The end of the school year is approaching and I don’t know who is more excited about the two week break between school and summer camp, my son or I.  We have not had a break from homework since August 2008.  A key component to overcoming his learning challenges is not only to learn specific strategies for reading, writing and math but repetition, repetition, and more repetition.

He has made tremendous progress this year!  I am so proud of him and his incredible hard work.  We do about 1.5 hours of homework 5 nights a week.  For second grade, this is a lot of work.  If anything, our son is going to have an incredible work ethic.  The words he can now read include anticipation, commissioned, audience and Constantinople!!  Wow – he has done so well.

Recently, the summer reading list came out in our school’s weekly newsletter.  I contacted our son’s teacher in order to get guidance on his independent reading level for the summer.  Well let’s just say it is not where I expected it to be.  Hence “the punch in the gut” in the title of this blog post.  I felt so deflated.  I just wanted to sit down and have a really good cry.

I reached out to his teacher and asked about his independent reading level and now I understand.  Learning challenges like everything else in life is about layers.  This year was a year of building the foundation.  He has strategies for decoding words he doesn’t know.  He has strategies for comprehending the material he is reading.  He has strategies for writing and answering questions.  He has strategies for paying attention and remaining engaged in the classroom.  All of this HAS resulted in tremendous progress.

The next layer that has to be attacked, however, is comprehension.  He is working so hard to decode and read and do, that his brain processing does not really have the room for full comprehension.  As we practice his strategies more, then the strategies themselves will become second nature so that he can grow into comprehending the material he is working with.

So once again I have to remind myself that “my framework” is not what is relevant.  Learning challenges, like everything else in life, is a journey that has to be broken down into manageable pieces.

He is working hard, he is making progress and he likes school.  It is all good.  So I was able to give myself a swift kick in the a—and remind myself of how proud I am of him.  I also decided that I am going to get ice cream for every night of those two weeks where we have a break!!

So until next time …. Take care.

Do you know how sometimes you know things but you don’t really realize things? Well I had one of those realization moments recently.

I feel like I have a fair amount of connectivity with other mothers. A lot of it is either online or connecting with those that I know in person through emails, texts and so forth. Being a working mother and a working mother of a child with special needs, I don’t really have a lot of time, often, for personal phone calls, lunches or even coffee get togethers.

I do consider myself lucky, however. I have family and friends who provide me with emotional support and listen. Although they listen, they don’t always understand or get what our family’s situation is all about.

I recently volunteered at my son’s school for a teacher appreciation luncheon. It is a great school that focuses on the types of learning challenges that our son has. I wanted to be there to get to know some of the teachers and administration better. The biggest benefit of me being at the luncheon, however, was the other moms there and their support of us and our particular challenges of our first year at this school. It made me feel so much better. They understand specifically the challenges that we are facing this year with the workload and the emotional stress. They have been through it and empathize. They validated the stress that I feel most nights.

It made me realize that having real life connections with individuals who have total knowledge and understanding of our challenges is important too and very powerful.

I am going to be a volunteer in my son’s library once a month for the remainder of the school year. I volunteered because my son really wanted me there. I am going to be the biggest beneficiary, however, because I will have personal time with other mothers who totally and unequivocally understand and empathize.

I call this localized support (I am a geek at heart) and I have come to realize that everyone should try to have a piece of this type of support within their support network.

Online, offline, localized … what do you think? What has been the most powerful type of support for you?

Until next time …. Take care

One of the challenges associated with ADHD and ADD is “executive functioning”. I have talked about this before. This like so many other things is a confusing element to ADHD but one that I feel is really important to be aware of and necessary to understand the challenges of your child holistically. In fact, many experts in the field of ADHD/ADD are starting to suggest that ADHD be re-conceptualized as an “executive disorder” and deemphasize the focus on hyperactivity and attention. Problems with executive functioning are not limited, however, to only those with ADHD or ADD. Executive dysfunction sometimes is the only problem and sometimes is part of a larger problem.

The easiest way to think of executive functioning is that it is the administrative or managerial part of the human brain. Executive functioning has to do with organization, planning, self-control, and time management, for instance. Like anything else, any individual with executive functioning issues will have areas of strength and areas of weakness within the broad spectrum of executive functioning.

