Sharing some inspiration: Break Those Chains

Tammy Vice is a talented country music singer/songwriter who happens to have a daughter on the autism spectrum. I own one of her CD's. I identify with a lot of her music, especially to THIS song.

Peterson Directed Handwriting, a TOS Homeschool Crew Review

Two products that I've been given to use and review as part of the TOS Homeschool Crew of reviewers have an extra special place in my heart and on my bookshelves. I wrote about one of the earlier this week. Peterson Directed Handwriting is the other of the two. Peterson has given me a sense of empowerment as we work on the "mechanics" of cursive handwriting! It's one of the many resources introduced to us with perfect timing.

I probably don't need to remind you that I'm a relatively new homeschooler to a 9-year-old who was diagnosed on the autism spectrum just after her second birthday. She and I are fast approaching our first anniversary homeschooling.

One of the challenges we often see in individuals on the autism spectrum is in the area of fine motor development. Holding a writing instrument properly, holding your paper at the right angle, forming shapes into letters and words are all challenges to students w/ developmental delays in areas of fine motor skills, and are challenges to those parents and professionals teaching those students.

Additionally, children on the autism spectrum have visual motor challenges, as well. Our developmental optometrist has identfied that our daughter is having some issues tracking with her eyes. The optometrist explained to me that the tracking problems can affect copywork, copying from board to paper on the desk, for example.

Another challenge with children on the autism spectrum, even ADD and ADHD, is attention span. PDH was attractive to me because the lessons were advertised as being short. ;) And they are!

Peterson Directed Handwriting is designed with the fine motor system, the gross motor system, and the visual processing system in mind. And, for RDIers, it's set up so that the parent/teacher is the guide and the student/child is the apprentice.

After being chosen for this review, I spent some time in e-mail conversations and on the telephone with Rand Nelson, VP, Director of Research and Development at Peterson Directed Handwriting, and we decided that in our case, we'd skip printing and move to cursive. We were given a 3rd grade cursive kit ($15.05) to use and to review.

The program, interestingly, does not come with a bunch of worksheets and copywork. In fact, putting pencil to paper is the LAST step--a student does not write on paper until gross motor, fine motor, visual motor systems have been utilized to get the motions into muscle memory. Peterson Directed Handwriting doesn't want a student to have "drawing practice"; instead, Peterson Directed Handwriting wants a student to use rhythm to get foundations of letter shapes into the muscle memory of the child toward creating letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, etc etc etc. PDH promotes the idea that "Fluent, rhythmic movement remains a consistent goal and is key to developing control for fluent legibility."

The Peterson Directed Handwriting web site is filled with helpful resources--be sure to spend some time there. Don't miss this 20-minute presentation that describes the program.

The gross motor component of getting the shape into muscle memory has been a challenge for us, and I discovered that sitting in a way that my daughter could sit close to me, where she could put her hand UNDER mine as we would "air write" together, she could actively feel the motor movement in a way she could NOT if I had used "hand over hand". I taped butcher paper to the wall and drew some shapes that we used for air writing and for finger tracing, too. That has been effective as we practice together.

At one point in our journey with cursive, I joined Rand on the internet for some q & a. There's a link on the main page of the web site where you can join someone live. PDH's customer service has been an impressive support to me as I've learned more about how to guide my daughter.

We are working on the concept of experience sharing alongside this PDH cursive program. Right now, our emphasis is more on experience sharing, aloud, than composing on paper. Developmentally, I realized, we are not ready to compose on paper--we need more experience sharing between people as a foundation. (Thanks to PDH, I've become aware of times when my daughter is "drawing" letters and times when she is beginning to write more "automatically".) In the meantime, we continue to work on proper angle of paper or materials when we are drawing and coloring, and we continue to work on the Peterson shapes when scribbling. (Click here for more info.) We're using Peterson Directed Handwriting basics to move us forward, and yes, I am seeing progress. My daughter's first "sharp top's" looked like A-frame roof tops when we began our first lesson; by the time the lesson was finished, she was making "sharp tops". I am confident that we will get there, experience sharing + a way to get experiences on paper, with the help of Peterson Directed Handwriting.

Interested in the opinions of others who reviewed this product? Read the reviews of my Crewmates here.

Sharing a resource: "lost at school" by Ross W. Greene, Ph.D. (Don't Blame The Parents!)

I've been reading a new book by another psychologist who really "gets it" and does a fabulous job explaining "it" to parents and professionals of challenging children. (The book is not about autism--it is helpful resource to a parent or professional dealing with challenging children or students.) I thought you might want to know about it as you are getting ready to spend Christmas money or gift cards. *grin*

Homeschoolers, do NOT let the title turn you off. You'll like this book, too, if you have a challenging child.

