Homeschool World Forum

[momo3boys]

I have an eigth year old son who has a working memory disorder. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to cater to his needs. This is my first year home with him. I kept him home because he was having a hard time keeping up with the other children and it was really affecting his self-esteem. I am having trouble being patient with him, because when he finally gets something, the next day he forgets it. It gets very frustrating! It is also hard because his 6 yr old brother is catching up to him in a lot of areas, especially reading. I try to seperate them for reading time but sometimes Cody ( sees his brother and I can tell he is surprised by how much better Caelan(6) can read. They are good friends and I don't want Cody to feel bad toward his younger brother. Any suggestions? and does anyone know of any sites that talk about learning disabilties? Most of the sites I see are for more serious disabilities.
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Phi 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

[Tabz]

I found this just doing a simple google search.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep05/workout.html

Hopefully it's of help to you.
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[Theodore]

As an experiment, some psychologists decided to take a random volunteer and feed him long sequences of numbers several hours each day for a number of months. As you can imagine, this was not a very fun experience for him, but by the end of that time he could correctly remember sequences of numbers with over 40 digits - his mind had started "chunking" the numbers in groups of 4 or 5, and he could remember quite a few chunks.

So it is possible to expand both the size of the chunks and the number of chunks. It's just a matter of hard work. The article makes an interesting point about the relation between memory capacity and attention span.
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[momo3boys]

Thank you very much for your help. I know we have a lot of work to do, now I just have to make it fun so we don't have so many tears
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Phi 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

[Debbie Brandenburg]

I can really empathize with the feelings you expressed--I have struggled mightily with those same feelings over the years. We have a daughter who has severe dyslexia and minimal brain dysfunction--translation: she has a difficult time learning at the same speed as her peers. Our daughter is now a senior in High School. As I reflect over her "school" years and all that we tried (some successfully and some unsuccessfully) I want to encourage you to reassess your child's abilities and set up that child's own curriculum. Yes, the younger child will probably pass the struggling child; yes, that will be a difficult thing to work through with your children--but what blessings! The young child needs to learn not to lord it over the struggling child or get prideful; the struggling child needs to learn to persevere and work hard even when there are no (or little) perceiveable results. Remember--you are laying "character" in your children--not just providing an education. Our daughter did not learn to read above a 2nd grade reading level until she was in 8th grade. She has been in Algebra I for the past 3 years! And that is all right! We have taught her to work hard, and learn it RIGHT. Also--your children have different abilities in different areas. For the academically struggling student, find at least 1 area that s/he is proficient in and then really invest time in that. Your child needs to learn that the Lord equips each of us with different gifts and abilities. Not everyone is great at math; or science; or art (I Cor 12 & 14) Teaching our children to learn to appreciate the varied abilities in others is a blessing. Finally, set up REALISTIC goals--both short-term and long-term for your struggling student and be sure to praise your child for eachone reached. Your children are each different and unique. never lose sight of that.
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Debbie Brandenburg: Blessed wife of John and mother to 7+ children; and the owner and author of BrandenburgStudies--G.A. Henty study guides and Secondary SchoolUnit Studies.

[momo3boys]

THank you for that vote of encouragement. I seem to have lost track since Semptember of the goals that we have set and it is time to sit down with him and talk about what goals we should have as a team. THank you for reminding me!
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Phi 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

[optometristwife]

Wondering if you have taken you child to an optometrist that tests for vision related learning disorders? (not just one that tests for accuity 20/20) You could check out the website www.covd.org for more info.

[loveoldhouses]

Hi, that is a tough one. But know that although your son learns differently, he can still learn. I am a pediatric occupational therapist and have worked with many children in the school setting. A couple of things to try that may help: Focus on your son's strengths. What does he like to do? What does he do well? Also, slow down your speech when giving directions. This can help. Most of us are quite unaware of how fast we are talking to our children. If your son does have a hard time processing information, he probably can't deal with too many words at once. Has he had any type of formalized evaluation?

Try not to present too much material at one time and limit the number of steps involved in your directions and instructions. If you can, try to use a little humor. Nothing cuts the tension faster than a good laugh! Much success to you!
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[pamtidteach]

Hi,
I have been the administrator of a small private school that serves Kiddos with different types of learning disabilites for several years. I have, through those years, developed some things that have helped those who have difficulty remembering how to do things.

The most important thing is to be sure they can read...then you can rely on that skill to get them through other skills..

For grammar I highly recommend Shurley English...the use of the jingles uses both hemispheres of the brain, and that helps in renention...the repitiion of the material also helps...when we get to the question and answer flow..I have the questions printed out for those kids who can't remember what to ask.

Math is really hard once you get past basic addition and subtraction. There are so many steps to remember in higher math. I teach using steps, I break every skill down into the steps necessary to complete it...and I write the steps down as I use them and have the students copy them in their math notebook...then every time they need to say add fractions, they go back to the steps and follow them...

I have a math handbook that has some of the steps I have used. I would be happy to email you....let me know
and good luck
Pam
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[Tim]

I would love the see the steps, he sure needs things like that, one direction at a time, or we lose it! THank you. send me a PM and I'll give you my address.
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[Mark]

the Shurley method...
we just started that one with my youngest.

it has made a world of difference so far.

mark
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[momo3boys]

What is the Shurley Method? I have never heard of it.
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Phi 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

[pamtidteach]

Shurley English, or The shurley method is a program to teach grammar to children of all ages. It does a wonderful job for several important reasons.

1. It encorporates both hemispheres of the brain through the use of "jingles". Each part of speech has a jingle, so the children learn exactly what each thing is. IE "This little noun, floating around, names a person place or thing, with a knick knack paddy whack These are English rules, Isn't langugae fun and cool" (sung to This Old Man). This is a lower level jingle, so it does not include the "idea" part of a noun, as the children learn the jingles change with them.

2. The "Question and answer flow". I refer to this as "oral diagramming". Beginning with very simple sentences, the student is taught to ask and answer questions that will lead them to each part of the sentence, so they can classify each word in a sentence with ease. IE. "The hungry baby cried"
What cried? Baby Subject Noun, What is being said about the baby? Baby cried, Verb, What kind of Baby? hungry baby, Adjective, The Article/Adjective....
As the sentences become more complex, the students are able to ask and answer questions to identify direct object, indirect objects, compound subjects, compund verbs, linking and transitive verbs, prepositional phrases, and on and on...

3. Mastery. The students continually review previously learned material, so they master the skills, which I have found does not often happen with traditional grammar programs. The jingles are done every day, as is practice with the question and answer flow...so mastery is achieved.

4. Writing.. We have used shurley in all grades for three years. In the upper levels they focus on writing a good quality five-paragraph essay. One of my dyslexic students took the college entrance exam last week, and made the highest score possible on the essay.......

I have used so many different programs in Grammar I cannot even begin to name them all. Shurley is the ONLY program that ensures mastery, and can be used for students of all learning abilities. My high school students are doing other grammar this year, mostly just review...because they mastered Shurley, and do not need another year of teaching...
Even my Learning Disabled students master grammar skills with Shurley...

Pam
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Life is not measured by breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away......

[Mark]

it is wonderful... thank you for explaining it so well,
I haven't recovered enough neural function this morning to do it.

mark
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My new blog:
http://exwitch.ancientcrossroads.org/

[Mark]

One more thing..

For those in the Autism spectrum it is working quite well..


cheers,

mark
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http://exwitch.ancientcrossroads.org/