Evaluations. Academic Tests. The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-III. Cognitive Testing (WPPSI-III). The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency. And the list goes on …
 
Have you ever read an evaluation report sharing the results of such tests? What is desperately needed is evaluation results that are written in PLAIN ENGLISH. “Plain English” is a generic term for communication styles that emphasize clarity, brevity and the avoidance of technical language.
 
Academic evaluators should be required to report their results in Plain English. I have been through two rounds of full evaluations of my son. While I basically grasped the learning issues that my son has – I have never fully understood the results of these tests. Why? For some reason, the evaluators keep the language in the report in their academic context and do not report the results in plain English. I understand that verbal memory is the retention of the spoken word and a relative percentage score associated with that. I do not understand a scaled score of “4” on digit span!!
 
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Notes from the Cookie Jar
http://cookienotes.blogspot.com/
 
“Scattered Mom”

“Scattered Mom” is a 30 something, west coast living, cookie baking, road tripping, key misplacing, perpetually lost blogger who can sniff out a Starbucks in a 50 mile radius.

Stick around..you’ll either pick up some great recipes or laugh at her forgetting where she parked the car. Again

Scattered Mom is a beautiful writer and shares insightful stories and information on Dyspraxia and Sensory Integration Issues as well as other aspects of her life.

Sample Post:

http://cookienotes.blogspot.com/2005/10/jakes-story.html

Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Jake’s Story
I couldn’t wait to become a mother. At 24, I was ready to have that little bundle to love and when Jake arrived, I cried for joy. He was mine. I finally, was a Mom.

Jake was a happy little person, and as easy to raise as most kids are. It wasn’t until he entered school that our perfect little world began to fall apart and was fraught with joy, despair, elation, and frustration. In the past 11 years as we have journeyed through three moves, the loss of Hub’s job and his trek back to university, and almost losing Hubs himself to a rare illness, we were also introduced to the world of advocating for Jake with the school system. It all began in grade one. Jake couldn’t print like the other kids, nor did he understand the math. However he did completely understand what was going on and instead would tour through the room, helping the other children with their work but never writing anything down himself. (which, looking back is SO Jake-he does everything orally) The teacher didn’t like this, and saw it immediately as ‘behavior’. Jake began to feel that he didn’t belong. So as a 5 year old will do, he decided that rather then be humiliated, he would prefer to be kicked out of the classroom.
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Living with Learning Disabilities

http://blog.seattlepi.com/learningdisabilities/
 
This blog will highlight the painful and detailed evolution of Zion’s disability – how we discovered it, how we navigate it, how we laugh, cry, and get mad over it. This is just one family’s struggle with learning disabilities.
 
Mizz Givens tells her family’s story from an interesting perspective as both an advocate for her son as well as a professional who works in the field of education. If you are interested in hearing some one’s else’s struggles and achievements, visit Andrea’s blog.
 
Mizz Givens (Andrea Givens)
mizz.givens@gmail.com

I am a 34-year-old wife and mother of two (editorial note — now three, Mizz Givens just had another son). My days are filled with commuting, working in the field of education, the YMCA, and the multitude of tasks that being a working wife and mother require. My downtime, if there is any, is usually spent reading, or cooking, or watching great shows on cable, because I love a good story.

My daughter Maya is gorgeous and talented and typically developing. My son Zion is charming and funny and severely learning disabled. And I can’t fix it. But I can advocate for him, I can provide supplemental services to support him, I can love him.
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Brad Elder’s website can be found at http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/E/Bradley.D.Elder-1/dys.html

Brad’s website does not seem to be actively maintained but his story on the front page is compelling. He has answers to several Frequently Asked Questions and other resources referenced on his site.

Here is Brad’s Story:

So here is my tail.
Sorry but its a little cluttered.

I have left this un spell checked so that you can see my world a little better.
Like I said this is really hard to put into words. Hard on the emotional level. But I think it will help me to do it. And I hope it will help you.

