That makes sense. I didn't think about having to read the white board to trying to listen to instructions being yelled in a noisy place...I don't know that either of those would have good results at the moment. I will have to find out more. There is a number I can call. They don't start practice for a month. The hyper-clap was more before she did VT. She can control her claps more now (she can clap syllables, clap the alphabet, etc.), but can't clap to a beat correctly yet (but she's closer to a beat now than 2 years ago). The metronome in VT was sort of pointless for her at the time, but it may have been partly her age (she was 6). The VT stopped including it in home practice after a while. The OT gave of us a list of activities that we could do at home, but it's a few pages of various activities listed and not something targeted specifically for her at the moment. A local friend feels like other OT's at this location to a better job than the one assigned to us, but you don't get to pick which OT you work with really. I'll see how things go this week at this point.

I was debating this week how much swim to do this summer. At a minimum, there will be lessons and some free swim time. She had one session of lessons at YMCA during the school year and loved it. DD mentioned wanting to be on swim team in our local pool (YMCA is in the neighboring city), but I am trying to figure out if swim team would be best or if it would be better to have extra regular lessons and get a swim pass to go swimming multiple days a week. Swim team has 2-3 hours of practice 5 days a week plus a meet once a week. I have been told this swim team doesn't turn people away, but I don't know if that will have changed since last year. I was debating if I should bring it up to the OT and see if she saw any concerns with swim team.

I should have clarified a little more about the OT. The visits are limited by the OT location, not insurance (there is a limit with insurance, but not that few). The only reason I haven't pulled out of it yet is because I watched the whole thing last week and I know it worked on things that DD needs, but I haven't figured out the best way to implement some of that at home yet nor do I know what it actually worked on in her body. The session was 45 minutes. The first 30 minutes were on gross motor and sensory type of activities. Then there was a game played (which we own) that dealt with fine motor and then only around 10 minutes or so of writing (she only traced a 3 word sentence and then copied it on the line below). That said, by the time DD got to the writing, her posture was better and she was able to keep a hand on the bottom of the paper rather than holding her head up. There was enough difference that I figured it's working something that she needs, even if it's not all areas. That said, I question if it will carry through outside of the sessions, but don't know how to get a good sense outside of just a "wait and see" option. We've been battling different illnesses since that appointment that went through multiple people in the house so I haven't had her do a formal handwriting lesson with me since that appointment. I will see tomorrow how it goes when I make her work on some handwriting. However, even though her posture was better and the writing in general a little better, she still hyper extended a joint in her index finger and I am curious to see if the OT has anything to do related to that this week. Maybe it will be a waste of time & money, but maybe it will help something...I don't really know yet but am hoping to get a better idea this week at our appointment (because I would rather not waste time and money there if it won't benefit enough). Thanks for the tips about which you'd focus on first. That makes sense.

In short, DD8 has dyslexia, writing struggles, and low processing speed (single digits on the tests for processing speed). For background, she has already been through VT and the most recent follow up she was doing well. A few struggles, but not enough to warrant more VT. We started Barton and are plugging slowly away in that. We had our first OT appointment last week for the handwriting struggles and I could see some improvement at the end of the session, but I'm not convinced it will carry out into daily life yet due to a variety of factors. We only have 5 more sessions of OT anyway. Here are things I know I need to work on, but am struggling to know the best order to tackle them and thought some of you may have some great advice and experience. Heathermonster's IM RMT exercises and other exercises for retained reflexes (I am certain ATNR, STNR, and possibly a hand reflex are retained as well as possibly a few others that I haven't finished testing) Rapid Naming activities - like OhElizabeth's RAN/RAS sheets Focus Moves activies Possibly the writing 8 exercise from Diane Craft (debating on this one) Possibly some gross motor and sensory activities per OT recommendations, but we haven't been given anything yet in this area. I realize that there may be some overlap. If I say that I will do them all every day, I am afraid that I won't follow through well. If they should be all done each day, I would like to start implementing them incrementally. That said, I'm not certain which I should tackle in which order. I feel like I should start on the retained reflexes first and then add in more, but I know some of the other things may help with integrating reflexes as well. I brought up retained primitive infant reflexes and see acted like she'd not heard of them before and asked me how they would impact DD so I don't feel confident in asking her about it. Do you have a recommendation?

Could you email HOD and explain your situation and ask if they would be willing to send you a pdf of the TM? You could send them a picture or something that shows that you own it. I'm sure they have a pdf file for their records, but understand they may not want to release a pdf version for fear of it getting shared and reducing potential sales for them.

