son's learning needs

My daughter had problems with remembering math facts until she went through PACE (Processing and Cognitive Enhancement). PACE website is http://www.learninginfo.com. The company has just come out with a home-based program (not as intensive or comprehensive as the regular PACE program). Website for the home-based program is http://www.brainskills.com

In terms of just learning and retaining multiplication facts, Math Facts the Fun Way usually works (http://www.citycreek.com). The multiplication facts are taught using visualization of silly stories. Retention is good using this approach — gives kids something to “hang” the facts on.

It sounds as if your son may have developmental vision delays. I would have him evaluated by a developmental optometrist. You can find these specialists in your area at http://www.covd.org If he does have developmental vision delays, you would want to get these treated before putting him through PACE.

If you can’t afford PACE, Audiblox would probably help also. Website is http://www.audiblox2000.com It’s not as comprehensive as PACE, but it does work on some of the same cognitive skills.

Mary

My son is LD so I am a frequent reader of LD OnLine Bulletin Board postings. I know parents of LD children have a lot of information to share so I am hoping someone can pass on some of that knowledge. Today I was speaking to a friend and she was telling me about her sons kindergarten classmate who has mild CP. He has a normal IQ but suffers from the physical effects of CP. He is unable to tie his shoes, hold paper and cut and has trouble with fine motor skills, he seems to be affected on his left side. Here is the problem: The school systems says he is not educationally delayed and is not far enough behind physically to warrent any services. Since my son is LD I am not sure of all of the services for physically impared children, however I think they are entitled to services. I have heard other people refer to a medical IEP or other needs IEP. Does anyone have the information I am looking for? I have suggested she visit our parent resource center but I would like to help her get started in the right direction. Thank you for any help.

I AM SORRY, I DO NOT KNOW HOW THIS GOT ATTACHED TO THE POSTING BY SHERYL. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A NEW TOPIC.

The child should be qualified for Occupational Therapy. The catch,and pitfall,a lot of parents find themselves in is this. To qualify under IDEA it must be educationally necessary. She needs to used this tatic to get services. Show the school that he needs to be able to cut,write etc. to suceed in school. Now,the child would also qualify under 504 or ADA,it wouldn’t have to show educationally necessary,but the proof would be in Access. The child would need services to access the scissors and be able to cut along side his nondisabled peers. See what I am saying?

Hi, my son is in middle school, the school provided a planner to all students. How we make it work is through a homework contract. My son has all teachers for the day sign his planner to ensure homework assignments are written down correctly and they can post notes about the day if needed. This also helps with the ‘I didn’t have any today’ problem. He gets points for the signatures and for getting all his stuff home to take care of the homework. I also have to sign it. This is working for most of the teachers except one and we are meeting this week to figure out why.He has the work it just isn’t always being recorded by the teacher.

The other thing I saw was about the music notes. I took forever learning my multiplication facts. I play flute and very well by ear, however all those 16th and 32nd notes on sheet music is hard to sight read(it goes higher than that even). My brother played also and was better at sight reading so he would sing or play the notes’ rythm for me and then I could play the passage. Maybe your son could get one of his friends to help out like that. It usually only took once or twice to get the rythm down, the only place it will be a hardship is during band contest when they have to sight read with a judge/conductor.Thankfully he will most likely not be the only one with a difficulty! Good luck!

Has your son ever been tested? Without testing, it’s hard to say. Some of the things you’re describing suggest possible learning differences and that you post your good questions to this board suggests that either your son has been found to have learning differences or that you think he might.

The memorization is particularly interesting. That he could memorize those 35 poems, though, doesn’t mean that there can’t exist an issue around memorization and to me it sounds as if it’s sometimes very hard for him to memorize.If it only presents with musical notes and multiplication facts, however, it shouldn’t be a huge obstacle. Increasingly students are allowed to use calculators and eventually those multiplication facts embed even if for some they do it later rather than sooner.

A computer should help him with the mechanical errors in his writing. Can he type? Again testing should offer you a better answer than my guess but persistent mechanical errors in writing is usually thought to be a sign of some dysgraphic or an attentional issue. The possibility of attentional issues comes to mind again when considering his organizaitonal issues.

I am not familiar with Irlen Syndrome but the circumstance of that or anything else would be determined by testing and you might want to consider having some done. Without that, if you want your son to be successful in school, you need to determine if he wants that too In either case, that adolescent line you speak of will probably have to be crossed or redrawn.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IEP_guide

No, I’ve never had him tested, but have been considering it since he has struggled so much this year. I’ve been wondering if there are more learning differences than he has been able to tell me, or than I’ve been able to notice. I guess I would just want to be sure when we push him to do assignments that we’re not pushing him to be doing things that he can’t do or are a struggle for him because of his learning differences. On the other hand, I’m not sure how sophisticated his school would be in helping him if he did have a learning disability. They haven’t been very helpful so far and have been downright heartless when it comes to kids failing a class. They seem to think if they teach it and the kids work hard enough, they will learn - and that’s that. Thanks for your ideas. Sheryl

Sadly the attitude you’re describing on the part of his school is often my school’s attitude as well. Your point then is well taken. Why have a child tested if nothing will change because of the testing?

As I see it, you’re sort of at a crossroads. If the testing won’t change the school’s interaction with your child, the question becomes, will it do anything for you? Some parents like to “know for sure”, others don’t need to.

If you don’t need to, yet you clearly see your son’s struggles, what next? Will you let him go on struggling or will you step in and intervene even if the school will not?

