New here - Can anyone suggest anything?

It sounds like you feel like there is more potential there than others are seeing.

In my experience, one of the worst things we can do to anybody at any cognitive level is put them in a river where the current’s always going a bit too fast, and expect that somehow, eventually, they’ll get strong enough to swim in it. I’ve generally seen better success in the long run when things are taught when the child is ready to learn, and taught at the pace the child can learn it, and taught thoroughly, not to some regurgitation test that we can pretend is “passing” and then wonder why the child never seems to be able to apply previous knowledge to new situations. (Teaching how to do that — apply knowledge— is also rather helpful.) It sounds like you’ve been doing a lot of excellent things to support your son’s learning :-) Is he making progress — not compared to otehrs, but for *him*?

There are several of us from Canada here. I’m in Montreal, so unfortunately I can’t come to you, wish I could.

There is a center in Calgary that used to do Lindamood Bell and decided to go to Phonographix — the report on their study was on this bulletin board several months ago. So if that’s the center you’re looking at, they should be doing effective teaching.

Second and third Sue’s advice to start where the student is and work at an appropriate speed. You get a lot farther when the student knows what he is doing. Slow but steady.

The IQ levels may or may not be realistic. You have to question lots of other things. Does he seem behind in everything, or only in school-type activities?

Good luck and ask me for specific advice and materials if you want to do home tutoring.

oh…. and that evaluation process is like being bludgeoned over the head.
Remind yourself he is the same child as the one that walked into the testing. Test scores are numbers that do not define him. Use them to *help* him, not limit him.
What were the strongest subtest scores? Weakest?
My godchild scored similarly on the tests — yet nobody in a regular interaction with her would think her “special ed” material, as she is a sensitive, caring, socially astute 17 year old —okay, she’s very cool :) with a healthy circle of friends. Gotta tell ya, the social sensitivity goes a long way. I have this funny feeling she’s going to make a dynamite hairdresser….

Have you looked at Audiblox? This is a cognitive skills training program you can do at home. It works on a wide variety of skills including attention, visual and auditory sequencing, visual and auditory short-term memory, pattern recognition, directionality, reasoning, etc. It is usually very helpful, but requires one-on-one with a parent for a minimum of one-half hour five days a week (and one hour per day is better). This isn’t a cure-all for problems, but can be very significantly helpful. Website is http://www.audiblox2000.com

Nancy

Sue, your analogy make sense to me. I know he has potential. I believe that he can learn, maybe not at a pace of most of the kids his age, but I just need to find the right person and or place that can teach him.

I am going to the Eckert Centre tomorrow, meeting with a Educational specialisty, Child psych., speech therapist……this will be more a more intense assessment, not only on my son but also family history. I am hoping it is worth it. His other report only showed me his weaknesses not his strenghts.

He is very visual. His long term memory is great, yet his short term memory is very limited. If I were to ask him to spell a word for me, he will spell it out with sign language, but won’t be able to tell me the letters. Does that make sense? I am on a website called “foothills educational materials”, and they supply learning materials/books etc for kids with learning diabilities here in Calgary,but I have no idea where to start. I will look up Audiblox and see what that is.

Thank you for your help….I feel completly lost. Just out of curiosty, this centre I am going to uses “Pace” and master the code”, has anyone heard of this?

There is a lot of discussion on these boards about PACE ans MTC. Go through the parenting and teaching pages and use the search options and you will find a lot of stuff.

I am not sure if this is the right place to start or not — talk to other experienced parents here about that.

You mention almost as an aside that he can spell a word in sign language but not say the letters. This is an AHA!
He may have much higher learning ablities than are showing up on testing because he may have difficulties with his speech-language channels. Talk to Patti, also posts as pattim, who is a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP); Sue, and others who are experienced with this, for suggestions on what to do first to test this, and second to help him.
There are programs I ahve heard about but not seen, Earobocs, FastForWord, Tomatis, The Listening Program - TLP, and others, which might possibly be more appropriate to his needs — talk to the people who know.

It seems that there is so much stuff on different techniques out there, I am confused after doing research on the sites I have visited? how do I now any of these will benefit my son, or which one to choose? Will it be trial and error ?? Will Psychologists know what will help after assessments? I spoke to my son’s speech therapist, and his overall expressive and receptive language is very low, in the 1 percentile. He is at a 5 year old level. The public school will provide a SP, yet once a week and in a group setting for an hour. I know this is not enough. I try to work on his speech just with everyday activities.

My son can remember any thing about cars. He knows all their Symbols. He can notice that a Toyota car will have Honda tires on it. We once changed the door knob in our den. It was almost identical. He noticed it was changed. He will know exactly where we have been. He will remember areas that we have driven in 3 years ago. I know there is a strength there with his visual memory. But how do I know which one would be best for him.

Again thank you so much for your postings. I am so happy that I am finding out more and more resources!

[quote=”Anonymous”] [i]He is very visual. His long term memory is great, yet his short term memory is very limited. If I were to ask him to spell a word for me, he will spell it out with sign language, but won’t be able to tell me the letters. Does that make sense?[/i] [/quote]

First - Welcome! I am from Canada as well - we live in Toronto.

Have you ever considered having your boy tested for other stuff - other than LDs? I would suggest having him tested for Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD or APD) and Visual Perception Delay (VPD).

PACE is a great program (we will be doing it with our 7.8 yr. old girl this Summer), but you need to address any APD and VPD issues before doing PACE.

My girl has APD, VPD, and Non-Verbal LD. We did Earobics and FastForWord (FFW) for her APD with excellent results. She is now in grade 2 (in a communications i.e. Sp.Ed class) and is doing great - she’s reading and spelling above grade level. Her written expression is somewhat below grade level (i think, but it could also be at the grade level). Her major weakness is - Math.

Anyway, I’d suggest you look into APD (with an Audiologist) and VPD (with developmental or educational optometrist).

Good luck,
Rubby

Ruby,
Thank you so much for that reply. I am not sure why no one in the medical profession would not mention this to me or suggest this. Would I need a referal? Going to the Eckert Centre today to speak to more Pschyolgosits / learning specialists / Speech therapists….is this something that we should be addressing?
I will be doing more research on this….but I have to ask, did your daughter get tested by a Phyc?

[quote=”Anonymous”]Ruby,
I will be doing more research on this….but I have to ask, did your daughter get tested by a Phyc?[/quote]

Sorry for replying only today - I was off line for several days.

The answer to your question is - yes, we did do a thorough psycho-educational testing with my dd (it took 3 visits, 2 - 2.5 hours each visit, to complete the testing). After that, we did APD and VPD tests. Lara, my dd, had speech and language issues so we had her hearing checked. After that we went to an audiologist and she found tonnes of problems, deficits and delays. That’s why we did Earobics and FastForWord (with great results).

Feel free to ask anything. I’ll try to help.

Rubby

Have you tried a different way for teaching the information? Going from concrete to abstract instruction often helps students get the concepts. It is a hands on approach to learning.

Lindamood -Bell is a structured way of presenting language. You mentioned that it was not available in Canada. Have you considered
Montessori schools as an alternative? Being developmental students learn at their own pace. The lessons are structured concrete to abstract for all subject areas and the child is part of a supportive community.

Alice,

We met with the Eckert Center last week, the Director and the Child Psychologist there (Kimberly Eckert), went over my son’s tests results, suggested what I can do, where I can go for help, what type of help he needs. Her centre does the PACE and Master the Code, but she also suggested to me that this may not be the right program for my son. She then suggested that one of her educational specialists works a lot on LIPS – Is that not a program that Lindamood Bell does? Cause I have heard nothing but good things about this “Lindamood Bell”.