Wanna share good things?

[PeterPan]

I’ll start! My ds went to a new church this week without a worker and did ok!!! I had scoped it out several weeks and lined things up but still it was amazing. And he made a little friend and wants to try Awana! We’ll see how that goes. That’s a harder stretch with his language disability.

He now has a friend for play dates and is beginning to ask for breaks really well. Good stuff!

Dd is taking 5 classes, 14 credits, so that’s going well too. It’s better living through chemistry, haha, but she’s doing it!

Checking out a new BCBA today, so we’ll see how that goes.

[Lecka]

That is awesome!

My son is doing 3rd grade math, exciting!  And doing well with it!  

He is reading the first Henry and Mudge book in his reading group at school.  

We just found a new series I think he will like for me to read him, but he likes a lot of books right now, and his listening comprehension has gone up over the past year.  

He helps with offering at our little church, and he sits in the front and participates during the children's time during the main service.  He does well with crafts at Sunday School but I am hearing from my other kids that he is doing things like laying on the floor during Sunday School.  But the teachers like him -- they are my choir friends and only tell me good things lol.  They say he is often the best of everyone at doing the crafts 🙂 He is doing better with greeting other people at church, too, and that is very nice.  

He is not doing any outside activities or therapy.  We decided in June to take a break from ABA for the summer, and then in the Fall we decided to keep up with the break, and at this point he is exiting ABA.  The therapist thinks he is fine to exit right now (he could go either way, really, but we are ready to stop, especially my husband, and also our insurance changes next year and we would have a much higher co-pay, so we wanted to see how things went without it).  The therapist thinks he will probably/possibly need job coaching when he is older and thinks he might go back to ABA for that, but she thinks he is fine to exit for now and in the future that is where she thinks he might need it again.  It is a nice change!    

[PeterPan]

3 hours ago, Lecka said:

at this point he is exiting ABA. 

Yeah, that's kind of where we're at. We've been out for a month, and we're just doing pretty well. Met with the BCBA and we seemed to be leaning more toward continuing the social opportunities, putting our energies there.

[Storygirl]

DD14 switched from a private dyslexia school to public school this year for 8th grade. The dyslexia school suggested that we wait another year and switch for high school instead, but we had reasons that we thought it was better to do it this year -- including that DD wanted to.

She's doing great!! Other than one project, she has not needed help with homework. She was sad on the first day of school, because she would not be with her old friends, but on the second day, she met her group of friends, and she's been happy ever since. She had some issues last year that prompted us to find her a counselor to help work through adjustment issues, and she likes her counselor a lot. I'm not sure she will need to see her much, because things are going so well. I think some of last year's angst may have been situational and related to social things at her other school. But we will keep the relationship with the counselor going, in case things crop up in the future.

Switching schools was a big decision, but it was a good one. So far, the public school's accommodations for the reading and math have been enough support for her.

[PeterPan]

14 minutes ago, Storygirl said:

She's doing great!! Other than one project, she has not needed help with homework. She was sad on the first day of school, because she would not be with her old friends, but on the second day, she met her group of friends, and she's been happy ever since.

Oh wow, that's AMAZING!!! It's so hard to leave schools, change providers, etc., and here it worked out really well. Yay!!!!!

[Heathermomster]

DD is awesome!  She has a cold, but is otherwise great.  

DS seems to be doing well AFAIK.  We drive about 40 minutes and meet DS half way from his uni occasionally, like when he needs something.  We met last night and ate dinner.  DS is very happy and earned A’s on all of his first round of major tests.  He has a big paper and essay exam coming up the week prior to Thanksgiving for his history and religion class.  
 

This posting is about to get confusing and I apologize in advance.

Son’s biggest challenge is his iphone and smartpen situation.  The Echo Smartpen desktop software quit working on his Mac, so he has no way to download the audio from his college lectures. The uni’s accommodation for dysgraphia is the Echo Smartpen, and it works great with our Win 10 pc, but I’m not buying another laptop.  Son’s Mac was a high school graduation present intended to get him through college and the costs...oh, the costs...Anyhoo...

We replaced the Echo with a NEO N2 smartpen.  The N2 stores the handwriting portion of his notes taken during lecture while the lecture audio must be stored on the iphone using the N2 app.  This is new and inferior tech.   Son’s Echo stored both audio and handwriting on the smartpen itself.  Now here’s the rub: my son’s iphone 7 quit working thanks to a manufacturing problem called “loop back” disease.  Apple currently has a class action law suit filed against them over the iphone 7, but I digress...My son is currently not using his Smartpen accommodation because he has no means to record the audio and sync his handwritten notes.  Without the audio, he can’t go back and relisten to lecture he may have missed.  
 

