Heathermomster
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Posts posted by Heathermomster
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My son’s issues are motor and language based. I was told multiple times over the years that he would mature and lose his dysgraphia diagnosis. One person looked at his language scores and thought his vocab and word retrieval numbers were too high for the diagnosis. I guess that is where the motor issues kicked in because his diagnosis was confirmed just prior to high school graduation. Paragraph/essay writing structure has always been a challenge. Grammar mechanics and punctuation have improved, but he still needs an editor.
Your student requires direct, explicit multisensory writing instruction so that she can internalize the writing process. Accommodations like typing and scribes shift the focus to the writing processing behind the physical act of forming letters. Yes, she might mature (whatever that means) but you can’t stop all school and wait 4-5 years for that. My questions are how do they intend to manage your DD in the classroom, and what direct and explicit writing program do they intend to use to teach your child to organize and compose sentences/paragraphs? Will that program implement graphic organizers with clear instructions that are broken down at sentence level? Do all students have access to Chromebooks or iPads? How do they plan to proceed?
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I’m trying to decide whether I want to engage in this conversation. Occupational therapists are not qualified to diagnose an SLD of the written expression, so I typically don’t give a fig what they say. As far as I’m concerned, their off the cuff opinions are about as important as someone who recently graduated from clown school, unless that clown is a licensed clinical psychologist qualified to diagnose. But I digress...
Handwriting SLDs may be broken down to two types: developmental coordination disorder or written expression. A good OT will evaluate handedness, visual perception, pincer grasp, core strength, balance/vestibular, and developmental motor (reflex integration such as ATNR, STNR,...).
My son was diagnosed with SLD of written expression in 2nd grade. None of his private teachers understood it. We provided the school with printers and an Alphasmart Neo for typing, and some of the teachers balked. One teacher was concerned about cheating. None of the teachers saw the need. We homeschooled ft from 7th grade on, and son attends college with full accommodations. Once homeschooled, DS received direct and explicit writing instruction using IEW with an OG and IEW certified instructor. Things are fine now.
If you can’t afford an full np report, start saving your money for it. When the time comes for testing, use the most highly qualified person you can find. Don’t ever expect the faculty to support you. I never had support from the school, and it was a lonely road except for a few close friends and the boards.
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Math apps for practice, Inspiration app for outlining/mindmapping, audiobooks, Scratch Jr, stop motion videos, FT with friends who live across town, and typing documents using a Bluetooth keyboard.
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As soon as I read this posting, it made me think of this thread. Maybe, contact @ElizabethB directly about her nonsense words and free phonics curriculum. It sounds like your DD still needs more reading instruction.
When my dyslexic was 5th grade and in US history, he took picture notes in the margins of his work (little stick figures) as he read and narrated the story back to me. He wrote 3 complete sentences to describe the beginning, middle, and end of an event to help him identify the central narrative. We also preread any comprehension questions so that he knew what to look for. He studied vocab online for free at freerice.com. He listened to audiobooks, watched documentaries, visited museums, and worked on history pockets. I scribed his written work. My DS was still working with a Wilson tutor and required multisensory work about the subject to really enjoy it. He loved coffee table type picture books to pursue certain elements of history. He detested historical fiction until he was older and read things like Guns, Germs, and Steel or Ghost Map.
My current 5th grader writes complete sentences about people, vocab, and summarizes events. She also uses speech to text, types, and the Inspiration app for outlining.
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Go to the school and discover that info. In my state, private religious schools aren’t obligated to accept a student with IEP. My son’s former school did not accept any Federal or State dollars.
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DS finished finals and is home now. He did well and made many friends. We are glad that he is home and expect him to help around the house while looking for a job.
DH and I had a laugh this morning because I threw away one of son’s fitted bedsheets. DS left with two white ones and only changed the bed sheet three times in eight months. I think that is gross, but DH told me to celebrate the small victories, like the fact that he managed to wash his clothes regularly. We are now in the process of washing, packing, and stowing his dorm room gear because it is spread about the house. It has been interesting to discover what supplies he used, and I found a completely unused academic planner....
