LD Parents

Study help

2009-12-14T19:05:00.000-06:00

This year, my son entered the world of final exams. Last week, he brought home huge study guides for three of his classes. He had never seen so much homework in his life. He survived last week and is looking forward to taking his exams and enjoying the winter break. Tonight, a parent of a student in his Texas history class sent the other parents a link to an amazing web site called Quizlet (http

School anxiety

2009-11-25T09:41:00.000-06:00

My son experienced some anxiety at school back when he was in the third grade. The anxiety was so bad at one point that he felt physically sick about going to school. That part of his life passed about four years ago when he started attending a private school for kids with learning disabilities but anxiety has reared its ugly head in our home again. My daughter does not

Dyslexia Becomes Cool

2009-11-05T11:53:00.004-06:00

October was National Dyslexia Awareness Month and while I missed all the hoopla surrounding such a notable event, I did catch an article posted on CNN that listed 11 famous people who overcame dyslexia. Every month is Dyslexia Awareness Month at our house as my almost 13-year-old son continues to overcome his language-based learning disabilities. I decided to share the list with him hoping to

ADHD Meds

2009-10-07T13:49:00.000-05:00

I know that the topic of ADHD medications is hotly debated, especially by parents who have chosen not to have their child on medication. I won't debate the topic -- I've known many, many families who have benefitted from the medication intended to help a child stay focused so they can learn. Frankly, I'm jealous of these other families. My son has tried three types of medications and a fourth is

Amazing Race

2009-09-23T09:48:00.006-05:00

The Amazing Race is one of my favorite shows and one that I watch frequently with my kids. I love that there will be an adult with Asperger's in the race this year!

Motivation

2009-09-18T10:08:00.001-05:00

In my search for a full-time teaching position, I found myself saying that I understand what it takes to motivate students with learning differences and ADHD. I must confess that is a total lie. What I understand is that for some kids (mine), motivation seems to be completely unattainable.My son is in 7th grade and his cell phone became the center of his universe over the summer. He lost his cell

New friends

2009-09-14T18:43:00.003-05:00

I made a new friend last week. Her daughter is in fourth grade at the same school as my daughter and she started talking to me last week as we waited for the girls to get out of school for the day. She is from Israel and explained that her family had just moved here three weeks before school started. Her daughter spoke very little English but was doing well adjusting to her new school. We invited

Back to School!

2009-08-28T07:53:00.003-05:00

I have to admit, I am not one of those moms who get weepy when the kids go back to school. I'm quite the opposite and have to restrain myself so the kids don't pick up on how happy I am to escort them out the door on that first day back to school each year.We're looking forward to a good school year this year. My son is in his fourth year (7th grade) at a private school for kids with learning

The Great Equalizer

2009-07-31T18:43:00.005-05:00

My son has a crush on a girl. He didn't tell me that, I just figured it out after he took his phone charger to a baseball game so it wouldn't run out of juice and he could continue exchanging text messages with her. I'm not a big fan of texting with all the cutesy little shortcut words but as I peered over his shoulder, I decided that texting may be the great equalizer when it comes to some kids

Building a better mousetrap

2009-07-28T15:07:00.005-05:00

Last week, my son and his friend decided they were going to tackle a little problem we have around the outside of the house -- mice. My son has tried chasing them with a broom which has an immediate payoff of getting them back over to the neighbor's yard and taking his adrenalin level up a notch, but it doesn't do much to solve the problem.Looking for a more permanent answer, these two 12 year

Summer Reading

2009-07-17T10:07:00.002-05:00

My son just finished the 3-part “Island” series by Gordon Korrman while I took on some not-so-light reading with Etta Brown’s, Learning Disabilities – Understanding the Problem and Managing the Challenges. Brown’s book is filled with information for parents trying to navigate their way through the public school system. She thoroughly discusses the laws, what “free and

Educational Testing

2009-07-02T06:15:00.002-05:00

At the end of the school year, my son completed a battery of tests administered by our local school district to see what type of support he’d be eligible for if and when he moved to the public school. The results were similar to previous tests and the results were the same – based on their criteria, my son does not qualify for special education services due to a learning

Low blocks and high kicks

2009-06-15T10:30:00.004-05:00

I was less than thrilled the first time my son said he wanted to try tae kwon do. I pictured a little 5-year-old ninja running loose in my house kicking and hitting everything. Within a week of his first class, my impression had completely changed and I became a huge fan of our local program. Teachers started telling me that my son “lacked focus” sometime around his second

School's Out!

