Re: ARTICLE: the relationship between language and learning disabilities

[Guest guest]

--I guess as far as Apraxia is concerned this is no news as there has

been a link between reading problems and apraxia for awhile.

Suprisingly my son's slp didn't know this connection. When I told her

She did a matching exercise with Taft and said it was a 'pre-reading'

skill he did okay but not super at it but Taft was acting extremely

bored and tired so we weren't sure if that was why he was missing some

.. I did it a few months later and he did it fine. I am hoping that

correlates over into reading. I am so fond of reading and I want him

to get the same joy out of it that I do. I hope that my son is

learning disabilty free but if he isn't I have faith that he will

overcome that like he has everything else. Is there any research on

how children with Apraxia do in a homeschool setting? My training as

a teacher made me despise that idea but now that im facing a child

that might thrive in a one-on-one situation with curriculum centered

around interests I am seriously considering it. A lady I knows son was

reading at a 3rd grade level in 8th grade she pulled him out for a

year and when he started 9th after the furlough he was reading at

grade level. Simply a testament to me about the importance of

one-on-one support for children with learning struggles.

Steph

[Guest guest]

you asked:Is there any research on

how children with Apraxia do in a homeschool setting?

Here's a page with a lot of homeschooling links for info.

http://members.cox.net/briansmom2/cu/hsspecialneeds.html

Our OT has been encouraging me to look into the possiblity of homeschooling. Not

sure how I feel about it either. I think we'll try public school, but keep the

hs option open if my son doesn't thrive in kindergarten next year.

[ ] Re: ARTICLE: the relationship between language

and learning disabilities

--. Is there any research on

how children with Apraxia do in a homeschool setting? My training as

a teacher made me despise that idea but now that im facing a child

that might thrive in a one-on-one situation with curriculum centered

around interests I am seriously considering it.

[Guest guest]

So far reading hasn't been an issue with my apraxic son. He just

finished kindergarten and his reading really took off. He has good

phonemic awareness and can sound out words. He is ahead of the game

for sure so we are anticipating a good 1st grade year.

For the little ones, work on ABC puzzles and in terms of videos the

sesame street series was a big help. Rhyming is also a good exercise

for pre reading. Dr. Seuss books and nursery rhymes are all good

things to work on.

denise

> --I guess as far as Apraxia is concerned this is no news as there

has

> been a link between reading problems and apraxia for awhile.

> Suprisingly my son's slp didn't know this connection. When I told

her

> She did a matching exercise with Taft and said it was a 'pre-

reading'

> skill he did okay but not super at it but Taft was acting extremely

> bored and tired so we weren't sure if that was why he was missing

some

> . I did it a few months later and he did it fine. I am hoping that

> correlates over into reading. I am so fond of reading and I want

him

> to get the same joy out of it that I do. I hope that my son is

> learning disabilty free but if he isn't I have faith that he will

> overcome that like he has everything else. Is there any research on

> how children with Apraxia do in a homeschool setting? My training

as

> a teacher made me despise that idea but now that im facing a child

> that might thrive in a one-on-one situation with curriculum centered

> around interests I am seriously considering it. A lady I knows son

was

> reading at a 3rd grade level in 8th grade she pulled him out for a

> year and when he started 9th after the furlough he was reading at

> grade level. Simply a testament to me about the importance of

> one-on-one support for children with learning struggles.

>

> Steph

[Guest guest]

Like 's son -my son Tanner who is a top student now (again) in

second grade is an excellent reader. Right now he is reading books

like The Secrets of Droon by Tony Abbott and others in the

Scholastic series books -like Geronimo Stilton. We jump start our

day on the way to school each day by having Tanner read at 'least'

one page -then his brain is 'on'. If you don't know what I mean -I

may explain it more below.

Reading problems can be found in some children that are speech

impaired -but we have to wonder with our group here -we have many

children here who have ongoing speech impairments and are top

students regardless - perhaps due to some of the strategies we now

are learning..we have to wonder - how much of that " speech problems

means learning disabilities " 'has' to be true -and how much is a

self fulfilling prophecy? Not for nothing but far too many of our

speech impaired kids end up in LD classes -even as young as

kindergarten. Why would a child -any child with average to above

average intelligence need to be put in a learning disabled class for

kindergarten just because they have a verbal impairment anyway -

unless they had a learning disability in regards to finger

painting? Once started there -when do you switch them to the

mainstream? At least give these children a chance. At best...