The reason I am writing this blog post is not only to raise awareness of executive functioning or dysfunction but also to state that executive dysfunction requires teaching, support and practice in order to be effectively addressed. There are things that you can do to help your child in the short term and there are processes to help teach them how to handle different situations and opportunities. Supporting your child in the areas of executive functioning is often required into high school and college. Like anything else, better executive functioning occurs with ongoing practice and support.

For me, one of the hardest challenges I have is gauging what is appropriate and when. I need to keep in mind that we have to understand our son’s strengths and weaknesses overall and to work with those strengths and weaknesses on an ongoing basis. The conquering of certain skill sets can only be achieved with consistent practice and it takes time. Thinking in terms of support of executive functioning in this way has helped me a lot to establish a mindset for myself in helping our son.

I have heard this often in my ongoing research but I feel that it is important to stress that our son is not defined by his challenges. Our son is an amazing child who is fun and funny and full of energy and life. He has his strengths and weaknesses like we all do. All of our efforts are focused on supporting who he is so that he can continue to experience success and grow into a confident young man.

I am just learning about the process of supporting executive functioning. It turns out that we have already been implementing strategies to help our son especially in the area of transitions. For instance, we use the 5 minute warning, 3 minute warning and 1 minute warning for all changes in activity so that he has time to adjust. It turns out that “transitions” fall within the area of “Cognitive Flexibility”. Cognitive Flexibility is defined as the ability to problem solve in a flexible, dynamic way and/or the ability to address new situations. So as we learn more, I will share what I have learned with you.

Until then …. Take care.

MEET CHARLIE OUR GUINEA PIG

As many of you know, having a child with ADHD or working memory issues creates a challenge when trying to get them to take responsibility for multi-instruction tasks. We have had a difficult time getting our son to be independent and to take on responsibility. Some of this is probably our fault. He works so hard with his learning disabilities and ADD that we probably baby him too much otherwise. However, he was begging – BEGGING for a guinea pig. Even though we really did not have ANY desire to have another pet in the house (we have a Havanese dog and a Beta fish), we decided to use the opportunity to teach responsibility and to increase his independence.

At the pet store, we made a very hard deal with my son. He had to take responsibility for caring for the guinea pig with my help. If he did not, then we were going to give the guinea pig away and he was going to have to pay us back for the cost out of his allowance. We emphasized the deal several times and made him repeat it back to us several times before we even bought the guinea pig. So we bought the guinea pig and named him Charlie.

Charlie is very funny and makes all sorts of noises that make us stop in our tracks! He loves to be held, loves to beg for food and enjoys playing both inside and outside in a play area that we bought for him.

The very first Saturday, when it was time to clean out Charlie’s cage, we did get push back from Griffin. I spoke with him to make sure he wasn’t scared or anxious about the task. He was refusing to take care of the cage. So we said that we were going to have to start asking around to see who wanted Charlie and walked away. Sure enough, Griff came into the kitchen to work with me on cleaning up the cage.

We decided to take pictures of Griff taking care of Charlie for two reasons. We wanted to give Griff the opportunity to share his story of responsibility with his class. Since his teacher is deathly afraid of anything rodent like, we decided to make a poster which he is going to share with his class. Second, we use the visual poster as support for Griff when it is time to take care of Charlie. It reminds him of what tasks he needs to do and it is a system that he can use independently without asking for help.

RINSE OUT THE BOTTOM OF THE CAGE WITH HOT SOAPY WATER.

PUT IN FRESH BEDDING.

PUT IN FRESH FOOD.

Visual reminders are a strong means of support for any type of task both at home and within the classroom. It gives a visual reminder and checklist yet is something the child can access independently. You can use any type of pictures when putting together a visual checklist but I find that Griff loves pictures that feature him!!

Griff has been afraid or reluctant in the past to take on tasks on his own. We are finding, however, that with visual checklists, his confidence is growing and that he actually enjoys some of the independent responsibilities he has taken on.

Now if I could only get Charlie to slow down on the pooping ….

THE COMPLETE VISUAL CHECKLIST.

