Moms w/ kids who have LDs or Behavioral issues - help me please!

[Marie131]

My 8 y/o son has been such a challenge this year.  We are waiting for an eval for him, but some of the things we could be looking at are ASD, dyslexia, dysgraphia and/or giftedness.  He also has executive function issues and he may have some speech issues as well.

 

The start to this year has been awful.  If he walks away learning anything, I will be shocked.  He is very uncooperative which I suspect is from feeling overwhelmed, but I honestly don't understand why he should feel that way as I think his curriculum is well matched for him.  I did not have problems like this last year or the year before.

 

My resource teacher has suggested I drop everything that overwhelms him and stick w/ what he likes.  That is fine, but I have a hard time letting it go as what he is left doing doesn't feel like enough.  Particularly for LA, which is the area where he struggles.

 

We have had many power struggles and I probably consider enrolling him in public school at least 2 or 3 days a week. I really don't want him to go to public school but I am just feeling so desperate.

 

Does it have to be this hard?

[PeterPan]

Your resource teacher is right.  Sometimes what works well is to weave your target skills back in using things that interest them.  For instance my dd went through a recipe-writing stage right about that age.  She wouldn't do formal handwriting, but she filled tons of cards with her little strange recipes!  Maybe he has interests like that you can harness or discretely, without him even realizing it, let them weave in some skills.  

 

How long till you get the evals?  Can you get a mom's helper so you can have some time with him where you're not distracted?  

[DawnM]

I wish I had let go of some things when my oldest was 8.   I stressed him out so much.  He didn't read at all until he was 9.  He struggled so much and his anxiety was so high and it was largely because of ME!  He is now 15, almost 16, and is doing SO much better.   He is performing at an 8th grade level for the most part and we are ok with that.

 

I am surprised you have the option to put him in school the days you wish to do that.   I have never heard of that before.

 

 

[Farrar]

I also agree with the resource teacher.  Oftentimes on here, I see people saying that when things started to go wrong, they cut back to the very basics in language arts and math.  That sounds like it would be a good idea, except when you do that, you almost always cut out that one thing that's working, be it art or science or nature studies or logic puzzles or whatever.  Instead of trying to do the least and do the "important" things, I think it usually is a better idea to start in the place of strength, even if it's writing about Minecraft or reading piles of graphic novels or drawing elaborate designs.  And then move from there.

[BlsdMama]

Marie,

 

We are in the process of having a full evaluation for our 8yo son. We have avoided a lot of the frustration that kids with challenges face and I believe it is exactly because we didn't push him. In the long run, I believe by going slow and steady, doing what we can do cheerfully, we've gotten further than piling on a load.

 

It was more important to me that or lessons had a willing TRY than to get x amount done. I truly believe it's the ONLY reason he's solidly reading right now, because he was willing to put forth effort because we didn't frustrate him. (2) ten minute reading lessons at HIS level was often all we did for the day.

 

Is he " behind?" Absolutely IF we compared him to the average third grader, but that would be a silly thing to do. We just got his test results and his memory is a bit like Swiss cheese. It's amazing that he's reading as well as he is, or at all really.

 

We're using a private educational psychologist for more testing next week. I would be more than happy to share our experiences. We have a family history of dyslexia and this office feels DS may not have low cognitive ability (IQ), just profoundly severe dyslexia.

[Hunter]

PS will not help. Take it from a mom who had her kid in PS until 5th grade, and then pulled him out to homeschool. Atypical kids don't do well in PS.

 

Some LDs don't show up, until you hit more difficult lessons. Depending on the curriculum, 3rd grade and 4th grade can be a big jump in expectations. Ambleside Online actually created a year called 3.5, just because so many students were not able to make the jump from grade 3 to grade 4. Some students just need another year to mature, others need the LD identified.

 

It doesn't sound like this is the case, but LD students can ALSO have behavior problems or mental health issues. Sometimes it's not the LD causing the problem, even though an LD is present.

