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comprehension

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

my daughter is having trouble with comprehension. was wondering if anyone had any ideas.first off i have asked for extra help at school. whenwe got it the teacher helped her with math? go figure she gets straight a’s there. miscommunication i don’t think so i sent it in writing what she needed help with.
second went to instructional support. that process is going to take up to 20 days to start. she will test her hopefully sooner. we’ll see. she will set up a meeting also so we can brainstorm that can take up to 15 days.third my daughter is out of luck this term considering it ends in 10 days. so my question since i am starting to ramble is obviously the teacher isn’t getting through. in her own words i’ve had alot of concerned parents having the same problem. well hello a light went on for me what about you. i don’t want to step on toes . been there done that and my child paid big time. so HELP!!!!!! please what can i do to help her i have her explain stories to me when she reads. suppose i can do that more often. any other ideas would be appreciated. and i want to help her at home, not what i can have done in school. i want to clarify that i would like suggestions on how i can help her at home. just wanted to clarify my question. again thanks. af

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 10/20/2001 - 1:46 AM

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Reading out loud to her is a good one for a start. Stopping to discuss the story, asking her what she thinks will happen next. Listening to books on tape in the car can’t hurt either.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 10/20/2001 - 11:13 PM

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She needs to learn comprehension strategies. Go to www.readinglady.com and click on comprehension or 4 blocks. There are lots of comprehension strategies that you can do at home. These will help her get meaning from the text. Good readers learn these strategies indirectly but most LD students need to be directly instructed in comprehension strategies. Some are fix up strategies, or what to do when you have lost comprehension while reading. How to realize that this has happened? How to recognize important story elements? All of these strategies need to be practiced over and over. If she has not learned them in school you can practice them at home.
NanSara wrote:
>
> Reading out loud to her is a good one for a start. Stopping
> to discuss the story, asking her what she thinks will happen
> next. Listening to books on tape in the car can’t hurt either.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 10/21/2001 - 4:44 AM

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thanks will try your suggestions.
happen to be up late so the mind can think with no interruptions from the three little girls of mine. anyhow just another curve ball to my dilemma, found out this week that she has dbl. vision soon to be corrected with new lenses. chg. in presc. also prism in the lenses as well, they are supposed to help.could this add to her problem of comprehension?
thanx af

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 10/21/2001 - 12:35 PM

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Hi, I would like to offer you another solution. Your daughter may be suffering from two things, poor reading habits and lack of visualization. The first is easy to break. Let her read to you and see if she stops at periods, pauses at commas and reads with expression. I have most of my students read out loud at home. Most have a better reading level when reading out loud. Second, I recommend the program Visualizing and Verbalizing by Lindamood-Bell. Many kids don’t visualize what they hear and see. This is a fabulous program. I have no comment about double vision. Don’t know anything about it.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 10/21/2001 - 4:32 PM

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could certainly add to comprehension problems. Poor vision means more of the attention has to be focused on decoding words, so there is less available for comprehension.

Who prescribed the prism lenses? You should get a complete developmental vision evaluation, if she hasn’t had one yet. Usually a developmental optometrist is the best professional for this eval. You can find DO’s in your area at http://www.covd.org, and more information about vision problems at http://www.visiontherapy.org, http://www.vision3d.com, and http://www.children-special-needs.org.

Mary

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 10/21/2001 - 9:40 PM

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we saw a specialist last week for her vision. he feels no vision therapy is necessary. he was very clear and to the point. she said she sees dbl up close and far away. he was very thorough. he said she has it for close up but not far away. he feels that is psychological. told him we were in therapy and we have been working on other psych. issues as well. told we would work on it.
he is the only specialist in town and was wonderful. he also pres. the new lenses.
well i have rambled long enough.
thanx for the info will try it out.
af
.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 10/21/2001 - 10:10 PM

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I would not trust a specialist who “feels” vision therapy isn’t necessary for near-point double vision, and who suggests it is psychological in origin. He may be a wonderful person, and he may mean well, but I would definitely get a second opinion on this. AND a third, if I still wasn’t sure. Drive to another city, if necessary.

Mary

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 10/22/2001 - 3:58 AM

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he showed us how her eyes worked with dbl vision.
he wanted me to understand and to see what her eyes did.
and up close they moved seperately, and far away tehy nreacted together
so no dbl far awya that’s why he thought psych.
she was confused about what she saw
just wanted to clarify the first dr. thought that too. that’s why she sent us to him for confirmation purposes and possibly therapy.
he also said to keep in touch if this didn’t help.
just wanted to clarify. i don’t always do that. will keep it in mind for another opinion if this doesn’t work.
thanks af

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 10/22/2001 - 1:34 PM

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Has she had a language evaluation? You can check this by reading aloud to her and asking the questions. If she is not much better in listening comprehension, then the difficulty is language/thinking skills which significantly effects reading comprehension.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/23/2001 - 12:14 AM

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sometimes I get a little carried away. My daughter’s very highly respected opthalmologist assured me for years that her vision had nothing to do with her learning problems when, in fact, she had severe developmental vision delays. Not only could our opthalmologist not assess these delays, he discouraged me from consulting someone who could. We lost two years of academics because of the delay in getting effective therapy.

Mary

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 10/24/2001 - 11:55 PM

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Last year we went round and round with a pediatric opthamologist and our pediatrician. I have yet to meet an MD who would ever refer anyone to an optomologist, even a developmental one, for vision therapy. They cite all kinds of research from their lobbyist group. I think it is a turf issue. But the D.O.’s are going to say they will help your child.

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