In my experience with middle schoolers, if they continue to present organizational issues when they’re 14, it doesn’t much matter to me as a teacher whether they’re diagnosed LD or not. They need help. I won’t allow a student to struggle. I don’t see struggle as building character in my students, I see it as causing them to feel like failures and leading them down the path of discouragement and self-doubt.

If your son were my advisee, I’d be on his other teachers to help him with his organization as I would. I’d be bugging his teachers to help him get his assignements written down every day and even e-mailing his assignments home to you if that’s what it takes. I’d be sitting him near my desk during study halls and prompting him to stay on task to get some of that work done in school.

Does your son have an advisor? Not every school works that way. Even if they do, not every advisor works that way. My own LD son’s advisor was often kind to him but didn’t much in the way of helping him stay on top of his work. My son was very interested in being successful in school and I crossed that adolescent line pretty often so he could be.

Twenty years of teaching tells me most kids would like to be successful in school even teenagers. Some just don’t know how to be. That’s where a teacher or a parent can come across the line and help.

At the least, I encourage the parents of my students who are struggling with homework/organizational issues, to ask the teachers how much nightly work to expect. Whatever they say, you can keep an eye on your son at night - without crossing too much over the line - simply be seeing if that’s the amount of time it seems to take him.

Good luck.

Hi Sheryl:
He sounds like a classic “dyslexic”. The terminology differs, but the behaviours, gifts, and difficulties are common. You might want to read the book “Dyslexia: The Gift” by Ronald Davis with Eldon M. Braun.

It is typical of dyslexics to have terrible trouble retaining information that is essentially meaningless and must be learned by rote. “Davis Dyslexia Correction” methods can help with this, as well as with organization and other difficulties.

Another good one is “The Mind’s Eye” by Thomas West.
If you check out the site “www.dyslexia.com” you will find alot of information that may be helpful to you, as well as more info about these books.

Davis Dyslexia methods are helping many people overcome their learning difficulties — this is worth checking out.

Best wishes!
ElizabethSheryl wrote:
>
> Hi. I am new to this board and wanted to ask if anyone has a
> similar situation and what you’ve found to be helpful. My
> 14-year-old son is struggling to keep up with the workload in
> high school. He has been very disorganized with his
> assignments, and forgets that he hasn’t finished them until
> he has received zeroes and his grades plummet. We have tried
> to help him find a planner or notebook or schedule that fits
> him, but he has been very resistant to using them. He
> carries them around, but doesn’t write anything in them. To
> my surprise, he doesn’t usually lose things and when pressed
> for finding an unfinished assignment, he can usually summon
> it up! When I ask him why he didn’t finish it, he says he
> doesn’t know, he just forgets. (Even though we have set
> aside homework time and have asked what he needs to work on.
> Then we start to cross that adolescent line of being too nosy
> or pushy or not trusting him, etc.)
>
> He is an excellent reader and a creative writer, but his
> writing usually has a lot of mechanical errors. He has a
> great memory for scientific or historical facts, and as a
> first grader memorized all 35 weekly poems they had to learn
> for homework - and remembered all of them for the whole
> year! Here’s the problem: since third grade, he has learned
> and relearned his multiplication facts many times. He works
> on learning them, and then if he doesn’t use them, he forgets
> them. It made him start thinking he is dumb in math, but he
> is actually very good at word problems and other kinds of
> math problem-solving. He also understands the kind of
> calculation necessary to solve problems. He just often gets
> the calculations wrong unless he uses a calculator or
> creative ways of manipulating the facts. At first we thought
> he just hadn’t worked hard enough on learning the facts, so
> the second time around, we both worked a lot with him. It
> was such a frustration to him, but he hung in there and
> passed that test. The third time around, he was thoroughly
> convinced that he was bad at math and that’s the way it was
> going to be. However, when the teacher told them, they
> wouldn’t get recess until they passed the mult. facts test,
> he forced himself to work on them. He eventually learned
> them for the test, but then because they didn’t use them
> again, he forgot them. During middle school, we didn’t
> notice since he didn’t say anything and his teachers didn’t
> say anything. His math grades were okay. Now that he’s
> struggling in high school, we’ve been helping him with his
> homework again and noticed that he does not know the mult.
> facts. Not too long ago, he was struggling with his music
> (band) grade and we couldn’t figure it out since he is
> talented in that area. Come to find out, he has been
> struggling with memorizing the notes just as he has the mult.
> facts. He has learned and relearned them until finally in
> middle school (without telling anyone) he just started
> memorizing the fingerings for the music and not really
> following the musical score. I’m amazed at his ability to
> figure out ways to get by, but am at a loss as to what to do
> for him. I’ve been trying to encourage him about how
> intelligent he is, but since he’s at an age when he doesn’t
> want to be different, it hasn’t been helpful to try to
> discuss how his challenges can be dealt with. I had never
> considered having him tested until recently, but am skittish
> since I think he is a bit out of the usual and a
> comprehensive eval. would need to be done by someone who
> really knows, not just anyone who can do testing. A friend
> recently told me she had her son tested at his school, but
> also had him screened for Irlen Syndrome and he failed. They
> now have him on a 504 Plan and using the colored paper for
> his assignments and things seem to be a bit easier for him.
> She said her son’s and my son’s descriptions sounded nearly
> identical. Any ideas or pearls of wisdom from your
> experiences? Thanks! Sheryl