Yes desert flower, it helps alot. I'm going to get it after reading the thread you posted. I'm bad with trying to find those links. Thank you so much. :)

Oh, and we have also heard the " I haven't seen a case this bad" ...ALOT . starting at 18 mo old when we started private therapies. That can be very discouraging. Try not to let it. The brain is such a complex organ. We even when we first started got the "oh I feel so bad for you I dint even want to tell you what I think" looks from the professionals. Then later came the grim prognosis for later in life. Don't let that discourage you. It's hard I know. You feel so alone when you hear, " I've never seen a case this bad" but. You are doing the right thing. And the boards will help. We saw my ds12 very first slp he ever had, 18 mo old and ahe worked with him for almost 4 years. When she saw us in the grocery store. She could not believe how well he was doing. The fact that he COULD be in the grocery store ( bright lights, lots of people, things going in around him) He ran and hid for so much if his earlier years. Basic social nuances eluded him. His first spec. Needs. Teacher at the PS ( started at 3 yrs old ) , ahe became a friend . we see her a good bit, she is lovely and has oodles of experience, training , and and over 25 years of experience working with kids like mine. She cannot believe the progress he's made . one in one with our kids is huge. I'm sure your DC will make more progress than they say he will. You are on top of it and seeking answer s and gathering info and experience es in the boards. Your doin good mama :) I can tell. Just keep plugging away. One day I bet he'll have an ...ah ha ..moment.

Also, I wonder how much if living in non English speaking countries at a young age is maybe attributing to having to go back and practice akot the phonetic part. Just something to think about. Can be an encouragement that going back to the beginning could be partly because he wasn't hearing ALOT the English language spoken . like when you were out and about in the town, neighbors. Even if they did speak English in the foreign countries, there will be accents slanted to their language . Hearing the English language spoken we here in the States take for granted. I bet there is a part that played in it. Again, an encouragement , he will probably make bigger strides hearing English spoken as a first language ( not with accents of foreign speaking with English as a second language)

My ds12 came to me a few weeks ago and was noticing all our books. He said, mom, why do you have ALL these books? We don't use it all. I pulled out book A and said...you dint use this ine? He said....oh. Lol. Pulled out another book and said, you don't use this ine? He said. Oh. Lol. I did this with 4 books, the response frim his was the same. He finally said OK! And ran off to play . I was insensed. I could not believe all the blood sweat and tears I put into this and.....he doesn't even know we USE those books ? But, after a couple weeks of mom secretly inside on a low simmer about it , I realized.. He doesn't even realize we do as much as we do. ....YAY!!! Ha-ha :) This means, we are doing it in a way that all these different books/curriculums don't seem as daunting to him as they could be. SUCCESS! :) I felt way better then . The point is, look for successes where they may seem at first to be a negative. Big big hugs. Theses boards have been a lifesaver for me as well. Just as onestep said. :)

Reader, Big hugs. This is hard I know. You talk about "erasing memory" issues. Have you, and I know this can sound goofy to some, have you thought about possibly he could be having seizures? They can be very subtle and us not even know it is happening . for us it was a stare and far off look. that....was him having small seizures ( don't know how small they could have been BC they wiped out memory when they happened ) It may no b happening with you DC but it sounds like you're describing the other side of what happens when seizures are part of the mix. It's very difficult to find or know esp. If they are subtle. (Not laying in the floor flopping around, thata obvious, for us, noon would even know it was happening ) I read alot and from a small tyke I knew that "look" was wrong but didn't know why. Seizures will produce the kind of thing you're describing . I would strongly encourage you to pursue this. Its so hard tho to find and know for sure . Honestly , we just treated the seizures not knowing fir sure ( lime evidence on a scan etc.) Seizure scarring can show up in a scan, the results can also be interpreted in different ways. For us, my little guys are adopted and had druf and alcohol exposure in the womb. So, there has been alot to sift through . which is why what was coming up on the mri's was unclear for awhile. Thank goodness one day while having a scan, he had a seizure . now we know for sure. We take intuniv at night and this has, well, I was thinking yesterday, I dint think I've seen that far off look from him in quite awhile and we have been moving forward much quicker than we ever have. I am not a huge fan of meds, never used them with my kids and was very hesitant to this time. But, we needed it and has helped tremendously . Have you thought about a possible ADHD med to help with focus fir school time ? I ask this because it can greatly increase the odds, the learning, retention ,and confidence. Fir our guys, confidence is huge and they can make greater strides when they are feeling confident . Even if he doesn't have ADHD the meds for it can increase focus which leads to the things listed above. There are some good ones out today. We are on vyvanse and it works wonders for us ( not saying it would for you) My son does have ADHD tho, so, it REALLY helps him. I agree with the previous posts on all of it lol . W have alot of "going backwards" here too. We went back to the beginning of everything and retaught. This has helped tremendously . We too have been told, no college , doubted even HS, learning to read? They have said ,well, pro's gave given a grim outlook/long-term prognosis. I ,like you, refuse to accept thst for my son. We will as funly (I know not a word, adding humor is my best friend lol) as possible to cement the ideas , concepts , what have you. APD : our kids are masters of compensation . alot of the professionals missed I with my boys. It's been my experience, just BC the pros say he doesn't have it, doesn't mean he doesn't. It sounds like some if that is goin on to me. My youngest, for years they said, APD was present, but not severe . Come to find out from our last round of evals , it IS severe . All the times in OS when they treated itbas behavioral issue, was APD. I knew it then, didn't know it was assevere as it is. Masters...at compensating , which makes diagnosing hard sometimes . I would investigate / be on the lookout , fir seizures happening. Get an EXPERIENCED audiologist to eval him. And like the others have said, look at your successes :) sure helps me, and him. I had to remember this one. Start a journal . what happens when, how he responded. Watch his behavior and log everything. Things you think may be insignificant can later you find, they may be huge. And I agree w pp, sometimes we have to change our perspective. Quick case in point. ....

