both children

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

I’ve written before and am writing again about both my children (both have IEP’s). My 6 y.o. son 1st grader is having a difficult adjustment to going to school all day every day. He gives me a very hard time every morning, resists getting dressed, eating, says he hates me. He has apraxia of speech and fine motor delays, so is receiving speech services and OT. He will soon be getting extra reading assistance as he is a bit behind there as well. I suspect he knows school will be hard for him. I tell him I will always help him and if he tries his best he is a winner. We work with him at home- read to him often at home, work with him on sight words,.. He had some private OG tutoring this summer. Any ideas on how to help him??

My 10 y.o. daughter has already been diagnosed with a language based learning disorder (in reading and spelling). She also gets private tutoring in summer months. We’ve moved to a nearby school district since the special educ services we feel are better. They do not do ‘pull out’ for resource room, but rather there is a spec educ teacher (along with regular teacher) right in her regular class to work w/ her and some others. (At her other school she started to feel embarassed about being pulled out.) She is VERY shy, so is having difficulty making new friends. She wants me to go to school at lunch to see her, I’ve been going twice week. I talk to the other girls at her table and draw her in. Even at her old school she was very shy, that’s just her, but she had friends since kindergarten so they knew and accepted her. She still sees these girls because we live still close but she does want to make some at her new school. Any ideas?

Thanks so much,
Marla

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/25/2001 - 4:01 PM

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Any chance of homeschooling your 6yo? His resistance indicates he is frustrated at school, and this sets the stage for behavioral and emotional problems down the line — on top of everything else. Homeschooling provides more flexibility in meeting his needs, and protects self-esteem — usually the first thing to take a nosedive in school when there are special needs. Even just going to half-days (called shared time here, with a child in school for just part of the day and homeschooled the rest of the day) could be very helpful.

For reading, what worked best for us hands down was the Phono-Graphix approach, explained in the book “Reading Reflex”, by Carmen & Geoffrey McGuiness. This book is written for parents interested in tutoring a child, so includes everything — philosophy, explanation of techniques, lessons. You usually can tell very quickly whether the approach is going to work or not. In our case, my 9yo and I were both sure it was “clicking” within the first 3 hours of one-on-one work.

What is helping us enormously with spelling is AVKO’s Sequential Spelling approach. There is a sample week’s lesson at the website, http://www.avko.org

Mary

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/25/2001 - 5:31 PM

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Re: your daughter, perhaps you can encourage her to join some activities at the school. Girl scouts, sports teams, after-school clubs. What are her interests?

Maybe you could invite the girls in the class over to your house for a party or a sleepover, if you’re really brave.

Another thing you can do is have the teacher asssign her a “buddy” to help her get acquainted with the kids at school. Is there a guidanc counselor at the school? If you talk to her, maybe she’ll have some ideas on helping your daughter to get to know the kids.

If you haven’t done so already, volunteer for PTA and other school activities that will help you meet other parents. You can get to know the kids through the parents and invite some over for playdates.

LJ

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