This video is a little long, but it's exceptional for wrapping your brain around narrative language and the relationship between narrative and expository language/writing. It will show exactly how to do the intervention and how to use ANY resources. Ultimately we can teach with anything if we realize what needs to happen.

Interesting. Grammar is where a lot of writing instruction occurs, so maybe she can question that. Doesn't have to be hard core to be useful and it certainly doesn't have to be written. There's just no escaping the connection between grammar and writing development. Maybe she could google some books like Writing Revolution? Her library might have it and she could watch a video on youtube to see how people are implementing the concepts. Even with something basic like a level of IEW there's grammar involved. You asked about curriculum. Me, I'd start by taking some oral narration samples and seeing where he actually functions at. Run a spelling diagnostic again to see where he functions at. Talk with him about his writing and see what is functional for him. Ask him what his goals are and what he'd most like to be able to do. Ask him if there's anything he notices about his life (academics, whatever) that makes things hard for him. Let him give you the information he has that the school hasn't shared about what is going on and why things are hard. Then you can use that information to formulate a plan/approach. No point trying to do spelling via typing if he's having issues with his eyes and discomfort with motor planning with his hands. You'd do something simpler for a while (word searches!) while you get an OT eval and vision evals going. You use data to formulate the plan.

She's going to have some discovery process here as she digs out. Although the terms sound really dramatic (writing is illegible, terrible speller, etc.), reality is you don't know whether they're from lack of instruction or some physical issues till you dig in. Motivation will matter too and that will be interesting to see if she can get a 7th grade male to give a rip about his handwriting, lol. My ds is 15 and he just has such a short leash on that. He's got some pretty nasty dysgraphia and you get to a point where you end up prioritizing, sigh. Observations -discomfort with writing. If this is happening, get an OT referral. Any sort of odd positioning, odd leaning, complaints of discomfort, etc. should get referrals. -spelling ideally involves writing. Little bit trickier when you're stuck on the but his writing is illegible thing. Sometimes we do crosswords so he's just writing one letter at a time. I've even gotten crossword kits with magnetic letters from Lakeshore Learning. We've tried typing spelling, but if there is significant dysgraphia that can be multiple hard things at once (motor planning and spelling and emotional regulation and...) -paragraph writing is the formalizing of oral narration. If the oral narration is intact, you're golden and have more like EF issues, working memory, lack of instruction, whatever. If the dc struggles with oral narration, then you're backing up even further. -debate prompts are an age appropriate way to work on oral composition. A 7th grader will generally like to argue and be opinionated, maybe even omniscient if you're lucky. -if you can get typing working, that's going to open up a lot. If typing isn't working, go back to the dysgraphia question and consider alternative tech (dictation, etc.) -developmental vision issues like convergence can affect the visual processing development, leading to poor visual memory (affecting spelling) and handwriting issues. It's always wise in these cases to get a vision eval just to make sure vision is not a part of what is going on. A COVD doc can do some extra screening. -auditory processing of language issues could spill over and affect lots of areas of academics. You'll be wanting an audiology eval for that. -She might borrow/buy inexpensive, middle of the road tools that usually work for these issues but be flexible to pursue high powered tools if things are not going well. It's not necessarily going to be her. Sometimes you just need other tools. -Pick 2-3 goals to work on, not the entire pile. The brain needs to focus. I like to think in terms of term/semester and have goals just for that term. -It's ok to do read alouds at this age!!! He's going to have enough that is hard. Do some things that are FUN or lighter. You could read aloud together or use audiobooks 1-2 hours a day even. Even picture books are great with middle grades!! You can find ones to help you meet your goals and not have everything be intervention. -Keep your BALANCE in the day when doing intervention. If intervention work is 80% of the day, life sucks. If it's 50% of the day, that's gobs. At this age it's so important to protect mental health and a sense of being whole, functional, connected, wanted, able to contribute to society, happy. Look at your hours and goals and make the hard call to wait on some things to make space for other things that are also important. He may need some physical work, a hobby, a mentor, some kind of outlet or interaction that is positive that has nothing to do with what isn't going well.