 

I always felt like I was flying blind when schooling my son. I did the best I could and knew that was better than the PS could do, and just had to rest in a job poorly done, but a job DONE, if you know what I mean.

 

Now that I have hindsight, and more time and money to research and purchase curriculum, I sometimes wish I could go back and try a few things differently, but all in all, I don't think I could have made that much of a total impact, if I could do a do over.

 

First off be a mom. Focus on character and the rhythm of nature, the home and family, and church (if you have one). Make meals, eat them at the table. Do read alouds. Share your religion if you have one. Have the child learn to WORK and teach character. Keep the HOME in HOMEschooling.

 

Do some art, music, fiber crafts, PE, and nature study. Read from your holy book if you have one and sing songs. Mind, body and soul balance is critically important for these kids. Maybe take a look at some Waldorf resources and methods.

 

Try not to get anxious. It rubs off on the child and does him no good. Try to reign this all in, and create a safe space for him that is bigger than his academic achievements. Let school be a small part of a very full life.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

yep I would drop all but what interests him for now....

[Trilliums]

I have two teenage boys, gifted w/LDs (nonverbal LD or dyslexia or ??).  We homeschooled grades 1-9/10. 

 

When I first started researching LDs and how to handle my kids' education, I came across a psychologist claiming that if your kids fell behind in academics by grade 2, they would forever be behind and left floundering in an attempt to catch up.   This caused much panic as my kids were definitely behind and falling farther behind the longer we homeschooled.  I think many homeschool parents have this same notion and they worry inordinately about the kids staying on track or else all is lost.  But, for our family, that claim has been false and I regret ever reading it because it kept me hung up on performance for at least an extra year of homeschooling.  My kids' learning did not progress in neat linear packages easily assessed by standardized testing.  They excelled in conceptual development but lagged far behind in the mechanics and output.  Our homeschooling was verbal, visual, interactive and hands on.  They did little seat work or writing. We exhausted the library resources in math and science readers.  We read, watched, listened and we talked about everything and anything we came across.  I read out loud while they played with legos and moon sand.  Check out living math for a wealth of ideas on developing math understanding without a math program.

 

By middle school ages, my kids out put capabilities grew stronger.  Reading, writing, math basics were coming together for them.  For them, much of this was developmental, but also there was a practical side.  They continued to follow their interests in science and reached a point where they needed more math to understand the concepts (Thank you Khan Academy and MIT OCW!)  Even though they started out grades 6 and 7 behind, by the end of 8th and 9th grades, they were caught up and on an advanced track.  As far as writing goes (oh what a source of worry and angst for me!!), I now see that developing critical thinking / logic skills and verbally expressing ideas for years created a great foundation for essay writing.  The mechanics of writing have been picked up quickly. Coming up with interesting things to write is the hard part but kids who have had the freedom to think and discuss issues (even silly ones) imo have a rich source to draw from.

 

I did cycle through trying various curriculum.  Some were hits but lots were misses.  I kept trying but not forcing.  I listened to their input and was honest with them about my views on education and learning.  I am so glad we were able to homeschool.  I think ps would have just withered my boys love of learning at a young age.  Even in high school they talk about how grade focused the class structure is.  The concern is not on mastering the info, but on getting a good grade.  I hope they continue to do a mix of both.

 

DS#1 started in ps last year (grade 10) to take advantage of AP classes and honors math.  This year in grade 11 he takes classes at the University and high school and plans on hsing full time grade 12 since he has exhausted the advanced math and science at the high school.  DS#2 stared ps last year for grade 9 and plans on taking Univ classes in computer programming for grade 11.  AP Comp Sci has been a joy and an ease for him.

 

So that's my family's transformation story.  I started out homeschooling a 1st grader who declared that he hated math and believed he was horrible at it.  He disliked going to the library (the first year of homeschooling I had to drag him to the library and then he would just stand there and not look at any books).  He told me he would manage just fine without ever learning how to read.  Now he is in second semester physics at our local University with test socres of100%, he frequently asks when our next library trip will be, and he can't wait to take linear algebra next year because AP Calculus BC is all stuff he has already watched on coursera.  And he got there largely by me letting go of much of the academic expectations of elementary and instead focusing on what the kids liked.