Expect great things for your late talker child -and they may even

rise above where you ever believed possible. Tanner did -I would

have been thrilled even if he just got straight B's!

" students will rise to the level of expectations. " as

Escalante proved in the movie Stand and Deliver.

In addition -Tanner is a whiz at math. In his school the second

graders need to complete 100 random addition facts up to the 12s in

5 minutes and get at least a 98% accuracy 5 times and then they need

to do the same with subtraction-then multiplication -then division.

In Tanner's class there were only 2 children that passed with over a

98% (Tanner's in an accelerated academics class not a special needs

class) One child got a 100% and one got a 99%. Tanner was the one

with the 99%! Tanner is also the only child in his class who has

any special needs (speech impaired)

Below are some archived tips I wrote on reading. I'll be offline a

few days as we are heading out due to Big Ol' Frances heading toward

Florida and we don't want to be home on the water when she gets

here! (Someone put Frances on a diet!!)

About reading/spelling.

One of the best pages I found for multisensory language programs

including the Spalding method (Writing Road to Reading) you speak

of is here

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/mssl_methods.html

Actually there are many programs talked about at this link that are

wonderful! I again suggest to all of you to print this out and save

it in your child's file just in case. Links don't always work for

ever, or even for the year it takes for you to need it.

Like you, I found the little tricks to remember the rules work

extremely well for Tanner who like Suzi's child (and most children

here) have amazing memories which helps with all the rules. After

all in reading -there are many rules and changes -so memory is

important.

I just want to state prior to going on -for those asking questions

about preschool children with apraxia/speech impairments not

remembering colors and numbers -they are busy working on more

severe issues right now than other children their age -so they have

much more on their plate. There is proof that learning academics

early vs later makes no difference in the long run -and even some

evidence that too much academic pressure in the early years can be

detrimental Here is just one research study:

Research Link / When Children Aren't Ready for Kindergarten

H. Holloway

How can schools promote the achievement of children who are old

enough to enroll in kindergarten but who are not developmentally

ready to succeed? Two approaches that parents and schools commonly

use are delaying the child's entry into kindergarten and retaining

the child in kindergarten for an extra year.

Giving children an extra year, whether through delayed entry or

kindergarten retention, makes sense in view of the ample research

suggesting that the youngest children tend to lag behind their

classmates. West, Denton, and Reaney (2000) found that in the spring

of their kindergarten year, younger children had lower reading and

mathematics knowledge and skills on average than did their older

counterparts. These researchers also found that older kindergartners

were more likely to persist at tasks, more eager to learn, and

better able to pay attention.

Delayed Entry Versus Kindergarten Retention

To avoid the disadvantage suffered by younger students, some parents

choose to delay the entry of their children into kindergarten. Zill,

Loomis, and West (1997) found that children whose kindergarten entry

was delayed so that they started kindergarten when they were older

performed better than their younger classmates in grades 1 and 2.

These researchers concluded that the extra year before starting

kindergarten does not harm the children who are held out and may

help most of them.

In contrast, the researchers discovered that children who repeated

kindergarten were doing worse than their younger classmates on most

school performance indicators by 1st or 2nd grade. For instance, two-

thirds of the retained students had received some negative feedback

from teachers compared with less than half of the nonretained

students. The retained students were also much more likely to have

problems concentrating, to perform below their capabilities, and to

act up and disrupt the class. Zill, Loomis, and West concluded that

repeating kindergarten had not helped those children and may have

actually made matters worse.

Reasons for the Differences

What explains the difference between the school performance of

delayed-entry children and those who repeat kindergarten? Both

groups of students are older than most of their classmates, so why

don't the beneficial effects of being older apply to both groups?

Some possible answers are that

The underlying developmental problems of the two groups may differ.

The two groups may have different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Parents who choose to delay their children's school entry may have a

higher level of awareness and involvement.

The stigmatizing effect of being required to repeat a grade may harm

children's academic progress.

(read full article)

http://www.ascd.org/publications/ed_lead/200304/holloway.html

There is much more on this.