At least it didn't have jello. 🤣 My grandmother's "salad" could be cool whip, jello, apples, any number of things, the random stalk of finely chopped celery as the token vegetable to call it a SALAD.

I haven't read much about lactoferrin. It's saying it binds the iron. So that somehow makes it work better or it's a separate concern and good for the immune system? Yeah, the Beau's ridges seem, from what I've read, to be a stop growth because of illness thing associated with the physical stress and low zinc. I did my HBOT a number of years ago so it's not connected to that. I had pneumonia recently and that's when the lines occurred.

Ironically the clinic I used is saying the med share programs tend to be more generous about covering it. Regular insurance has cracked down and has this list of 11-14 conditions they cover.

Ok, this is a total aside, not exactly what @Carrie12345 was asking but whatever. One of the things in the back of my mind, as someone who has done a stinking lot of HBOT, lol, is whether extended time in fresh air (presumably reasonably high in oxygen) could get you to a similar place. Think about it. If you have a fresh concussive injury, they put that pressure in the tank *really low*. Now it's true, my first dive was UNBELIEVABLE. I knew right away I was on the right track. I had been sledding, hit my head, was walking slowly, talking slowly, dizzy, you name it, just a really hot mess. But if your pricepoint is $0, would sitting outside get you somewhere? Is it something to try? It's the great irony that they tell the concussive injured person to sit in a dark room, presumably in their house. So go put on sunglasses and sit OUTSIDE!!! Go breathe FRESH AIR. Breathe the oxygen. Let your brain have the oxygen to heal. Me, this is just me, I kind of played around with the math and wondered how much time it would take outside in the fresh air breathing to get the same oxygen exposure as 90 minutes in a dive chamber in that pure oxygen environment. Would it be 10 hours? Now sure it's not under pressure, but it's a lotta oxygen. If you take in the oxygen and if you give your body the mineral support to USE the oxygen, you're getting free healing. I'm just putting that out there because it's stuff I think about. I notice with me when I travel, when I sit on a cruise ship and am outside a LOT and breathing fresh air a LOT my brain function goes UP. So would I have gotten the same effect if I had taken a long cruise instead of doing 90 sessions of HBOT? Haha, probably not. But is being outside in the fresh air to get free oxygen to heal the brain a good thing? Probably. But no, they're going to go sit inside, in a stagnant dark room maybe with carpet and formaldehyde cabinets. I did craniosacral as well for my concussions. It's fine, it helps, but it doesn't dig in and solve the deeper issues.

I did about 90 sessions of HBOT btw at a medical clinical supervised by nurse practitioners. There was only *one* np there I even HALF trusted to have accurate assessments or recommendations on what was going on in my body. Basically they were just running machines and had no clue. You can't guarantee that having an MD in the building (vs. the np supervised by the md) makes a difference either as there are mds doing this kind of fast food style. These issues require you to know the person's genetics or have some really detailed way to guess/infer what is going on. So yeah, I thought about making that caveat about the challenges I had but it's so far beyond the scope. As you say, a percentage of people walk in, do HBOT, get their improvement, and walk out. Then there are people like me. I started the sessions and when I complained of fatigue the np was like oh EVERYONE gets fatigued. I thought no, we're not talking about that level of fatigue. We're talking about this will KILL me level of fatigue. But I have been around the block and I know to dig in myself and research and trust no one. And I had the genetics results in a file so I could do that. But that's not going to be everyone's situation, lol.

HBOT is very draining and a person recovering from covid is already drained. It took me a while to fine tune what I needed to take so I would not be made worse by it. So I have no doubt some people are getting worse, but it might be for more complex reasons than what they've sorted out. My methyl levels dropped unbelievably with HBOT and it's so much oxygen that you're pushing all your minerals to process it. So issues like copper and iron suddenly become huge. It affected my B vitamins. If you don't know your genetics and have some issues, you could be pushed pretty hard and not have the information to figure out why. I had my genetics, so I just sat there digging, trying to figure it out.