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Was it published in the 80s? I threw my copy away rather than donate.
The local Scottish Rite tester recommended the Davis book after testing DS. I haven’t looked recently, but dyslexia websites used to recommend it as well.
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30 minutes ago, Kareni said:
I browsed Rethinking School but did not read it closely. Can you elaborate on those comments, Heathermomster?
Regards,
Kareni
Go back and read the "Postscript About College".
SWB discussed being debt free after receiving her Bachelor's degree and stressed that among her circle of academics, no one was interested in where she attended school for undergraduate work.
My bright DS has dyscalculia and required a program with minimal math requirements. Every school that we looked at required pre-cal or college algebra at a minimum. His maths disability is pretty bad, so we selected a school with minimal math requirements. As it turns out, DS tested into Finite Math, worked his tail off, and earned an A. For the sciences, he took Biology/lab and Earth Science/lab and is done with gen ed science.
I would prefer that DS go to a bigger school, but we don't qualify for financial aid and rely solely on academic scholarship. Given his SLDs, we compromised and placed him in a school that we can afford and has a reasonable DSS office. DS understands that he may very well be pursuing graduate work in order to find employment if he doesn't pursue a military commission. In that time, we expect that he will enter a graduate study program at a more prominent university. As it stands, he loves his uni and has adapted well. It's a struggle when two engineers marry and their firstborn is a humanities kid. Anyhoo...
In the SWB's book, she mentions parental fear about getting their child getting into a good college when a child is 8 or 14 years old and behind. That has been my lived experience ever since DS with diagnosed with multiple SLDs. SWB's writing persuaded me to look at DS and try what was best for him. The kid loves history, and I can say with absolute certainty that the WTM history notebook has prepared him for research and using multiple resources.
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On 5/5/2019 at 8:57 AM, Kareni said:
-- What led you to homeschool?
-- How was your child homeschooled in the high school years? (Did you use WTM as a guide? Did your child take out of the home, online classes, or college classes?)
-- What did your child do after graduating? What is your child doing now?I
1. At the beginning of 2nd grade, DS was diagnosed gifted with maths/handwriting/reading SLDs. We opted to keep him at private school where he worked with a private reading tutor. We started homeschooling full time in 7th grade because the middle school was a bad fit and didn’t allow IEP, 504, or the most basic accommodations. He worked with a private, OG/IEW certified teacher for writing in 7th and 8th grades. I taught all of his math and am only now recovering a year after graduation.
2. WTM was a guide. DS took informal logic and kept a modified history notebook from grades 7-12. DS typed everything except math and took outside classes for biology, informal logic, Elegant Essay, chemistry, physics with algebra, and early American lit. DS took two years of drafting online with Murray Technical Ed of Florida.
3. Son attends a small state uni 53 miles away and just completed his fresher year. During that time, he joined a fraternity and is a member of the SGA. My dyslexic/dysgraphic is pursuing a history degree on a minor academic scholarship. DH and I are standing back and holding our breath. So far, DS is maintaining a 3.7 gpa, but the USAF or USN is always an option. DS hopes to pursue a commission in the USAF or USN upon graduation.
My youngest child is a rising 6th grader and has been homeschooled from the beginning.
ETA: SWB’s comments about colleges at the end of Rethinking School prompted me to consider the tiny state school that DS currently attends.
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15 hours ago, caedmyn said:
Forgot to come back to this. FiS is definitely more teacher-friendly. LiPS and Barton say you need training to do LiPS but I and others on this board did it without training. I will say that I didn't do the full LiPS program. I just introduced all the consonants and we played with them some (don't remember the specifics of what LiPS suggested as it's been a few years) and then we moved back to Barton because I started it when my DS was most of the way through Barton Level 1 (long story) so I already knew he could distinguish between vowels and do the sound chains or whatever LiPS calls them. I did LiPS with one child and FiS with another because I had a small baby and didn't feel like figuring out LiPS again.