There is someone a few hours from me that teaches RMT. I took an online class from her a couple years ago, but didn't follow through at applying what I'd learned. I'll see what the OT does, but I may consider meeting with the RMT expert once to see the exercises for RMT and reflex integration in person to make sure I'm doing it right. Or I'll just give it a go on my own. I should put this on our checklist of school work to do each day so I have a constant reminder. I PM'd you about Focus Moves. I watched the videos online a few months ago and my 8 year old thought it looked fun and wanted to do it at home. I have the book, but that's it so far. Thanks for the reminder about Stopping ADHD as well. I bought that book last fall because of someone talking about it on this forum. I had put it on the shelf and forgotten about it while trying to sort through the dyslexia, etc. and related testing. I will have to put it back on my to do list. I'm pretty sure that DD has a retained STNR and ATNR. When we had our check up at the vision therapy center, he noted that DD's eyes sort of jumped slightly at the midline, but not enough that he thought he should recommend more VT. As for Barton with my 5 yr old, 2-3 months ago I did the pretest with her. I didn't get all the way through C though. She didn't pass A & B (she couldn't repeat most sentences word for word) and didn't quite get the concept of pulling down tiles for each word or each sound. She could repeat the sounds back okay though. I picked up the phonemic awareness for classrooms book to use with her. I still have LOE Foundations A that has a lot of phonemic awareness in it that I may go through with her and see how she does to start. I still have AAR Pre that I can take her through (she loves ziggy and animal stories, but I don't know that she would get the concept of filling in a rhyming word for an incorrect word yet that I remember doing in that curriculum). She is starting to get the concept of rhyming so maybe it will be good for her, but I don't know yet. I wasn't going to make her "officially" start school until the fall though and figure that DD8 and I will be in a better routine with Barton by then as well. Meanwhile, I throw in phonemic awareness activities randomly throughout the week for her. Thanks for the tips of how you've made Barton work and the extra materials that have helped. I will save this in case I need that info in the future.

Yeah...I'm hoping that DD5 may be ready for Barton 1 at some point this summer or by fall. We will see... The OT is private, but they rotate kids through it because there is a high demand in the area and not enough OTs that work with kids. If she needs more after this rotation, then she goes back on the waiting list and they call us when there is an opening. I have books and other resources for the reflexes. Now that we are getting back into a routine (it was an unusual past 3.5 months), I need to add working on those to our daily schedule for both kids as they both have retained reflexes. I keep meaning to learn more about Focus Moves to add to our routine as well. I imagine the OT will give us ideas if I ask. They gave ideas after the evaluation alone to help in the mean time.

Thanks for the additional ideas. As for a budget and IEW, if DD ends up needing IEW, I am willing to invest in it. That said, we're still purchasing Barton levels and I am not selling any DD8 is done with until I know for sure my DD5 won't need it (she shows some signs and symptoms, but a little differently than DD8 did at age 5). There is also a good chance that DD5 needs vision therapy which is only partially covered by insurance, thus trying to budget out what we may need and when. I will check into the other options mentioned as well. Thanks. Is Talking Fingers as good as Touch-Type Read and Spell for dyslexics? I've not used either just had the second one in my notes to purchase as I read it went well with Barton. DD8 isn't typing yet, but it's on my list to start this summer - probably in June. DD starts OT this week. They did an eval related to handwriting, but not a full eval and have only granted 6 weeks of OT at the moment. I'm hoping it will be a different therapist than who did the eval as she didn't seem to know as much and a local friend felt the same about her and her son has been in OT off and on for a number of years at the same place. I brought up concerned about retained primitive reflexes to the OT and she didn't seem to know what I was talking about. DD went through VT 2 years ago and her most recent check up with doing well enough that they wouldn't recommend more VT.

Thank you all for the feedback. It has given me more to think about and evaluate as I think about what we may need in the future as well as considerations for now as well. As for accommodations, I know I may need to scribe for a while until her handwriting or typing is able to keep up with her thoughts (which I am not expecting any time soon). OhE, we aren't in level 4 yet, but likely will be during this coming school year and I read most people take 6-12 months to get through it. I realize it may be 12 months, but since some it is less, I was just trying to plan out and budget with the less in mind from a financial standpoint, but know that it may be longer until we actually add a more formal writing curriculum. She will be 9 this coming school year. I think structure and organization are good for her and she seems to want that in other areas as well. While she struggles with writing, she really wants to write her own thing lately, but often gives up due to her reading/spelling not at a level that she wants to write at. She wants to write letters and in a diary lately, but doesn't write much in reality. Her letter formation is not automatic most of the time - she still draws letters like art more often than not (it drives me crazy to watch her do that during the barton spelling lessons). I also forget about Writing Skills. I remember that mentioned as a recommendation in the back of the Dyslexic Advantage now that you mention it. I will check into that as well. I hadn't heard of Kidspiration before. I will check that out as well. Also, to answer your question OhE, DD can narrate stories to me orally or answer questions orally when she has been listening to a story and is answering comprehension type of questions just fine. She can also tell me about events she went to as well. It's putting that down on paper that is a problem. However, once in a while I do suspect a word retrieval problem, but she does have very low processing speed so it's hard to know if it's the processing speed, dyslexia, or something else impacting word retrieval at times lately.

I am trying to plan/research curriculum for next school year and while I obviously have no idea at this point if we will finish Barton 4 during next school year, I am trying to plan/budget as if we will so I will be prepared for when the time comes. I understand the Susan recommends IEW after level 4. Do most people use IEW that also use Barton? Are there other writing curriculum that you have found success with for your student(s)? I think I've seen EIW and Shurely as well as Bravewriter mentioned, but I wasn't sure how often those methods worked well for someone who seems to do well with Barton methods or need Barton methods. At this point, DD is a reluctant writer and was borderline on school testing from being given a SLD - writing. She can have good ideas to write, but actually writing them down currently is like pulling teeth and she appears defeated before she even starts (this was before we started Barton earlier this year - we haven't done much writing since and are still working on handwriting as letter formation is still not automatic in many cases).

