Thank you for your thorough input, I've got a lot to think about. I'm trying to figure out what our days will look like together. I'm so used to having scripted, or mostly scripted programs work with and piecing things together terrifies me. I'm not typically an organized person, so I'm stressed. Add in siblings, and I just hope I don't fail her. Should we put aside typical programs like EIW and what not while we do this? I'm going to have her do Teaching Textbooks for math, and I'm hoping we can land on some fun history and science. Our reading/la block though, I can't see the forest for the trees haha.

Thank you for chiming in! She was screened last year for vision therapy and things appeared ok on that front. Where might I find REWARDS? I appreciate the action step, that seems doable in our wild household!

At first glance, I thought surely she could do the Super Duper stuff easily, but by the last page, there was a much more involved sentence and now I'm not so sure. I'm going to grab her tomorrow and run through some of the suggestions. SPARC actually looks like it could be good for my son, those titles "concepts" and "routines" caught my eye, though I wish I could see samples?

I saw the first in an old thread you posted while I was searching! I did order it today. I appreciate the second as well. I truly am fascinated with how my kids think and want to figure out how best to spend our time. I'm comforted that I listened to my gut and pulled her back out of school. She would have likely hit a wall soon in middle school and goodness knows what a mess she would have been battling social and academic issues at the same time.

Just as a quick refresher, I pulled out her CELF from end of second. She was below average in half the areas, but high enough in the other areas to score average overall. Of note to me, "linguistic concepts" was in the 5th %ile and "word structure" in the 9th%ile. Their reasoning on the first was that she hadn't yet been taught these concepts with common core grade level curriculum (mind you, it was May 🤷‍♀️). She had issues with things like either/or, neither/nor. She had issues with irregular plurals, and irregular past tense verbs. And she was inconsistent with things like -ing, possessive pronouns etc. I swear I wish I could have been in the room. I truly don't think she'll ever return to public school, so I'm not too concerned about the ASD label for an IEP, but I will keep that in mind should it come up. I hadn't thought of her perhaps not visualizing well. I'll venture to say that's not the case, because she often explains things to me in pictures, drawing as she talks. But I guess I shouldn't assume she's able to do that while she is reading. Hmm, a very good point. She was screened for vision therapy at her last eye exam. We go to an eye doc that also does therapy in his office and he does it for all of his patients. I'll definitely watch videos! I'll need that to wrap my head around it hehe.

Oh I see the stamps now, awesome!

Oh mercy! 🤣 Whenever you have time, I appreciate your thoughts!

16 and thriving is wonderful! Thanks for tagging other folks, DS may need his own thread actually. 😄 The Mindwing site has my head spinning a little, I think I need to dig a little more to see this in practice. You're meaning the Story Grammar Marker right? I'm not sure how she'll react to the manipulative at 10.

It is comforting that this is typical. She was just diagnosed in January, and she completely flies under the radar, presenting completely differently than her younger brother who got a DX easily at 3. As it stands now, DS seems to have a decent grasp with phonemic awareness. He continues to make very painfully slow progress with the intervention program his school uses (Reading Mastery I think), such that he's reading at a mid kindergarten level as a rising second graders. He's been getting pulled out since Prek. Sight words, just aren't sticking at all, but he remembers rules fairly well (hence sounding out sight words). I do have Barton 1 that I used here with my oldest (apparently reading issues are our thing, I'm absolutely begging DS (5) to be a little easier haha), that I may try before AAR. I feel like the tactile piece will help, and he is only 7 so he's got some time. He has slight problems with comprehension when he reads himself, since it's just such hard work to read period I think. After a couple times through a reader, he can answer questions, though so far pictures have been involved so he may be leaning on that too. Dyscalculia seems to be in the mix too, as he relies heavily on counting after only just really firming up one to one correspondence mid K. He doesn't know what to do at all past 10 with no manipulatives. My daughter had testing done at the end of 2nd..I should pull that out and remind myself what it was showing then, but maybe since it's been so long it's irrelevant. I know there were issues with understanding spoken paragraphs. She missed an educational ASD dx by just a couple of points, but I think since she was on grade level, they really had no intention of giving her any extra help regardless. I moved her to an "experiential" school that offered more flexibility but the lack of structure kind of backfired and she shut down even more socially. I appreciate very much the advice to seek out an SLP. I've taken her in the past and, outside of a short window when she was 4 or so, she always tested average on their diagnostics so I wasn't sure that was the right professional to pursue. I definitely understand that language can't be fixed with adhd meds, I just wasn't sure if language was in fact the issue or just that she can't focus long enough to retain anything. She's so easygoing, and since we can modify things at home, I've been hesitant to really try. I'm kinda stressing now, that this may be yet another thing really holding her back academically. I will look into Mindwing! Thank you so much for your input!

