Help!

I have a 10 year old in the 4th grade who has many of the same problems and more. He had a very severe language disorder and could not have a meaningful coversation until the age of 5. We still have struggles, but he is doing great now. Can you describe a little more what problems he is having at school? Try not to agonize over being far away from other resources. The two best resources your child has are YOU and his teacher. Try to build a really good relationship with his new teacher.

I’ve turned myself into knots worrying over which therapy program to try next to “cure” my son. What I’ve found is that just about anything will help to some degree. Simply spending 1-on-1 time with my son working on his problem areas has made AS big a difference as all the Speech Therapy, OT, and other stuff.

Last year, we decided to dump speech therapy and OT for plain old academic tutoring. Ask around and see if anyone tutors students in your area. Better yet, can they come up to your son’s school or to your house after school. You can purchase a LOT of tutoring hours for what you might be paying for speech therapy. Don’t get me wrong, I think speech therapists bring some unique skills and techniques. But, I was able to find a tutor who worked for $40/hour versus $110/hour for speech. I could triple the amount of 1-on-1 time for the same price. You do need to interview tutors carefully and sit in on sessions as often as you can. Look for a tutor who really connects personally with your son and is willing to work creatively to find the right approaches. It does not take a special degree to work with a child with CAPD or ADD, just a willing heart and flexible approach.

If you can’t find a tutor to help you, train yourself to work with your child. It is hard to be Mom and tutor. But, over the years I have learned how to help my son. I still prefer for him to work with someone else so that I am not in that role. But, we are a pretty good team now.

In terms of programs…my son did FastForward and StepForward. You can now do both this programs at home. He did Earobics at the speech therapist office. I haven’t seen the newer versions of the program, but my impression is that it is not as comphrehensive at FastForward. Although FastForward is expensive. Unless, he has severe difficulty with sound discrimination, I’d probably stick with Earobics.

The next best thing we’ve done has been PACE (Processing and Cognitive Enhancement). You can do the BrainSkills version at home, or look into getting certified to deliver PACE your self. It helps with auditory processing, visual processing, memory, and attention. www.paceinfo.com You might want to wait until the summertime to do this program. It is pretty intense.

I almost hate to say this, but since you mentioned your son withdrawing from friends, I’ll tell you our experience. PLEASE DO NOT take this as a recommendation. But, our son was on dexedrine for ADD (inattentive). He took it for a year and a half. We thought it helped him. Although, it was difficult to tell somedays. It was hard to tell when the problem was lack of maintaining attention OR problems with processing skills that created poor attention. When we took our son off medication last Spring, he started interacting with friends more and participating. He was a little less attentive, but the social benefits were worth it. We had tried him with lower doses before and even different medications. He is best off meds altogether. I know it is an agonizing decision to use or not use meds. But, if withdrawing from friends is a big concern, you might want to consider the impact of meds.

Just pick the top 3 things that give him the most trouble and tackle one at a time. Don’t feel like you have to travel 4 hours away or spend your entire bank account to get good help. Ask your family and friends to pray for you and your child. The Lord will quietly point you in the right direction. He loves your son too and will watch over him.

Take care.

Rosie

I have to totally agree Rosie, first thing you should do is get him OFF the meds, I had my son on briefly and I did not like what it did to him one bit and I am really curious what they are going to say 20 yrs down the line about these so called wonder drugs, anyway I would then look for a good tutor who uses Orton-Gillingham. Feel free to email me as I am smack dab in the middle of a hearing concerning my son. I want him placed in a private school for dyslexics and auditory processing difficulities and I am waiting this very minute for a decision. Good Luck Liz

Dee, I’m with Rosie on the overall approach. We’ve certainly done all of the expensive things. Lindamood Bell gave our son the jump start he needed to begin to crack the reading code, but beyond that it was not very useful. And it was VERY expensive.

The very best help our son has received has been from a dedicated, reasonably priced ($35/hour), can-do-attitude, pit bull of a tutor (we’ve had many) who simply will not let the l.d. win and gets down on the floor (figuratively) with our son. She’s right in there with him every minute, badgering, fighting, bossing, joking, shaking him up, working every minute, making every minute with him count. Our son also regards her as his very best asset, even when he calls her a pain in the neck. Not incidentally, she also knows a great deal and keeps herself abreast everything in her field.