Three things I didn't like about FiS: One, it uses pictures for the sounds instead of pictures of the mouth shape made by the sound like LiPS. I'm guessing that they did this because Barton recommends drawing a picture to go along with a sound if the child is having trouble remembering what sound a letter makes. But to me it makes more sense to use the mouth pictures, and I suspect some kids would have an easier time with being able to see the mouth picture as a reminder. I am no expert though. My DS has done quite a bit of speech therapy so he did ok with the pictures. You could certainly buy the mouth pictures alone directly from LiPS if you felt they were needed and go through the steps with first the mouth pictures, then the picture cards, then the blank tiles.
Two, FiS has very minimal troubleshooting included, none of which addressed the particular issues my child was having. Others who've used it have said they provide better troubleshooting if you call them but I didn't try. I wish there was more included like Barton includes quite a bit in their manuals.
Three: Once most or all of the sounds were introduced, the process of pulling down the matching picture cards for 3 letter combinations was very difficult for my DS. He clearly has some major working memory issues, and trying to find the right card while remembering what sound he was looking for was really, really hard for him. He did it with little trouble with the tiles though, so I ended up skipping the picture/sound-finding section in the last few lessons of FiS. IMO it would have been way better if they would have limited the number of cards needed for that section with each lesson since working memory issues are so common with dyslexia.
I could be wrong, but I suspect the creators for FiS are parents of a child who needed it or LiPS. It is definitely modeled after Barton and seems different enough from LiPS that I wonder if they don't have any speech therapy background or actual LiPS training.Good job! And thanks for the review.
OP, teaching these kids takes moxie and courage to adjust the program when it’s not working for the student. That’s hard to do sometimes when you don’t feel trained or qualified.
In my area, a local OG tutor teaches LiPS. I’m fortunate that a local dyslexia school teaches OG certification classes and know several moms who became OG certified and used Wilson Reading materials with their children . Now that you have a diagnosis, start networking with people locally for moral and educational support.
Lastly, welcome to the boards!
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It is shocking to work with a NT child if you’ve only dealt with a kiddo that struggles. With the exception of handwriting, my DD hasn’t experienced any of the challenges that DS has faced. Math facts and music are a piece of cake. She reads constantly, studies Latin, and understands grammar. Her EF and planning are better.
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37 minutes ago, SusanC said:
Twice?
I didn’t even ask about the 1st set of stickers. I’m assuming MIL sent both.
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So, I contacted the seller and discovered my mil ordered the stickers. This is a total shock. DH generally corresponds with his mother. She lives hundreds of miles away in CT. We’ve been homeschooling for 7 or so years, and she has never sent us homeschool supplies. Her granddaughter is wrapping up 5th grade, so I don’t know why she sent us stickers filled with ionic snd covalent bonds. MIL never once mentioned sending a prezzie, but I am relieved to know how the sender had our name and addy.
I donate money to groups so am used to receiving letters with address labels. This particular envelope came with our addy handwritten, the stickers, no explanation, or sales receipt. I scoured my Visa statement yesterday to ensure I hadn’t lost my mind and forgotten I had placed the order. I am not a fan of chemistry. Anyhoo, the mystery is solved. Thanks for the push to contact the etsy seller.
On a different note, when my FIL died, a complete stranger sent us a sympathy card from somewhere in Northern CA. The sender read about FIL’s passing in the paper, looked us up, and mailed the card to us in Alabama. No one in the family knew the sender; she would just send sympathy cards after reading the obits in the paper.
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The basic McDougal-Littell Pre-Algebra is a solid text, and a used copy should cost about $5.
Maybe, support whatever text you are using with Hands on Equations and MUS blocks for integer math practice. James Tanton’s website is also very good.
Lial’s Introductory Algebra, 8th Ed is my favorite Algebra program.
There is also an algebraic thinking game for the iPad called DragonBox that might be helpful.
https://dragonbox.com/products
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1 minute ago, mom2scouts said:
What kind of homeschool mom throws away educational chemistry stickers?😂
I know...I’ve asked myself that question a few times.