Recently there was a discussion question put out on the web which asked what I would want a mother of a typical needs child to know about mothering a special needs child. As a mother to both a typical needs child and a special needs child, this question is really difficult to answer. Our son has both learning disabilities and ADD.

I have to say that I have written and re-written my answer probably a dozen of times. Finally, I think my answer comes down to what I feel is obvious. What mothers of typical needs children, family and friends need to understand is that we, families of special needs children, need understanding and consideration of our situation. Not unlike those with physically visible handicaps, those with invisible to the eye special needs require consideration, accommodations, respect and understanding. Invisible special needs can make daily situations no less daunting than for those with physical handicaps.

What is especially tricky with learning disabilities and ADHD, especially when a child is young, is that understanding the special needs and challenges takes time and work to understand and address. It has taken us a great deal of time, awareness and education to understand our son’s needs and to respect them. By respecting his needs, I mean that the way he is taught, communicated with, motivated and disciplined is done in a way specific to him and his needs. If you have a close friend or family member with a special needs child, educate yourself on the special needs of the child so that you too can RESPECT the needs that the child has.

My mother and sister have both read books to educate themselves. It has meant such a great deal to us that they took the time to understand our situation. You can read some articles online. It does not have to take a great deal of time. A little effort can go a long way.

We are extremely proud of both our son and our daughter. We love them both and recognize that each of them have their special strengths and their weaknesses.

With a special needs child, however, their weaknesses can make every day living very difficult. The difficulties can affect academics, social situations and the mundane tasks of every day life. Even with the effort we have put in to understand our son’s strengths and weaknesses, we don’t always understand how his issues will come into play in different situations. As a result, we are always on the alert with our son and we always have our “armor” on, as a favorite blogger of mine, canmombecalm, says.

We have our armor on when it comes to school and home work. His needs have to be individually understood and addressed. Even though he is in a small classroom setting, we work with the teachers closely to understand what is most effective for him in learning. Homework is never easy and takes a great deal of vigilance, creativity and patience. It has to be a part of our daily routine all year long. We need to be as or more observant about his successes and his challenges as his teachers.

We have our armor on when it comes to social settings. Group situations can be stressful for our child. Changing from one activity to the next activity can be stressful for our child. Answering on demand questions from adults can be stressful for our child. Social situations for our son can be tougher than for the typical child but they are extremely important to him. Maybe it is because he is in a small group classroom or because his homework takes longer and has to be part of a six day a week routine. Whatever the reason, when he has an opportunity to have a play date, it is extremely important to him and if something happens which causes the play date to be canceled, it is very upsetting to him.

We have our armor on for every day living. He needs time to transition from one activity to the next such as from play time to dinner time and from dinner time to homework time. Each transition requires forethought and warning. Instructions need to be broken down into one or two discrete tasks that can be communicated easily and completed quickly. He needs reminders for most daily activities.

As a result, I may seem high-strung or over-protective to a typical needs mother but I assure you that I am neither. I am simply a mother that is being respectful of the needs of her child. Because our son’s challenges are not visible to the eye, we have to be the buffer zone for our child making sure that he gets the consideration and understanding that he needs.

Is our day-to-day life more challenging with a special needs child? Absolutely. Do we worry? Absolutely. However it has made us realize that, in life, you have to celebrate each small success. We celebrate little notes written to us, we celebrate books completed, we celebrate small instructions followed and we celebrate fun, successful play dates. Life is good and we would not want it any other way!!

So 6 nights a week, we work together for an hour and a half. Reading, writing, word rings, spelling words, math problems, and language arts work sheets. It is all about repetition, repetition, practice and practice.

As you can see, I do NOT have this all figured out yet. I have decided, however, to approach the problem a little differently. One of the areas where he is weak is an area known as working memory. So in addition to our practice and repetition, I plan on researching methods and approaches that strengthen working memory specifically.

According to Wikipedia, “Working memory is a theoretical construct within cognitive psychology as to the structures and processes used for temporarily storing and manipulating information in short-term memory. […] What we now call working memory was referred to as a “short-term store” or short-term memory, primary memory, immediate memory, operant memory, or provisional memory. Short-term memory is the ability to remember information over a brief period of time (in the order of seconds). Most theorists today use the concept of working memory to replace or include the older concept of short-term memory, thereby marking a stronger emphasis on the notion of manipulation of information instead of passive maintenance.”

