I got the go ahead from dh to pursue a neuro-psych eval for ds9

[Soror]

Yes! So true here! I have talked before about how DS began to lose his love of learning early on in our homeschool, not because I expected too much, but because I expected too little! Once I increased expectations and made engagement a priority, his spark returned. More subjects, more variety, more connections, more talking, more collaboration and cooperation, deeper understanding...these things were what brought his spark back and improved his behavior, not greater expectations for output, sitting still, minding, behaving, getting with the program, working for an unrelated reward, etc.

 

Yes, I'm working on that here as well. Not necessarily more subjects but I guess somewhat so. We do good doing fewer subjects at one time but hitting larger chunks of time and hitting them every way possible.  More connections for sure. I'm re-evaluating everything here for our goals and our learning styles, trying to be ruthless.

Reading these threads made me realize that, ironically, my dd with the most obvious difficulty with focusing and staying on task has the best comprehension and retention. Interesting. And that made me remember that the with the most EF difficulty is the one who I call on when I need a room cleaned up fast when surprise guest are coming. Go figure.

 

This is how we do spelling these days. It was completely dd's idea and she makes all the rules. We use Spelling Power and we do it as a spelling bee. She is every contestant and I am the moderator. When she gets a word wrong, I write it on a white board while she changes outfit and comes back pretending to be the next contestant. The next contestant must spell the missed word correctly. Depending on the list for a given day, she may not change at all or change six times. This is an SPD girl who will only wear one pair of pants out of the house. ?? You have to understand that I am a check-it-off sort of hs mom at heart, so it is really stretching my limits to sit patiently with a smile on my face as I wait for the costume change.

I know isn't it ironic. My ds is great w/ comprehension and his story recall is really, really good. Seeing his scores drove home the point even more, learning through stories and more books for him.  

 

I LOVE the spelling idea I can totally see my daughter doing that, kudos to you for having the patience because I know it would try mine!

[PeterPan]

Reading these threads made me realize that, ironically, my dd with the most obvious difficulty with focusing and staying on task has the best comprehension and retention. Interesting. And that made me remember that the with the most EF difficulty is the one who I call on when I need a room cleaned up fast when surprise guest are coming. Go figure.

 

This is how we do spelling these days. It was completely dd's idea and she makes all the rules. We use Spelling Power and we do it as a spelling bee. She is every contestant and I am the moderator. When she gets a word wrong, I write it on a white board while she changes outfit and comes back pretending to be the next contestant. The next contestant must spell the missed word correctly. Depending on the list for a given day, she may not change at all or change six times. This is an SPD girl who will only wear one pair of pants out of the house. ?? You have to understand that I am a check-it-off sort of hs mom at heart, so it is really stretching my limits to sit patiently with a smile on my face as I wait for the costume change.

:smilielol5: 

 

:thumbup:

 

:hurray:

 

  :lol:

 

 Good mama!!!!!    :thumbup1:

[texasmama]

Re: Cogmed, my best friend has a child with ADHD, Aspergers and OCD.  He is medicated for the anxiety and the ADHD and has been for several years.  She got a scholarship and her son did Cogmed.  He did have some improvements in scoring on his post-test, but he has not had any changes in his day to day functioning.  He still requires just as many ADHD meds, and he is a bright kid who is failing Algebra because he is disorganized, forgets his homework, etc.  So she is glad that she did not pay $2500 for it.  She had hoped that it would allow him to eliminate his ADHD meds.  Her hopes in it did not pan out.  Now this is a single case study, but I thought it worth mentioning.  It is a high price for something to not work.

[texasmama]

WOW!! Wondering what state you're in and if this is typical for your state or just your district?  That's AWESOME!!  I wish ALL states handled it thoroughly like that.. It would make life so much easier for parents and education so much more effective for the kids.

 

We are in Texas, in a small school district in Tarrant County.  Overall, I think Texas is pretty good about getting kids tested, but they do not always receive services.  My son received fabulous, long-term services.  I am ever grateful.

Reading these threads made me realize that, ironically, my dd with the most obvious difficulty with focusing and staying on task has the best comprehension and retention. Interesting. And that made me remember that the with the most EF difficulty is the one who I call on when I need a room cleaned up fast when surprise guest are coming. Go figure.

 

This is how we do spelling these days. It was completely dd's idea and she makes all the rules. We use Spelling Power and we do it as a spelling bee. She is every contestant and I am the moderator. When she gets a word wrong, I write it on a white board while she changes outfit and comes back pretending to be the next contestant. The next contestant must spell the missed word correctly. Depending on the list for a given day, she may not change at all or change six times. This is an SPD girl who will only wear one pair of pants out of the house. ?? You have to understand that I am a check-it-off sort of hs mom at heart, so it is really stretching my limits to sit patiently with a smile on my face as I wait for the costume change.

This is the coolest thing I have ever heard.  :)

[SandyKC]

Just dropping in and reading a bit, but wanted to say AMEN, AMEN about this!! Finding ways for the kids to shine with their own strengths is imperitive for a good long-term outcome. They have to feel they are worthwhile, valuable individuals.  That feeling of accomplishment that comes with being good at SOMETHING cannot be instilled by teaching.  Well said!  (like the whole post, but short on time here.).

