LDA and IDEA Reauthorization

I agree completely. There’s such a difference between the child who processes things more slowly and more concretely and a child who has that “asynchronous” learning style. IT’s completely reasonable to expect the classroom teacher to adapt to the former, and maybe that’s the picture of “inclusion” that many people have.
It’s also nauseatingly absurd to teach “standards” instead of teaching students.

I have a mixed reaction to the standards thing. Florida has a writing exam for fourth graders. It is very structured. A score of 3 is passing and that is what my son’s fourth grade teacher is working towards for him. They are focusing on writing right now. My son was placed with the fourth grade teacher who teaches the others how to write (and has gone to a number of workshops)—because he needs a lot of help!!!

Noone would be so focused or concerned about his writing without this exam. And I think getting kids who can’t write to write a very structured five paragraph essay is real progress. So yes, they are teaching to the test but in the process my son is getting a lot of writing instruction.

Now, I don’t feel so kind towards the math test. My son scored dismally on the third grade one last year. It deemphasizes computation and emphasizes analytical thinking, including telling how you got the answer. He scored 17% on it compared to 50% the year before on the computationally oriented SAT. He didn’t change much—the test did.

And his teacher is moving on, even though lots of kids haven’t mastered basic multiplication facts, because “she has to.” My son will eventually master them (I pray) but for all those kids (about a third of the class) who haven’t, it will all come crashing down fast. I kept telling my son (as he objects to more multiplication practice) about the child of a colleague of mine who diagnostic testing determined that he couldn’t do high school math because he never learned his multiplication tables. How he got that far, I don’t know!!!

Beth

Having worked in a university-based eval. clinic and doing second opinion evals. for parents and school systems, I wonder in this 3-level model how parents will respond to the news that their child is MR or a slow-learner after 2-levels have been tried. I think this places a huge burden on those who do testing in the schools to be great evaluators and great communicators to parents who may have assumed their child was LD(thus the first two interventions), and now will receive none of those services. Despite what is written on these boards, the majority of kids who struggle in school are not LD, the group of slow learners(70’s-80’s IQ) is much larger.

I agree. One concern that I have and our special education coordinators have are the interventions that are being done before referring kids for evaluations. Many of the interventions are not geared toward the kid’s level of achievement (ie. 2nd grade), but at trying to make the kid fit into the 4th grade curriculum through peer tutoring, 1 to 1 instruction, etc. According to the proposed 3 tier system, it looks like kids will be placed in spec. ed. based upon inadequate, inappropriate, and subjective interventions instead of eligibility being determined by measurable and objective information and standards.

Whenever you take any profession and put it in the hands of the politicians and mobs all that results is anarchy. It will take a generation to undo the present mess. Those intent on destroying public education are having a heyday (all at the expense of children.)

Beth, I have a friend who is fighting for her son in HS right now. He is considered “handicapped” in math b/c he does not know his multiplication tables. They have given him use of a calculator. This is a child who CAN do the higher math but can’t remember the basic multiplication facts. His father is an engineer ( can’t do multiplication facts) and uses a calculator all day at work (dyslexic also). Just some futurel home for those who can’t get the tables.

Just a “parent” here, and maybe I’m missing something, but WHERE does this leave the child that is already in the system? Oftentimes it is too late for the “early intervention”, especially in cases where the parents don’t have the money to fund their own. Does this relate ONLY to newly identified kids after the law passes, or does it encompass everyone in the system? Also, upon first glance, my gifted/LD daughter would pass b/c she can perform at around the “average” mark. (As the discussion mentioned this is one group that would be overlooked.

Geez, just when you think you have begun to understand the law and it’s twists and turns, it changes. I guess it keeps us all “on our toes”.

I know that is an option but you aren’t going to get it in fourth grade, especially when a lot of other kids still don’t know their facts!! If after all we are doing he doesn’t get them, I will get him accomodations. Thanks!!

