My son Ryan is in 4th grade and was diagnosed with receptive/expressive language disability and ADD. Further private testing showed Auditory Processing Deficit, word retrieval and working memory problems. Two different audiologists have recommended Fast ForWord which we are planning on doing at home.
I just spoke with the principal at my son’s school and told her that I was going to pick him up at 2:00pm every day for 6 weeks to do FF. She was not happy and told me to put it in writing. I explained to her that doing the program after school will not work as he is so mentally fatigued after a full day of school, I can’t get him to do simple homework. Summer won’t work either as he goes to sports camp. He is an extremely gifted athelete which is a large part of what has maintained his self-esteem.
During the last 1.5 hours of the school day, he will miss 30 minutes of reading time—the class sits and reads quietly and individually (like he does anything but fidget), recess, and last period is mixed—library one day, choir another and 3days of social studies (this session is on the Lenape indians) However for 2 days of the social studies he has speech/language which has been the most disgraceful waste of time. As far as I can see, the Fast ForWord has the potential to help him academically much more than the time missed from school. He is a very oppositional child on top of anything else and the fact that if he wants to play in the afternoon, he must complete the FF, is a big stick!!
What sort of issues am I potentially facing with the School District.? The letter I am drafting is not asking permission, I’m doing this come hell or high water. I did word it much more nicely :). Any advice or input would be appreciated. Thank you. Sincerely, Eileen C
Re: Pullout from school for Fast ForWord
I withdrew my son from school from 1:20 in the afternoons for FFWD after
a) speaking with my son’s SLD and regular ed. teachers and b) stating my wish to do so to the principal, who verified that it is my right to do so as a parent but that I would need to write to the superintendent, with a copy to him, outlining what I proposed to do. I received a reply to the effect that assessments would be modified for the time missed from school.
I am not 100% sure, but I recall reading that various districts have varying policies on “partial” homeschooling.
However, I can attest to the value of this program for children with auditory processing difficulties. We started the program in December, and by the May IEP meeting, teachers were observing significant changes, as were we at home. The positive changes persist following cessation of pgm. — 5 months after finishing, my son’s reading level had jumped from grade level to 4.5 years above gr. level. (FFWD doesn’t work on reading but lays the foundation so that the reading remediation a child gets can be utilized.) My son’s teachers are absolutely stunned at the improvement and attribute it to FFWD as does his assessment counsellor. (Social and attentional benefits evident too.)
You could copy research info. for the pgm. for the principal to accompany your letter, together with a copy of the assessment summary. The point needs to be clearly made that without this program, your child’s capacity to benefit from school instruction will be limited. By providing the program yourself, you are saving the school from needing to do this costly pgm.
I too find that striking that balance between the need to do a certain amount of “sucking up” (PR if you will) and getting action from school officials is sometimes a delicate one.
Just a note, in the beginning, I would have found a 2:00 pick-up time a bit late to start FFWD because my son needed a good 15 min. break when we got home at 1:30ish (including a snack). We went until 3:15 when we had to quit to pick up a younger sibling. Even then, we were doing 20-45 minutes in the morning before school and saving my son’s easiest game for after supper. (Starting with the second easiest game in the pm, followed by the hardest then the “so so” one I found was the best strategy.) Breaks are needed between games.
Point out to the school that, past 6-8 weeks, as games are mastered, the time requirement diminishes. (Prepare for lots of melt-downs if your son is “oppositional”. Tell him another child (mine) found it just about intolerable—heavy duty reward system required—but that he now sees the benefit—in reading and classroom functioning.
Good luck.
Re: Pullout from school for Fast ForWord
I pulled my son out of school for tutoring, got a bit of a run around from the principal until we went over his head for approval. I am not living in the US, so I can’t comment on the proceedure that you would need to follow.
I would like to add that Fast Forward worked well for one of my children, but seemed to have no effect on the other. His tutor didn’t see any change in his phonemic awareness. I found FF easy to do at home, except one of the games with penquins gave us so many screen freezes due to what the tech quy said was a cheap sound card on our computer. We usually took only one 10 minute break in the middle. Good luck, and let us know if it helps him.
Re: Pullout from school for Fast ForWord
The protocol and the reaction of the child will depend on the nature and severity of the auditory processing disorder I think. I know for us, breaks were essential and withdrawal from school was too. The more they need it, the harder it is for them. It is not a panacea, though. My son still has a degree (though lesser) of selective hearing; phonological processing (which the program does not ddress) is not 100%, and auditory memory and working memory are still quite limited.
If the audiologists who recommended the pgm. are trained to evaluate CAPD (not all are) chances are the program will have solid benefits.
Re: Pullout from school for Fast ForWord
Thank you so much for your input. I am still trying to work out the fine details such as time and “heavy duty” rewards. I may be mortgaging my house for this:). Sincerely, Eileen C
Re: Pullout from school for Fast ForWord
No need yet—dollar store items are great; I used some bigger toys (Lego kits) for big milestones i.e. mastery of the two really tough ones. For us small rewards were needed after the “honeymoon” period was over, after about a week.. I bought a bunch and put em in a “mystery bag”, along with the odd bag of chips and gum; the latter helped keep him calm during the truly frustratingt games. He really liked accessing the daily progress chart, which we would print out when it showed dramatic gains, but that is not a big motivator until scores start to really move (which they will for a few ofo the games, fairly soon).
Good luck.
I really don’t have any input. I am just very intrigued with this. I want to do this with my son if he is struggling next year after the remediation I plan for the summer. For my son’s issues I would do PACE.
I have heard of others doing this. I don’t know if they can stop you. I think it is great that you are just going to help your son no matter what they say.
Let us know how it goes.