Carol

Rosie,
I can’t tell you how good it feels to know that I am not the only mother with these problems. I have tears reading your response. Thank you for taking the time to educate me on these subjects. His problems in school are spelling. He seems to forget his vowels or put them in the wrong place. He has trouble with reversals b’s and d’s. I thought that would change when he went to cursive but it is not any better. He also needs help in math, he starts to add the problem and then he subtracts within the same problem. It is just like he forgets what he is doing . We just got through doing his spelling words with molding clay. He hates to use the clay but it seems to help him. Thanks again Rosie
Dee

Carol,
I have tried finding a tutor but I have not had any luck. My sister is a 3rd grade teacher and has been pouring her heart into it. She is lost on what to do. We have a reading teacher also who works with him once a week but only meets with him for 30 min. I spend most of the afternoon with him going over homework and try to do new things to keep his concentration on work. I just get upset when he starts to cry and thinks he just can’t do it. I will continue to find a tutor! Thanks for the advice!
Dee

1

It is overwhelming to want to help your child but you don’t know where to start and your feelings of trust within the school system have been shattered because they are the ones that are supposed to know what to do to help and they failed. I know these feelings of inadequacy and helplessness and those feelings moved me into action…which is what you are doing now…going forward and finding out what you can do to help him…

I am an SLP grad student and went back to school because of my daughters struggle with Dyslexia. I started my journey about 4 years ago with training in Lindamood-Bell methodology. It was the best investment I could have made. It gave me the skills I needed to help her and also changed my life. In one year I had made great strides with my daughter and other kids I tutored but I needed to learn more about the language and ADD component and that was why I decided to go back to school to become an SLP.

I have CAPD/ADD and I also have a 12year old with CAPD/ADD. She too struggles with social issues. You can try to see if the SLP at school can arrange for a small group to work on pragmatics. Is there a college near you that has a graduate level SLP program where he can receive therapy? You can see about getting him an assistive listening device to help him with his auditory processing and ADD.

I have seen kids who are on the right dosage of meds become quite talkative and when they are on too much they start to shut down. Have you talked to the Dr about adjusting his medication? Have you tried Reading Reflex yet? I am trained in PACE and it may help your son. I did it with my daughter and worked with other kids where I worked. It helped with some things like processing speed but didn’t transfer over to her academics, because PACE doesn’t work on the speech and language issues that are holding kids back with CAPD and ADD.

I am still in the trenches with my kiddo and believe me you aren’t alone. If I can help you with some ideas please let me know. There are some great websites with Speech and language games that you can do with your son that he might enjoy.

Pattim, could you turn me on to a couple of those websites to use with my 5 year old son?? Thanks.

Dee -

Our son is severely dyslexic and can’t spell at all. When they began spelling tests in 3rd grade, he just fell apart because he would get 1 or 2 right (out of 20 to 25 words) while everyone else was getting 1 or 2 wrong. I have had tutors try to help him with spelling for 4 years (he’s now in 7th grade) and he still can’t spell any better now than he could in 3rd grade. He still is unable to recognize sounds and connect them with the corresponding letter combinations.

In 5th grade, I finally realized that he was probably not going to be able to spell at all until a higher level of intelligence kicks in after he reaches adolescence. (And possibly not even then if he remains as obstinant about this as he is now!). I marched into the school and got accomodations (reduced spelling list, reduced tasks on the list, individualized spelling list, spelling test done in another room, no points off for any spelling errors on classwork/homework) so we could get this issue off the top of the list of things that he and I had to deal with. I also had to accept his limitations and take spelling off my own list of things by which I measured his success.

Now our tutors concentrate on his other problem areas (we have plenty) and the content of his writing has really improved now that this monkey is off his back. We often have trouble determining what he is writing, but at least now he is writing something. Before he preferred writing nothing because he found the criticism for not doing the work less painful than having every spelling error on his work circled in red.

Also, he dictated a lot of his written work to me. It was amazing to see what finally came out of his head when we got this accomodation (given not due to spelling issues but because of his dysgraphia). It’s a double-edged sword though because it is awfully hard to wean them off dictation after they’ve been used to it for a few years.

I still think the key is not so much being able to spell complete words but being able to connect sounds (phonemes) with the written counterparts (graphemes). I feel that our son should have gotten help from the school on this early on, but they refused to acknowledge any problem existed until after 4th grade (“he’s just lazy”).

Best wishes.

Good for you, Dee! Don’t give up.