Beth

I do not care about multiplication facts. I suggest you outfit your child with a multiplication chart or an array. Get it on his IEP to use in class assignments and tests. If he is required to ALWAYS look up each fact and solve the mult. problems correctly, he will begin to master mult. facts. If he is denied the use of this, or a calculator, he will write the facts differently each time and he will become confused, possibly never learning them. Practicing something CORRECTLY frequently does assist in the learning process.

True and they have a right to an appropriate public education. The difficulty is that this should not be defined as special education. General education needs to get that 15-18% or so of our student population (statistically) falls into this no man’s land. Actually, I think education does get it.

I will stick my neck out and say that when we had more differentiated programs, we found ourselves being accused of being racist if too many children from certain ethnic minority groups were found to be in these classes. We were accused of being racists, so we stopped having many classes that taught curriculum at a more basic level and rate so we could not be accused of being racist.

Problem is the lower functioning kids still struggle and do poorly on SAT 9, so now we are being badgered to raise scores for “subgroups.” There is no way to get around this problem.

I think, also, this is a social problem, more than just an educational problem. We have enough research to know that when children start school in K some have several years already on their disadvantaged peers. Parents who are high school drop-outs who have IQs themselves of 80 simply do not provide the enrichment, so their children start out functioning cognitively and linguistically at the 3 year old level at age 5. Our K teachers cannot make up this gap. The ready to learn 5 year old gets continued support at home and progresses rapidly. The little disadvantaged child does not even understand basic concepts, so much of what happens at school goes over his head

This problem in not going to be fixed by changing IDEA eligibility or by laws like No Child Left Behind. This problem starts at or before birth and is a huge social problem. Every nation shares this problem. Maybe somebody ought to look at how other countries handle these children and look for more successful models.

I’d be surprised, however, if you could find more than 1-2 nations that really handle the challenges presented by poverty and deprivation better. We may be the only nation on the planet that has dared to proclaim that “No Child Will Be Left Behind,” since this flies in the face of the normal distribution of human skills in any venue.

Absolutely, my feelings exactly! At our opening special ed. meetings, we were told that by some year, EVERY child would have to meet the standards. I’m sitting there thinking…sure thing. I’ll never pretend to be on that bandwagon as it is statistically impossible! Unless, of course, they lower the standards so that everyone can pass. And truthfully, the newspapers exposed a “mistake” that kids who scored 28% correct on the end-of-grade math a year ago were scored a level 3, passing. The irony of that is, passing was supposed to be something like 47%. Hmmm…is something wrong with this picture?????

A couple of my students “passed” the 3rd and 5th grade tests last year and I know form other testing that they are NOT on grade level. It’s all a skillful game of deceit as far as I am concerned. And yes, we used to have ability grouping in schools which worked fairly well until it became politically incorrect as the lower groups did have more minority students.

Janis

Ken,

I almost always agree with you, but this time I’ll have to say that the public education system has done itself in! It is such a mess that I think vouchers and privatization might be the only way to ever improve it.

Janis

I see the same thing and agree completely. I’d love to see those 70-85 IQ kids get some attention. But it shouldn’t be by special educators. And as far as special ed. goes, until it becomes a requirement that ALL special ed. teachers be trained in at least ONE effective MSSL reading program, we still won’t see much progress in the LD kids.

I think that evaluation/ labeling system sounds scary, though. Maybe I’ll be outta there by the time they implement it!

Janis

Where’s our disagreement? the assassin??

From my Scottish background, “Money (aka - Mammon) is the root of all evil. I would sooner privatize the Air Force before I privatize public education. A civil society has responsibilities. Too bad we have such a mess - no-one seems accountible. Ken

Lol! Privatizing the air force might be a good idea, too! Maybe we don’t really disagree, it’s just that I think maybe the mess is so big that it can’t be undone.

I guess I think there are many to blame for the failure of public education. Too many kids come to school at age 5 unprepared to learn, politicians that do not know what they are doing in regard to education at times, big teacher unions who have political agendas themselves, ugh, just to name a few!

