Blessed2fosteradopt, I don't know how in the world I missed your earlier post!! I can't tell you what a relief it is to me to hear of another mom with a child with the same profile. I wish my daughter showed some interest in engineering or art, but at this point she doesn't. It's still early though. She is obsessed with competitive cheerleading, and has been for years, and talks about wanting to own a gym and coach someday, which I could see her really enjoying. I have also thought about architecture as a possible area for her someday…while she doesn't love art, I think most of that is due to having a fairly cruel art teacher in elementary school, and my DD used to love building things (e.g. Minecraft or legos.) She loves design…dreaming of how she would decorate a room, for example. By the way, my kids joined our family through adoption too! :-)

OhElizabeth, thank you so much for your help! I actually did have her tested for APD, although it was a couple years ago. They found she had slight difficulty with comprehension of speech when there was background noise, but that's it. I feel like we have been working on this for years and years and have followed so many paths and hit many dead ends, but I guess it is all part of putting the puzzle together. I think you really hit the proverbial nail on the head though in saying that we are midstream. I'm getting a better sense of her strengths and challenges, but knowing how to apply that to teaching her, and to helping her reach her potential in so many areas, is what is still alluding me. I guess the SLP search is the next thing to do. I really do appreciate any and all suggestions anyone has. (I wish there was a manual for this, lol!)

Thank you Tokyomarie! The evaluator did do some more language testing…She gave her the Comprehension of Instructions, Speeded Naming, and Word Generation subtests of the NEPSY, where she got borderline scores which were said to suggest mild problems with verbal fluency and expressive language. The evaluator said that the discrepancy on the WISC technically qualified my DD as having an LD, but she did not want to label it as such because she felt that the deficits were in "skill" areas rather than ability areas. I have to say that I respectfully disagree, since my DD has had difficulty with these areas all throughout school in spite of having received plenty of practice/exposure/extra tutoring. But I admit I certainly don't know as much about the tests as the evaluator! It's a great idea to start looking for a speech/language pathologist with those skills. I have to admit, with some embarrassment, that I used to be a speech therapist back before kids (e.g. when dinosaurs roamed the earth). I worked at the elementary school level though, so most of the language support/therapy I provided had to do more with grammatical structures and basic vocabulary, so I really need to research what else and who else is out there to help. What have you found has been most helpful to your daughter? Have you made many adaptations with either the content of your schooling or the way content is provided, or the skills you are teaching? Thank you so much for your help and ideas!!

I wrote back in August asking for recommendations for my 13-year-old DD's curriculum, as we had just made the decision to homeschool her for 8th grade. While I got some wonderful suggestions (which we have used and have been extremely helpful, especially the suggestion for Jump In writing) I mentioned I was having testing done, and the suggestion was made to write back after I got the test results, so here I am! :-) I'm a bit blown away by the results, as she has been tested in the past, and the disparity in her numbers has just gotten more extreme. While I would rather not post actual numbers unless that would really help, her Perceptual Reasoning score is in the Very Superior range, and her Verbal Comprehension was 50 points lower!! Working Memory and Processing Speed were average. She has particular difficulties with vocabulary and giving responses verbally. (And I have read with her almost every day of her life, so she has been exposed to a lot of words!) So I have a child that is stressed by and burnt out on public school. She is an organized, hard-worker, but in 7th grade that no longer provided enough of a compensation for her challenges, and she started getting poor grades in spite of all her hard work. She has become fairly disinterested in learning at this point, unfortunately. She is much happier schooling at home, and works with a good attitude, but I am really flailing around with the subjects of Science and Social Studies, which contain so much challenging vocabulary that she is often lost. I try drawing pictures for her of the challenging topics, but not only is that sometimes impossible, I feel like it ends up watering things down a lot. She would like to go to the high school part time next year, so I don't want her to get too far behind in the subject matter if that will matter at all. Part of me thinks the subject matter in these subjects isn't all that essential and that we should spend the largest amount of our time this year focusing on building vocabulary and nonfiction reading/writing skills. So I guess in the end I have a couple questions: 1) Any curriculum suggestions? We are supposed to study Physics and Chemistry for science, and American Government and Civics for Social Studies. 2) Anyone seen this kind of testing profile before? It seems that usually when it is a high spread, the VCI is usually the highest one. I'm trying to figure out what kinds of fields/skills people with her profile might be most happy in, and to help her learn more about these fields. I feel like if she had more of a sense of direction about WHY it is important to learn some of the things I am teaching her, she might be more interested in learning. To anyone who has read this far, thank you. I so appreciate it. I know I tend to ramble when it comes to my DD. I'm so impressed by her tenacity but I worry about her and want to do all I can for her this year.

@zammaz, how did it go this past year? I was so happy to find this thread…this is exactly the program I am thinking of for my 8th grade DD this year!

Debbie, thank you for the welcome back! I'm excited to be homeschooling again! I so appreciate your thoughts! It's helpful to know you many of the subjects in 9th grade might not build on what the schools are teaching in 8th grade. And as I think about it, that makes sense. That would free us up a bunch. I love the idea of doing project/unit stuff…I think my DD would really enjoy that, and I love planning so it would be right up my alley. And wow, I looked at Lightning Lit 7 and that is the first LA program that I could see working for us. I have read good things about Lightning Lit before, but actually the books for grade 7 are (mostly) books I could see pulling her into. Or that at least she might not fight. :-) Literacy is the toughest thing for her. Funny enough, she loves to write. I think you and Lori are absolutely right that getting to the bottom of her learning issues is the first priority, and that placement testing is going to be key. You both have helped focus me so much! I will continue to research curriculum while getting her tested, and I'm sure I will be jumping back on here with many questions. Thank you SO very much for your thoughts, help, and time!! I do love this board! :-)