Maybe you can find a listing in the phone book for an educational specialist in some larger community not too far from you, from whom you can get a referral to a local tutor. That’s only a little lead. One educational specialist may be great; another terrible. Some listen to what your child really needs; others just follow their own particular bias, but it’s worth a try. Their job is to help a parent develop an educational plan for a child.

I find it incredibly hard to work with my son. It’s pretty much a flop. He wants to avoid what he finds so hard and knows how to push all my emotional buttons to get me off his case, so I am grateful for the tutor.

Good luck. Carol

I’ll bet you’re right in your diagnosis. Maybe the school just didn’t know. When my son was first tested by the director of an educational diagnostic agency, that was his primary problem, but she did not recognize it. It isn’t as well known a condition as some of the other l.d.s.

The way I came to understand it was through a monograph I got (free of charge) from the National Institutes of Health. At that time, G. Reed Lyon was head of the department in charge of overseeing nationwide research on learning and learning disabilities. It’s the only place where I’ve ever seen the lack of phonemic awareness spelled out.

The Lindamood Bell approach has been the one approach we’ve tried, which has had a significant impact on our son’s ability to recognize phonemes and link them to graphemes. He went for extensive L-B work, and it was only useful for a short time, i.e., to get him started. But, it did get him started, and we’ve been able to build on that start. It was very expensive.

Carol

Pattim,

We’re well into PACE right now but am very interested in what sorts of CAPD/language issues you feel are holding your daughter back that are not addressed by the program.

We are finally seeing some movement on the AP work. It has been a long haul. I think we are on week 11. But today I redid the PG pretest with my son and he first got 8 and then 10 (he wanted to try it again). He was slow but three weeks ago he got 3 right, which is where he was before he went to a PG intensive, after he went to a PG intensive, before I worked with him last spring and after I worked with him last spring……. If we can fix his inability to manipulate phonemes through this program, I will be singing. That alone will be enough.

Beth

P.S. The resource room teacher who caused me so much grief last year is gone. Wonder if all the trouble we caused had anything to do with it!!!

My 9 year old son was diagnosed with Cap back in April. He has been in speech Therapy since he was 6. Last week I took him to his doctor to be tested for ADD. He did not do any test, but yet put my son on Ritalin 5mg 3x a day. I have not given him the medication. I really don’t feel comfortable giving it to him, he is not hyperactive. I’m very confused, full of guilt and feel incompetent, because i don’t now how to help my child. So, if anyone has any suggestion please let me know.

Although I would be extremely leary of a doctor that perscribed meds without any testing, it isn’t all that uncommon for meds to be given for ADD-inattentive, which doesn’t have the hyperactivity componet but relates to the inability to attend to things. I know the feelings you are having well and also know that you are capable of weeding through things and coming up with answers because you have the most important thing, a want and a need to help him be all that he can be. Hang in there. Also has testing been done by the school or independent nueropsych? If not it needs to be done ASAP.

Can you give me some examples of listening devices? The phD gave a list of accomidations but nothing on the lines of listening devices. Her suggestions were S.T & O.T. and earobics. We just put him back on meds we are trying Metadate one a day! He has been on Adderal the last few years but he was complaining of being to tired and headaches. He was off his meds all summer and this is the first week on meds. The doctor said to give it another week. I think he withdraws because his self esteem is so low. I feel that he picks up on not being as smart as other peers. (I know that is not true but this is how he sees it) He also has been in a SLP program all summer at the near by college. The director has been working with him but she can only meet with him once a week. She gives us work to do at home on a daily basis. Have you heard any thing on the Barton spelling and reading program? We received a tape in the mail. I just don’t know what to do. We did our spelling words in molding clay last night. It seemed to help him but he still had trouble with reversals. I don’t know if it will help retain the info. We go to a private school that don’t meet any special needs. I feel that we are losing valuable time with my son. He needs more than my afternoons and late night playing catch up!

from http://www.avko.org. It was developed by a dyslexic and (1) it’s very easy to do at home, (2) it’s inexpensive, and (3) it works for most kids. We spend 10 minutes a day on it. It’s the first spelling approach that has been successful for my daughter. There is a sample week on the website so you can try it out — well worth the time!

If your son can read beyond a 3rd grade level, chances are Sequential Spelling will work for him.

I’ve also heard their keyboarding program is very good — reinforces the spelling patterns in Sequential Spelling.

Mary

HI DEE…I can’t help chiming in because you mentioned you are working in clay…have you read “The Gift of Dyslexia” by Ron Davis with Eldon Braun? If not, I recommend it HIGHLY — if yes, I’d love to hear your reactions, and also there is an active forum at www.dyslexiatalk.com which supports parents working at home from the book.

