What do I do if my son is not ready for school?

[mom2agang]

My son will be 6 in Nov. In MI by law he has to do school. HE has severe (REALLY severe) verbal apraxia and isn't mature enough or vocal enough to learn to read. What do I do? He can't trace well and writing is hard.He tries but letters are not there. He's in speech 2x a week and I don't want them to think "We don't do any school." But he isn't ready! I have been trying preschool but no avail.

[PeterPan]

I don't want to add to your stress load, but have you ever looked at PROMPT? It's amazing for verbal apraxia, night and day. We drive 2 1/2 hours each way. You do less sessions because it's way more effective. Weekly is the normal starting point. Just something to look into. Also flax or fish oil can make a HUGE difference.

 

Have you done Earobics yet? Our SLP wants ds to start, and I just haven't bought it yet. Works on their phonemic awareness. (sounds, rhyming, syllabication, etc.)

 

As far as actual curriculum, have you ascertained what kind of learner he is? Our SLP did a VMPAC (motor control test) which, while testing their motor control (the apraxia) also goes through the learning modalities. So if they can't make the target, the therapist gives oral instructions on how to make the target ("round your lips") and if that doesn't work they give visual (they demonstrate the rounding) and if that doesn't work they give kinesthetic (putting their hands on and moving). My ds turns out to be DOMINANTLY kinesthetic. Also explains why imitation-based therapy didn't have a chance of flying with him, because he really needs the physical input you get with PROMPT.

 

Anyways, with that information, I decided my goal was to DO things with him. He's crazy for cut and paste. I got the MFW K5 and started it this past week with him. The activities are awesome, books are awesome. And I'm making myself pretty free to skip pages and things that aren't going to work. I don't really care if he does the actual reading (sounding out) in it or not. For us it's just a fun letter of the week study with lots of kinesthetic, making it a reasonable option. The book basket is very good. If you use the book basket, you're hitting science, literature, etc. etc. Might be a very good option in your shoes. We rearranged the letters on the advice of the SLP. She said basically not to cover anything that he can't say.

 

The main thing to me is to tap that learning modality. I have a trampoline beside our table (3' rebounder, not a huge one, haha). He works for a bit with me and then jumps for a while and comes back. He actually requests school. He loves the puppet from AAR-pre level, but at this point I can't recommend AAR pre- for apraxia. Or I'll put that another way. If there's no foundation of age-typical phonemic awareness, the dc will get swamped in the very first week. It assumes too much foundation. I have to look at it some more and decide what we're going to do. I may rearrange the Ziggy lessons or I may have to pause it and do Earobics first. I was talking with a friend last night who said she basically had to do that. They did Earobics first and THEN went back to the Ziggy activities and were doing better.

 

I'm saying that if he hasn't done Earobics yet, I would do that, add on some reading (read alouds) and activities to appeal to that kinesthetic side, and call it a day.

 

BTW, we like the activity cards from MFW for preschool and toddlers a LOT. They hit a lot of your basic skills and might be a good starting point for him. We basically use one card and are done for attention, haha. They're very rich and easy to implement.

Edited July 14, 2012 by OhElizabeth

[SkateLeft]

If he isn't ready for traditional academics, then he isn't ready. I'm not familiar with MI law, but I suspect you can meet him where he is and still think of it as "school" for legal purposes. After all, that's pretty much what the school districts do in their special education programs.

 

He might not be ready to learn to read, but working on his speech and language skills counts as education! There are probably lots of educational experiences that he has all day long that might not look like traditional academics.

 

For my special needs kid, who is 6.5yo, I make up a set of goals, similar to the IEP he had when he was in special ed preschool through our district. We work towards those goals, and I consider that part of his "school work" even though it might not look like a traditional kindergarten or first grade curriculum.