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I have lived in this house for 18 years. I can’t remember exactly when the last batch of stickers arrived. We looked at them and threw them away thinking it was an accident on the sender’s part. I have only purchased off Etsy twice. I contacted the seller and asked them to remove us from their mailing list. Thanks everyone.
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The return addy was stamped and difficult to read. Looking on google maps, the house is a rambler style. Strange...and in Minot, ND, of all places.
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I’m taking a closer look at the letter, and now I see an etsy link at the bottom...
I’ve never experienced this kind of advertising before. I’ve never purchased anything homeschool related off of ETSY either.
ps. Sorry for the beat up table in the background. It’s 27 years old....
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This is the second time we have received chemistry information from someone living in Minot, North Dakota. When I say chemistry information, I mean little stickers that go on colored pencils that indicate all of the elements of the periodic table. I don’t know anyone that lives in Minot, North Dakota. The letter is addressed to my family with our home address in a manila envelope. The senders went to some effort to mail us this information. It’s so weird. I don’t know what to do, but I want the letters to stop.
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It’s been about 11 years since I read that book. Reading Davis’s educational story made me very sad because he was mistreated by educators. DS formed play dough letters and tried the “minds eye” exercises, and it was all a bust.
When I read the author’s story, I felt like he had a visual processing issue, not a phonological processing issue. It used to irritate my son when people would ask him if he saw letters jumping or backwards and upside down. The title of the Davis book even irritated him, and he asked me once why the author had reversed the F on the cover. DS reversed d’s and b’s, not the letter f.
OP, if you suspected a vision issue, maybe take him to COVD vision therapist (VT). Otherwise, stick with scientifically tested and proven reading methods for dyslexia, which is a program that provides systematic, explicit, and phonics based multi-sensory instruction.
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In my state, the CCs have course transfer agreements with our State Unis. I don't know how that works in other places, but maybe see if that is possible.
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I will state upfront that Saxon gives me the hives; however, a good math tutor is a mathematical and novel thinker. After identifying the underlying issue, they should be able to break down and gently teach the underlying concepts using a variety of methods (pictures, manipulatives, and traditional). A like or dislike of Saxon is irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. If the tutor is experienced, they should have multiple teaching materials to draw upon.
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49 minutes ago, PeterPan said:
Yeah that's a challenge. My dd wanted to be in that 14/15 range, but her health is better at 12. She can carry that and maintain her scholarship. At 15, she was sick like 3X a semester, on antibiotics, steroids, passing out... So it will take longer, but it's still the right way to go.
What was he at this semester and how much of a decrease will the 9 be? And will changing away from freshman gen ed credits toward major classes help or make it worse? If there's a lot of writing for his major, that's rough.
I think if he pursues an internship or something that gives him a life or some experience, it could be good. That's my dd's biggest complaint, that she doesn't DO right now or have a life. She has this need to move, create, cook, and she's trapped in a dorm.
I think he's currently taking 14 hours. I don't think he would suffer in his major by taking fewer classes.
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7 minutes ago, PeterPan said:
Oh my. Well I hope he makes it through ok!! My dh hardly understands anyone with an accent, even british english or southern english. It's a definite issue, sigh. Will his semester end soon? Dd is doing finals this week.
He will be finished on May 10th so needs to start packing soon. He should be OK. He's doing fine in his other classes, but we are trying to decide whether he should drop the scholarship and neck down to 9 hrs/semester.
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Foreign Language and High School Course Selection
in The Learning Challenges Board
Posted
My local uni doesn’t have a foreign language requirement for entering students. Look at potential schools and discover how they manage their foreign language exemption. When I attended uni, my programming classes were subbed for foreign language.
My DS took one horrific year of high school Spanish with a native speaker, and then opted to do two years of something technical. In son’s case, it was Drafting I and II. He kept copies of his work in case any organization wanted a portfolio. As it turns out, ACT scores were more important than foreign language. DS was accepted to every school he applied with scholarship, and he will be seeking foreign language class substitutions soon.