There are several theories of working memory which differ in the anatomy of working memory and the explanation of the cognitive functions associated with it which you can research online and are written in the typical academic lingo. However, all agree in that the working memory is associated with the simultaneous storage and processing of temporary information. Working memory and its components are critical components of comprehension, attention, information retention, and information retrieval.

Working memory problems have implications for reading, reading comprehension, writing, organization, the ability to follow directions and math! So the big elephant in the room, I have decided, is the question of whether we can do anything to help our son’s working memory!

Apparently working memory has been studied for decades in animals and humans. Only recently have some started to believe that working memory can be strengthened through rigorous training. Swedish Neuroscientist Dr. Torkel Klingberg is one. He has developed a software working memory training program for both children and adults called Cogmed. The Cogmed program has been offered in Sweden since 2003 and, in the United States, since 2006. The Cogmed program has supposedly been tested and evaluated by scientists throughout the world. Dr. Susan Gathercole, an expert on working memory, for many years believed it was not possible to train working memory. Much of her research had, in fact, been focused on ways to reduce demands on working memory in the classroom. Apparently with Cogmed, her views have changed. The results of Dr.Gathercole’s study have recently been published (April 2009).

Another tool is Jungle Memory. Jungle Memory is an online interactive computer program based on scientific research. Children play games that train working memory in key learning activities, like reading and math. Tracy Packiam Alloway who helped to develop Jungle Memory, is a senior lecturer at the University of Stirling’s Department of Psychology in Scotland and Director of the University’s Centre for Memory and Learning Over The LifeSpan.. Ms. Alloway has studied and researched working memory for 12 years.

So apparently the belief that you can expand or strengthen working memory is a relatively new concept. I have a lot more research into this to do but I am going to start by trying the Cogmed program with my son. We will probably start some time in September after we have settled in with the start of school.

So what about you? Is working memory an issue for you or your child? I would love to hear your feedback and experiences.

Thanks for watching and until next time ….

Karen

Dyslexia Blog
SHARING RESOURCES AND INFORMATION ABOUT DYSLEXIA FOR PARENTS

Ann shares wonderful information that has helped her work with her son. She also offers a very unique perspective of an ex-pat living in Turkey!!

Betul / Ann

I am a parent of a child with dyslexia. I am English but have lived in Turkey for many years. I met Betul who works with children with dyslexia, and now we have started this blog together in order to try to give information about dyslexia and learning disabilities.

Sample Blog Post
http://dyslexiaparents.blogspot.com/2009/08/telling-time.html

TELLING THE TIME

Many children with dyslexia struggle to learn to tell the time easily.
Dyslexics especially have problems telling the time on a clock with hands:

They may be able to tell whole hours and half hours (5:00, 5:30, etc.) but not smaller chunks, such as 8.04.
They often find it difficult to distinguish between the minute and hour hands.
Concepts such as before ( to )and after (past) on a clock are confusing for them.

As a parent there are several ways you can help them to learn to tell the time.

You could buy a teaching watch for your child. I obtained one which is produced by ELC ( Early Learning Centre) from Leonardinis.This watch has different coloured hands – for the minute hand and for the hour hand. There are a set of numbers for the minutes as well as for the hours.Also the watch face has ‘past’ and ‘to’ written on it in different colours.All these things make it easier for your child to tell the time.

http://www.leonardini.com.tr/

When I go out with my child I make him the ’official time keeper’ – and ask him at frequent intervals what the time is in order that he practices !!!

In addition there are many online free games which children can do to practice telling the time .
In a previous blog entry I wrote about online maths computer games,including ones to practice telling the time.

I found a very good puzzle by Larsen . The child has to match the correct clock faces to the right time.The puzzle contains 42 different clock faces with both the 12 and 24 hour time written on it.