Hey, remember Chrysler? Competition can be a very good thing. :-) And even though my last name begins with one of those Scottish C’s, too, I think money is already part of the problem in the current system. That’s why we have such fear and resentment toward charter schools (still public education) in our state. The big system doesn’t want the competition. But I think it’s a very good thing.

Janis

His teacher lets him use a multiplication table at school for seat work but not for tests. I think I would have to get that written into his IEP as an accomodation. I haven’t had him using one at home for homework but it sounds like maybe I should.

Thanks.

Beth

In our district what I see is those borderline IQ kids ending up with IEPs eventually… unfortunately it’s usually in an ED placement. After a couple of years struggling with the frustration of never “getting it” because the regular classroom teacher must go at a too-fast pace to cram all of that information in before the “standards” testing in the Spring, these kids are becoming explosive behavior problems. If they don’t score low enough for EMR they might get some 1:1 with a reading specialist or tutor, but that’s about it.

As always, LDA leadership is on top of the issues in a broad spectrum. Their long-time national board members and advisors are parents of children with very diverse forms of learning disabilities: from very high-functioning to very low overall functioning.

As I’ve said before, I’m on the fence regarding IQ-Discrepancy Formula. I take the kids w/out IEP’s and teach them with my sped kids anyway. I just don’t write an IEP on them. I call it incidental benefit . They just incidently happened to be in my building this year and so all students get services.

Parents in states that have gone to CBA (curriculum-based assessment) are not pleased. They have no idea what is wrong with their child. They don’t make connections (like LDA) that can be a life-line for them. Many don’t even know their kids are LD.

Somedays I’m not sure why I care that parents know the label that means 5,000 different disorders. Other days I do.

Like I said, fence sitting…

As always, LDA leadership is on top of the issues in a broad spectrum. Their long-time national board members and advisors are parents of children with very diverse forms of learning disabilities: from very high-functioning to very low overall functioning.

As I’ve said before, I’m on the fence regarding IQ-Discrepancy Formula. I take the kids w/out IEP’s and teach them with my sped kids anyway. I just don’t write an IEP on them. I call it incidental benefit . They just incidently happened to be in my building this year and so all students get services.

Parents in states that have gone to CBA (curriculum-based assessment) are not pleased. They have no idea what is wrong with their child. They don’t make connections (like LDA) that can be a life-line for them. Many don’t even know their kids are LD.

Somedays I’m not sure why I care that parents know the label that means 5,000 different disorders. Other days I do.

Like I said, fence sitting…

Beth,

What you need to checkup on is what does your state say about using calculators and the High School Exit Exam. If the state says you can’t pass the test and get a Regular Diploma you need to know that. (the rules change from year to year).

Helen

Since you take these extra students (i am not allowed to do this), how many students do you actually work with? What grades do you see? I am curious because I do believe that some interventions must be done individually and some in small groups. If I get too many students in certain time slots, my effectiveness to fix the little things drops enormously. Even activities that take only a few minutes per day 1:1 (fluency training exercises) really don’t work well in groups and a few students to do 1:1 drills with adds up to a lot of time.

Helen,

Thanks for heads up!! He is only in fourth grade so if the info changes won’t help now!!

BUT, I think my interventions are working. He did his long multiplication at the kitchen table last night and it was not nearly as bad. He asked for confirmation of some math facts but only had a couple wrong. He got all the problems right (meaning he knew when he didn’t know!!). So in the long run, he may be OK with the facts.

Beth

Well, since federal IDEA money only pays a small amount of my salary, and the state doesn’t make-up all the difference, my district believes that sped teachers are here to serve all students in need. I believe that, too.

I see about 50 kids per day for various things in grade 9-12: reading intervention (fluency 1:1, small group reading, 1:1 reading), written expression instruction, math tutorial, content tutorial.

