New homeschooler with LD son

[Guest brantley65]

My wonderful son was diagnosed with a LD around 2005. He has auditory processing syndrome and ADD (not severe). He also developed moderate anxiety. He was placed in a IEP setting in the middle of his first grade year and struggled through. He was still behind the curve though. We then found out that he had terrible vision ( he had been checked several times through the school district as part of the IEP eval. process). He did really well in the second grade as he developed a strong relationship with his teacher. His OT and Speech therapist all commented on his strong work ethic and desire to learn. He progressed very well in the 3rd grade, but he was still behind(reading level about 2nd grade, etc.) At the end of the 3rd grade year, he was discharged from OT as the therapist said he had made great improvement. He has also started to self correct himself working through those sounds (r's, th's, etc)that gave him a difficult time.

Then we came to the 4th grade. His teacher of two years that he has a strong relationship with left to become a full time Mom. Her replacement was not in the same league with his former teacher. In short, she had problems controlling her class and in general it was choas. My son doesn't respond well to disorder and was miserable and his school work showed it. He went from making A's & B's in 3rd grade to D's & C's and he regressed on his writing skills. School was causing him much anxiety and pain - yes it was painful for him to go. So after consulting his Pediatrician and therapist, we decided to home school him. We joined our local Chrisitian based home school association and got him his book. The books are Abeka based teaching. I'm so glad I found this place. Any suggestions or advice would be so helpful.

[Stacy in NJ]

First, Welcome!

 

Just a comment; you may find that using all Abeka curriculum may or may not work well for your ds. One of the benefits of homeschooling is the ability to adapt curriulum to the needs of your child. Don't hesitate to try new curriculum or strategies.

[ChristineMM]

Please consider reading Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World by Jeffrey Freed. He says 95% of ADD labeled kids are right brained learners. ABeka is very left brained geared learning. I worry that your new curriculum is a wrong fit. Most school teaching is left brained with left brained teachers who have no tolerance for right brained learners *according to the book author*.

 

I myself have a very right brained learner who I HS that is 11 years old but he does not have an ADD label. However if perhaps he were ever enrolled in school he might have gotten the label. I was teaching using some materials recommended in TWTM and the learning was not 'sticking'. After changing some methods to 'right brained learning techniques' there is a huge improvement, it is amazing.

 

The book can be previewed free on Google books and it sells for under $12 new on Amazon. Not a big investment, if your public library doesn't have it to borrow.

 

I also learned from lectures of Dianne Craft, check her website.

 

Here is one article comparing left vs right brained learners.

 

http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/Visual_Spatial_Learner/vsl.htm

 

Note some use the term 'visual spatial' learners and some say 'right brained learners'. Try google searches by those key words too.

HTH.

[dtsmamtj]

Welcome to the board. Our son also has CAPD and hit the old "brick wall" in 4th grade also. He is now in 5th grade and continues to make great progress. We had to leave Abeka and switch to a few different things that met his various levels in the different subjects. Welcome also to the wonderful world of home schooling.

 

T