I found an interesting article Charlottes clock taken from the Special Children Magazine,issue 166, May/June 2005 ,which is written by a mother of a child with special needs. In this article she explains how she approached teaching the time to her child. The techniques she described could be used with a dyslexic child.

http://www.mathsextra.com/articles.htm

www.mathsextra.com/documents/CharlottesClock.pdf

Eric Wolf is a professional storyteller and uses that capability to share his personal story of dyslexia coupled with awareness, education and compassion. Anyone with a dyslexic in their life should read this blog.

Eric Wolf
Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States

Dear Reader, I awaken compassion for students with learning disabilities in themselves and those around them. Compassion is a difficult thing to teach and even more difficult to learn. By telling stories of how I struggled with my dyslexia, I help students with learning disabilities laugh at their own problems, and inspire empathy in the rest of the student body. I demonstrate that being in school is worth the hard work. I set a good example; despite my dyslexia, I graduated with a Masters of Science in Education from Lesley University in Boston. The positive influence on students of meeting someone who had similar problems and succeeded cannot be underestimated, nor can the morale-building effect on staff when they meet an adult who was helped by their profession. I speak to the staff about the issues they struggle with and I honor the place they are in. I create a unique residency experience for your school; a storytelling residency can have a powerful effect by teaching students how to effectively listen and support each other. I leave behind the ability for students and teachers to more effectively communicators. Peace, Eric James Wolf

Sample Blog Post

http://dyslexicstoryteller.blogspot.com/2009/07/nuts-in-bolts-of-being-dyslexic.html

Nuts in Bolts of being Dyslexic

Recently I had a classic dyslexic experience.
For the past five months my phone service has been telling that it has messages.

As a dyslexic person I have tendency to switch the audio recognition of sounds, colors or other stimulus. Red means green, black is white, t is h or yes means no. While the more obvious red and green analogy is rare for me these days. I have been known on a once every five years occasion to go through a red light. (That could be an interesting PHD for some one; Dyslexia and traffic accidents – anyone?)

Usually for me dyslexia means that I have to dumb down what I say to write – or – I have to use words of simpler variety in order to communicate effectively.

When I read – My optimum communication style is the first person spoken narrative.
When I speak it – Communication is easy for me by word of mouth using stories.
When I write it – Storytelling works the best.

That little exercise made my head hurt – Back to the phone service.

The phone company sent me a signal (when I pick up my phone the dial tone – stutters or blinks.)
I, as dyslexic person, reversed the meaning of the stimulus. For the past 5 months I have been thinking that no one – has left me a message. Think about that – not a week not a month for the last five months I was convinced that none of my calls were returned.

I mean really; how is that possible? You could think – well Eric is an idiot. I had tests – and I’m not really. So there is another explanation. Well – many dyslexic people have memory issues. They fail to connect past language related events with present ones with current ones. Dyslexic children struggle with issues of time and time management. The long and the short of it is – I didn’t notice that more then a week had gone by with out getting a message.

Not to forget that dyslexic people have lower self esteem then other populations. So it is onlly natural for a dyslexic person to think that on one called them. ☹ Did I mention the 60 messages waiting for me in my voice mail?

Ofer Chermesh is an adult Dyslexic who now works in the area of developing assistive technology for dyslexics. His company is called Ghotit. Ofer’s blog offers information and insights from the perspective of someone living with dyslexia. He shares insights on himself with the hope of helping others and educating those without dyslexia.
 
 
Ofer Chermesh and his company, Ghotit

My name is Ofer Chermesh and I am one of Ghotit founders. I have always struggled with writing and reading. When I was 10 years old I was diagnosed as a dyslexic. I have struggled with my dyslexia throughout my life, in school and in different workplaces.

I hope you will find Ghotit useful to you as it is for me.
 
 
Sample Blog Post

http://dyslexia-blog.ghotit.com/2009/08/03/dyslexia-student-exams/
 
 
No Ifs or Buts – Dyslexics Deserve Extra Exam Time
Posted by: ghotit on: August 3, 2009

I remember a while back when I was working at a previous workplace, I entered the coffee lounge and heard two work colleagues talking about the injustice of giving students additional exam time. They raised the issue that many students are abusing this “benefit” unjustly. I remember how I impolitely interrupted their conversation stating that what they just said was complete nonsense and explained that denying students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia and dysgraphia extra exam time was simply unjust and reflected the general’s public general ignorance on these topics. They of course lacked the ardor that I demonstrated in this discussion and soon enough retreated back to their offices.

