ahutton
WDW Bride Dec 6, 1996
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2000
- Messages
- 4,570
My DD was diagnosed at the beginning of Kindergarten. She did daily therapy for 30 minutes where she was pulled out of class and the best way I can describe it is her brain was retrained on processing. The therapy and exercises helped immensely. She is an excellent reader now, has been reading above grade level since about halfway through first grade. We were told she had two areas that were issues; comprehending the meaning of what she hears and picking out what to listen to in a noisy environment.
How it was described to us is that she hears things as if they are in a foreign language that she almost speaks. She has to really focus to translate what she hears into something meaningful. She *hears* exceptionally, at times painfully, well. Loud sounds completely freak her out. Fire drills have always been an issue. Many times we thought she was ignoring us, or not following directions because she was making a choice. We learned that she usually thought she was following our directions; she just misunderstood what was asked of her.
If your school has access to Earobics.com see if you can get signed up. DD loved playing the games they had on that site and they really helped her to learn to pick out what she should be focusing on from the background noise. While noisy environments are still challenging, we know that and have continued to work with her teachers to put DD in the best place in the classroom to focus on the lesson.
We dont have an IEP. She was recently assessed and her skills are so strong after the therapy that she doesnt qualify for one. For 1st and 2nd grade we just met with her teachers early, explained her issues and the tools to work around them. 3rd grade has been significantly harder, her class is more prone to noise and disruption, but we are working through it.
Things that have worked for us:
If we have something important to tell her we get her to LOOK at us
We ask her to repeat back what she heard and we exchange until she has it
We keep a list of important things like what she needs to do at the end of the day to pack up to come home, how to get ready in the morning, etc. (long series of instructions are hard to follow she refers to written directions for clarity)
When she is just too tired to keep going on homework, we tell the teacher so. Since her brain has to hear and work to translate, tasks make her super tired. We try to limit how much she has to do during the week, work on the weekend where she can take breaks. That is something we discuss with teachers at the beginning of the year.
We have a small steps reward system little rewards like getting to feed the cat (the kids fight over it) for having an assignment done early.
I could keep going but this is already really long. Please feel free to ask questions. And know that this CAN be conquerored.
How it was described to us is that she hears things as if they are in a foreign language that she almost speaks. She has to really focus to translate what she hears into something meaningful. She *hears* exceptionally, at times painfully, well. Loud sounds completely freak her out. Fire drills have always been an issue. Many times we thought she was ignoring us, or not following directions because she was making a choice. We learned that she usually thought she was following our directions; she just misunderstood what was asked of her.
If your school has access to Earobics.com see if you can get signed up. DD loved playing the games they had on that site and they really helped her to learn to pick out what she should be focusing on from the background noise. While noisy environments are still challenging, we know that and have continued to work with her teachers to put DD in the best place in the classroom to focus on the lesson.
We dont have an IEP. She was recently assessed and her skills are so strong after the therapy that she doesnt qualify for one. For 1st and 2nd grade we just met with her teachers early, explained her issues and the tools to work around them. 3rd grade has been significantly harder, her class is more prone to noise and disruption, but we are working through it.
Things that have worked for us:
If we have something important to tell her we get her to LOOK at us
We ask her to repeat back what she heard and we exchange until she has it
We keep a list of important things like what she needs to do at the end of the day to pack up to come home, how to get ready in the morning, etc. (long series of instructions are hard to follow she refers to written directions for clarity)
When she is just too tired to keep going on homework, we tell the teacher so. Since her brain has to hear and work to translate, tasks make her super tired. We try to limit how much she has to do during the week, work on the weekend where she can take breaks. That is something we discuss with teachers at the beginning of the year.
We have a small steps reward system little rewards like getting to feed the cat (the kids fight over it) for having an assignment done early.
I could keep going but this is already really long. Please feel free to ask questions. And know that this CAN be conquerored.
I am just trying to understand this a bit better so that I can help him. We had a CSE meeting last year and they didn't give him an IEP, but recommended another meeting in the fall. I didn't want to schedule it until I had the APD eval done so I will get that going on Thurs also(schools here are closed for the Jewish holidays until Thurs) I am thinking that maybe they will give him a 504 w/ the accomodations he needs
I have some research to do before the next meeting, I guess, lol. It's so hard to understand this disorder. I really hope the books help me 'get it' Last year in first grade he really held his own-got 90's and 100's on all his spelling tests and his math is great but this year already I'm seeing struggles. He writes sentences that I can't even make sense out of.An example on his last math test was...A srvay is a trow stamite.
The question was What problem solving strategy was used to create this chart? My poor baby Anyway, thanks for all the info. I really appreciate it.
That led to the overnight Veeg and the MRI and thankfully everything is a-ok. I'm sorry about your sons diagnosis. When I was in the midst of all the testing. I posted on the Dis and there are some very knowledgable people on here so you might want to post any questions you have.