In researched studies -those children who read early are no farther

along than those who read later. Tanner seemed to know his letters

at 3 and 4 years old, at least most of the time -but it was honestly

not something that I cared about as much as getting him up to speed

in being able to talk. With the daily therapy and school, I felt

bad Tanner didn't have much " kid time " and tried to make the time

out of therapy and school fun for him. Didn't work well. Most of

the time Tanner would just sleep in his free time he was so

exhausted from the long days of therapy and school. I felt he

missed so much, but on the other hand we couldn't not do the

therapy. I did the research and knew that school work could and

should take a back seat during Tanner's preschool years.

Tanner didn't start kindergarten until 6 years old and was one of

the top in his mainstream class according to his teacher Mrs.

. He was " reading ready " when he graduated kindergarten. He

started reading over the summer, his favorite book was " Hop on Pop "

Because Tanner transitioned out of OT at the end of kindergarten -

and he seemed ready and willing to learn reading and other

academics, we switched him to a private accelerated academics

academy school. When Tanner started first grade he was the only

one in his class who was a beginner reader since most of his friends

now were fluent readers since kindergarten. Tanner is also the only

child in his entire school now who has any impairment of speech,

other than one little girl with mild stuttering. As one of the

other toy inventors I used to work with used to say " The proof is in

the pudding " In spite of the fact that Tanner didn't start working

on reading skills until later -Tanner has been a straight A student

in all subjects.

With intensive therapy and all the stress of not being able to

communicate simple needs well, many of our children in preschool

years don't have the same amount of kid time with no

pressure " normal " kids have -don't underestimate the importance of

play. They not only will catch up when they are ready if given the

chance -they 'can' surpass others. Again in this group we are

reporting many of our children that are " late talkers " have

incredible memories -that's a great asset for being a top student!

Some of the tricks to say that worked for Tanner:

For the silent 'E' which turns the word mad into the word made for

example

All I would have to say if Tanner hesitated (which on this word he

wouldn't) " the A is kicked " and Tanner would know the E is silent

and the A " says it's name " . Reason -because the E used all it's

energy to kick the A to say it's name -so now it's silent.

I also say for silent letters like the 'H' in the word ghost. " The

H has apraxia and is still learning to talk, but you'll hurt it's

feelings if you forget he's there "

From: " kiddietalk " <kiddietalk@...>

Date: Sun Feb 1, 2004 11:05 pm

Subject: Re: Help for school age child with apraxia who is now

talking

Deletra I have a few suggestions,

Even though your daughter is now in second grade, due to her history

of apraxia and even given the learning disabilities that run in the

family, it may not be that she isn't reading at age level because

she has an underlying learning disability as much as she may need

that extra development time to learn to read just like she needed

that extra developmental time to learn to talk.

Learning to talk and learning to read. I can tell you as a parent

that there are overlaps in how to teach both -and it's important to

remember they are linked. Both require multisensory more so than in

most children because our children may not be utilizing the same

area of the brain as others to learn to read. However -once they

learn -they have the potential to be superior students if you can

maintain a healthy self esteem.

Cured is a statement that comes up here often -and it's all

relevant. If your child truly was apraxic, that is not a condition

that is of yet curable so perhaps the child was never apraxic and

had another impairment of speech. How complex is your child's

ability to express her thoughts? If she has no difficulty

expressing anything she wants no matter how complex and long, no

matter how tired or stressed, and is able to repeat back entire

sentences word for word when asked to -I'd agree that is not an

apraxic -but I wouldn't say that is cured of apraxia because I know

of know such thing and I do know older successful apraxics.

Typically a child will learn to overcome apraxia through strategies,

sometimes enough that it's not detectable to the untrained ear. But

it's important to remember that communication needs become

increasingly complex as the child ages, and school demands go from

extremely simple (kindergarten) to extremely complex within a

relatively short period of time. Once a child breaks down in their

ability to keep up -they are stuck while the rest go on.

What do I mean by more complex? In situations where more complex

language or thoughts is required, or stress or fatigue are involved -

an apraxic child or teen or adult may break down where you can hear

the impairment that they may typically be experienced at hiding.

For example a " cured " five year old apraxic child may be able to

express " Mommy quick -he has a boo boo " but may break down if

trying to express the longer " Mommy come out here quick - ny ran

into the sticker bush in our backyard and it scratched his hand and

his arm and now he is bleeding! " A " cured " apraxic teen may say " He

works at the med center and uses lots of big words when he talks so

I don't know what he meant " and probably wouldn't attempt to say in

public if he knows he will break down " He works at Community

Hospital and speaks using such sophisticated technical medical

language that you would need a dictionary just to understand him

when he orders a cheeseburger at Mickey D's " Apraxics tend to keep

their expressed thoughts shorter -and simpler (immature) than their

peers.