IF only these students would work harder they would not need this extra time?

BUT so many students are abusing this extra time loop hole to get improved testing conditions?

My work colleagues were not malicious, dyslexia-phobic people… they simply were quite ignorant to what people with Reading and Writing disabilities experience and did not have the understanding that providing this extra exam time for people with dyslexia can make a real difference between Success or Failure.

“Just as a diabetic requires insulin, an individual who is hearing impaired requires a hearing aid, a man or woman who is a quadriplegic requires a wheelchair, a person who is dyslexic has a profound physiological need for additional time to complete examinations.” – http://dyslexia.yale.edu/Policy_WhyChange.html

Dyslexia is a physiological condition that people are born with. Special learning techniques, together with hard word and special reading and writing assistive technology can ensure that a dyslexic student succeed in both education and his workplace. However, the fact remains that for most dyslexics Reading and Writing will always be more difficult and time-consuming then non-dyslexics. The objectives of examinations are to test the intelligence and knowledge of the examinee on a specific topic. The objective is not to test the speed at which he reads the questions and writes the answers.

Regarding the claim that there are non-dyslexics that abuse this extra time for exams policy, there are 2 replies that I wish to make:

“Data now demonstrate that it is only students who are dyslexic who benefit from additional time. Thus, such college students increase their scores substantially (e.g., 13th percentile to 76th percentile), while typical readers when given extra time on exams increase their scores few to no points (82nd percentile to 83rd percentile).*” – this is taken from Yale’s University website. This research demonstrates that people who really do not have a real difficulty in Reading and Writing will not gain real benefits with the extra time allocated to exams.

So if everybody cheated in a test, should someone who did not cheat be punished too? The obvious answer is NO. By getting additional exam time, the dyslexic student is simply getting equivalent testing conditions as other students. He is not cheating the system. If other students are supposedly “cheating the system”, then let the system take responsibility to stop this cheating without punishing the ones who deserve this benefit; and the system should do so without making the person with dyslexia feel subconscious about getting the benefit he justifiably deserves…

So was I rude when I interrupted my work colleagues’ conversation and loudly stated their ignorance on this topic, perhaps. But it is time to loudly state the rights of the dyslexic community and to educate the public regarding what is dyslexia and what must be done in order to enable dyslexics to fully and hopefully easily integrate into society… and this definitely includes GETTING EXTRA EXAM TIME.

* M. K. Runyan, The Effects of Extratime. In S. Shaywitz & B. Shaywitz, eds., Attention Deficit Disorder Comes of Age: Toward the 21st Century; Austin, Texas: Pro-Ed, 1992.

1. Achievement: An assessment of our son’s current academic skills.

Word Recognition

Spelling

Reading Comprehension

Math Computation

Math Reasoning
 
2. Memory

Verbal Memory – Retention of spoken information.

Visual Memory – Retention of visual information important in memorizing information that is
presented as a picture.

Attention/Concentration

General Memory – The aggregate of the three memory skills listed above.
 
3. Processing

Visual-Motor Integration – The accurate visual perception of a geometric shape and then the
integration of that perception with a precise fine-motor movement
in order to copy it.

Phonetic Decoding – Perhaps THE most crucially important reading skill.

Phonological Awareness – The realization that spoken words are not one sound, but
are made up of several sounds.

Fluency (Rapid Naming) – Research shows that rapid naming of a series of letters and
numbers is a powerful predictor of reading achievement.
 
 
I realize that these categories are age and grade specific. However, by having the information grouped into categories and then broken down into specific areas with one sentence definitions, I was able to understand my son’s issues at a much deeper level than I have ever been able to before.

Previously our Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children IV (WISC-IV) results had been grouped into the following categories: Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory, and Processing Speed with no further explanation into the sub-categories. In several categories, the testing results were presented as a “scaled score”. I still have no idea what that is.

Who else feels the same way about special needs test results? If you do, email me at kgriffithgryga@lipstickwisdom.com and tell me your stories and ideas. Now how do I get started on this Plain English movement?