I am planning on using it with my 5 year old, but will give it time and extra practice to see if it is a good fit for her or if she will need something more intensive like DD8.

When we used LOE Foundations, I would make some of my own practice words or games with words with the multiple letter phonograms. I would put the multiple letter phonogram in a different color than the rest of the letters. Other times I would just underline the multiple letter phonograms. After enough practice I could remove the extra help of color coding or underlining. That said, eventually LOE just moved too fast for my DD and she stopped retaining. It was too much work for me to modify what she needed and we switched back to AAR. She needed even more than what AAR had built into lessons and we evetually dropped it during level 2 and switched to Barton. I don't have time to come up with all my own extra things for the extra practice that DD needed and so Barton has been a good fit for us as it is all laid out and all extra practice is already planned for me. I am not suggesting that you may need Barton. It may just be that slowing down and doing extra practice will be enough for your DD. You could take time off from the lessons and try going through the games to practice the words she needs to be more fluent with. You could even use the game book that AAR sells to go with LOE if desired.

Maybe a Plum Paper student planner? You can choose to customize it with courses on the side if desired as well. Here is a link to the example page: http://www.plumpaper.com/pages/student-planner ETA: They recently had a discount code for 20% off on their Facebook page. I think it was something like SPRING20

I know this is old...but if you are still looking for you, I found a 8.5 x 11 size Happy Planner online today. I ordered it from Michael's with their 40% off coupon. I saw it at other stores online too. :)

Thank you for the ideas. I will check them out. She needs math fact practice outside of writing the answers and me drilling them.

What are math wrap-ups? Is this what you mean: http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/013150? I have never seen them in person so didn't really know how they worked to be honest.

I am looking for some online math games for a fun & independent supplement to our Rightstart math. My DD is a slow processor so the speed/time can not be a factor (she understands concepts way before she has the math facts down hard or and can't do math facts very quickly even when she does have them down). We tried the free sample of Reflex math and she hated it because it showed a timer and would tell them at the start to go as fast as you can. We have used dreambox and at times she hits a wall and they don't always explain things well, but overall she seems to like it most of the time (except she gets frustrated when the computer voice keeps interrupting her thoughts saying, "If you need any help, click on the ___ button.") I'm looking for practice in the 2nd/3rd grade level. Also, she does have dyslexia so the program needs to be able to read questions to her if there are word problems and I prefer not to have a program that involves a lot of magic. Thanks ahead for your ideas!

I hope you get some answers soon.

I know this is old, but I was wondering if you got any answers if the hypothyroidism was impacting her WM and processing. I have a child with hypothyroidism and think her working memory is weak and wonder if her processing speed is low.

Thank you also for the encouragement. It's always to hear how different work/therapy has helped kids as they are older.

Thank you all. Your responses are helpful and good food for thought.

I am not familiar with zones of regulation, but remember seeing the title on a thread here before. It sounds like another thing to add to the list to read in the near future.

DD8 currently has an IEP for speech and receives speech therapy at PS. She qualifies to have SLD - reading (all 3 areas) added to an IEP and possibly some aspects of writing or math fluency (although conceptually she is okay for math) and processing speed problems. This is our first year homeschooling and not participating in a charter/online/virtual school where we were considered a public school student at home before. I need to answer the school as to whether I want the current IEP modified to add the latest testing onto it. I have decided to continue to use Barton at home for now (no one in the school is OG trained until the 5th grade level) and not use the school services for reading since they don't have anyone in her grade level OG trained and all their work is done in small groups from what I can tell and I'm not convinced that will help DD at this point. Since I don't plan on using the school services for reading at this time, what would be the benefit of having them add SLD - reading and related accommodations to the IEP?

This is interesting. Yes, it was the "duck/pigeon" walk. I haven't had DD try it in a couple years so will have to ask her to do this tomorrow and see if she regressed at all since we stopped doing these almost 2 years ago. I had my 5 year old try this recently and when she tried to turn her feet in then her whole body seemed to turn in and the opposite for hen she tried to turn her feet out. I know I need to work on her with this also. The bean bag toss with the drastic exaggerated head movements is the exercise that I'm aware of that can help ATNR integration, but there may have been some others that I'm not remembering. I do remember the "Angel" exercises where she would lay on her back like making angels in the snow and have to move whichever limb she was told to move. I'm not sure what specifically that targeted, but I know I saw a huge improvement during VT with her ability in that area. Again, we haven't tried it in a long time though. During VT, they never could get DD to stay on beat with a metronome at all in any of the exercises that had one. While I think that would be hard for her now, I think she would be able to do better now than she could at age 6. She can at least be close to the beat when clapping to music now whereas in the past it was all over the place. I will have to look up the other exercises you mentioned. They sound like ones that could be done in a "fun" way that will make her want to do them a little more.