I just wanted to say a big cyber thank-you to all of you who teach our kids. You are so important to the lives of our children and to their futures!
I am the mom of a wonderful little 8 year old boy with very wide scatter on his performance vs verbal IQ scores. Some professionals have told us our son has mild mental retardation — other professionals have told us his scatter is so wide it renders his full scale IQ score useless. But thanks to what I have learned on this site and other others like it, my husband and I have been successful in advocating for our son. He is now mainstreamed in First Grade. He is learning to read now that he is being taught with effective methods. He was able to do some addition and subtraction without the manipulatives today. (“I just knew it, Mom!” — he was so proud of himself!) Our goal has always been for our son to be able to hold a job, be a self supporting adult, and be a contributing member of society.
We live in Washington State, where a budget crisis is forcing the “reallocation of dollars” (translation: slashing the budget) of funding for our state’s Division of Developmental Disabilities. My husband and I attended a very sad meeting last night for parents of children and adults with developmental disabilities. The bottom line is that many of the supports that these adults and families depend on are not going to be there in the future. The social safety net is being pulled out from under these families.
I was never so grateful to my son’s teachers as when I left that meeting. My son still has a chance for a productive life. He is learning, thanks to his teachers. His future depends upon the skill and the dedication of his teachers today. God bless you all.
Jody
Re: Special Ed Teachers are SO Important
Wow, I’ll second Anitya’s comments!
I will have to say that my friends who are also special ed. teachers for the most part believe they are called to do what they do. I am proud to work with people with such integrity and love for children. However, I’ll be the first to say that oftentimes they have not had training in effective remediation methods (they just don’t teach that in grad school, sorry) and they can teach their hearts out and still not make the progress needed for the child to overcome the deficits.
I, too, was using some less effective methods since I have NEVER been offered training in the methods I have learned about while doing my own research. But I spent my own money and went to a Phono-Graphix training in April in New Orleans and I am hoping to get some Lindamood Bell training soon.
I will have to say I’ve learned a lot from teachers like Anitya on this site over the past year. I also have some great Mom’s that are so supportive of my work with their children. They know I love their children. So it does hurt when special teachers are slammed here. Most of them have just never had access to the programs and materials that work, and even if they did, they may have caseloads too high to really make it work.
Janis
Re: Special Ed Teachers are SO Important
I agree with you too Jody and have posted thank you notes here before myself. If it were not for some of my boys special ed teachers we would not be where we are today. It was my youngest sons special ed teacher who steered us toward a proper diagnosis. She advocated for him to get ESY and magically some how got reassigned a new job which promted her to leave that district. My oldest son had 3 special ed teachers over the last 2 years who have really a made a difference in his life. When I look at where he was when we got to this district and compare it to where he was at I am just amazed. My youngest son has had 2 wonderful special ed teachers since we got to this district in 2000. Both boys are learning to read better, their language skills have jumped by leaps and bounds their overall academic performance has really seen a big jump. All these wonderful teachers are in a public school system. Yes a public school system which actually remediates, and has different levels of services from full inclusion the way it was meant to be to specialized schools or classrooms. I add to your thanks and pray that these people continue to get the support that helps them to support our children.
Re: Special Ed Teachers are SO Important
Yes, I find that some of the persons on this site from whom I have learned the most have been parents. Some parents who have the time and the motivation, plus a little money, have sought out and tried therapies. I like to hear their stories of how effective these therapies are. For the record, they don’t all make much difference. Some children go through LiPs and make great strides, others go through the basic hours, whatever they are, twice and still have a long way to go. One parent recently even acknowledged that two of the local PACE/Lindamood gurus (private practice, beaucoup $$) who are well known to school districts, told her that her child’s deficits were severe enough the he/she would always make slow progress. Now, as a teacher who sometimes wonders why there is not more progress sometimes, I need to know that even the “experts” who sue my district and others in the area because they allege they can fix the child where we messed up cannot always succeed in making the LDs go away.
Excuse the digression. While I think the Phonographix program has merit, I do think that as a group those folks tend to paint a picture of “use this program and all will be well.” Fact is, if the child was poorly taught and if the deficits are mild, then this program will make noticeable differences. If the deficits are several and more severe, this program is not enough.
You are on a good path, just remember that sometimes good teaching with good methods may need to go on for several years to make the gains you hope for.
Re: Special Ed Teachers are SO Important
I find that critisism of phonographix disturbing.
It was great for my child despite the fact that he still has several learning issues. We tackled reading ourselves and won thanks to phonographix.
There is absolutely no way that I as a parent could have learned and in turn taught him any of the other expensive, intensive programs out there.
The book reading reflex cost me under 20 bucks and some well spent time.
It is truely something that is worth a shot for any parent or educator who does not have access to the more intensive, expensive programs. It is based on solid research unlike SO MUCH that is done in schools everywhere.
It sure beats some of the hyper marketed phonics programs geared toward parents.
I may not be an educator but I have been involved in research both through designing studies and forming a practice using only principles based on solid scientific studies. I thought phonographix met my criteria well, for forming my new pracitice as tutor to my child.
Re: Special Ed Teachers are SO Important
I did not criticize the methodology or the research basis. I criticize the insistence that it always works for all. Frankly, for children with severe and multiple processing deficits, it is not enough. There is not enough time or practice before moving on. I have read posts from various parents who said this very thing and as a resource teacher I find that most of my students need many, many, many more times the exposure and time on task to master lessons. One research article I read actually stated double/triple deficit dyslexics may need 100 times the exposures to master lessons. No way this program, or any other offers that much. The only way to accomplish this is for the good old teacher to build this much review and practice into the program daily for several years.
As I stated, for mild cases or for cases that are more the result of dysteachia than of dyslexia, this program should work well.
Re: Special Ed Teachers are SO Important
Children with severe processing deficits need interventions from a multidisciplanary team including a speech therapist.
I just took issue with you post because I think there are far worse programs out there that parents and teachers flock too that truely deserve critisism.
In a perfect world all parents and teachers would be trained in lindamood bell and OG.
We are so far from a perfect world it isn’t even funny.
People respect your posts. You know your stuff. I think that in the realm of alternatives many face phonographix is a good one. I would hate to see your critisism have those who could benefit from it turn to something much worse.
Jody, I think I am safe speaking collectively when I say, “We love you, too.” Special ed. teachers get slammed more than not on the web, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind and considerate words.