I also just ordered this book I found linked here in a post from a while ago. Has anyone used it I wonder? Word Callers: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0325026939/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

That's exactly where I'm at. Perhaps this will be solved with adhd meds. We just got a prescription and now I'm trying to hunt it down, since our local pharmacy can't seem to get it in stock. I think it is ASD related, too. She is seriously anti-people other than immediate family. She'll sit with us through some Disney live action type things, since she's familiar with the story already. But 9/10 she always chooses to watch animation, though she typically doesn't choose tv shows at all, but rather video games like Minecraft. Animation is her comfort zone, I told her she's a shoe-in for a graphic design job.

Now that's a good question, I'm not really sure. I guess I mean, the only way she's able to tell me anything about the story (events, characters etc) is if it's in graphic novel form. If it is purely words on a page, she is lost. She tells me she sometimes has a hard time tracking tv shows with live action, so she doesn't choose those ever. She does better with animation because she focuses on the graphics.

Yes, it's not in her top list of things to do, listen to mom read, but she tolerates it lol. She does read aloud pretty well, she reads quickly, however I don't think that helps her much with understanding. She prefers to read to herself, but she does tell me she gets distracted easily so maybe that's a big part of it.

I appreciate that insight, thank you! Yes she does have more interest when I read. We did a few books from Bravewriter (Arrows) for 4th at home this past school year and we had a great time together. She seem actually interested in the stories for the first time in a while, particularly The Wild Robot was a big hit. I noticed, she did have more trouble with books with lots of internal dialogue. . I felt at the time, giving her a break and just letting her enjoy literature again was good change for a bit, and she could answer anything I asked her quite well.

Hello all, I've not been on this forum in a few years, but it's always been so helpful. I home schooled DD for K/1. After some initial phonics instruction, she seemed to just take off on her own. She went to PS for 2/3. It was, awful. While she made progress with reading per all their assessments, she hated school. She has since been diagnosed with ASD. We suspect ADHD as well, and we are considering meds for that this year, now that we think we've found something to help with her intense social anxiety which we wanted to address first. Now to reading.. At the end of last year (3rd), a state assessment she took at her school showed that she could read at 7th+ grade level. Yet, her comprehension was bright red at "needs significant support," hanging in at barely 3rd. Her teacher didn't seem concerned about this when I brought it up. I kept her home for 4th, and wouldn't you know, she remembers nothing that she reads. At all. Not characters, settings, nothing, after just 15 minutes or so of reading, she can barely tell me anything. She says that as she turns pages, she just forgets. I think books with lots of inner dialogue are difficult for her too, as she's just not interested in what people are thinking. The only time she retains anything is if it's a comic style graphic novel. She never chooses to read on her own, it's always forced, and often tear filled. As we start 5th, I'm feeling intense worry to get her past this but I don't know how. I don't want to create an even worse relationship with reading. Should we back up and do some remedial phonics? Perhaps there are holes? She may revolt at the idea, but I'm willing to do whatever is needed. Perhaps we need graphic organizers? Are there programs that help work through chapter books with struggling readers? BTW, her little brother, will be repeating 1st at home after solely being in PS (and EC), is also on the spectrum with SLD math, and SLD reading. I'll be doing AAR/Rightstart with him. I looked at EIW for writing for her as a video teaching model would free up some time for me, but I'm just at a loss for reading and I worry there aren't enough hours in the day to go around. If you stuck with this whole post, thank you. I'm not opposed to further evaluations, but I think we have just lost so much time as it is, I want to dive with something..anything..to see if it helps. edit: Mercy I've gotta update my signature, they are not babies anymore lol.

Bingo. He does have decent joint attention and such. He definitely doesn't fit the classic idea of a child with autism. But she can't make judgments about that really having only accessed his speech for 45 minutes and neither can the school psych that took none of his behavior at home into account.

Yes! She actually went so far as to say everyone that goes to teacch gets an autism dx so take it with a grain of salt. I kind of was comforted by that, thinking that with progress -and intervention he might not meet the criteria. They sent home tons of forms, CARS-2, Adaptive behavior scales, and open ended questions to describe him more in my own words. Then, they met him for an hour and THEN they said ok, he can come for the full eval. I'm sure all of that weeds out the folks that just have other things going on so that yes, they are likely only spending their limited time doing an all day appt with kids that truly need it and most of the kids that go there come out with a dx. Apparently one of the authors of the ADOS works there so I'm figuring they know what they are doing!

