New to site - an introduction

Where in Ontario? I’m in Montreal.

As far as the IEP, that is just paper; the real battle is to get any real action implemented, first getting definite statements and not vague generalities onto the paper, and then getting people to live up to them.

I would provide therapy outside of the school setting, as your son is unlikely to get everything he needs from the school.

If your son is reading on less than a 3rd grade level, then the CD from http://www.soundreading.com would be likely to help him develop phonemic awareness and some basic word attack skills. If he is reading on less than an ending-2nd grade level, then the “Little Books” at http://www.usu.edu/teach/LittleBooks.htm can be *very* helpful with developing fluency. There are placement tests at that website. If in doubt, place him in a lower set. He would need to read a story twice with two errors or less before moving on to the next story in a set.

For memory, you may want to consider doing a cognitive skills training program at home. BrainSkills at http://www.brainskills.com would be appropriate for a 10yo. (The company’s PACE program would be even better, but it can be hard to find a provider and it is much more expensive. Website for PACE is http://www.processingskills.com ). These programs work on developing attention skills, short-term auditory and visual memory, and working memory — among other things.

Grapho-motor problems are often neurological in nature and typically respond more slowly and less completely to intervention. If handwriting is a problem, schools will often provide some occupational therapy for it. Starting keyboarding now is a good idea, as grapho-motor problems often make acquisition of keyboard skills a slow process. The best program I have found for keyboarding is Diana Hanbury King’s book, available from http://www.epsbooks.com, I think. Sometimes grapho-motor problems respond to Interactive Metronome (depending on the nature of the problem), so that could be worth a try. Again, it can be hard to find a provider and the program is fairly expensive.

Usually schools are able to provide only the bare minimum of services and some accommodations — such as having tests read to him, allowing extra time for activities that require writing, allowing the use of assistive technology (laptop with spellchecker and predictive word software), etc. Most children benefit enormously when parents take an active role in researching their problems and providing them with therapies or curriculum materials likely to help reduce underlying deficits.

For the IEP, my advice would be to stay on as good terms as possible with everyone in the meeting. Propose ideas that you think will help your son, but phrase them in ways that reduce disruption to and extra work for the teacher — e.g., have teacher provide a copy of class notes since child cannot write well enough to take notes (or have another student in the class take over this role), have teacher pass out assignments in written form so student doesn’t have to copy. If your son would benefit from taking tests orally, ask for that, but be aware that this accommodation places a heavier demand on the school’s resources. You can ask for extra time on all assignments that require writing. Probably you will want to ask that any written work he does in class not be graded on neatness, spelling, or written grammar (though those things should be included for longer papers he has had to edit and revise).

Most likely the school will not have a good remedial reading program to provide. If at all possible, I would try to find a good tutor trained in one of the newer programs (Phono-Graphix, ABeCeDarian, SoundReading, etc.) so that progress is fast.

Just my two cents…..

Nancy

Hi Jori,
Here’s a link to an article that provides an explanation of Graphomotor:
http://www.cdl.org/resources/reading_room/graphomotor.html

Geoff. :)