Acquara Independent School

School-wise has been pretty quiet over the Holidays. But a couple of things are worth documenting:

First, we did finally finish the Calvert Kindergarten math book, which was actually two books, two thick books. This was quite an accomplishment considering we had a false start last September with Math-U-See, which did not work for any of us. I think I would have done well with Math U See myself, but it moved at a pace that didn’t make sense for the kids. Besides, the guy is a raging Christian, so I don’t mind not supporting him and some of his stances. We do still use the MUS manipulative blocks at times, though. Kids thought it was boring and frustrating, and I think the change to Calvert has been a lot of fun, although we didn’t start it until about January. So I think it is worth the delay. But I already have Calvert First Grade, and we will start that in January.

Second, I took Avery for a SLP evaluation at Legacy Emmanuel. The SLP there agreed with my current thinking, which is no autism, or at least if so, very high end on the spectrum. Possibly Dysnomia of some sort. Not a cognitive problem in and off itself, but a significant delay. Avery got around 64 (out of a normed mean of 100) on his receptive measure and a 45 on his expressive. So two SD below on receptive and over 3 SD on expressive.

He thinks Avery just doesn’t get that his mouth is for talking. That’s why he plays with his tongue so much. He also commented on the amount of drool, which kids this age usually learn to keep in their mouth, but Avery doesn’t get it. He sees nothing wrong with the structure or muscle tone in his mouth. He gave me some tips to hold whatever object Avery is interested in up to my mouth and label it, or even at least the first sound of it. So we are trying that. It is the first new tip I’ve gotten since we started this thing.

He also told me that Avery qualifies for 24 visits a year for SPL under OHP. This directly contradicts what Tuality Health said (who were wishy washy at best and just told me to go to EI which I’d already done.) and what Jean said. Tuality Health, I get their motivation, they don’t want to pay for anything for Avery. But Jean? The whole thing just pissed me off. She is beyond useless. She has been acting like a gatekeeper that I had to persuade into providing documentation to build a case for him to get more therapy. When in actuality, I can circumvent her entirely and do it myself. What a bitch. I totally don’t understand her.

So this guy says he will take Avery for once a week appts. but there is a two month waiting list and it is CLEAR across town. So, we are going to try to see if I can get him into the Arts Center, which is a special ed clinic in Beaverton. Or, I could try Kathy K. again which would be the closest, but I think she is more of a articulation coach and not a language therapist, but I could be wrong about that. So I will check into the Arts Center first, then Kathy, then I will consider going back to Legacy.

Either way, I am building a file of documentation to take to “Zelandonii” so I should not have to start over when I get there. I am looking there at a preschool program called “Small Talk” which is for kids with JUST specifically language delays and not autism or cognitive. The teacher actually is a SPL there. If we are still here, Jean says that he automatically will roll over to ECSPED on his third birthday. (But he would stay in EHS until the following fall…) ECSPED gets more federal funding than EI, however, here their preschool program is just two days a week for 2 hours. In Kansas, I taught in one at Dole which was full day 5 days a week.

Big kids made a list of what they want to learn over the next few months:

Aaron:

• Geometry
• Building Houses
• Yoga
• Craft Projects
• Individual Reading (Hooked on Phonics)
• Pogo Sticks (!?!)
• Trampoline (This was what came out of my attempt to get him to do SOMETHING exercise related)
• Learn about Robots/Make a robot
• History: Dinosaurs and prehistory, especially sea dinosaurs. Also ancient history like Egypt

Naim:

• Learn to write numbers and letters better. Exercise fine motor skills.
• Reading where we can act out the story.
• Books like Junie B. Jones or Ramona
• Math, Naim likes Math.
• Yoga
• Start Zig Zat (Discoveries in Early Reading) from the beginning again and do the games and other activities and not the workbook.
• Running
• Gymnastics
• Tai Chi
• Learn about the Human Body

I’m playing around with the idea of signing them up for Hillsboro Park and Recs Homeschool PE, because it takes place at GymNest, which is a gymnastics school and they do a lot with trampolines and gymnastics. So that should cover some of that, except POGO STICKS! HFAC has an adult Tai Chi class, may ask if they would let Naim try it out.

Filed under: Communication, Early Intervention | Tagged: Calvert Math, Discoveries in Early Reading, Early Intervention, SelfDesign | Leave a comment »