 

[kitten18]

I have two teenage boys, gifted w/LDs (nonverbal LD or dyslexia or ??). We homeschooled grades 1-9/10.

 

When I first started researching LDs and how to handle my kids' education, I came across a psychologist claiming that if your kids fell behind in academics by grade 2, they would forever be behind and left floundering in an attempt to catch up. This caused much panic as my kids were definitely behind and falling farther behind the longer we homeschooled. I think many homeschool parents have this same notion and they worry inordinately about the kids staying on track or else all is lost. But, for our family, that claim has been false and I regret ever reading it because it kept me hung up on performance for at least an extra year of homeschooling. My kids' learning did not progress in neat linear packages easily assessed by standardized testing. They excelled in conceptual development but lagged far behind in the mechanics and output. Our homeschooling was verbal, visual, interactive and hands on. They did little seat work or writing. We exhausted the library resources in math and science readers. We read, watched, listened and we talked about everything and anything we came across. I read out loud while they played with legos and moon sand. Check out living math for a wealth of ideas on developing math understanding without a math program.

 

By middle school ages, my kids out put capabilities grew stronger. Reading, writing, math basics were coming together for them. For them, much of this was developmental, but also there was a practical side. They continued to follow their interests in science and reached a point where they needed more math to understand the concepts (Thank you Khan Academy and MIT OCW!) Even though they started out grades 6 and 7 behind, by the end of 8th and 9th grades, they were caught up and on an advanced track. As far as writing goes (oh what a source of worry and angst for me!!), I now see that developing critical thinking / logic skills and verbally expressing ideas for years created a great foundation for essay writing. The mechanics of writing have been picked up quickly. Coming up with interesting things to write is the hard part but kids who have had the freedom to think and discuss issues (even silly ones) imo have a rich source to draw from.

 

I did cycle through trying various curriculum. Some were hits but lots were misses. I kept trying but not forcing. I listened to their input and was honest with them about my views on education and learning. I am so glad we were able to homeschool. I think ps would have just withered my boys love of learning at a young age. Even in high school they talk about how grade focused the class structure is. The concern is not on mastering the info, but on getting a good grade. I hope they continue to do a mix of both.

 

DS#1 started in ps last year (grade 10) to take advantage of AP classes and honors math. This year in grade 11 he takes classes at the University and high school and plans on hsing full time grade 12 since he has exhausted the advanced math and science at the high school. DS#2 stared ps last year for grade 9 and plans on taking Univ classes in computer programming for grade 11. AP Comp Sci has been a joy and an ease for him.

 

So that's my family's transformation story. I started out homeschooling a 1st grader who declared that he hated math and believed he was horrible at it. He disliked going to the library (the first year of homeschooling I had to drag him to the library and then he would just stand there and not look at any books). He told me he would manage just fine without ever learning how to read. Now he is in second semester physics at our local University with test socres of100%, he frequently asks when our next library trip will be, and he can't wait to take linear algebra next year because AP Calculus BC is all stuff he has already watched on coursera. And he got there largely by me letting go of much of the academic expectations of elementary and instead focusing on what the kids liked.

Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful story!

[JennW in SoCal]

Yet another mom chiming in to say the resource teacher is right.  Set your child free to read about and do what interests him, and be sure to learn about his interests and engage him in discussions about it.  Point out connections to history, math, geography, or anything else that you see.  Help him count his collections, sort things, categorize them, draw them, label them.  ALL of that IS learning.  It just does not look like what your curriculum has laid out.

 

Those of us moms who did well in school see education as a cut and dry affair.  You the teacher uses a curriculum, follows the instructions and out comes an educated child.  But, that is only one narrow path to an education.  Learning, especially for an 8 year old, can happen in all sorts of situations.  The key is capturing the thing that is working and build upon it.  