Yeah these are all different salads. Taco salad is fine and yeah with the catalina dressing. There's actually a dressing I like slightly better for it. It's still red, but it's called Country French I think, sort of the upscale of the kraft catalina. Yup it's Ken's Country French.

I was digging and I think *part* of it for me is biotin. No clue if biotin affects inflammation. I found the defect, tried it, got a noticeable bump in energy. And some of it is really direct, like I got sick, my tone dropped (spine started getting all loose and shifty, etc.), took the biotin, body tightened up. But like you say it's probably layers. It's hard because I have these ideas for labs (inflammation, homocysteine, etc.) and it's hard to say what is *necessary* and what is curiosity on my part. There is that hurdle of justifying it so he runs it, lol. Nuts, he even blew me off on the iron when my MCHC was clearly low. Now that I realize the ridges I had developed on my nails were from the low iron, it just miffs me. But I didn't SAY that to him and I didn't push, kwim? But it's this system that tells them to save money, don't run stuff, put it off, infer/extrapolate. Sometimes that's fine and appropriate and sometimes it's just slow walking.

Does your doctor test this? I've seen people talking about it but can't find that it has been run in my labs. It seems rather variable or hard to predict because the factors affecting it are complicated.

Ooo, I like grapefruit juice!! I've gotten into a pretty good groove with my iron btw. Once a week I take an iron pill + 1 capsule liver + 2 vitamin C + 1 sublingual b12. I usually do that around noon to keep it very far away from my thyroid meds, and I might eat some red meat that day. Once a week I try to consume some red meat. Doing that seems to be working, because the ridges on my nails are slowly reversing and my energy and stamina much improved. I wanted to get into a consistent routine so I could see the effects on my labs (which admittedly won't be for a while since they're annual, lol) to see how it's working. Early in the process I was taking it all every day, which was just a lot. It might be that I should up the frequency to every 5 days or something, but for now I'm doing the once a week. It's some hassle because on the day I do the iron I keep all my calcium supplements and high calcium foods away several hours each direction to give it the best chance to absorb. I'm using the liver capsule to get heme form (which helps the other absorb better) and for the trace minerals like copper. I've read that iron can reverse some of the greying of hair because iron is a major component of melanin. I'm still watching on that one to see what happens, haha.

Once you're done with the antibiotic and are ready to eat some yogurt, etc., here's a super easy way to make the thickest, most crazy greek yogurt you've ever had. https://www.sixsistersstuff.com/recipe/instant-pot-yogurt/ I double it, so: -2 cans sweetened condensed milk (you can get by with 1, but hey) -1 small carton PLAIN Chobani yogurt. Don't cheap out and use Walmart or off brand on this because the bugs are not as good. It will still set up, but it won't be as over the top mindblowing. -2 red cartons Fairlife milk I stir together the sweetened condensed milk and yogurt, then slowly add the milk. Hit the yogurt button, which on my presets to 9 hours, put on any old lid (glass if you want to see it) and walk away. When you come back, it will be THICK and crazy good. Put this straight in the frig to cool no stirring. Then you can add in some maple syrup, vanilla, whatever you need. No straining, no nothing, just your own private stash of crazy good, ultra thick yogurt.