2009-06-02T16:18:00.002-05:00

Yesterday began the first full week of summer vacation for my son. His friends are out of town and he’s already bored. In that past, I’ve filled his summers with speech therapy, occupational therapy and tutoring. I’ve bought the Summer Bridge series workbooks for so many years only to pass them down, almost completely blank, from him to his sister. This year, I’m giving

What's in a job?

2009-05-26T21:22:00.004-05:00

When I picture my son behind a desk at work, all I can see is a grown up version of the same kid spinning around in a chair as fast as he can. And breaking pencils. I often wonder whether he’ll go to college and what he might do to earn a living as an adult. Last summer, my kids started coming home from day care with handfuls of “tickets” for prizes at their school. At

Captain Chaos

2009-05-19T11:03:00.003-05:00

I decided to clean my son’s room yesterday after two months of letting him “handle it.” Before I stopped badgering him to clean his room, I set up some ground rules mainly that there was to be no food in the room and clothes that weren’t put in the laundry room on Saturday didn’t get washed. I foolishly thought that if he had to wear a dirty uniform to school, he’d get the

Extra help

2009-05-14T14:02:00.004-05:00

At times during my son’s educational career, it has become very clear that whatever assistance I had to offer wasn’t going to be enough. Usually, this was during the time periods where I worked full time and didn’t have the time or energy to work with him after school. Or he simply needed more expertise than a mom with a degree in communications could give him. There are a

Shaky hands

2009-05-11T10:30:00.005-05:00

Around the time my son started to talk, his speech therapist noticed that his hands trembled whenever he tried to color with crayons, drink from a cup, put food in his mouth or grasp small objects. An MRI showed everything was fine and we were told that these hand tremors or what we called, “shaky hands,” were here to stay. I quickly accepted that my son probably would

Do you hear what I hear?

2009-05-04T12:12:00.005-05:00

Auditory processing disorder has become a common diagnosis among children with learning differences in the past several years. Most professionals agree that it’s hard to distinguish between an auditory processing issue and ADHD. Often, a child might have both. An audiologist determined that my son had a “moderate” auditory processing disorder when he was in first grade. To

What's worked and what hasn't

2009-04-29T13:30:00.004-05:00

When I meet other parents of kids who learn differently or have other special needs, the topic of what interventions we’ve tried and found successful always comes up. This is a sticky subject because kids are different and every variable imaginable – from the quality of the teacher or therapist to the willingness of the child -- could affect whether a particular intervention

A reader among us

2009-04-27T09:19:00.005-05:00

I come from family of readers. We’re not you’re your average two or three books a year readers but hard core, Book-of-the-Month Club, multiple-books-a-month readers. When my son was in second and third grade, he was well behind his grade level in reading. In fourth grade, he began attending a private school for kids who learn differently and his reading world slowly began

Patience, patience

2009-04-23T05:33:00.003-05:00

I am not a patient person. If there’s one quality the parent of a child with learning disabilities should have, it’s patience and I don’t have very much. Yesterday was a typical afternoon at my house. My son got home from school at 2:45 p.m. and I reminded him that he had a book report to finish before he could play with friends and before Tae Kwon Do class at 5:45. Three

Another fun word to say

2009-04-22T11:51:00.004-05:00

I first heard the term “perseverate” when my son was in first grade. The school counselor said he tended to perseverate and was not able to get back on task with his work. That sounded serious, any word with “sever” in the middle got my attention. She explained it meant that he would get stuck on a topic and couldn’t seem to let go and return to his schoolwork. I learned

Aye Ticonderoga!

2009-04-21T17:03:00.004-05:00

Homework struggles in my house are usually defined by the number of pencils that get broken. On a good night, no pencils are broken, but on a bad night, look out. We’ve had many homework sessions where two or three of the little guys met their demise.I probably should have invested in Ticonderoga pencil stock several years ago. I’m not partial to that particular brand, I

In the beginning

2009-04-21T10:23:00.003-05:00

I don't really know where to begin. The earliest years of my son's life were normal, blissful, happy. He didn't talk much but communicated in his way and we seemed to share some innate ability to understand each other. Around his second birthday, his pediatrician finally convinced me to have him start speech therapy so she "could hear his beautiful voice." Speech therapy was successful but came