Introductions

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Permalink Reply by suzy deyoung on January 20, 2009 at 1:38pm

So glad to here from you! My son attends a school specifically for children with learning issues and I have learned from attending the parent support group meetings that the concerns and frustrations extend well beyond the classroom. So many of the kids I see are so bright and talented in non academic areas but suffer confidence blows due to how much time and emphais is put on schooling. Would love to hear from other parents about how they deal with this.

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Permalink Reply by Sandy Fleming on January 22, 2009 at 1:58pm

My advice to families with struggling learners is to be really careful of their self-esteem. Like most of us, what they do and hear all day has a huge impact on their feelings of their own self-worth. And what adult do you know who would continue to bang their head against a stone wall year after year in a job where they felt grossly unsuccessful? Yet this is what we do to our kids.

Families need to find places where their kids can shine and then guard that with their lives. Too many want to shut down all outside activities when kids are seriously struggling in school, denying their children sports, music, and organizations like Scouting. Taking away these involvements will only worsen the situation. Within my experience, the only time those sorts of consequences are close to meaningful is when you have a child who is experiencing a minor behavior issue that's affecting grades. This is a short term problem and can benefit from a short-term solution. Learning problems and issues like ADHD are long term problems and will not respond to short term behavioral solutions. We need to provide appropriate academic and behavioral supports to ensure success, then work from there.

Just my two cents,

Sandy
Join us over at http://www.twittermoms.com/group/raisingareader to share great ideas!

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Permalink Reply by Michelle on January 25, 2009 at 12:28am

Hey Sandy,

Very cool to read your background! We have similar experience :-) I joined this group b/c of professional background, as well. I'm doing coaching now though. Got a bit burned out with ed therapy...yet still want to engage with others and keep up on latest research, as well as provide encouragement to parents!

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer on January 25, 2009 at 6:21pm

Hi. I'm a SAHM with 2 kids at home. My oldest boy Joey, btw he'll be 8 in a few weeks, was recently classified by the school as having ASD but on the high functioning end. We've gone through years of various testing in three states. Minnesota has done the best testing by far! We have not been medically diagnosed but, I suppose that's the next step. We're in a very small community, only 15 kids in the entire 2nd grade class. Thankfully, there's been no bullying or ridicule one might expect out of a group of kids this small! Joey works hard and gets discouraged since it seems he just can't get the right answers no matter how hard he tried. We've been on an IEP since Kindergarten but this is the first year he had SOOO much difficulty. Frustration manifested into anger and acting out. This was one of the reasons for the detailed testing before Christmas. His IEP has been modified and things seemed to have leveled off & increased progress is being made. I am very proud of him. We're making changes at home based on the school specialists' suggestions. We've got a long road ahead but, we're taking it one step at a time!

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Permalink Reply by Wendy Goldhill on January 26, 2009 at 5:54pm

Hi Sandy,
I'm the mom of a 12 y.o. daughter who is ADHD. It's been a long road, but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have amazing support at my public school (California) and a great support system. I have found that one of the keys to helping her is creating structure in her life...schedules that stay the same, rules that are easy to follow...it's worked for us. I'm looking at some study skills/homework help dvd's for her to watch that are made for the children, not the parents or educators. I'll let you know how they are. Nice to meet you!
Wendy

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Permalink Reply by Wendy Goldhill on January 26, 2009 at 5:56pm

Sandy Fleming said:

My advice to families with struggling learners is to be really careful of their self-esteem. Like most of us, what they do and hear all day has a huge impact on their feelings of their own self-worth. And what adult do you know who would continue to bang their head against a stone wall year after year in a job where they felt grossly unsuccessful? Yet this is what we do to our kids.

Families need to find places where their kids can shine and then guard that with their lives. Too many want to shut down all outside activities when kids are seriously struggling in school, denying their children sports, music, and organizations like Scouting. Taking away these involvements will only worsen the situation. Within my experience, the only time those sorts of consequences are close to meaningful is when you have a child who is experiencing a minor behavior issue that's affecting grades. This is a short term problem and can benefit from a short-term solution. Learning problems and issues like ADHD are long term problems and will not respond to short term behavioral solutions. We need to provide appropriate academic and behavioral supports to ensure success, then work from there.

Just my two cents,

Sandy
Join us over at http://www.twittermoms.com/group/raisingareader to share great ideas!

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Permalink Reply by Sandy Fleming on February 1, 2009 at 4:24am

Wow, we're 'neighbors' at least in the grand scheme of things. Where are you in Indiana? I'm just north of the state line from South Bend, about a mile. So I have loads of Indiana ties. Looking forward to chatting with you more-we have a lot in common, I bet.

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Permalink Reply by Dr Patricia Porter on February 3, 2009 at 2:39pm

Hi
I am a retired teacher. I worked with kids with learning difficulties for many many years. I have become disenchanted with the school system because it is the rare teacher who understands that kids learn in different ways and who can understand that most of kids learning difficulties are an issue of teaching style rather than learning ability. I was fortunate to be trained by world experts in how kids learn and why they have learning difficulties. To cut a long story short kids need a set of learning skills - physical, emotional and cognitive, that they can use to help them learn. When one or more of these skills is weak or not well developed, kids have problems. For instance, if a child has no self confidence, he can't learn well: if a child has limited verbal skills she can't understand what is said to her: if a child had intermittent hearing loss (not often recognized by teachers) chances are he has missed a lot of information.

As soon as you know WHY a child is struggling to learn you can work out how to help. I have been working with individual parents doing diagnostic assessments and learning plans. Now i am hoping to reach more parents with my up and coming blog. Meanwhile, if you want to know more about me check out my 'old' website at leading-to-learning.com

If you have any questions about your kids learning that I may be able to help with please ask.
Take care

Patricia

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Permalink Reply by Amy Elrod on February 3, 2009 at 4:45pm

Hi I'm Amy and I have 3 children, 10, 9, and 6. My 9 year old has auditory processing disorder, and my youngest has sensory integration disorder, a sight disorder that is so long I can never remember what it's called, but the Dr. put glasses on us so we could see the world through his eyes, and it's similar to looking through those telescope things with the different colors where you twist the end to make different combinations of colors..Anyway, As you can imagine, even with corrected lenses and "filter" therapy he's a lot clumsy, and gets frustrated easily. To look at them, you would never know their struggles which is good and bad. Sometimes we (my husband, myself and soceity in general) forget that things that seem so "normal" are not necessarily everyones normal. I look forward to reading more in this group!
Amy

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Permalink Reply by Carolyn Sivik on February 27, 2009 at 8:35am

Hi, I'm Carolyn. I have 4 children. My oldest has a processing disorder but is holding her own at a private Jesuit high school. Grades are o.k., but very, very tough for her! It was her idea to attend. Even though it's tough, she likes it. My third daughter is globally delayed. She's in a main stream school and gets speech, OT and pulled out daily for math. We just reinstituted help with reading. There are many, many challenges I face on a daily basis. My latest challenge is with my oldest. She's 17. Can a child with a processing disorder truly get her license? She's failed 3 times.

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Permalink Reply by Mara Kaplan on April 20, 2009 at 6:40am

Hi my name is Mara Kaplan. I have a son with profound disabilities. But I grew up with learning disabilities that still show up every once in a while. I have started a company that ensures that children with all sorts of special needs have all of the opportunities they deserve to play. I am starting an on-line toy store. I also work with organizations to improve the accessibility to playspaces. I look forward to learning from you, what your child's needs are and hopefully sharing with you new play ideas that you hadn't thought of before.

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