My first question to you is how is your daughter's confidence and

self esteem? My second question which may appear to be unrelated

is -how is your daughter's memory? I don't mean with school work -

just with normal stuff, like when you tell her about something she

wants to do. My third and last questions for now are what does the

school propose to do about your child's reading problems? Is there

a tutor who can work with her outside the school? Are there other

children in her class who also are struggling or does she stand out

as the only one? Is your child close friends with the children in

her class? Is she close with the children in other grades (like

first?)

Was your child 5 or 6 when she started kindergarten? I highly

recommend for children with communication impairments to wait to

send them to kindergarten until 6 (especially those children with

summer birthdays) because even when they appear to be ready

academically at five, if they are not ready in all developmental

areas including maturity -it shows up typically after in the more

academic years after kindergarten. Of course no matter what you did

in the past you can't change -but knowing this may help in making

decisions on what to do next to best help your child be the best she

can be -and rise above!

Please let me know the answer to the above questions when you have a

chance. Below I have some information on a new PBS documentary on

learning to read as well as various archives for suggestions on how

to teach reading to an apraxic child that I've posted due to my son

Tanner, some which may help your daughter too. I would start from

the beginning from your daughter to give her a solid base to build

on -and not worry about using books that are viewed as books

for " babies " Right now probably the best thing to do is find ways

to build up your daughter's confidence. Let her understand and know

that she has the potential due to her early way of learning to read

and the new unexplored pathways she developed in her brain -to

become an even greater student than the rest -she does has the power

to rise above. Believe it -and help her believe it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

" Statistically, more American children suffer long-term life-harm

from the process of learning to read than from parental abuse,

accidents, and all other childhood diseases and disorders combined.

In purely economic terms, reading related difficulties cost our

nation more than the war on terrorism, crime, and drugs combined.

" We need to reconceptualize what it means to learn to read and who's

responsible for its success if we're going to deal with the

problem. " - Dr. Grover Whitehurst, Director Institute of Education

Sciences, Assistant Secretary of Education, U.S. Department of

Education (9-10-03 Children of the Code interview).

The target date for the national broadcast of the Children of the

Code PBS series is September 2004. A companion book and the expanded

DVD series are slated for release in early 2005. The Children of the

Code team currently gives presentations and workshops to parents and

teachers. "

http://www.childrenofthecode.org/cotcintro.htm

My 7 year old son Tanner is now in first grade and reading all kinds

of books and even newspapers, mainly due to a solid base of both

traditional and multisensory therapy. Tanner's page is

http://www.cherab.org/information/familiesrelate/letter.html

Traditional ways to teach reading -which some of my ideas are based

from? There are so many out there now. Carol just posted about

LiPS, which is just one. Here is a great webpage about that and a

few others worth exploring. (In fact -print out this page which is

reprinted with permission and written by

Curtis W. McIntyre, Ph.D. and Joyce S. Pickering, LSH/CCC, MA,

editors, 1995. International Multisensory Structured Language

Education Council (IMSLEC)

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/mssl_methods.html

I can tell you we always kept Tanner laughing -and always used

multisensory. We would sit at dinner and I would say " Let's play a

game. I'm going to say a word and everyone change one letter to

make another word " This one is great to work on with a bunch of

letters (you can use the fridge ones -they are pretty cheap and then

you can play in the car) so you can pass the " word " around. Took

Tanner awhile to want to play. For the longest time he just sat and

listened to/watched us -which was fine with me. I wasn't sure if he

got the concept of rhyming -which to me is a fun way to learn to

read -even though in academic theory it's not always the best way to

learn...but I then found that by taking Tanner to Seussville at

Universal and reading all the Dr. Seuss books took off. My

recommendation -Hop On Pop is an awesome book for children with

speech problems -and was Tanner's favorite. Actually if your child

isn't reading at all yet -also get a book called Hug -- by Jez

Alborough. Almost every page has one word on it... " Hug " which can

be said in all different ways with different voices/meanings -it's

an awesome book for a number of reasons.