Sometimes I help more than 50 because students just come for “study hall” certain blocks and I don’t care who is labeled and who is just behind. Othertimes, I “push-in” instead of “pull-out”—a block of math, for example. There, I help anyone who has a raised hand.

I only write IEP’s on the sped ones, but sometimes write short goals on more complex at-risk readers without IEP’s. At-risk don’t get anything but fluency 1:1, but they don’t usually need it. Many of them do not need Orton or Lindamood—they need comprehension strategies and skills.

I did the same thing in grade 6, except I was just reading there. I served at-risk and sped using a combination of Title I and sped funds.

In the 6th grade position, I had a teacher’s assistance—some paid and some volunteer—to come in first thing in the a.m. and do my fluency drills with me. I don’t have as many fluency issues in this high school setting because it is a voluntary alternative school. In elementary or low middle-school, I would use parent volunteers for 1:1 fluency drills and then I would do the charting.

Where there is a will, there is a way.

We spend millions or is it billions on sped and the last place I would want to see any ld kid is in sped. At least the way it is done in my very rich district.

It doesn’t work. Not in the least. I get pangs every time I meet someone with a kid who is labeled.

I think of my own son who was scoring 50’s in the sped math and now get 70 - 80s in his current regular class. The only difference is that he has a teacher who believes in him. Honestly that is what made the biggest difference.

When he was labeled no one believed he could do it. It was the most awful situation for a bright kid. He started to buy into their view of him.

It’s a big waste of money if you ask me. At least the way it is done here.

I agree with you that kids of low/average IQ should not be dumped in with kids who may be much more needy than they.

Teachers should be able to teach classes to different learning levels not just by a book. The difference in the kids in the class is the ones who have been tested and the IQ known could be taken out of regular class. What about the kids in the class that have never been tested? There will be kids in that same low/norm IQ range, but noone knows it.

Are you basing placement for all educational services on one single IQ score (g score)?

Susan,

I am trying to say that sped should be remediating kids so they can go to regular ed. The kid with low/average IQ is between a rock and a hard place. Regular teachers don’t want them because they might hold back the rest of the class. Sped teachers would love to teach them but it is hard because they have a class with 10-12 different problems from ld, mental illness etc.

I believe that it would be better to leave them in regular ed with support services for their area of need. Just my opinion.

Susan,

My younger son has fluency issues. He is decoding firmly on grade level (4th grade) but but according to the neuropsychologist, his lack of fluency interferes with comprehension. They pulled him out of class for fluency training for a very short while, but I don’t think the part-time “reading specialist” who was working with him had a clue. She timed him, said that according to whatever criteria she used, he was reading fast enough, so there was nothing for her to work on. I asked if he had understood what he had read. She looked at me blankly, and told me that wasn’t her job. She “only” worked on fluency. :-/

His regular classroom teacher and I decided that his time was better spent working with her in the classroom.

When you said you had parent volunteers helping with fluency drills, I was wondering if you could point me toward materials I could use with him at home?

Karen

What about kids like my high-average IQ NLD son? You can’t “fix” the problems of NLD. He will need to be in SPED all the way up through school. He can and does do grade level work, but he ALWAYS needs the help he gets from his SPED teachers, because every year the demands go up.

The general ed teachers we have at the moment (6th grade) are very supportive, but it is no coincidence that his one class that is not co-taught with his SPED teacher in the room is the one he gets the lowest grades in.

It would be nice to think that everything can be “remediated” away. But it just doesn’t always work that way.

Karen

Well, I use Great Leaps in my classroom. I have also used Read Naturally but cannot find it right now…may have loaned it to someone.

What does his testing say about fluency? You’ve probably told me before, but I’ve forgotten. (Many test scores ago and many students…)

What did the Reading Specialist say his rate/accuracy were on what level materials? IOW, what were the criteria on which her comment was based…

It is a life-long disorder that affects ones ability to function in important life-environments (e.g. school and work). Remediation can raise functioning, however, few have no ill effects of any kind after remediation. It just isn’t that simple.

