I have two sons who have been diagnosed with issues that effect their learning. Both boys have average IQ’s but have struggled with learning various aspects of learning especailly that which is language based. My oldest son did not receive good services until he entered the 7th grade. Proir to this we were in another district and it was just dismal, he made little progress. Since entering our new district things have gone extremly well. He has improved to the point where teachers in his old district would not recognize him. No he is not cured, he still has some of the same issues, but he has learned how to work around his difficulties that remain, some have been remediated fully. At the beginning of 7th grade he was in an LD self contained class for 50 % of his day working on the 3 R’s. This year he is a freshman in high school and has been dismissed from special ed. He is taking the same course work as his peers. He struggles in his Lit and Language class but does average to above average work in the rest of his classes. As a matter of fact his Language grade is even coming up to average. He knows what the terms mean, median, and mode are and can apply them. Math is a strong subject for him. He went from a child who could not take notes and listen at the same time to a student who takes some of the best notes. His reading reading sills improved 5 grade levels in a 2 1/2 year time frame. His ability to reason and think abstractly have significantly improved. His GPA the 1st half the school year was 2.67, not bad for a former special ed student. He was recently tested independently by a nueropsychologist who says he still shows nuerological deficits but has learned to commensate for them well. Most important he has great self-esteem and is highly motiviated. My youngest son who falls on the Autism spectrum came to our district basically on the pre-primer level for most skills (2nd grade when started district). Now in 4th grade his skills have sky rocketed after 2 years in a self contained class. He recently tested with reading skills ranging from early 3rd grade to mid 4th (word attack being his best score/comprehension his lowest). His math skills are on grade level, his science and social studies scores have come up to mid 3rd grade. His teacher has listened carefully when I shared information with her. She even tried Ken Campbell’s Great Leaps I leant her with her class. She was so impressed with the results that she is petentioning the school to purchase the program. When I suggested he use an AlphaSmart for his writing she agreed to give it a try. He know has lots of confidence, trys hard, and has great self esteem. Sometimes the program does work. I agree that not enough people share the positive stories. Once in a while I try and come on here and share my positive stories. Although things are going better for the boys sometimes we still have questions and concerns so we stay here on the board, reading and getting ideas.
It worked for my child
I won’t go into the details (I’ve posted them before), but the right placement and the right teachers were part of a comprehensive home and school effort that has helped my son to become a happy and successful student.
Andrea
Re: Special Ed can work-long sorry
Meet the person who leaves notes in her shoes so she can’t leave home without them.
My daughter learned, somewhere in elementary school, to tell me and others very clearly to give her only one direction at a time, period.
We all do what we can.
Re: Special Ed can work-long sorry
I actually wrote on my hand that I had to pick up my friend’s son.
I am like Beth, I used to have a great memory and now that it is starting to fail I don’t have compensatory mechanisms to help myself.
I never used a list for grocery shopping and now realize it is time to start. I used to be able to remember what I needed but that ability is long gone.
Re: Special Ed can work-long sorry
Well, I bought tickets for a play, wrote it on the calendar, but forgot to look at the calender, so we missed the play. About this time, I began to realize that my old memory was really starting to go…..Look at this way, I can teach my son all my strategies!!
Beth
Re: Special Ed can work-long sorry
Lisa, can you tell us more about exactly what programs, approaches were used with your sons?
Re: Special Ed can work-long sorry
Hi Linda,
Do what I do and wait to run out of everything. Then a list isn’t necessary because you’ll need everything:))
PT
Re: Special Ed can work-long sorry
Victoria, I LOVE your stories. I tape post it notes to my purse or on my steering wheel - or I put items in the front seat of my car the night before so I don’t forget. Been this way ALL my life - just getting worse as I get older.
memory? what's a memory?
I like your system, PT. Clear and logical.
I work the other way. Grew up in northern Canada and it’s a habit to be stocked up enough to not worry about being snowed in for a week. You run out of one thing, just cook something else. Only problem is clearing out the bottom of the freezer before the stuff is inedible.
Went to the store and forgot salt again today. Food’s going to be a bit bland until I get fed up enough.
Of course I write on my left hand! Regularly! One time I was in my thirties, going back to university to get the math degree that didn’t work out the first time, single parent with a child in elementary school, tutoring calculus in the evenings to make ends meet above the student aid; I had lists and lists down my left hand. Went into an exam one day and realized this might possibly look bad, so I showed the list to one of the proctors and pointed out it was my day’s schedule, nothing to do with math.
Congratulations to those of you who once had memories. Never having had that sort of memory, I guess we don’t know what we are missing.
We always used to joke that we’d never know if our mother got Alzheimer’s, because she could never remember anything anyway. She never could name the US President or who won any sports games — didn’t interest her.
When I was very young, we would go into stores and people would ask for her phone number; she would turn to me and ask “What’s our phone number?” When people thought this was strange, she pointed out that she had no need to know it — if she wasn’t home, there was nobody there to call anyway.
I have the absent-minded professor memory; can tell you how to do calculus or conjugate the French subjunctive off the top of my head, but don’t ask me the date and give me two tries to give my phone number wiothout reversals.
Re: Special Ed can work-long sorry
Anitya please see the teaching students with LD board I answered someone else there. I think the key for them is that the school used their strengths to get things started. After feeling respected for something they could do they were more “available” to teaching. If you have any more questions please let me know. I think you do outstanding work and your dedication to your students is much appreciated.
Re: List jokes on me!
One time when I was determined to be exceptionally organized I made a list to grocery shop, it was quite a long list I inventoried everything. You see, I had read if I would do a large shopping and use a list I would save money. Great!
Well, guess I shoved the great list into my jacket pocket at the check out. Since I had purchased so much I didn’t go shopping except milk for a couple weeks. Now, I’m feeling pretty good about being so organized and frugal all at the same time. New list and head for the store well, guess I put the new list in the pocket too. Shopping away kinda thinking gee I thought I had this at home, but it’s on the list.
Wrong list so Victoria if you need salt I can send you a couple, each time they were a special deal. So, if I am snowed in for a week I can salt the sidewalk.
Thanks for sharing your story. I see my 10 year old son starting to learn to compenstate. Now if I start rattling off a list of things to do, he calmly tells me to write them on the board because he won’t remember! It helps that he now can read well enough to benefit from this kind of help. We’ve had long talks about memory and ways that people can help themselves. I told him about forgetting to turn in a report after having driven to the adjoining county for that explicit reason (as well as other things) and telling a colleague who has memory issues about it. She asked me why I didn’t write myself a note and put it on my seat in the car so I wouldn’t leave town without doing it. I told her I never thought of doing it. I told my son she has always had to compenstate and I never did until middle age seems to have done my memory in!! She is ahead of the game now and so will he be if he learns to compenstate.
Beth