Just back from Nolan's yearly ARD appointment. Whew - a full house today. They superientendent of special ed was there, the special ed coordinators from the school, the speech pathologist from the school and the speech therapist from the Rehab center where we receive services.
Upshot - we're making progress. He's at 70% understandibility in "unknown context" and with folks who don't know him. Our goal is 80% in unknown and 90% in known context by the end of next year. They are also watching fine motor skills and processing. It's a bit discouraging after the YEARS of speech we've had - but we began at 30% in context.
They suggest that I have Nolan begin doing his "written work" on the computer because there is less to process that way.....I said, "So are you saying just give up on pencils and HAND writing?" No - just let him do his writing assignments and such on the computer as they think it will be far easier for him.....I'm not sure. Mike and I will talk about it and think about this this summer. LOL
We aren't sure if we are going to continue services over the summer. Mike and I need to discuss that. The school won't pay for summer sessions but the Rehab center says that they will help us out if we need it.
Upshot - we're making progress. He's at 70% understandibility in "unknown context" and with folks who don't know him. Our goal is 80% in unknown and 90% in known context by the end of next year. They are also watching fine motor skills and processing. It's a bit discouraging after the YEARS of speech we've had - but we began at 30% in context.
They suggest that I have Nolan begin doing his "written work" on the computer because there is less to process that way.....I said, "So are you saying just give up on pencils and HAND writing?" No - just let him do his writing assignments and such on the computer as they think it will be far easier for him.....I'm not sure. Mike and I will talk about it and think about this this summer. LOL
We aren't sure if we are going to continue services over the summer. Mike and I need to discuss that. The school won't pay for summer sessions but the Rehab center says that they will help us out if we need it.
9 comments:
DeEtta, I let my son do a lot of his work on the computer. I still expect that he learn to write. But it is much easier for him to type (and more more readable). A lot less frustrating for long writing assignments. Since most reports and things need to be typed anyway, I figure it's ok.
Learning disabilities run in our family and even the grown ups in my family still struggle to write legibly after years of therapy. So, it is a thing to weigh. Frustration and illegibity over getting the assignment done with less frustration and being able to read it.
I wish they would give him OT. Here he has to be a "speech and language" disability to get OT. He just has a speech problem, so he gets no help with his obvious motor skills problems.
De'Etta, how encouraging to know that Nolan's speech has improved by 40%! That's awesome!
Maybe our children's special needs help others (besides us and our immediate families) grow in acceptance, patience and grace too.
I'll be praying for you and Mike as you discern what's the best course of action for Nolan.
Sis:
PTL for the good advancement report on Nolan. Take it from me who works in the high school area with kids who never get very far..... Nolan's advancement is great!! PTL!
As to writing.... it is an interesting thing to have to consider. We have kids who can't even write their names so it can be read....... BUT with their Alpha Smart or small laptop they can write so fast and express themselves so well. I'd probably let Nolan go to computers for written language assignments etc...... I'd probably try to get him to do numbers/Math by handwriting. Also I'd probably try to figure out some FUN game type thing for him to do to earn points or tickets for special stuff. Often kids with writing problems have to get to the point where they themselves want to write....
The way technolology is going maybe handwriting will eventually become a thing of the past?
Must make you all feel good to see progress and even have it documented. Pretty smart kid to have made so much progress in this short period of time.
l/p
De'Etta,
AJ's teacher and sp. ed, speech,etc. say we should also let him use the computer. They tell us his handwriting will never truly be great. They feel he has too many creative ideas inside that need to get out and tape recorder and typing will help. Plus, ease his frustration.
We'll start this summer w/tape recorder (he's an auditory learner) and try some keyboarding too. He should be attending summer school, so they will have him write w/pencil there.
Glad you and Mike will discuss and pray about it.
Oh, how is Nolan w/reading? Do the movies you rent from netflix have close captioning to turn on? That was suggested to us to have captioning on while AJ has his alloted movie time. Sounds strange to me, but we'll try it.
So pleased speech is progressing! Call the people that do therapy and ask if Tricare will cover it. Our vision therapists use medical codes that allow their physical therapy portion to be covered.
Great news that your son is making progress!! Progress is always good around here. We celebrate the big and little victories.
One of our sons has processing issue and it was suggested that he do work a lot of written work on the computer. We have decided not to try that yet b/c he needs to master his handwriting a bit.
Praying for wisdom!
Laura
You all have given me much to think about. We've tried all year to get the pencil held...working with clay, big sheets of paper etc. He simply has a tough time writing.....so maybe it is a good idea to let him take that step in "processing" out...the letters are formed for him - just has to find the right one....and keep working on the handwriting seperately.
I only know that we don't want to totally give up on teaching the kids handwriting...well I probably would but Mike is insistent that they know how to write "proper" cursive and be able to sign for their ID cards at 10.
Hmmm....I should say that MIke is insistent IF they dont' have a reason that they CAN'T do it. This came up when one of our 10 yo's went to sign his name and didn't know cursive....it snuck up on me. I'd not been doing handwriting...so now we do copy work as well as computer work....but I see the wisdom of letting Nolan do more on computers....because when she explained all that goes into writing a thought down I began to think it's a miracle ANY of them can write 3 sentences in a row. ::snort::
De'Etta,
Anchorage schools use De'Nelian (sp?) Handwriting. I've started using it too as it does flow easily into cursive writing and makes my printing nicer. My ten y/o is now working cursive into his daily schoolwork and said learning cursive is easier than he expected, though he still doesn't like it. I trust there are many forms out there.
My personal bias against D'Nelian aside, I don't think style matters much in processsing issues. It's still trying to get it from the brain to the paper. I think the slant and tails and such of D'Nelian just adds more to remember.
However, I did start Jacob on some cursive this year to see if it would help get his letters formed better since he struggles to hold the pencil correctly. It did help a little. If nothing else you could work on just his name! I am beginning to think that's all we really need cursive for anyway! His cursive isn't much better than his printing, but he can sign his name.
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