From Amazon

" How can it be that a book with only one word--hug--repeated

throughout, can be so good? The proof is in the pudding (or the

wilds of Africa) in Jez Alborough's picture book Hug, a delightful

mini odyssey of a baby chimpanzee on the hunt for his mum and a

cuddle.

Our little friend wanders through the trees, witnessing many other

animals from chameleons to giraffes as they snuggle together. " Hug, "

he says, happily, at first, but then with growing despair as he sees

there are no hugs for him. The story is told purely by the

expression on the little chimp's face as his hopes are built up and

dashed again until eventually, with a huge smile, he finds his mum

and reaps the reward.

Hug is a clever, unusual book that portrays the art of children's

illustration at its very best: a story brought to life with the

stroke of a brush through facial expressions and body language that

children will immediately understand. "

Tanner seemed to like to turn the pages of the book Hug and " read "

to us. After awhile -he got into changing his voice. At first he

just read the word the same way throughout. Like us he

was " reading " (even though there are only a few different words in

the whole book) and of course we made a big deal about " how

advanced " Tanner was that he could " read an entire book! " and " Look

how big of a book it is! " Hug was not meant as a book for a six

year old like Tanner which is how old he was when I found it for

him -it's meant for babies. I didn't care. Like most other kids

we were not working on reading prior to Kindergarten -we were

working on speech -and outside of that I wanted him to be a kid, and

there wasn't enough time in the day for all of it. So reading based

on my research could take a back burner. (there are studies on this

I've posted in the archives)

I bought a " baby " book for Tanner because in my mind I needed books

for him that were so easy they would raise his confidence. Add

confidence to the list of most important things you can give your

child. Right after reading his " confidence " books -he's ready to

learn -he's ready for the " hard " books.

After having Tanner read Hug alone -together we used to

read " harder " books -at first back then -Dr. Seuss. Back then -Hug

was his warm up. I would both let Tanner sound out -and I would

read to him and let him read back after me (think modeling when we

teach them to talk) Then Dr. Seuss was his warm up -and now Danny

and the Dinosaur is his warm up. His warm up of today was

his " hard " book of yesterday. I believe that children like Tanner

need warm up time to get their motor planning going.

Hard words are just words with silent letters (they are learning to

talk Tanner -they want to be there but don't make any sound yet) or

long words (let's break this up to little words) and we use the same

visual or auditory cues for long words in reading we use for long

words in speech -clapping -fingers etc. So next time your child is

trying to break down " snug " don't break it down to s -n -u- g. Try

this and let me know how it goes. Break it into " Sn " " u " " g " and

use three fingers to cue for each sound. Point to the Sn and cover

the ug -and say " sn " and put up one finger. Then cover the sn and g

so she only sees the " u " and put up two fingers and say 'U " and then

do the same for the g (cover the rest) and use three fingers and

say " g " At first each word is like pulling teeth -but then it

clicks and they just click. Again -think warm up.

I also noticed with reading that if I have him concentrate on

reading " with feeling " voice inflections, and we laugh and have fun

with it -he reads much faster and more fluent than ever! I of course

go crazy saying " Wow you can be an actor you read so well! " or I

laugh because he reads it so funny -(cute) I think it's tricking his

brain into using another area -kind of like the singing vs. talking

thing.

" For Tanner...if I listened to all the professionals outside of

knowledgeable ones like Dr. Agin:

I would have believed he is " just " a late talker and would not have

pushed for evaluations/EI

I would have believed all that I read at the only two websites for

apraxia when Tanner was first diagnosed. Which meant -no such thing

as oral apraxia, low tone/hypotonia? What's that and no

relationship. no way to diagnose apraxia in a child younger than

three. etc. etc.

I would have believed that Tanner may never talk because " it

depends "

I would have believed that Tanner would still be in a special ed

self contained class.

And I wouldn't have learned that what helped my son Tanner -also

helps so many others. You guys have no idea -no idea how criticized

I was by one parent out there who runs another apraxia group because

of my beliefs. What beliefs are they -all those I know in my heart

are good for our children.