 

For instance......... if ancient Egypt captures a child's interest, you read about it, both factual history books and historical fiction.  Watch any documentary you can find from NOVA programs to travel shows.  You find books on hieroglyphics and let them figure out how write everyone's names.  You draw maps, find Egypt on the globe, find it in satellite photographs.  You have covered language arts, history and geography right there.  If you look into how the pyramids were built you've got some science.  If you look at how they mummified bodies and consider the organs that get saved in the little jars (what are they called?!)  you've got more science because you can read about those organs.  You can do crafts.  You can explore ancient number systems, try adding and subtracting using those systems and compare them to the ease of using our numbers.  

 

None of that will look like school.  None of it will feel like school to your child, but he will be learning because he is free from the stress of trying to fit into the expectations of what school "should" look like.  At some point you do need to address LDs because your child will need basic skills and a varied "tool box" for coping with those LDs.  

 

Any interest can be turned into a learning opportunity.  I got one of mine through high school by treating most of school like that.  History, science projects, literature reading lists were ALL designed around his interests because in spite of being gifted, he struggled so with standard school.  He is a college graduate, gainfully employed in his dream job (that was his passionate interest since about age 11) and an all round fine young man.  He is SO thankful I homeschooled him, thankful of the leeway I gave him.

[Jilly]

I would take a moment to step back from the situation and evaluate your goals for him. I know I was very overwhelmed when my kids were younger and they were learning in a very asynchronous way, but I realized what was important to me was that they loved learning. For that to be possible I had to let go of many of my ideas about what learning looks like. For my twins I realized they loved history, audiobooks, science, legos, and drawing. That was what I had to work with for many years. Up to age ten or so they would listen to audiobooks for hours a day while they drew or built legos. I would read aloud to them from history and science books and we would do some hands-on projects. These were our days and to many they would not seem very educational, but it did work for them. Today they very much love to learn, and they are doing great. Hang in there because it will work out in the end. 

[kbutton]

Anxiety is not nice, and I imagine that's a lot of what is going on. Our DS 9 has Asperger's, and anxiety is par for the course--it came out in our son's behavior, such as avoiding tasks, avoiding challenges, being controlling, being crabby, sensory meltdown, etc. I had no idea that anxiety was underlying all of it because it didn't look like anxiety to me (our other son worries out loud all the time, so that is what I associated with anxiety). We backed off a lot last year, in the style that BlsdMama describes. We didn't go totally unschool, but we redefined our goals (work on something x amount of time with real effort and a good attitude, etc.), did find things that our son genuinely enjoyed (science, grammar), and tried to inject a lot of fun (board games, reading, family time) into our non-academic time. We did pull out of some evening activities to help with sleep (and have successfully added one back in this year). I chose that method because my son was not struggling academically, just in his confidence about his abilities, and he is very habit driven for good or for ill. If I had not kept up some mild academics, we would have had a bigger fight this year. Surprisingly, my son has been leaping over milestones this year that terrified him last year (and were well-matched to his abilities last year). Conquering the worst of the anxiety helped tremendously. I am still not sure what was causing my son's anxiety, but I think a lot of it was due to his expectations, many of which were really out of whack. He was also very tired all the time, and he would not spend the time alone that he needed to invest in order to recharge. We also received a diagnosis at the end of the year, so I am sure some of our expectations were off a bit as well--he is worlds apart with his cognitive abilities and the stamina to handle being pushed, and a diagnosis helped us see that more clearly.

[Pen]

My 8 y/o son has been such a challenge this year.  We are waiting for an eval for him, but some of the things we could be looking at are ASD, dyslexia, dysgraphia and/or giftedness.  He also has executive function issues and he may have some speech issues as well.

 

The start to this year has been awful.  If he walks away learning anything, I will be shocked.  He is very uncooperative which I suspect is from feeling overwhelmed, but I honestly don't understand why he should feel that way as I think his curriculum is well matched for him.  I did not have problems like this last year or the year before.

 

My resource teacher has suggested I drop everything that overwhelms him and stick w/ what he likes.  That is fine, but I have a hard time letting it go as what he is left doing doesn't feel like enough.  Particularly for LA, which is the area where he struggles.