My point on this thread, though, has been that the IQ measurement doesn’t necessarily drive what we do for kids in the learning process as long as the students have mastered prior skills in the instructional sequence. If several kids need re-teaching of a concept, I don’t care what is their label: we reteach the concept. Some need more reteaching and guided practice than others before brain has the process to independent-practice levels.

Teachers get into trouble on the mastery of earlier skills in the sequence: They don’t pretest and group kids based on what they are ready to learn…

Hi Susan,

On the Gray Oral Reading Test, his scores were:

SS %ile
Rate of Reading: 8 25th
Accuracy 6 9th
Passage Score 7 16th
Comprehension 8 25th

This is a kid with a VIQ of 123 (which includes subtest scatter from a high of 17 in Similarities, to a low of 9 in Arithmetic)

The comments were:

“T’s reading of single words and nonsense words was average or better. He clearly has benefitted from his remedial reading classes and is decoding words at a solid 4th grade level and can phnemically analyze words slightly above grade level. As mentioned by T’s classroom teacher, he has not yet gained fluency in his reading, which is detracting from his comprehension skills. The CTOPP scores clearly show fluency problems with rapid naming. When asked to read passages on the GORT-III, a qualitative analysis showed that he could decode accurately but evidenced word repetitions, minor substitutions and omissions lowering his accuracy score. He also read slowly which is reflected in his rate score. The interaction of slow, albeit accurate decoding took its toll when T was asked to recall theinformation he read. Given his excellent vocabulary and verbal reasoning, his comprehension of reading material should have been much higher. The issue of fluency clearly impacts comprehension.”

Karen

I understand what you’re saying. I just disagree with the idea that the sole (main?) goal of SPED is to get kids out of it. Sure, that’s a laudable goal, if it can be achieved. But I think that there are kids who will need it all the way through.

And the problem I find with Robbie is that his needs are SO different from most of the LD kids the regular ed teachers deal with, that they don’t have a clue what to do with him. Even with the SPED teachers, only a few of them really know what he REALLY needs to work on. It can be hard to convince teachers that a kid who is so well-spoken, who read “Treasure Island” in 2nd grade can’t, in 6th grade, tell you the problem and solution of a story… or gets lost trying to find his way to an unfamiliar classroom for extra math help.

His English teacher this year, (who is a nice man, and Robbie adores him) is constantly writing on papers that he should put “more effort” into “visualizing”. He just doesn’t get that this is just what Robbie CAN’T do. He doesn’t help him figure out how he might do it, or walk him through it. He just seems to think with some “pep talks” all of a sudden, this kid is going to figure this out on his own. Fortuantely, his SPED teacher, who co-teaches the majority of his classes DOES know what he needs work on, and works on those areas specifically in Academic Support.

OTOH, I’m not sure it’s fair to expect all the general ed teachers to know how to teach these things either. This isn’t the case of a kid who is a little behind the curve and will respond with some reteaching, slowing down and review. This is a kid for whom the things that completely no-brainers for most people need to be taught by rote. OTOH, some things that other bright, normal kids need to work at, he can do without thinking about it.

It seems to me that there will always be some kids that truly need an “individualized” education all the way through.

Karen

There are kids who will need an individualized education all the way through. However, we want them making gains in skills and not just settling for any ol’ instructional programs in a sped classroom. Or worse: sitting at the back of an inclusion classroom while being modified and accommodated into ignorance. We must have high standards while attending to the individual needs of each child. No easy answers. (I say that a lot.)

I do like how that examiner worded the report. However, I’m more concerned with accuracy than I am rate. Rate is somewhat low but the combination with accuracy seem to affirm that comprehension would be negatively affected.

I would use a repeated reading strategy. Poetry (Shel Silverstein is a favorite—funny) is a nice thing for repeated readings. Still, can’t beat Great Leaps. Have you tried it?