Multisensory approaches to teaching and therapy like schools for the

hearing impaired (Association Method School)

EFAs

The importance of neurodevelopmental medical exams for a number of

reasons

Again you can read how I covered all this in more in my first posts

just a day to a week after Tanner was diagnosed. I've posted a few

here

/message/24782

So gray matter...don't have enough yet on it -still studying. I did

since find out about what was tried for autism....I again somehow

suspect that the EFAs have a play here too. After all -most of the

gray matter is comprised of it. "

I see the same thing with Tanner! He seems to be able to read

harder words at times than the easy ones! Makes no sense and I

point that out in an archive below. Like yes -he'll read a word

like Mississippi easily -and then pause for the word " the " ! But

then once I get him to read at least 2 pages from a book he knows

well like Danny and the Dinosaur -he's in the groove for the day.

It's like he just needs to get that brain switch turned on -then

it's on and he's more advanced. But if I don't warm him up he can

appear like he can't read very well at all. Of course for easy

books he doesn't need a warm up any longer -they are the warm up.

I just had a great conversation with Dr. Rosenthal the other day.

All of you may want to start trying to put his research to practice.

Read this and believe it's true about your speech impaired child:

A child with any disability will compensate for this disability by

being stronger in other areas than normal. Due to this -if given

the chance, multisensory exposure, and belief in them -children that

have expressive speech problems may be better at reading and writing

than normal.

I know that is not what research shows....yet. But as those that

care for these children -believe it. It's in my opinion wiser to

believe this -than for one to assume they can judge a child's IQ and

receptive ability and memory by using verbal based means...which

happens all the time.

http://www.cherab.org/news/verbaldisabledtest.html

And besides -Dr. Rosenthal agrees with that point and thinks this

needs to be researched. Any graduate students out there I'll tell

you more about what he said. Email me at lisa@... lisa at

cherab.org

" For ethical reasons, the Oak School experiment only focused on

favorable or positive expectations and their impact on intellectual

competence, but it is reasonable to infer that unfavorable

expectations could also lead to a corresponding decrease in

performance. Often, these negative expectations are based on

appearances and other factors that have little to do with

actual intellectual ability "

http://www.facultydirectory.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/pub/public_individual.pl?faculty=534

Here is more from an archive:

From: " kiddietalk " <kiddietalk@...>

Date: Wed Nov 5, 2003 8:36 pm

Subject: Re: reading

I agree with Gin on finding reading is helping Tanner with more

complex speech. Not only that -I agree that multisensory is the way

to go -and do not underestimate our children -they may not just make

it -they may excel above " normal " kids if given the chance (and the

belief in them) And for good reason.

My theory is that because our children don't learn to talk like

everyone else -that in contrast to the popular experience that most

speech impaired children will have learning disabilities -if treated

correctly -our kids may actually in many ways be even better

students than most. As a toy inventor -I'm aware of the basics of

what most kids like -or are like.

There are a few reasons I feel this way -don't have time to go into

all of them now. But for one -most of us have found our children

have these die hard memories! Not a normal memory for a " normal "

child -most kids you can get to forget a point by bringing up

something else that interests them -not many of the children in this

group! (of course you can never say " always " -just more often than

not. Just like the trouble blowing the nose thing that I first

brought up -this is yet another observation you will not read about

in books...yet) When Tanner learns his spelling words -he not only

knows how to spell even hard words -he tells me the word on the list

(of ten each week) and then spells it -like his memory is a picture

he can just look at.

Perhaps -due to using a different pathway and developing such

pathway -they have an edge we don't yet understand. I posted awhile

back that I found Tanner does best for the day if I have him read a

few pages each morning before school -like a warm up. He may start

out sounding each word -then once he is one a roll -he's in the

groove. Just like an apraxic child with words -with reading it's

strange too. Most kids will just read 3 letter words after awhile.

Tanner will whiz through difficult words at times like oxygen -and

have to sound out a word like " pull " Not every time -but enough to

make me take notice. As always -apraxia doesn't make sense in

the " norm " -so don't look at our kids and compare. And if you do -

notice just as well how they excel over others.

I again believe it most important to expose our children to

multisensory ways of learning, and keeping their self esteem high.

This means not exposing these kids to verbal based IQ or receptive

language testing!