 

We have had many power struggles and I probably consider enrolling him in public school at least 2 or 3 days a week. I really don't want him to go to public school but I am just feeling so desperate.

 

Does it have to be this hard?

 

 

What is your son able to do/or not able to do?  Especially in the LA area.

 

At around that age I dropped almost all other subjects to work on just reading with my son.  My only regret was that math had been "ahead" and should have been given more continuity during the intensive reading stage, since not doing it meant it got forgotten.   Once he was reading well, almost everything else became much easier too.    During the intensive reading phase we did other subjects to keep up learning via audiovisual means.  We still do do a lot via audiovisual means since that is a good fit for him.

 

I'm probably in agreement also with the resource teacher--except that it is not clear what the LA areas that you think would then be missing are and whether they should be dropped or whether a way should be found to do them in a way that does not overwhelm him.

[Marie131]

Pen, his LA problems are mostly w/ handwriting and spelling.  He's a good reader, but his writing is nowhere near where it should be.  However, he loves to write and it hasn't inhibited his creative writing at all.  He writes many interesting, creative stories but the mechanics aren't there.  We are working on typing this year and he's motivated to learn.  However, it's not so much his writing that overwhelms him, it seems like anything that makes him work is meltdown worthy.  Be it Bible memory or subtraction.

 

I have to thank each and every one of you for responding to my post.  I am feeling encouraged.  I talked w/ my dh about this and I think I need to accept the fact that he is not going to work at grade level, at least not this year.  This is really hard for me since I know he is an amazing, bright kid.  But there seems to be some things getting in the way.  We first need to work out what those things are before we can move forward with a plan to help him.  It really seems like we hit a wall.  We were cruising along just fine and all of a sudden we can't seem to move forward any longer.  It is really hard for me to accept this.  But I can't make him do what is impossible for him.

[PeterPan]

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by

Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

 

[Pen]

Pen, his LA problems are mostly w/ handwriting and spelling.  He's a good reader, but his writing is nowhere near where it should be.  However, he loves to write and it hasn't inhibited his creative writing at all.  He writes many interesting, creative stories but the mechanics aren't there.  We are working on typing this year and he's motivated to learn.  However, it's not so much his writing that overwhelms him, it seems like anything that makes him work is meltdown worthy.  Be it Bible memory or subtraction.

 

 

 

 

Don't know what you should do, but in case it helps, I'll share personal experience.  I had been sold on handwriting being important, and had tried it from when I first pulled my ds from b&m school through grade 3--and then came to realize that we were getting nowhere with it. It was a silly waste of time, he could do it in one sense as art, but he could not read it, so what was the point.   I allowed him to print his way, and also started him on typing--partly btw Typing Instructor for Kids that was so fun it was used as rewards for other stuff that was not so fun.  Someday I hope he will be able to do cursive enough that he can at least do a reasonable personal signature, and be able to read cursive written by others, but I do not expect he will ever write in cursive himself.

 

Spelling was pretty hopeless also.   He writes poetry and reads it aloud to me so I do not see the spelling usually.   He's had two poems published in a local publication.   Spell check picked up most of the errors before submission, and the editor fixed one that spell check and I had both missed.   Apparently poor spelling can be remedied to some degree by technology and overlooked in favor of creativity in other cases.  Beyond that,  all of a sudden at age 11, he has had days when working on spelling is what he has wanted to do for his whole LA session.  At 15 minutes I say something like okay, I think you've done enough spelling for the day, and he says aww, mom, can't I do a whole hour....    not something I'd ever have thought would happen looking at things from an age 8 position--not even if we were in Italy instead of Holland.  

 

Anyway, if your ds likes to write stories, I'd keep him doing that, and gradually work up on the mechanics to go with them.  Classical ed. emphasizes mechanics work first, but it need not be so.