Florastor for your gut. I'd take it at least 1-2 x a day but you could push it to 3-4 times a day without a problem. I seem to get put on antibiotics a lot lately so I'm a junkie on the florastor. I look up the half life of the antibiotic I've been put on and I wait that out 5x and THEN start the yogurt, kefir, etc. Until then, lots of florastor. Generic (CVS/Walgreens, whatever) of florastor works fine too. Walgreens often has it BOGO to save you a bit. I know some practitioners will say you can take a probiotic if you space it a few hours, but I never ever do that. I like my antibiotics to work and I want to live, lol. With the half lives being so long, it makes no mathematical sense to take a regular probiotic while on the antibiotic. Florastor is bred not to interfere so it's the bug of choice. Noncolonizing, so it's not a permanent solution, but it's definitely the bomb while you're doing the antibiotic. I also use xylitol mints like CRAZY because I get cavities without mercy when I'm on antibiotics. If I use the xylitol mints, no cavities. I like the Spry mints and they come in a very zippy cinnamon, an easy to enjoy berry flavor, etc. I try to let them dissolve and swish a bit, one or two at a time, repeat throughout the day till I've had at least 6-8 each day. The cost of one tub of mints ($9?) is less than the cost of fillings, sigh. I'm glad you're out and on the pathway to recovery. That sounded AWFUL!!! Take care of yourself. It almost sounds like your self awareness took a hit because you were so sick, like maybe you weren't sensing it quite as severely as it was. At least that happens to me sometimes. You can watch your nails for signs of vitamins/minerals running low. This last round of pneumonia I got Beau's ridges my zinc dropped so much. I've been taking 80mg a day, which is almost 4x what I normally take, and have finally started to catch up. Also severe stress/illness seems to affect my biotin. I finally found that as the explanation for why I it takes my energy so long to recover. There are certain genetic defects of biotin that mainly kick in when you're sick. So if your energy doesn't bounce back might be something to look at. I usually take like 3 months, which is just crazy.

For the recipe I linked, which is typical for our part of the country, there is half that amount of sugar but cut by the saltiness of the parmesan. It's actually really good and it makes a HUGE bowl of salad. It's a holiday thing, not an everyday thing when you make it like that.

HBOT would help with the concussion injury and the POTS possibly also, depending on the cause. If the POTS was from a viral exposure there's definitely that possibility. HBOT is running $250 a session around here right now, sigh.

I have a very bad attitude about buffalo dip and like to take it when it's NOT eaten so there are leftovers for me. 😄 My dh is making homemade pizzas and I got the ingredients to make this https://www.traderjoes.com/home/recipes/kickin-corn-dip

A food truck as in they MAKE FOOD??? Oh my. Is it possible they were in a stall that had a sink in it? Sometimes that happens. People are funny and sometimes have other ways of doing things. I've known people who were fastidious about hand sanitizer. They may have a sink in the food prep area and use it before cooking. At the very least I would never order from them. I don't see how you can say something publicly without clear evidence that they are prepping food without washing properly first.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/14295/seven-layer-salad/ This is how we make 7 layer salad. No eggs, bleh. The parmesan dressing is essential. This salad is made for holidays, very special. We also do broccoli salad, wilted spinach salad, etc.

Not necessarily practical, but our Februaries started getting a lot better when we started planning a midJan trip for some sunshine. 😄 We're going a little late this year, so I've been kinda having to cajole myself, up the vitamin D, etc.

I'm not sure about android but apple phones save everything through their keychain system to save passwords securely across devices. Google does something similar and your phone may have the option. So then if you go into the settings for passwords it will notify you which are compromised. It might also do it on any tablet or other device you have them on if the operating system is up to date. Then it will notify you at the top what has been compromised and encourage you to change them. So it's all in the settings and should be happening on any apple device that has been updated. It can also generate strongpasswords for you.

Make sure you're factoring in the "free" annual doctor's visit and bloodwork a typical insurance policy will cover.

If you go into your phone where your passwords are saved, it may show you which have been compromised and let you tap to change. Also your phone may offer to create passwords for you.

Amazon has this larger 15" show tv thing that is meant like a kitchen tv. It will display your calendars and has alexa built in to allow you to add appointments with voice. For me personally, going back to paper isn't reality. Everyone here is digital, all the way, so the only thing is to make sure the necessary calendars share across platforms. If I wanted to see it all in front of me for the whole family, I'd use a digital device to merge and display it big. No time for redundancy and no brain cells to devote to washi tape. But I have a very adhd relative (not in my house) who LOVES their paper calendar!! If it works for you, do it. 🙂