I guess I would say to anyone, don't listen to any professionals until the testing has been done. Whatever glimpses they get of your child cannot replace what you observe at home and what an in depth eval like the ADOS can display. No less than 3 professionals, one a pysch, and two speech therapists said there was no way he was autistic. But it was the most cut and tried conversation where he clearly met the criteria when that was looked at specifically. It doesn't matter if he points and will occasionally have good eye contact. The deficits across the board are glaring and the repetitive behaviors and restricted interests and ever increasing rigidity, seal the deal. Off we go to now get his IEP updated and figure out next steps.

Just wanted to update... My son at 3 yrs 5 months was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at TEACCH today. Thank you all for your help and pushing me to get the testing done sooner than later. :grouphug:

Yes, OT said Moro! I just realized I didn't put that in my post. So yea, reading all the symptoms it was a big a-ha moment, she goes from just fine to complete breakdown in 5 minutes. Socially I'm very concerned, I mean it could be her just being an introvert, but if almost any kid talks to her she physically retreats. She told me yesterday she hates going to stores because there are so many people and people just scare her. :ohmy: I'm just so floored with the more and more she tells me she feels and I think sending her to PS in this state would be akin to torture. Ah, so the evals aren't standard either, ugh! I think I definitely want a structured progression. Better get her set up to start next month. OT recommended a "wiggle seat" too as just sitting in a chair is apparently super hard beyond just not wanting to eat dinner. She frequently will be at dinner with one foot in the chair and one of the floor!

Oh I will search for that thanks! OT says STNR is not retained.

It really does appear to be a CA thing. I'm not going to worry about it. We've only been a psychologist, not an NP, and now I kind of wish I had, though I believe she ran all the possible tests that would be needed. On the reflex point, I think you're right. I can't do that at home myself with DD6, so I'll have to figure it out. We went to visit DS's prek today and again she freaked out. She goes into fight or flight mode so easily, stressed by noises, crowds, other children in general in addition to her inattention. She's just very socially immature and anxious. The ATNR presents with her awkward handwriting grip which I have no idea how to correct.

My 8 yr old doesn't have ADHD as far as we can tell. She had a computer eval through the ped (same place that said dd6 DEF does) and she passed with flying colors. She can attend really well. Spelling then, must be vision. If she's so focused on having the letters the right way in her mind (during testing she hardly was able to say when they were reversed) then it stands to reason that spelling is super hard.

How does being African American affect this? She is half AA, half Mexican American. It does make sense. The psych said on paper that the raw scores alone would qualify for SLD written expression. But that there is a clause in the DSM that if the child has not had exposure to some of the tasks in the testing, that should play a role. I find it kind of silly though since odds are even public school kids may not have been asked to do these sort of things before? For instance building a sentence out of two: The dog is brown. The dog likes to run. Combining them you would say, "the brown dog likes to run." She answered instead "the dog is brown and the dog likes to run." I asked her to write a sentence about her favorite thing about the summer as another poster suggested. She wrote "i like watr becus it is cool." I just don't know that there's anything wrong, but then again, I've not asked for more before.

Yea sorry, I understand, I appreciate y'all taking the time to respond! I know you're busy. No language concerns ever! I've always thought she comprehends quite well. She has done narration with WWE (briefly) and ELTL (about a year off and on) and done well. All last year we read great chapter books aloud, she was picking up things in books like A Wrinkle in Time that I didn't even put together. She understood funky syntax like Alice in Wonderland, it's been great. But then for her to try to spell apple "alpl", I was just a little thrown, it's odd she'll occasionally throw extra sounds in or delete them. And reading out loud can be just painful to hear sometimes with the lack of fluency, but other times, she does fine. She picked up the Trumpet of the Swan, her favorite book, and got through a few pages reading to herself. She tells me she skips words she doesn't know, which is likely a lot, but I'm happy that the desire to read is starting to emerge. Still, I just want to spend the very limited time we have uninterrupted (we seriously can get next to nothing done with DS around) I want to make it effective. So Barton 1, Singapore (I've considered letting her try Beast academy too), maybe Bravewriter? I want something that gets us writing something every day that's not copy work. I wonder what OT issues there could be though? She doesn't jump lines when she reads but she's currently doing exercises that has her finding specific letters in random words, to help her hone in on the words I suppose.