I am really curious about “why” your son hates working with the clay…for my son, this is the HOOK that gets him working at all. If you can share, I’d love to hear about your experiences working with the clay, his reactions, etc. I’m presently working with my son, but I am a former literacy guild tutor and I KNOW I will be volunteering again once my son no longer needs me so much — Davis methods will be a big chunk of my “strategy suitcase”, so I’m trying to broaden my knowledge of kids and reactions against the future.

You are definitely NOT alone — but take heart: Parental involvement is strongly correlated with success in overcoming dyslexia, so your son is already “ahead of the game” whether it feels like it or not right now! If you don’t wish to post on the board, do email me at [email protected]
Best wishes,
Elizabeth

I know Susan Barton, she has a very good program. I went to one of her trainings about 3 years ago to learn more about Orton-Gillingham instruction. and she was showing us her upcoming program. She has been successful in using it to train parents to be tutors in the Bay Area of California.. She is a great asset, and she helped me when I was where you are now through e-mail…She is an incredible, dynamic presenter and is passionate about Dyslexia and helping others acheive literacy…..She encouraged me to get the training in LMB.

I hear you on the self-esteem…my daughter realizes she isn’t as quick as other kids too, but she is also very artistic, good at math and I try to help her feel good about her talents that she does have. It is sure painful to watch them go through this though.

What have they been doing with him at the college? Have you asked them if they have a pragmatics group?

In regards to assistive listening devices you can check out Williams Sound, Phonic ear has the Easy Listener. Have you checked with the audiologist that made the diagnosis of CAPD? Ask at the college where he is getting services, they should have some resources for you as well.

From my experience….PACE doesn’t address reading comprehension, Inference, vocabulary development, syntax, morphology, expressive or receptive language development and usage..My daughter’s weakest area on the PACE ending test was logic and reasoning…Higher Order Thinking Skills which definitely aren’t learrned through kill and drilll of PACE. Memory she is off the chart….Visual Logic through manipulating the SET cards she can do like an ACE and doing the Seymour Visual Cards but give her a situation where she has to solve a math problem she can do that but she will sometimes become too impulsive in her responses. She understands the math concepts…But if you give her a langauge related problem and have her use her verbal skills…she would do fine on the first layer but she wouldn’t do very well if you probed deeper….for more inference…that is what I am talking about……

Glad to hear the wicked witch of the east is gone..sure hope she isn’t the new RSP teacher our district just hired from Florida…

Anna,

Did your Dr. go through his speech and language reports or any testing that had been done by others previously? Much can be gleaned from those especially when the parent has input that things just aren’t working for their child. SLP’s sometimes are the first to notice that kids have ADD-Inattentive…It took me a long time to figure this out…I know you are afraid of medication but it is worth a try. It has been a lifesaver to my kiddos and myself.. My kids aren’t drug addicts, they just have brains that work differently and they need help to focus and that is what the meds do for them.

Perhaps you should place a call to the Dr. and talk to him about your concerns…It is much better to do that than to not do anything…at all…I was one of those parents who stuck my head in the sand about ADD becuase I couldn’t see I had the same problem and my behavior reinforced my kids ADD behaviors… I hope this helps…I have truly been there…

Molding clay sounds like a neat way to help with spelling. I’d like to try that. We’ve recently tried studying spelling using a technique that is in PACE called Visualization Spelling. I’ve combined it with another exercise that uses a mini-tramp. I post my son’s spelling words in LARGE print on the wall in short lists of 5-7 words. His job is to say the word, then say each letter out loud “on every other beat” as he bounces on the mini-tramp. Once he says the word and spells it forwards…. then he says the word again and says the letters backwards. He does this 3 times for each spelling word.

Now, when I first read this actvity in PACE, I thought they were crazy. Won’t reading the word backwards make it more confusing. Well, as I started to think about it… reading the word forwards and backwards FORCES you to get more of a mental picture of the word or “visualize” it. It is not just memorizing a sequence of letters. You start to make a whole picture of the word. I still was not convinced.

But, we’ve tried it 2 weeks in a row. We do half the words the first night, the other half the second night. He has 25 words this year on his list. After my son has bounced his heart out reading the words (forwards and backwards), I wait about 30 minutes. Then, I’ve given him a spelling quiz. He got all but 2 right the first time, and he made a 101 on his spelling test. This week, he knew all his words by Tuesday. Something about this approach clicks for him. I don’t know if it is the bouncing on the tramp or the backwards reading or what. But, it is a very low-stress way to study spelling that seems to work so far. Yippee!!!! Much better than writing the words over and over and over… I’ve been rescued from spelling list hell!! Haha.