Needing an operable phone, we ordered DS two renewed phones off of Amazon and neither has worked.  Both phones have been returned and one will be replaced with all kinds of promises... It’s been irritating, but then he scored all A’s which seems to indicate that he doesn’t require the smartpen accommodation.  How did that happen?  He still uses audio books, extended test taking time, and types all of his work.  
 

The only advantage that I can see to the NEO N2 Smartpen is that it digitizes son’s handwriting.  With the notes backed to his phone, he was able to review the notes whenever he wanted.  Now he’s back to plain old pen and paper until the phone situation gets sorted.  Prayers please....I could really use prayers...

Edited October 29, 2019 by Heathermomster

[PeterPan]

51 minutes ago, Heathermomster said:

“loop back” disease.

I hadn't heard about this, but it sounds awful! I hope he gets a workable phone soon! Yeah, ordering tech off amazon doesn't sound like a good plan. Too many scams.

52 minutes ago, Heathermomster said:

then he scored all A’s which seems to indicate that he doesn’t require the smartpen accommodation.  How did that happen?

That's cuz he got brilliance genes from you! hahaha. But seriously, that's some work! Well it will be nice when he gets the tech working again. He's safer having all the pieces for when he needs them.

[kbutton]

My older son, 10th grade, asked to be on the youth praise team at church, and the director gave him music to practice at home (it sounds like that's the primary means of practice with a short rehearsal before youth on Wednesdays). He's so excited, and it's a new thing for him to be able to ask about this relatively easily--it all came together for him tonight. He's also do extremely well with his language therapy--things are falling into place faster and faster for him with excellent tutoring in place and good materials (Mindwing Concepts). His tutor thinks his brain is having a delayed rush of maturity with language, but I think that sells her contribution short a bit, lol--the discrepancies were enormous. He's also picked up accordion, and he's really excelling with it very quickly (not his first instrument, so that helps).

My younger son is getting targeted therapy for auditory processing! I am so excited. His echo smartpen came, and he's going to be learning to use it. It's very cool. I am so sorry to hear @Heathermomster that your son's is not working with his computer!!! Ugh. He's growing and growing right now, so kind of brainless on some days and hungry (but hungry is good--he's very slight). He's enjoying his church activities and band.

[kbutton]

11 hours ago, PeterPan said:

wants to try Awana! We’ll see how that goes. That’s a harder stretch with his language disability.

Whether it's enough or not, I don't know, but they do have shorter verses for kids who need them. You usually have to ask, and I think the church can print them out.

[PeterPan]

36 minutes ago, kbutton said:

Whether it's enough or not, I don't know, but they do have shorter verses for kids who need them. You usually have to ask, and I think the church can print them out.

Yeah, I've seen those. I've been using the Sparks books with him in ESV, and those are way, way young, like marked for 1st grade or something. He can repeat the verse if I say it in phrases. By the end of the week, on a more moderate verse, he can repeat the verse in entirety when I read it in entirety. It's linked to his language problems. And the person I was talking with immediately said they'd much rather focus on what he UNDERSTANDS, which is a great answer! This is the first church that seems to care more about what he's getting out of it than whether he's ticking boxes. 

So we'll see. He got a deer tonight, so we didn't make it. First we'll see if it even fits him, then we'll figure out the modification. He may try to be like his friend or decide not to go or something else.

[kbutton]

2 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

And the person I was talking with immediately said they'd much rather focus on what he UNDERSTANDS, which is a great answer! This is the first church that seems to care more about what he's getting out of it than whether he's ticking boxes. 

That's really nice! 