[momtotkbb]

By law you may be required to "do school" but do they specify what school must entail? Think of it this way - if he were in ps but not at K level they would work with him at his level in a special ed classroom. I bet you are doing more "school" than you realize - it may not be filling out workbooks but I bet a lot of what you do day to day would be school. Don't forget Speech also is part of school and I bet you have homework for speech therapy. Does he attend any other therapies? Do you read aloud to him? Does he play with toys? Go to the grocery store with you? Help with things around the house? Writing is difficult - what about magnets for letters/numbers -- can he pick up the letter A magnet if you ask for it? Can he match cards -- number 1 w/ a card with 1 animal? Can he trace a large letter that you make in shaving cream or paint -- pudding is really fun? If letters and numbers are too hard right now - what about starting w/ straight lines, then wavy lines, then circles, etc. You might look at http://www.callirobics.com.

 

You tell me what you do each day and I bet I can show you how it is school. A time will come and yes, it's what you want to work toward as a goal for more "book school", but for now your school may not look like that, but it's okay you're meeting him where he needs to be.

[PeterPan]

Timberdoodle has Magnatab things for writing that are neat. It has metal beads that pop up when you drag the stylus. I assume you're also checking into OT? He may be low tone or have a developmental delay and benefit from it.

[mom2agang]

I am scheduling OT. Last fall we started the Kaufman program for speech. http://www.kidspeech.com/ And have been very pleased with the results with our other son and this son but this son is the worst and is inmature. ( Before that we just did normal speech. Now I see a big difference!! The DVD sample shows how it is taught. http://www.kaufmandvd.com/ My kids are FAR from talking that good.) He is VERY hands on. I will look into hands on stuff more. ( thanks for ideas on making things hands on.) We have an experienced speech therapist. (30 yrs) and she was floored at how bad my kids were. She has never seen a kid that bad.( And I have 4. Strange its all my boys)

 

Never heard of earobics. We don't have PROMPT around us.

[PeterPan]

PROMPT is more effective than Kauffman, if you can get it. [sorry, that was an extremely b&w statement, but there you go] Some people will come from out of state and do a week of intensive therapy and then go home. During that time, that one week, the therapist does multiple sessions and also teaches the parent how to carry it over at home. Some dc will go from non-verbal to verbal in that time. http://www.teachtofeed.com is who we use. A *certified* PROMPT therapist is worth driving for. We only go once a month now. Makes the long drive easier.

 

I'm not saying that to guilt-trip you or something. I'm just saying when you have a mess of a situation and want answers, it's an answer.

 

Good on getting the OT eval. They'll also screen for spectrum. Sometimes immaturity is covering for all the problems they're having, and sometimes it's indication of another problem. Sometimes it's both.

[AmyontheFarm]

I bet you are doing more school then you realize.

:grouphug:

My ds is supposed to be in grade 6 this fall. In L.A. he is more at a grade 3 level, in using a pencil he's at a SK level. At math he is at grade 6 level.

 

I built my son's school schedule around his Large motor OT, Fine motor OT, and Speech Therapy. Then I filled in the gaps. It was amazing how his IEP fleshed out so quickly! The school board was extremely happy with what I was planning and I'm amazed at how far he's come in one year.

 

Of course, my IEP for him was over 10 pages long while their's was barely 4 and each page had a ton of white space on it!

[MomatHWTK]

If you are teaching information, showing him things and exposing him to knowledge- then you are doing school. :grouphug: Experience the world, watch documentaries, watch early learning programs, use play to learn and continue to work on his needs.

[Ottakee]

In Michigan the laws are pretty easy.

 

I would do lots of hands on things--computer if he can, puzzles, games, physical activites, the therapy, etc. http://www.timberdoodle.com has lots of things we have used. If you can afford one, an ipad would have lots of educational apps that he could likely do on his own that don't require his verbal skills.

[Dobela]

You can begin with matching letters and numbers that are the same, asking him to point to them when you name them, having him match the number to the correct set of items, and so on if you want to do something more academic. Maybe teach him the sign language for his letters and numbers. You can talk to him about all sorts of topics, do unit studies of things that interest him, do lots of field trips, walks, read lots of books, and so on. He can still be learning even if he isn't able to give you the information you want in the usual way.

[MomatHWTK]

Wanted to add- I am using Starfall.com (subscription version) and some of the early learning resources at learning.com for my youngest. He's not pointing and clicking yet so I do the actual "work" and he just watches the output. The Starfall.com materials are his favorite. There are some fun printables on various topics at Sparklebox.com that I enjoy using as well.