For math, try having him use a highlighter to mark all the “+” signs on his page before he begins. If you have a mix of “+” and “-” problems on the same page, it might help him distinguish them better. If he is like my son, he won’t remember to do this at school. But, it is good practice at home. Some times my son’s teacher has allowed me to use a highlighter to mark up my son’s workbook pages to emphasize key words in instructions ahead of time. There is also a kind of low-stick highlighter tape now that can be used in textbooks. Just a few ideas. Good luck.

Rosie

Our son has done several trials with meds. He is currently off them, and we hope to keep it that way. I agonized a lot each time about it. But, in the end we knew we needed to at least TRY the medication to see it made a difference.

Here is how I justified the decision to myself. Unless my child had an allergic reaction to the medication, there seemed to be little risk in at least giving it a try. We run the same risk, the first time we try an antibotic as well. If we never tried it, we would never know if could make a meaningful difference for him. We don’t want our child on medication, but if the medication HAD worked and the benefits were worth it, it would be the best this for him.

If he was diabetic, we wouldn’t deny him insulin. ADD -inattentive is different. It is not life-threatening. But, we know many responsible, thoughtful parents who have made the same decision that their kids had dramatic improvements on medication.

There is a test called the Gordon Diagnostic which is an eletronic device which can be used to measure ADD. The child must respond to a very boring task over an extended period of time. The device measures the number of ommissions and comissions and maybe the response time. It is not that sophisticated of a measure. But, it is objective. You might want to see if your child can take this test.

I can’t wait to try the mini tramp….& spelling words. He seems to do better when he is not confined to a desk.
He was given a series of test one with background noise, the SSW test, which revealed a moderated central auditory proccessing disorder. He was also given the ACPT, which helps determine an attention deficit disorder versus a CAPD or a combination of both, which he received a failing score which suggested a possible attention disorder. WE sruggled with the meds or no meds. But, we decided we would try it and it made a difference at the time. The new meds does not seem to work so I really don’t know if this will be something long term. The doctor wants to leave him on the Metadate one more week and if it is no change, we can take him off of meds. I hate to give him the meds!

I am reading “The Gift of Dyslexia,” but I am not finished and I am not in the postion to start the program. I thought the clay would work for him because he loves to work with his hands. He will spend hours putting the smallest projects together with legos so I thought the clay would be great. Well the clay works with him but he thinks it takes to long to complete. He thinks writing the words will be quicker. But, writing does not stick with him. I had to teach him to count with hot wheel cars. He loves to play! We enrolled him in football this year and he is having difficulties following directions(left and right)! The coaches are really working hard with him but I am worried that he might think trouble with school work and now football? What do you think? I just don’t want him frustrated with it all!

Mary,
He is not really reading beyound the 3rd grade level. Do you think the program is worth a try?
Dee

Pattim,

Yes, I understand now what you mean about language based skills. I have McGuiness’ book How to Increase Your Child’s Verbal Intelligence here. It is on my long list of things to do. Have you tried that with her? Also, one of the trainers in Sarasota was a SLT. She told me to wait to address his language issues after PACE because progress would be faster. Have you seen any effect like that?

I guess the bottom line is no program is likely to do everything, especially when we have kids with multiple problems. As I said, if we get the auditory processing down, I will be thrilled. I also may return to PACE next summer when he is a year older. He is only 8. We now are spending at least 1/2 hour on AP work so aren’t getting very much else done. Plus, it really tires him out so can’t push too much on anything else.

I met the new RSP teacher at open house last night. She actually knows useful programs like LIPS, PG, V & V. My only concern is she has a pretty pronounced speech impediment, although I didn’t have any trouble understanding her. Wondered how that would affect training in sounds??? In any case, maybe she can actually help us with our son. I am past the point of feeling like I can turn him over to the school, if you know what I mean. But still, it would be nice to not to have to do everything on our own. I talked to her about V & V, which I think my son would really benefit from.