One must give th Great Leaps intervention some time. Use the charts and watch the skills grow over time as the material gets more difficult. Watch the level at which you begin—don’t make it on grade level. Go back to where the child can get through it in no more than 2-3 trials.

You can make up your own. SPIRE has some fluency materials in their program (additional purchase). Several out there, really.

Fluency can also be affected by concentration and attention. If this mental skill fluctuates, then rate/accuracy often fluctuates, too.

You’re on the ball, Mom!

My now 6th grade son with ld still is a slow reader but improved with Great Leaps(www.greatleaps.com or 1-352-271-9720) which was fun and easy to do at home; his issues were and are slower processing than his cognitive abilities, but his accuracy and comprehension were more on a level with his IQ(but had had much intervention with tutoring outside of school and Wilson reading in school). So you might try Great Leaps(about $60) for fluency. Lots of Mass. schools have Wilson trained people because it’s in Mass. too. I am impressed at how much inference, and higher level thinking is required in 4th grade(my other son is a 4th grader)…I guess driven by the MCAS, my son’s 4th grade is reading Cricket in Times Square and really analyzing characters, etc. I think reading a higher level book out loud at night and talking about plot and characters has really helped both of my kids…we read the entire Narnia series and the Lord of the Rings series, both fairly complex books.

SAR, this is terribly off topic, but I never read Lord of the Rings because I thought I didn’t care for fantasy. But my husband and I rented the DVD last weekend and we loved the movie! So maybe my little one will have the books read to her! Now we can’t wait to see The Two Towers in the theatre!

Oh, and to say something on topic, I use Great Leaps. also!

Janis

You have me stumped on how you can do much, if any, 1:1 with seeing 50 per day! My quick math suggests that this looks like roughly 10 students per instructional period, assuming you allocate a prep period for testing purposes. I commend you. Can you give the rest of us who struggle to effectively teach 6 per group any tips on how to handle such large groups and still get progress? You don’t have a paraprofessional, either?

There is a world of difference between the LD child and the child in the 75-85 IQ range. We test some of the latter. The LD youngster, as you know better than I, has real highs and lows in his or her profile. The 75-85 child is much “flatter” interms of cognitive skills. That child needs the entire curriculum fed more slowly and with more concrete experiences. I do not believe the latter child belongs in the resource program. There is teaching to be done, but not real remediating to be done. The slow learner (as they were called in my days in college) should be managed appropriately in general education geared for the child’s prowess at absorbing and applying learning.

For most LD youngsters, given average ability, general ed. for much of the day is appropriate, along with specific remediation and any classroom modifications and supports. I do not believe we should be filling sped. rosters with slow learners just because our aggressive standards movement is death to these youngsters who can learn, but are often doomed to a life of academic failure at the hands of schools that are doing what they are mandated to do via their legislatures: teach all children grade level standards.

After reading your message and SAR’s, and having pulled out T’s Neuropsych to find the scores, I flipped back to her suggestions page. I knew she had strongly recommended fluency training, even in the team meeting she attended. But as I mentioned, the school’s program was worse than useless, and at the time we had bigger fish to fry, so the fluency thing got put on the back burner after I pulled him out of the school program.

Guess what program she specifically suggested in her report? “Great Leaps”. I guess great minds DO think alike ;-)

So this morning I called the company, had a very informative chat with Ken Campbell, where he gave me all kinds of ideas for improving fluency WITHOUT needing to buying his product, and ended up buying it anyway.

T has to read for 20 minutes a night anyway, as part of his homework, and Ken said that you can do the fluency exercises in 5 minutes a day. So we’ll just include that as part of his reading time, and take Ken’s advice of providing lots of rewards too, to make it fun.

I’ll let you all know how it goes. Thanks for the advice!

