Re: help! - service plan meeting with the public schools

December 18, 2003

Janiece,

I wanted to add just a few words to Wanda's excellent suggestions...

I found your description of homeschooling your son moving and inspiring in so

many ways-particularly the emphasis on how much of a mutual process it has been

for you. Seeing teaching as a two-way process and perseverance have always been

the keys for me in being with a challenging child, Chelsey being a case in

point.

Retention seems to be the central issue, which led me to two questions: (1) what

nutritional supplements might support retention and (2) would retention improve

with simultaneous physical exercizes--that is, bringing the body in to hold the

" memory " of the learning experience. You're doing that already in a way with

some success in the way you play with him. I have often experienced how much

children (and adults for that matter) remember in their body--a certain position

of the body will recall a certain experience, etc. With Chelsey, certain body

movements were better than others for learning. I suspect ASD kids learn better

in motion.

In regard to the meeting and your apprehension about the school's motives in

offering support, it is hard to know since I'm not familiar with your particular

school system. In the school districts I know, OT for ASD kids can be offered

independently of school attendance (when it is available at all!). Unless you

have previous experience to the contrary, it might be easiest to simply ask then

directly about their motives and regulations. If they receive more funds per

child in attendence, they may very well be biased in the direction yo suspect.

On the other hand, in some districts they are so overwhelmed with special needs

kids that they are happy to support homeschooling. What is your local situation?

From what you say, they seem eager to help. You could just ask them " why? "

Plese let us know how the meeting turns out. I am getting more and more

interested in a hybred model for some ASD kids--that is, a mixture of

homeschooling (in a small community setting with parents sharing) plus services

being provided by the public system. As the number of ASD kids entering

schools increases, I believe this model will be one of the several ways to cope

with the extraordinary challenges that lie ahead.

Jack

J Tobey wrote:

Hello everyone,

My son has been receiving speech therapy in the public schools even though he is

otherwise homeschooled. At the last 504 meeting with the school (which was just

a routine meeting to sign papers for speech), I made a comment as we were

leaving the meeting about my son not being easy to teach because of his memory

and attention issues. Don't ask me why I said it, because I have no clue,

except that it fit in with the conversation at the time.

I ENJOY teaching him very much, but I've learned that we have to spend more time

on review than we do in learning new stuff. He forgets sight words, addition

facts, how to count by two's, phonic skills, etc. just a couple of weeks after

we move on to new stuff, unless we continue to review the old material over and

over. He might see a sight word that he has read over a couple of hundred times

before, but if it hasn't been reviewed for a month, it'll be as if he's never

seen it before in his life. THAT'S what makes teaching him difficult.

Well, that plus he doesn't have a good attention span unless he's doing

something exciting to him, so I make as much of his " work " seem like play as I

can! (Today, for example, I made a long road out of sight word cards. After

he walked down the road reading them, he was able to drive his remote control

car along the path! He loved it, and the words got practiced too!)

Oh, and he has trouble applying stuff he's learned as well. For example, in

reading, he can read many words in isolation (using phonic skills or sometimes

simply as sight words), but moments later have trouble with those same words

when they are in a story he's reading. (I've recently begun a new approach

which I think is helping a lot with that, but I won't take time to explain it

now.) He can even spell some words (using phonics skills) with letter tiles,

but have trouble reading his own list ten minutes later. Also, his speech

teacher has noticed that he has more trouble than most kids with making use, in

regular conversation, of new speech sounds he's learned, even though he can say

them perfectly in words in speech class. She says he doesn't monitor his own

everyday converstion and just continues saying the words incorrectly as he's

been doing since he first learned how to talk. I guess old habits are hard to

break!

Well, anyway, the school picked up on my comment the other day, and so the

speech teacher, whom I think highly of, arranged another meeting for the school

officials (including herself) to discuss it with me and possibly set up testing.

I was told that they would test/evaluate my son (by the OT, and the school

psychologist, and possibly by the resource teacher as well) even though he was

homeschooled, and that then the group would come up with a " plan " of what they

would offer him, but...here's the catch... the speech therapist said that most

likely none of it would be able to be put into action unless he was put back in

public schools.

I don't intend to put him back in public schools this year, and probably not

next year either (I'll decide that closer to next year.), so I don't see much

point in allowing them to put my son through all thoses tests, until such time

as I decide to put him back in public school. The speech teacher has assured me

that the ball is in my hands, and that I can simply deny testing if I

choose...yet even though I feel I can trust HER, I'm not so sure of the school's

intentions regarding this meeting. (I'm a former public school teacher myself,

and back during my P.S. years I, myself, might have been suspicious about a

child who was homeschooled but whom had some learning problems, and tried to

convince the parent to put him back in PS too! But now, on the contrary, I feel

I offer my child much MORE than he previously got in PS!)

In all honesty, I'm a bit nervous about the meeting, in case you hadn't already

guessed! lol The meeting is this Friday, by the way. I don't intend to tell

them all my son's learning related problems, as I don't want them to get the

school on my case and have them try to convince me to put my son back in P.S. I

really don't feel as if the ball is in my hands even if the speech therapist

says it is. Instead I feel as if they are trying to pull the rug out from under

me!

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice for me in dealing with the schools?

Has anyone had any luck in getting the schools to offer OT to their homeschooled

child? My son has a lot of upper body hypotonia which does interfer with his

schoolwork and his speech...but even when he was in public school, and I had a

note from his pediatrician requesting that the school evaluate him for OT, they

wouldn't do it!!!! So that's about the only thing I'd really like the school to

help with....yet I just don't see getting the service as a homeschooler.

I'd appreciate any hints or suggestions anyone has for me regarding the

meeting, OT, learning disabilities, etc! :-)

On the positive side of things, the whole process IS a learning and inner

healing experience for both my son and me! :-) I have learned to tailor my

teaching/interacting around his needs and learning styles, instead of trying to

force him into a rigid mold. His problems are opportunities for my growth and

learning, as well as his! And I think that I'm learning more and more about how

to teach him, as an individual, all the time. ....But will the school believe

me???

Janiece

December 18, 2003

There is something to be said for the combination of movement and learning and

I'm guessing any OT could expand on it. Patty Lemer from Developmental Delay

Resources once told me the way to spot a good Speech Therapist was to see if

they were moving. She said ST should look like OT.

My son and I will often do a few quick Gym exercises before we start his

homework. I know when he's in the playground swinging, that's a great time to

teach him a song or rhyme. He's calm and receptive then.

Re: help! - service plan meeting with the public

schools

Janiece,

I wanted to add just a few words to Wanda's excellent suggestions...

I found your description of homeschooling your son moving and inspiring in so

many ways-particularly the emphasis on how much of a mutual process it has been

for you. Seeing teaching as a two-way process and perseverance have always been

the keys for me in being with a challenging child, Chelsey being a case in

point.

Retention seems to be the central issue, which led me to two questions: (1)

what nutritional supplements might support retention and (2) would retention

improve with simultaneous physical exercizes--that is, bringing the body in to

hold the " memory " of the learning experience. You're doing that already in a

way with some success in the way you play with him. I have often experienced

how much children (and adults for that matter) remember in their body--a certain

position of the body will recall a certain experience, etc. With Chelsey,

certain body movements were better than others for learning. I suspect ASD kids

learn better in motion.