Ok, where to start. well I was diagnosed in the 6th graid. That really helped!!! It was the single biggest event in my life. Suddenly there was a name for my problem. I wasn’t lazy, or didn’t cair, or was……… what ever they called me that week. It was like the unevers was lifted off my sholders. I think I know what it must be like to slowly sufficate. I don’t know really how to describe it to you but i’ll try:

Imagen that nobody could see their hands. Everybody in the world. Nobody can see anything from the elbo down. Also assume that everybodys hands work just like thay do right now today. Now what if your hands didn’t work like “the normal hand”? What If you didn’t have any fingers? Everyone else can type, turn keys, scrach an ich, dress them sleves, tie there shoes, and feed them sleves. Every one but you. No one can see why you can’t “Do what everyone else can”. You don’t know why you can’t do what “normal” kids can. You just know you can’t. you walk and talk just like every one else. there is no way to see an obvous reason why you can’t do it. Adults don’t know. How could they. All they can see is a kid that isn’t doing what they were told to do. And they lable you lazy, slacker, rebbel, and what ever they can come up with…….They my even point you out to your class mates and tell them not to be like you.
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Ever feel like you have just had a V8 moment? I recently did when I realized that ANY change in activity is a “transition” for my son. For a while, I have known that a change in our normal routine such as going away for the weekend, going on vacation or starting back at school were transitions and could produce great anxiety for our son.

Now that he has been officially diagnosed with ADD (ADHD – inattentive), I realize that any change in activity is a transition. Different types of transitions produce different levels of reaction but it has now entered my consciousness that I need to prepare him for transitioning from play time to dinner as much as I need to prepare him for a new activity or going away for the weekend.
 

 
Major Transitions or New Activities

Vacations and traveling weekend plans have consistently caused much anxiety with our son. To address this, we have always talked through the travel plans in detail extensively before the actual trip. Where are we going, how long we going to be there, what we are going to do while there, where will we sleep, where will we eat and so forth. We typically discuss the travel plans for a week or two before leaving. Sometimes we also play act the new situation. We dress up and pretend we are leaving for our plans at that moment and play through what is going to occur.
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We went to our local Children’s Hospital last week to get a second opinion on the ADD (ADHD – inattentive) diagnosis of our son. We had him tested through our school district in the late spring which originally led to the diagnosis and to additional insights into his learning issues.

A diagnosis of ADD is not surprising to me because of the running commentary from his teachers all year long and my observations. The toughest part to face is that this is going to be a lifelong struggle for him. The second toughest part to face is that many of the non-medical strategies that are often tried for kids with ADD have not helped my son. He is in a small group classroom setting, he has gotten both verbal and physical (tap on the shoulder) cues and visuals developed by his teacher to teach him to self monitor his focus and energy level. NOTHING has worked or helped.

He has gone to a new summer academic camp and the Director of Admissions observed my son on multiple occasions. He basically summed up my child’s attention level as fluctuating in and out constantly. I have done a tremendous amount of research on ADD and have had conversations with therapists and other parents. I have come to the conclusion that the most effective approach from my son will most likely be a combination of therapy and medicine.

I know we are about to embark on a whole new journey – one that scares the hell out of me — putting my son on prescription medication. I have heard amazing success stories and horrible tragedies. I know that I only feel this journey to a certain level at this point because I am not yet handing a stimulant to my son with a glass of juice to swallow and fundamentally change his chemistry.

In doing this, however, I do KNOW a couple of things: First, my son has pretty significant learning issues and school is very difficult for him. I am considering giving him the medication so that he can be more AVAILABLE to learn and so that he can experience success and develop confidence. Second, it takes time and patience to find the right medication. Everyone’s body chemistry is different and we have to go into this knowing that we will need to give ourselves and the doctor some time to figure out the best approach. Third, my husband and I know our child best. No medical doctor or therapist will ever know our son as well as we know him. We will go into this with our eyes wide open and never stop being his biggest supporter, his advocate and his biggest fan.

I will share with you as well progress on our journey. If you want to hear another family’s perspective and thoughts, please go to www.adhdmomma.blogspot.com (including http://adhdmomma.blogspot.com/2009/07/more-medication-changes.html and http://adhdmomma.blogspot.com/2009/07/guilt-overload.html). Penny is a wonderful writer and gives incredible insights into their journey and shares significant wisdom.

Until next time ….

Karen