I'm so sorry I haven't been able to get back onto the computer till now to respond, but Lori D., thank you SO very much for your incredibly insightful response!! You really helped me focus so much. You are absolutely correct about my goals for the year. We don't yet know whether this will be one year of homeschooling or more…we will have to play that year by year…but I think I need to operate as though it will just be one year. You know, it's funny, I never thought about vision problems for her! Thank you so much for pointing that out! I feel like this is such a "duh" moment for me; I actually got my younger son tested for eye issues (which he has) and got my DD tested for auditory processing issues (which she does not have) and in spite of the reading problems I never thought to have her tested! (She has had "traditional" eye testing and has 20/20 vision, but I could totally see how she might have other vision issues. Wow.) In fact, this past year one teacher found my DD did much better on tests when the tests were simply formatted differently (e.g.fewer words on a page.) So much to investigate here! The other thing I think you wrote that really turned a lightbulb on in my head was that curricula that is "fill-in-the-blank" can also be "purge-from-memory". You know, I think that might be why she likes them. She is wonderful at memorizing what she needs to, but has no interest in remembering what she is learning long-term, and deeply understanding, integrating, and applying knowledge is much more difficult for her. I will be getting copies of all the textbooks the school would be using with her this year. I don't know yet what they are, but I am thinking they can at least be a map to what we want to cover. Then I think I will work with my DD to find curricula she likes. She is the type of kid who, when she has a goal, will work tirelessly, but the goal HAS to be hers. If I impose it on her, she finds the most inventive ways to resist! Lori, you don't know how helpful you have been to me. It's absolutely tremendous. Thank you so much for taking so much time out to help me start this journey in the right direction!!

Well, ok, I'm a semi-newbie. I homeschooled my youngest son for Kindergarten two years ago, and learned so much on this board then! Now it looks like I will get to homeschool my DD13 for 8th grade this year. (Hooray! :-) ) This is a new turn of events, and while I am very excited because I think it could be great for her, I am also very overwhelmed because I have so little time before I need to get paperwork etc. in. (With my son I researched for months beforehand, choosing curriculum etc. I love to research!) I would love to get some advice about where to start looking in terms of curriculum! My DD struggled a bit in 7th grade. She is not very interested in school subjects, but is very hard-working and motivated. She is a very visual/kinesthetic learner. She likes working on the computer and doing worksheets. However, she gets overwhelmed easily with small print/too many words on a page. She really dislikes reading. (She is below grade-level in reading comprehension and this is one of the areas I would most love to work on.) She has a huge deficiency in vocabulary. (We have had her tested twice by the school district…that's a whole other thread!…and both times they did not feel she qualified for special ed, but agreed that she had some kind of learning difference. We will be getting her tested privately this fall.) Thanks to anyone who read all that and who might have any curriculum suggestions!!! I so appreciate it! Corie

I just talked with a customer service rep, who got on the phone quickly and was very courteous and helpful. She said that due to the computer issues they had during the sale (which was supposed to be one day) they will be having the sale again January 12-14. Just as an FYI! :-)

I love a good SPD venting session! My ds (5) won't wear anything but shorts and crocs. Absolutely no socks. I just bought some seamless socks, and just the idea of trying them on sent him into tears. It's winter here, so I almost feel cruel taking him out! I now let him wear pj's everywhere, because at least he will wear long pj's. Somehow I can't get him to even try on sweat pants. I keep thinking "natural consequences" but those don't work at all when you are talking about SPD!

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

If you would like to try signing, I used it with my son who had verbal delays. We used Baby Signing Times, and the other Signing Times videos. The songs are cute and help to learn the signs. We got our videos out from the library. I share your frustration over getting evaluations that don't make sense. But I agree that maybe it was a way for the county to be able to give you services at all. In our case, my son was receiving speech and OT through the county. However, when my son's verbal skills improved so that he was still delayed but not more than 25% delayed, they had to release him from Early Intervention. This was in spite of the fact that everyone agreed that he still had sensory issues that were problematic. However, he could only get OT services if he qualified for other services, like speech or PT. Since he had "graduated" from speech, they had to let him go from OT too. So services were "bundled" in different ways, if that makes sense. (I'm pretty sleep deprived, so forgive me if that made no sense at all!)

Sbgrace, Talkability looks amazing! Thank you so much for letting me know about that! My ds really could use social skills help. And thank you too for all the info on supplements. All I knew to look into was food eliminations, but it makes sense that trying supplements first might be a way to ease into things. My ds is very thin (he was at one time diagnosed with failure to thrive, and has always been below the weight chart until this last visit Thursday - hooray!) and has a lot of food texture and odor sensitivities, so the idea of narrowing his diet even more than it currently is is scary to me. I so appreciate all the help and suggestions. I feel like I have a direction to start searching in. Now to figure out how to organize all I'm learning... You ladies rock! Thank you!!

Thank you everyone for you support and encouragement...wow this is such a fantastic community and I feel so much less alone with all this!! DyslexicParent, thank you for all the info an websites too!!! SO helpful! Oh, and I so appreciate the warnings about unproven "cures". I was doing some research today, and in our hometown we don't have many resources, but we do have someone with internet videos who does "neuroretraining" and it supposedly cures everything from fibromyalgia to autism. And maybe it does help, but I definitely will need to do a ton of research before pouring my efforts/resources into that! I was saddened that we have so few resources available near me, but I suppose once I start networking I may find more that just don't appear on the internet. Anyway, I am truly grateful to each of you who answered...thank you!!

Crimson Wife, thank you so much for the book suggestions...I'm excited to check them out and so appreciate having a direction to look in! OhElizabeth and Mukmuk, the hugs are SO appreciated...I'm surprised at how kind of stunned I'm feeling. It's not like I didn't suspect any of it...