well I suppose it had to happen eventually!
Aprilia managed to do her chores, some brainwork and clean her teeth every day for a full week and has thus, for the first time ever, earned her pocket money!
I decided today that we were going to drop the awful Sonlight laern to read books in favour of simple books but with real storylines and phonics be damned! She’s had a set of books with a CD for a while so the stories were familiar to her. She sat happily and read one of them to me, and although I’m sure there was an element of recitation involved she turned the pages at the right times, corrected herself when she said a word wrong and asked what the apostrophe was for in "didn’t" and a few other shortened words and why it was different from an apostrophe showing ownership on a different page in the book. So I’m calling that a success and thinking that I may read out some of her other simple books onto tape so she gets familiar with those and try it that way for a while. It can’t be any worse than the struggles over what should be simple text but where the storyline (and sense) is sacrifced to the greater god of phonics.
She’s been talking to me a lot since Wednesday about what being assessed for dyslexia will be like and what it will mean for her. The testing I could give her a good idea about, I’ve done it (although obviously the IQ test for an 8 year old is going to be different than the one for an adult!) although how she handles "failure" (ie not being comfortable sounding out words which will be a fairly central part of the test) is something we will have to have further talks about as they will stop the test if she gets distressed leaving us without a full picture of her difficulties. What it will mean for her is really something only she can decide but I could tell her that it will mean she will KNOW that it’s not her "fault" that reading is so damned hard for her and at some point it will mean that if she wants to do an exam then she will be able to have certain concessions. Not a lot of benefit really but I do think we ar at a point where it’s heading towards being necessary for her peace of mind that we can prove what her problems are.
Which leads me onto my other bit of fretting. Dyslexia doesn’t make you over sensitive to noise. Neither does it strike you dumb in front of strangers (not to the degree of Jade by any stretch of the imagination but enough to be difficult) Hmmm, and thus I get wobbly. Must get a grip.
I think you need to borrow the sensitive child book after Kirsty.
Comment by Jan — January 31, 2009 @ 10:31 pm
i think you are probably right!
Comment by tbirdanni — January 31, 2009 @ 10:35 pm
will try and send it over as soon as
Just started looking at it tonight, not seeing lots of examples that are like M really so not sure he could be described as a Highly Sensitive Child, but hoping it might give me some ideas on how to proceed anyway. Got to be worth a try.
Have you tried the Magic Tree House books with A? Having my A completely flounder at the ‘oh so easy Rainbow Fairy books’ I was despairing a bit! I didn’t want to introduce any chapter books for a bit but still knew that any phonics stuff just was going to be so hard for her. Anyway, she is managing so well I think just because the vocab used is really suiting her. I sit with her still and tell her a word if she needs it (I asked her if she wanted me to do that and she did). Is suiting her at the moment anyway. She also really likes the Explode the Code books which I know is Phonics but hey, she thought it was maths!!! (I think they think any workbooks are maths!!) Only mentioning as I know my A has similar (I think) learning styles to your A, certainly with reading.
I’m sure I’ve seen stuff on the right brained learner lists about sensitivity to things so I’m going to have a look at that. If anything comes up I’ll e-mail you (but it’s getting late!).
Chin up!
Comment by Kirsty — February 1, 2009 @ 12:37 am
WE’ve not got magic treehouse but we do have lots of other nice simple books that are a cut above the awful and very dull Magic Key books.
I’m digging out the microphone later and am going to read all her “My First Little House” books onto the PC then I can put them to CD for her to listen to. Then we have the “Adventures of Benny and Watch” which are based on the Boxcar children books and just a shade more difficult than Little House, then it’s Fairy books I think although I may have to do a “now turn the page” thing with them in case she gets lost in the middle of the page or something!
Comment by tbirdanni — February 1, 2009 @ 5:45 pm
There are various other series around about Fairy level which aren’t quite as pink and wingy if you prefer. I do quite like Magic Treehouse as well, fairly sure Small will dip back into them at some point.
Don’t you have access to a library at all for any of these? I go around ordering whatever the kids want, requests are free in our system.
Comment by Jax — February 1, 2009 @ 7:02 pm
trouble is she *likes* those wretched fairy books! I may ask about magic treehouse books at the library, I’ve not noticed them in the kids area but maybe they are available elasewehre, kid’s reservations are free in Cheshire (not a lot else is mind you!)
Comment by tbirdanni — February 1, 2009 @ 7:43 pm