I agree. That's exactly what I'd do. I used the mus to introduce the lesson we were going to be working on in Singapore. I'm a huge Singapore and mus fan. I hear alot if good about ClE. I used Saxon with my big kids. Just make sure you focus in mastery of a concept before you move on. They are a spiral program and mastery can get lost. Spend enough time as you need and buy a practice book if some sort. Like maybe a keys to ____. Still do the review problems in the book. It's good for review so you aren't forgetting things. I wish I had done more practice per concept with them in Saxon.

Yea. I forgot storygirl. We had them too but we started early. That was almost 9 years ago. I think I had it in case I needed it. But they came back with doing everything so I didn't give it to them. Ours was pretty good. Overall. Everything has a down side. But he fit to work in the social part everyday from age 3 . he needed that intensive time. They set their goals not where I would , or would want them. And they graduated them early from a thing or 2, but overall for us, the services part was pretty good. We were fortunate there tho I know. Not all of them are like that. It does have its benefits. I think there's different seasons in life for them and us, you kind of need to just be evaluating hoe life is fir you right now and what's the best thing you can do overall to help the situation within what you have to work with. That's what we do. Been in ps some, private therapies, for a time we were doing both. We're makin alot if headway AR home now overall. When they were in the PS, it's what they needed. My ds12 couldn't and didn't know how to respond, interact, nothing. It was good for him and he has a really good sn teacher and food therapists there . that's that school tho. Might go to the next town over and it not be so good We are rural, someone said the rural places usually are more equipped to provide that stuff because there's a greater need there. That's how it is here. So we got lucky. I toured our school alot beforehand. I spent days there at different places. ...they all knew me lol. And that I was payin attny and working w him at home. Was good experience for us, then. Not now lol

Hahahab awww. Cheap date made me laugh out loud. :) Man you got to see alot of the country huh? Thats awesome. There's so much of the u.s. I wanna see. That had to be frustrating adapting to the different regions (accents, culture) My hubby's a navy brat. Hated moving.

I agree on getting her evaluated. Definitely sounds like some issues going on . I think it could be a bonding experience fir you both too. She will see mom trying to help her and she will be getting the help she needs which will alleviate some of the frustration esp. For her. You don't really know what went on in the womb. Any kind of exposure to things definitely trip thses kids up. My 2 lil guys are adopted. We brought them home from hospital which means we made sure certain teats were run there to check for exposure. Sounds like maybe she came to you a little but older ? I strongly recommend evals.

Flower girl, they probably are different editions. I thought I had looked at practice and it was still MC. Oh wait....I know, it changed somewhere along the line I noticed to extra practice to practice math or, it may be one practice book is for different versions of SM . That could very well be, or, they phased out EP to go with MP . Not sure which. Either way it hasn't hampered us. We spiral anyway.

Memorizing rules has so far been next to impossible .bbit we still work at it, I don't have as much concern spelling ( I know it's an important tool to be a good reader) but if they can , fir us, read and interpret , and implement well the information ? For me I'm OK with not frustrating them more with spelling . they'll have spellcheck in college and as adult. They'll have it HS too. Heck, they have it now. I've gone morwryping things when we can. They have to look for the letter or at least be trying to remember finder position that fir my boys , they are constantly saying it to remember if haha. Guess that's where wm can benefit lol. I kinda wanna try apples and pears

P.S. I'm seriously considering using the students doing their clinical ( under the guidance of seasoned certified instructor s) to do some therapies. We've been in private settings where we had younger newer therapist have to constantly go ask the mentor questions ( all while on my dime mind you) I don't think it would be much different here and probably more effective in some ways BC the ones doing their clin incals usually are more eagle eyed than in an est. Practice private setting.

PS does view it through a different lens than the parent fir sure. When money is an issue, PS is handy to have. I agree you get more privately, but finances sure do dictate that. We had private mis diagnose too but more botching def went on in the PS . We got as much pricing as we could from the university then back tracked in out budget. Cut out certain things and set it aside in savings so we could go the university route. Even then we spent more than we ballpark budgeted. And we have had to prioritize the therapies. Some only last for a time, others are ongoing. VT we put last. PS is a good place to start when finances rule out private. I would encourage you to start a "university fund" lol. I cannot tell you how superior it was even to the best private place in the tri county area.