 

Now, we also have certainly had our share of meltdowns and dislike of working hard at things.   That has been its own area of focus at times, using things like Carol Dweck's Mindset ideas, the Ben Carson biopic Gifted Hands, The Marva Collins Story, and other such things to help with that.   Although verse  memorization is not a strongpoint around here either, we have also tried for some poems or other quotes that emphasize hard work.  None is actually exactly memorized, but at least the message got in there to some degree while trying.

 

There are also moments when I take the "just do it" approach.   For example ds had put off a math session from last week for the weekend, and then informed me that math was boring (which actually meant he had been struggling with something and had a 'test'(LOF bridge) to do over because a previous grade was not high enough to move on).   Instead of trying to come up with something more interesting, or explain around that, or get him to acknowledge frustration with the difficulty,  I just agreed with him that it sometimes is boring...and has to be done anyway.  I offered the choice of helping clean the kitchen first, however, and then math could be a sit down break during kitchen cleaning.

 

I think 8 years to some degree is a transitional age, moving to greater independence, and part of what you are seeing may also be that.

[Marie131]

I have had a chance to reflect today and look over his previous work and I think I am too hard on him.  Academically he is doing fine, with the exception of his writing.  We have decided to switch math programs because our math isn't working for him any longer and he tested above grade level so it seems he is doing ok!  We have decided to put him back in math, to his grade level, because it seems he has lost his confidence.  I think I may be a bit of a "type A" mom, in that I push the kids to work hard and do well and I think my ultimate goal of having them love learning has been sacrificed.  In many ways I feel that I have to have the kids working above grade level to prove to my family that I am indeed a capable teacher for my kids.  I know this is ridiculous, but it seems I am under the microscope and it is not a comfortable place to be. 

[houseofkids&pets]

^{Sorry to hijack this thread, but we are in a similar situation with ds10. How do your drop everything to focus on certain areas or areas of interest if you live in a state that requires you to cover and report on all subjects? I would love to take this year to just focus on math, reading, spelling, and writing. but that is not possible here. Do other state not have the same requirements? BTW, we are in NY.}

[mommymonster]

My DS8 also is struggling with learning challenges and a near-constant state of being overwhelmed. *I* struggled mightily with giving up some of our selected curriculum because I was concerned that he would fall behind. And you know what? He is behind. But the crazy thing that I recently realized is that education is not a race. It is an opportunity to let my son develop into the person he wants to be. (My little epiphany; perhaps inapplicable to anyone else.)

 

I'm trying to be a bit more flexible in my approach to homeschool. I've stopped spelling and grammar because it was simply frustrating DS8 and he was getting nowhere with it. We will tackle both subjects next year. For writing, which my son struggles with mightily, he is finally working up to writing two sentences per day for copywork (two days per week the subject is history-related and two days per week the subject is science-related). He also does handwriting. And it is amazing, but he is so. much. happier. 

 

If he does get overwhelmed/upset, we take a break and he either runs around the block or does push-ups or jumping jacks -- his choice but it has to work out the excess energy. Also, a snack tends to help, as well. I also keep an eye on the clock -- to keep me in check so that I don't do too long of lessons. It is a delicate balance. Always. 

[LibraryLover]

His special needs aside; I don't think it is at all unusual for an 8 year old boy to not want to write/write well. Some children only learn to read at about 8, and are perfectly 'normal."   He can practice writing in other ways. Working at an easel (painting and drawing) is an excellent way to improve motor skills and gain confidence. Writing on a chalkboard or whiteboard helps as well. Get out the glue and scissors and clay. It's good you are getting outside support, and it's good to remember that an 8 year old boy is still very young. There is much growth to come in the years ahead.

[Tiramisu]

^{Sorry to hijack this thread, but we are in a similar situation with ds10. How do your drop everything to focus on certain areas or areas of interest if you live in a state that requires you to cover and report on all subjects? I would love to take this year to just focus on math, reading, spelling, and writing. but that is not possible here. Do other state not have the same requirements? BTW, we are in NY.}

 

You may want to start a new thread for this question. It's a good one and it would be a shame to not have it addressed.