The strengths based focus is so important, especially for these kids. We've got to find ways that they shine. I think it is a relief for them to hear that their struggles are real, trying to hide the fact from them doesn't help as they already know.

[Soror]

texasmama, thanks for sharing your experience. I'm surprised there was an expectation that the meds wouldn't be needed after the Cog Med, I didn't get the impression that was a possibility, that fact is something that makes me lean towards Biofeedback as a better use of our money but I don't know. If we only knew the results to start, the odds are good that it will help but it is still a chance it won't and as you said whether or not it translates into improvement in function is another question as well. 

 

I told someone the other day I'm very happy to be homeschooling, if he was in school he would think he was dumb and hate learning, at home he knows he is smart, is doing well and loves learning. Yes, we have areas we have to work harder but we are getting it done and I'm so pleased overall. 

 

He is making great gains on his math fluency and speed w/ all the games we are playing. Ds is really enjoying school so much more with the tweaks I've made (and continue to make). I am as well. I have more confidence in our path, my vision and getting there. At first I was feeling stress about the weaknesses but we are making progress and overall he did excellently. We cannot work on everything at once. 

[OneStepAtATime]

texasmama, thanks for sharing your experience. I'm surprised there was an expectation that the meds wouldn't be needed after the Cog Med, I didn't get the impression that was a possibility, that fact is something that makes me lean towards Biofeedback as a better use of our money but I don't know. If we only knew the results to start, the odds are good that it will help but it is still a chance it won't and as you said whether or not it translates into improvement in function is another question as well. 

 

I told someone the other day I'm very happy to be homeschooling, if he was in school he would think he was dumb and hate learning, at home he knows he is smart, is doing well and loves learning. Yes, we have areas we have to work harder but we are getting it done and I'm so pleased overall. 

 

He is making great gains on his math fluency and speed w/ all the games we are playing. Ds is really enjoying school so much more with the tweaks I've made (and continue to make). I am as well. I have more confidence in our path, my vision and getting there. At first I was feeling stress about the weaknesses but we are making progress and overall he did excellently. We cannot work on everything at once. 

So true to the bolded and everything else, too.  And it is hard to find a balance but SO much better than being in a school that can't really help and where the kids get demoralized and have to work 10 times harder for half as much gain (if any).

[Soror]

I signed ds (and dd) up for TKD this week, I think it is going to be really great for them, ds especially. The instructor was diagnosed ADHD himself as an adult. I had a nice chat with him about ADHD, discipline, schooling and parenting. It seems he is knowledgeable and we are on the same page. He was very complimentary towards me about what I do as a parent (and teacher). He had some good ideas, very much in-line with things we've done/are doing for the most part but I was happy to hear that he has a positive strengths-based approach. I wasn't for sure if I was going to share the diagnosis but he brought up to me that ds had some difficulty with sequencing so it was kind of a natural opening. They have classes 5 days a week, although I know we won't be able to make it that often, I'm aiming for 2-3 days a week. I hope the in-laws, who live next door, can help with transportation as well.

 

In other big news I got in the final report from the NP. She added in some more details in the final report and I re-read the whole thing again a few times. My heads swimming a bit with thoughts and questions. One thing she added was the 504 info and also info about scaffolding. There weren't very many new ideas from the books I've read(and info here) but I really like how she broke it down into very clear steps, I should type that up for you guys as I think it would be helpful for many. It really affirmed to me yet again that I am headed down the right path, giving ds the support he needs, which is good as it can be easy to doubt yourself at times, especially when you hear so much about schooling independence.  I want to go through that part specifically a few more times and evaluate our schooling to make sure we are hitting all our subjects in the most optimal way possible.

 

 I think there is room for improvement with spelling. She put in his report that he should use a spell and grammar checker, his writing samples were at 91% but fluency was at 19%, spelling 34%. The issue is not that he doesn't know how to spell(he actually does very well in this subject) but like his math he makes errors due to inattention and speeding through the work. So, it seems to me if I can get his math fluency increased through more and varied practice why cannot I do the same with spelling? 

 

She had more info about the IQ and the subtests he did really well in the verbal reasoning, information and vocabulary. I found it so interesting that he scored as well as he did on vocab and info. We've not done formal vocab (just started the MCT Island portion of this after the test) and we've not hardly done formal content either. He does seem to get a lot from the books we/he reads (and listens to), shows we watch and many conversations we have. So, reading that gives me more confidence to continue on as we are, he is obviously learning well and we enjoy it, so it is a win-win. We're are just doing whatever we enjoy with our history and science. We're not following a time-line of any sort. We read and learn about various topics, from basic things to much more complex. The boy will listen to almost anything that I read or audiobooks so I take advantage of that.

 

I do have some questions on some of the results that don't make sense to me but I have to sort that all out more before I post, I'll probably ask that separately. I still haven't made any more appts (hangs head in shame!).