[shinyhappypeople]

16 yo:

• Started prealgebra and is doing solidly okay with it 🙂  She requested a traditional high school course sequence and wants to get through Algebra 1 before she graduates.
• She's doing well with her other subjects, though we're still working on anxiety related to that (she tends to go straight to bed and fall asleep when it's time to work). Regardless, she's hitting her stride in world history and got an A on her last grammar test (this is a BIG deal).
• She's doing well with her first job (paid volunteer). It ends this month, but it gives her something to put on her resume and has been a lot of fun for her.  Her shorter long-term career goal is to get a job at a grocery store.  I love this because, come what may, she could just keep working at the grocery store and get promoted if her #1 career plan doesn't pan out.
• She's continuing specialized services/trauma therapy and we're seeing a lot of growth.  My mom pointed out that she seems so much happier now 🙂
• Socially, she's learning to implement better boundaries in an unhealthy friendship (Yay!!!!), and she and her younger sister are spending a lot more time together. My favorite thing in the world is when they hang out in older DD's bedroom and I hear them laughing and talking. ❤️ 
• Edited to add: I almost forgot a big one! DD would have listed this first 🙂 She's doing the Snowflake Dance, Spanish Dance, and the Waltz of the Flowers in Nutcracker this year.  She's loving her new dance studio.  They are supportive, kind, and very focused on the safety and general well-being of the dancers. And they do NOT body shame her in the slightest (she's not traditional ballet-skinny).  She plans to continue dancing with their company even after high school. 
   

14 yo:

• Is doing well in DE and just got a B on her midterm. She pointed out she's the only kid in the class and there were actual adults who got lower grades.  I think that was a boost to her confidence. 🙂
• She's making friends (always a struggle, affected in large part by ADD and anxiety, I think).
• She asked to begin therapy and her therapist is awesome.  I think they'll be working primarily on managing anxiety and strengthening her social skills.

 

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by shinyhappypeople

[SanDiegoMom]

On 10/23/2019 at 4:07 PM, Heathermomster said:

D
Son’s biggest challenge is his iphone and smartpen situation.  The Echo Smartpen desktop software quit working on his Mac, so he has no way to download the audio from his college lectures. The uni’s accommodation for dysgraphia is the Echo Smartpen, and it works great with our Win 10 pc, but I’m not buying another laptop.  Son’s Mac was a high school graduation present intended to get him through college and the costs...oh, the costs...Anyhoo...

We replaced the Echo with a NEO N2 smartpen.  The N2 stores the handwriting portion of his notes taken during lecture while the lecture audio must be stored on the iphone using the N2 app.  This is new and inferior tech.   Son’s Echo stored both audio and handwriting on the smartpen itself.  Now here’s the rub: my son’s iphone 7 quit working thanks to a manufacturing problem called “loop back” disease.  Apple currently has a class action law suit filed against them over the iphone 7, but I digress...My son is currently not using using his Smartpen accommodation because he has no means to record the audio and sync his handwritten notes.  Without the audio, he can’t go back and relisten to lecture he may have missed.  
 

 

This might be too expensive unless you can find some crazy good deals, but my daughter hasn't had any issues with her Ipad and apple pencil combo.  It was a big christmas gift from us and grandparents last year and she can take notes and it records as well, and something about how it can sync her notes with the recording? I don't know, I just know she loves it. She uses notability. 

So sorry for the frustration!

[PeterPan]

3 hours ago, CuriousMomof3 said:

there are things I have encouraged him to say for months with no success, that I optimistically put on buttons and he’s said them too.  Somehow maybe it sunk in that I really do want to know about these things if I made a button    

This is wonderful!!!!

[Kanin]

Well, my year has been pretty challenging so far. 10 year old boys + learning disabilities + mood swings = drama!! In a group of three, I've always got two sitting there like perfect angels, and one in a funk. And the one in a funk changes daily. Ugh.

Anyway.

The cool thing is one of my 5th graders, who is severely dyslexic, has improved SO much all of a sudden. We did LiPS all last year, and this year have been hitting Kilpatrick's phonemic awareness program pretty hard. Just last week, this kid FINALLY gets vowel teams!  He's writing 'soap' as s-oa-p rather than s-o-p! He writes oi and oy correctly, and tells me why he's chosen one over the other! I don't know what's come over him, but something finally clicked. He is also writing much more fluidly, without having to stop and think about every darn letter. Oh, and we're reading a Tom & Ricky mystery (High Noon), and he can read 3 pages before needing a break. Yay!!

Now, to figure out how to fix spelling 'robot' as 'r-oa-b-o-t.' 😂 We've done open syllables before, but he wasn't ready for them. Now he might be!

[kbutton]

1 hour ago, Mainer said:

In a group of three, I've always got two sitting there like perfect angels, and one in a funk. And the one in a funk changes daily. Ugh.

Sounds like 10 year old boys!!! 

That's great progress.

[PeterPan]

7 hours ago, Mainer said:

Just last week, this kid FINALLY gets vowel teams!

That's awesome!! I'm with you that some of it is developmental.