Here are some notes on Tanner from an archived message. (again

Tanner is a straight A student in a mainstreamed accelerated

academics first grade class. He is social, has lots of friends -

does not get teased for the way he talks. Other children understand

he has a (now mild for the most part) speech impairment, (more

severe with more complex thoughts) but that he is very bright -and a

fun kid. Tanner is on the chess club, soccer team, and he is a cub

scout. No more therapy outside of speech -and of course

ProEFA/ProEPA and carnosine/carn-aware (the carnosine/carn-aware we

do on and off -the " magic fish oil " -all the time and don't miss a

day...He's doing that well in school -who knows, maybe it is

the " magic fish oil " . funny update -Tanner's teacher asked where she

could buy the fish oil we use for her own family (and self) after

hearing me talk to some other parents about it who also want to know

what we use. Tanner's doing better than some of their children -and

I told them how it helps me with my memory.)

" Here are some of the ways I help Tanner at home with his school

word. I'm sure some of the following examples will apply to any

child -even those who don't have any learning disabilities or speech

problems. It's just that it's the whole picture. Freeze under

pressure -break down the longer the utterance -responds to

multisensory techniques...etc.

( just off the top and not in any order )

Tanner's first grade class was given a " mad minute " math test where

they were given 2 minutes to answer 29 math questions both

subtraction and addition -stuff ranging from 7 + 7 to 11 - 4.

Tanner is a whiz at math -I believe from the Nintendo games and

other computer games such as that they are educational he's learned

much like that in a fun way. But...the first time he was given the

test he mixed up the subtraction and addition signs which he never

does -and got even some easy math questions wrong. When he came

home I just said to him in a really fun animated way (since this was

the first sign of any problem at all) " Tanner -they time you

because we live in Florida now near the Nickelodeon Studios in

Orlando -and just in case we go on Family Double Dare you are going

to have to answer all these questions fast or we'll all

get " SLIMED! " (I said wrinkling up my nose and laughing) BUT -if

you get them all right we'll win really cool prizes! Either way

it's just for fun! " Well the next day the test was given again to

the class and Tanner not only got 100% but was the first one

finished!

Tanner gets 100% on spelling each week, no matter how difficult the

spelling words are. I found the best way to teach him the words is

to use multisensory fun ways. This is just two of them -I'll write

the letters on his back as he says them for each word...but if he

says the wrong letter I don't write it....play game show where we

take turns being the contestant and game show host -jumping up and

down etc. Either Glenn, Dakota or I are the ones who get the

answers spelled wrong (we change our voices and pretend we are

someone else. We'll sound out the word wrong and spell it wrong. I

try to think of how a speech impaired child will say the word and

spell it that way) and Tanner is always the one that is the

contestant to spell it right. If Tanner is the game show host -one

of us will get it right -but the first one will get it wrong.

Tanner always laughs and has to correct us. For the one that won -

he'll have to say what prize they won. We also do " teacher " where

I'm the student and he teaches me the words -warns me about the

silent letters -etc.

I found that even though Tanner will spell each word right if given

one at a time -if he has to put the words in a sentence -he broke

down and spelled words he knows wrong. Once I told him to think of

each word separate - " think game show " -he spells them right.

When Tanner is reading long more complex words such as for example

last night -circulatory (he's learning about blood cells now) he

needs a cue to break it down. For example on his own last night

when I said " Just break it down Tanner and think of it as four

words " Tanner picked up a Jimmy Neutron Mc's toy and for each

syllable he said -as he said it -he turned the toy's head.

Sometimes his apraxia gets in the way of reading certain words at

first. He'll read the word and say the last sound wrong -or the

middle sound wrong. I'll correct him and point to the missed

letter. He'll repeat the word and hesitate at the letter in

question -visibly trying hard to say it right -but again say it

wrong. We'll go over this a few times until I clap my hands -or

give him some other cue to break it down. Once he says it right -

I'll have him repeat it over and over at least three times. I'll

then say the word about ten times over and over until he says " All

right already! " and then we'll move on. If when we get to the word

again he hesitates -I just have to clap or give a cue and he

says " Oh yeah " and says it right very quickly. Then he just gets it

on his own.

Anyone else? "

Lynn -as far as how do you teach a nonverbal child to read...I would

do all the same as above. You may want to read up on Helen Keller.

My son was schooled in preschool in an oral based school for the

hearing impaired/deaf. You don't have to talk to be able to read.

" I knew then that 'w-a-t-e-r' meant the wonderful cool something

that was

flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it

light, hope,

joy, set it free! "

Helen Keller 1880-1968

American writer and lecturer

http://www.theglassceiling.com/biographies/bio20.htm

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