I think it's important to note again what many have said here on the boards and always good ( for me at least to be reminded) ....the overall goal for any child is functioning to the best of their ability in adult life. Even more important to remember with our kids. So what if they aren't good spellers, they'll have spellcheck . So what if they have trouble in area X, there will be ways to work around things in adulthood . Alot of kids like ours are MASTERS at compensating. ( which sometimes makes it difficult to detect and correct the issues)

We do what The Reader does too. I read the directions to them and write out some of it too. She makes a hugely important point there. Some of the stuggle is going to be the dyslexia and dyscalcula. Take those out the equation and you can get down to business of the matter at hand.

Yes OhE, You're so right. It took me awhile to understand they weren't able to carry over to other areas. Thank you for the reminder. Thsts a big issue for us with math. They learn how to do it in 1 realm and totally clueless like they've never seen it before in other areas . which is true actually cuz they haven't seen it in the other areas. Boy how labor intensive when I say it outloud ( type it out loud lol) No wonder I'm tired!! Ha-ha. There's where so much of the work cones in. Fir every single concept learned I have to the go laterally to ..ugh...every...other...aspect of life. It's Greek to them when I try to carry over to another situation. Singapore has helped alot with teaching/training moving laterally in their heads but. So much more work to be done. Then, have to practice practice practice every single other area too. K. I'm making myself tired thinking about it lol. I love that about the boards tho. Accountability and can work it out in my head as I type it. Kinda like virtual brainstorming. Thanks so much for that ladies. Helps this mama a ton. Side note: part of it really is training mom too. To think the way they do. The carry over part and never assume they'll be able to do that in a different area. Thanks OhE . :)

Wow! I looked at and read the research part of MC/Cody math. Just wow. I am going to do that. My boys would love it. Thank you so much for the link. I'm so excited . We are tying to free space on tablets and a laptop. That is so much work :/

Onestep good comment. You said that well. Was similar here. I'm sure his private therapists when he was younger mentioned it but mom was on overload and brain deflecting lol. It wasn't until this board that I realized the difference and could begin to process in my own brain about it. Sometimes there just seems to be so much. My DS is going to go too. I put that at the end of the list lol. From reading here I see more now the need and benefits from it. Now his reg./daily vision is not so hot even tho the vision for sight came back fine a couple years ago . ( I know couple years makes a big difference) I wish my brain could have taken in the VT stuff on this board earlier. I'm sure it would have helped him more with reading and beyond. Onestep, glad you got your new specs too :) I can't see diddly squat lol. I was the kid in elementary school with the glasses as thick as coke bottles and bright red hair haha. (Kids are mean lol)

Op, storygirl is right. I would pursue testing with them. I know how discrouaging it can be and flat out is sometimes esp. With the experience you've had. Not all are great about it. She's right tho, you don't have to go through the Hassel of seeking services from them but it's a "free" ( not rreally BC our tax dollars pay for it) avenue to get them tested and have kind of feel for what's going on. I agree with op on feeling how futile it may be/seem given their lackadaisical attitude And honestly, the PS here missed alot with my boys but what they did diagnose was correct and gave us those things to work on until we went to the university. The university has been by far the most comprehensive evals we've had including what was done privately when they were younger. But, they were younger too, too young for some of the testings . I know it's frustrating and upsetting . I walked into our PS the day after his 3rd birthday and was basically like, ...hi, were here and ready lol. Seriously, I just showed up and they had no choice but to get the ball rolling.

Glad to hear. Thank you. I'm going to get the SN recommend guides. And go slow. Hoping to do more shared reading of the books . Ya know, more them reading a little less mom. I can't keep doing all the reading. I'm tired lol. We like beautiful feet but the MP has the lit student workbooks that seem very cool. You don't have thst with BF. And I'm burn out on reading everything myself and pulling info out of them. Thanks for the feedback.

....and in HS duell enrollt roughly same material , cheaper , and counts twice :) love duall enrollment At the comm. Coll.

I like that,and agree. Well said :)

Visual thinking is MC. I ordered them first. After them I never questioned the other supplements. I really like the practice sheets tho.

Yes Michelle that's what mine says. The EP bks aren't published by MC. Huh. I never even noticed that. I just ordered in eBay a couple of them and even said....outloud , I was dictating hubby was typing. I told him which one. I forgot the name of the SM pub. Iys been awhile since I've bought any if the curriculum. I got alot at once , some used. We use these book to spiral it. The visual thinking books by them are good too. They are like puzzles but math puzzles. You do problems forward backwards ( literally!) I love it. They are more labor intensive but fun.

Yes. They are called extra practice . I'm looking at one of mine right now 3A. A circle right below that says appropriate for students in grades 4. I hope I didn't mispeak earlier. I vet confused sometimes. SM #'s make it look like we are a year behind but it's not. I think they go at grade level tho.v