale.edu/Parents_homeschool.html Here is the lovely "A Homeschooling Success Story."

I like it a lot. The parent thing -- dated. If you look at the Yale Dyslexia website (whatever it is) one of the featured testimonials is a woman who had a wonderful experience homeschooling and using Barton. The practical advice -- well, that is not the focus of this book. The focus of this book is: "this is the phonemic awareness hypothesis -- here it is." Imagine, reading it, that you had never heard of the phonemic awareness hypothesis, and that is was a new idea to you. Keep in mind the original publication date (I am thinking mid-90s). She is out to convert with new information ----- but now some of this is not new information. So -- I think that is the context to keep in mind. It is a good book. Just -- some parts are dated. And, I don't think it is a how-to guide. It is good for what it is, though. A book by someone who (from my understanding) was a big part of some groundbreaking research that we probably all appreciate today! But she is not a reading tutor, she is not someone who does the nitty gritty of actual reading instruction. So -- I like it. It is good. It is what it is. Is it what you might *hope* it would be as far as *actually teaching your child to learn to read*??????? NO!!!!! NO IT IS NOT!!!!!!! But still, it is good.

If you end up finding someone else, maybe your current therapist would be able to implement things, too. For how our insurance works - -it is in our favor to have the ABA "tutors" implement things b/c they bill the lowest amount of money, and they are very able to do a lot of implementation. That might be a total non-issue for you, but it is a big factor for me b/c that is how our insurance works (through my husband's job in the military). It sounds like you might be looking for another person, but maybe you can keep who you have, too, if the things that ARE going well are worthwhile, too. This is where a team approach can be so good! Fun times to be the mom team leader, lol, who makes sure communication is happening or else who takes one person's recommendations back and forth to other people so that things can be done consistently and effectively. Fun times. Good luck, though! Keep asking and looking around. Good luck.

I think you might look for a different provider who focuses more on what you are looking for. It does not sound like you are getting what you need, or that it is effective. For you to make suggestions that they then work on, or to bring up things you have heard of ----- that is normal. But to not feel like you are getting anything from them? It doesn't sound good. I think if you have options -- call around, ask for references. Ask for references that will come from people with similar children. I do not really know the answer -- overall -- but it sounds like it is outside *this* person's expertise. I think you might consider asking if she can refer you to another provider, also. That would be gracious of her and maybe leave you with a reason to give her a good recommendation to others. You also might look for a psychologist, who has some kind of specialization in this area. Or a speech therapist. Whoever might work with the older kids. I think it sounds like you have pinpointed what you are looking for and if you asked this woman what her core areas are, she would not say "this is what they are." I am a big believer that professionals from different backgrounds can develop a specialty area and be really good at it, and that can matter more than what their profession is -- it can all get so similar sometimes imo. Do you know a professional you like? Ask them. Do you know any parents? You can even just say "who have you heard mentioned" to get a list to call. I also don't get the noting 1,000 times a day of being appropriate. Have you said this to the BCBA? What does he/she say back? It is really fine to not think this person is doing what you need, though, and look elsewhere. I don't know if he/she is just not the right person, or if it is time to look for a different field. But you need someone who is familiar with your child's age and her needs, not where you are the learning experience, if they cannot learn and be effective at the same time.

I think it's really possible your kids are already getting the benefits. One of my kids in particular, cannot participate in some activities at the usual level, so then he can participate in that activity at a therapeutic level -- they have made it so he can participate. If your child can participate in the general level -- I bet they are getting the same benefits.

http://www.hocusfocuseducation.com/ This is the magic program my kids were involved with. They did it for about 45 minutes (?) a day at their summer program. I was very impressed with it. Their teachers were *very good* and *experienced.* The leader was a retired 6th grade teacher who I have gathered was a beloved teacher at his former elementary school. The drama therapy my kids are part of is very good, too. Then there is music therapy -- this is not available where I live, but I hear really good things. Other things do incorporate music and movement, and I have a good impression. I think either it is shady, or else, they are aware of this program and maybe it is about to fill up or something. Or -- maybe it would be hard to start mid-semester, and your child would be able to attend one of the first few sessions if he/she signs up now. I think it could just be a "start pretty soon, or wait around until late January" thing. I really have seen gains from drama therapy for my younger son. Not the same issues -- but I do think he has better flexibility and pretend play skills. These are things that were stated goals and they incorporated many ways of working on these goals. I was skeptical at first, but I have got a good opinion now. I have seen other kids have a chance to be "group leader" for a small group and be treated with patience (etc) and I think that has been good for some kids, who might not be given this opportunity in other situations. But you never know. I have heard of things (not locally but in books) where it turns out that the person's wife just happens to run a program that the husband is referring people to, but no mention is made of their relationship, people just find out later and think "hey, that's shady."

My kids have been in drama and magic therapy that are also billed for executive function. They have been amazing. Kids get a lot of practice in focusing and following directions, in fun ways, in successful ways. I would consider observing a class first, to check it out. Ours are all group classes. I think you could observe once and get a good feel. You can ask the teacher how he/she is bringing certain skills into the activities, and see what answer you get, and what you think about it.

That is helpful to me. I do not always understand the background for some people I talk to, that could fill in a lot of gaps. I have been getting the "super-mom" perception a long time, or the "saintly mom." I do not know what perceptions other people are getting or how they are treated when they put themselves out there.

Some of her points I think are spot on. For a couple, I think her kids would get adequate supports in our school district. But I know just bc our district has some supports, doesn't mean hers does, or that her district would make those supports available to her kids.