Karen

n/t

Our blocks are everyday:
I saw kids who read PP-Grade 1 in groups of 4 for 30 minutes. Since our blocks are 50 minutes, I would see a 1:1 for 20 minutes for the remainder of that block. Students reading Late Gr 1-2 (overlap intentional) would have a group of 6-8 depending on the mix for whole class period and Gr 3/late 3 would have group of 15-16 for whole class period. I had an extra 30 minutes after lunch that I saw two kids 1:1 for 15 minutes each.

The group of grade 3-readers would be sub-grouped into V&V/comprehension and phonics small groups. 20-minute small groups of 4-5 each day. So, instruction every other day. SSR part of the time, some buddy read. This class is a writing in & of itself. I’ll post the matrix sometime.

I also wrote IEP goals and attended most meetings. Since I served so many kids, I did not manage many cases—mostly just served to write GnO’s and implement them.

We had eight periods per day and I had one 50 minute plan period. I loved that job but they didn’t have the Title I funds and I really didn’t think a 1/2 time job would be too great. I’m hoping to return next year.

Don’t try to analyze it too quickly…just give it time. Realize that as he continues reading, the passages get more difficult and the number of words longer. So, he may be improving even if still struggling with the material.

Don’t begin too high. Try to find just right. I use the word “flow.” It is when something is a little bit too difficult but you can almost reach the goal. Flow is a good thing in learning.

Keep us posted.

I had a teacher’s assist in the time slots (2) when I had 15-16 kids. She did all my fluency for me an I checked the data.

///

Susan,

I am going to school for special education. COuld you please tell what Great Leaps is about. Any information will be helpful. I am looking for reading strategies.

thank you for your time

julesSusan Long wrote:
>
> Well, I use Great Leaps in my classroom. I have also used
> Read Naturally but cannot find it right now…may have loaned
> it to someone.
>
> What does his testing say about fluency? You’ve probably
> told me before, but I’ve forgotten. (Many test scores ago
> and many students…)
>
> What did the Reading Specialist say his rate/accuracy were on
> what level materials? IOW, what were the criteria on which
> her comment was based…

Dear Jules,

Great Leaps is divided into three sections: phonics, phrases, and stories. I just use the phrases and stories as I have another scope & sequence for teaching phonics.

The student performs 1 repeated reading per day in each area for one minute with timer. They can practice when they’ve finished timing—so it’s read “at sight” daily.

You can find more information at http://www.greatleaps.com
Read Naturally has a website, too, I’m sure.

Susan Long

Thanks, Susan. Ken said the same thing. Take it easy and give lots of rewards. I don’t know if you remember, but this is the anxiety kid as well. He’s calmed down a lot on the Wellbutrin, but the last thing we want to do is tip him back into THAT spiral!

Karen

Karen, I’ve had wonderful results using Great Leaps. In my experience, after about 3 months of daily work, you suddenly see a spike in ability. It’s an easy program to use, the kids generally like it, and it’s very quick. I start many of my students off with it each day-it takes about 5 minutes of our time.

When I have more time, I let the kids do the graphing. I find that they’re even more motivated in moving forward when they’re marking their progress for themselves. They also become very proud of their graphing ability.

I’ve also used the Great Leaps stories for other Repeated Reading programs, ones where you clock how long a student takes reading a selection aloud, after which they set a time and errors goal for themselves.

I haven’t even mentioned it to him yet, because I want to have it in hand before I even discuss it with him. I ordered their little lighted timer too. It sounded neat, and perhaps not as anxiety-producing as waiting for a buzzer to go off. T loves math, so he’d probably like the idea of doing his own graphing, especially once he starts to see an improvement.

He’s not a willing reader at this point, so we always set the timer for him to read for 20 minute anyway. I don’t think he’ll object to spending 5 or 10 minutes of his reading time working with me on this.

We just finished listening to the first “Redwall” book on tape and he LOVED it. But it’s way too hard for him to read on his own. I thought I might buy the next book on tape and use the tapes, one at a time, as “rewards” for doing the program.

We’ll let you know how it goes!

Karen