I patted myself on the back last night. I managed to develop good relationships with the principal, director of exceptional education, and the slt last year, despite all the turmoil. The district people have no use for me but they are downtown. And our beloved RSP teacher is gone–and not to your district, btw. She took a job closer to home—you can breathe easy. I have to say the agent of change was the principal. She was new last year (much better than old) and really seemed to have my son’s interests at heart, even when she couldn’t officially let us do what we wanted. She hired the director of exceptional education last year who was major improvement over old one also. And the new RSP teacher seems just what I would have ordered. We will keep our fingers crossed.

Beth

I used shaving cream with my son last year and that seemed to help a lot with spelling. Also, he wrote the words in the sand. I haven’t tried clay but sand and shaving cream are also tactile and might take less time and thus be less objectionable to your son. I did the shaving cream on the counter.

Dee,

Our son has been wrestling since he was 5, playing soccer since 5, played tee ball and baseball 2 yrs. last yr. at 8 he started football and is playing again.

We have had wonderful success with really great coaches we alway speak to them at the beginning of the season that our son may need added directional instructions.

He is excellent at sports tries really hard and has become too competitive. The great thing sports does for him is builds his confidence it has also made him very popular with other kids and keeps him in touch with regular ed kids.

When he is feeling bumbed out and calling himself stupid we simply remind him that not every boy can be good at everything but remind him how good he is at sports.

Also many times other kids playing the sport will help another kid play their position because they are a team.

Let me know.

Dee,

Our son has been wrestling since he was 5, playing soccer since 5, played tee ball and baseball 2 yrs. last yr. at 8 he started football and is playing again.

We have had wonderful success with really great coaches we alway speak to them at the beginning of the season that our son may need added directional instructions.

He is excellent at sports tries really hard and has become too competitive. The great thing sports does for him is builds his confidence it has also made him very popular with other kids and keeps him in touch with regular ed kids.

When he is feeling bumbed out and calling himself stupid we simply remind him that not every boy can be good at everything but remind him how good he is at sports.

Also many times other kids playing the sport will help another kid play their position because they are a team.

Let me know.

Beth,

Once we started addressing our daughter’s co-morbidity of CAPD and ADD through medication we really noticed the jump in learning and reading. She is still easily distracted but through working on it we have learned to compensate for it. Ironically she is very organized, likes to be punctual, she has become more mature and cares about doing her best and wants to succeed. I am like you, on my guard to make sure that she gets what is best for her. Even though my daughter wasn’t at school last year because of the intensive lab class, many of her classmates have seen her this past week getting her locker etc… and it is like old times.

I am still concerned about her pragmatics….but perhaps it will work itself out in time….This morning, one young woman that had group speech therapy with my daughter in elementary school saw me walking back to my car and asked if she was coming back. I said yes, she is back…and she was so happy and said, “That’s great!!” It sure made my day to know that not only will she have some good teachers but she will have the support of good friends….I tutor 2 other girls that go to the same school and they have almost all the same teachers and classes… so the RSP teacher is going to either love or hate me because I am definitely going to be in her face….

She’ll love you, if she is any good. She will hate you, if she isn’t!!!!

My kiddo came home today and said she was the smartest kid in this english class…Frankly, this scares me, it is about 10 kids, one is my kiddo and another I tutor and the rest are ESL students…..It could be a good thing that she will get lots of opportunities to share what she knows with the rest of the class but I was hoping for a better mix so that she could improve her language with peers that have better language skills. I talked with the old RSP teacher and she said, “that isn’t a good thing for my kiddo… so we may be making some changes pretty quickly…

You asked about Language Wise, I have used it and it has some good activities in it. I want her to read material and then discuss it with me and write about what she reads…

Hey,
It looks like football is really hepling him. The first few days he was thinking he was not any good! The last week he has made a turn around. The coaches have been wonderful. He was having a hard time with directions(Left and Right) he suggested I use a wristband on his left hand. So, He can just glance down at his hand to know he will run to the left. IT WORKS!
Dee

Do you know what the purpose of the mini-tramp is? Is this suppose to help them focus more? My dd would think this fun.

We’ve been using a similar approach called ‘Rainbow’ spelling. I write the words in different colors - put different sound patterns in the different colors(ex. caterpillar - I broke up ‘cat’ ‘er’ ‘pill’ ‘ar’). Then she has to memorize the words forward and backwords. The colors help with visualization part as well.

She is remembering her spelling words the first day we learn them now. But she only has like 10 words and 2 challenge words - in 2nd grade.

Hi Dee,

Good luck with the football. It teaches alot and the kids don’t realize they are learning while playing. They learn to follow directions, must pay attention, have to take care of their equipment most of all they get to be part of a team.