Chapter 2 of "lost at school, Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges Are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them," by Ross W Greene, Ph.D. is titled, "Kids Do Well If They Can".

On page 10, the opening page of Chapter 2, Green explains that, "When the 'kids do well if they want to' philosophy is applied to a child who is not doing well, then we believe that the reason he's not doing well is because he doesn't want to."

A paragraph later, Dr. Green continues, "By contrast, the 'kids do well if they can' philosophy carries the assumption that if a kid could do well he would do well. If he's not doing well, he must be lacking the skills needed to respond to life's challenges in an adaptive way. ..."

What are those skills? Interestingly, they are pretty much the same concepts, described in new ways, as the skills we are working on in RDI(r) as we work to remediate the core deficits of autism, skills like attention shifting and attention sharing, in what we sometimes refer to as "social skills", and in flexibility and creative problem solving. That's just a short list.

Dr. Green has created a checklist of lagging skills he calls the ALSUP, or Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems (ALSUP) . During a November presentation, he told those of us in attendance that this document is a work in process, and that he will update it periodically, and he told us that it is available on the book web site. The "lost at school" web site is here. Click here for the ALSUP in PDF.

Dr. Green walks a parent and/or professional through the process of gaining the trust of the student, and he teaches you about CPS, or Collaborative Problem Solving, a process that gives the student an opportunity to practice and grow the very skills that are lagging in a way that the child is a very active part of the process.

RDIers will like this book--the ideas fit nicely with what we're doing in "guided participation" applied to autism. I see a lot of similarity with Feuerstein's "MLE" (mediated learning experience), too. I like the way Dr. Greene writes -- the book is filled with anecdotes to illustrate his points.

Those of you who know me know that I am a huge fan of our public library and the service our libraries offer called interlibrary loan. I often borrow a book in order to preview it, to decide if I like it enough to buy it. This one, I bought sight unseen, on a recommendation from another parent, and I'm glad I did, and this time, I am going to suggest you buy this one, because you're going to want to read it with a pencil or highlighter in one hand. ;) And if you get an opportunity to hear Dr. Greene in person, GO! He is a fantastic speaker!

All About Spelling, a TOS Homeschool Crew Review

As an alternate on the TOS Homeschool Crew of reviewers, I knew that I would not have an opportunity to review many of the products in this year of reviews. And, originally, I was not supposed to receive All About Spelling. Talk about mixed feelings--I was both relieved and disappointed that I would not be reviewing it.

Next thing I knew, three alternates were chosen, and MY name was on the list! (A "God-incidence" for sure!)

More mixed feelings surfaced--excitement and self-doubt.

There are two products that I have reviewed during this season that have an extra extra special place in my heart and among my homeschool resources, and All About Spelling is one of them. I am really excited about this one! :)

All About Spelling is a multi-sensory spelling program based upon the techniques of the Orton-Gillingham approach used successfully in dyslexia. It is developmental in nature, building foundations and then growing them.

From the AAS web site:

"All About Spelling is a comprehensive spelling program based on proven strategies to teach spelling using the best and easiest method possible. It gives parents, homeschoolers, and teachers strategies that work, including:

Lessons with crucial concepts explained in easy-to-understand language

Multisensory methods for different learning opportunities

Effective techniques to teach both beginner and remedial spelling"

The box of materials arrived and I spent about a week cutting apart with *scissors* all the pieces that I would need in order to begin. A paper cutter would have made this part so much easier and faster! In 2009, All About Spelling will begin to offer perforated cards, beginning with Level One, to reduce prep time. AAS's Marie Rippel made the change to perforated cards when several of the review crew members (including me) commented on the amount of cutting we had to do before we began.

The laminated letter tiles are an additional purchase ($9.95) that you use with the program can be used "as is" on a table or desk, or they can be attached to magnets ($5.95) and used on a magnetic board. I opted to purchase a magnetic white board from a local discount store at a cost of about $15. You'll need an index card file box or recipe card box, too. I bought one from a discount store for $1.44.

Working with a child diagnosed on the autism spectrum as homeschoolers has been a growing experience for both the teacher and the student. I'd been borrowing from this workbook and that curriculum here and there, but had not yet attempted using an entire curriculum the way it was intended. I wasn't sure we could do this. Additionally, we are approaching autism from a relationship perspective, using the concept of "guided participation" (a Barbara Rogoff term), where the adult is a trusted guide and the student is an apprentice. We've been working hard on that guide/apprentice relationship, and anything I choose needs to fit into that idea. I took a deep breath and dove in.

An aside: One of my very personal challenges has been keeping lessons short enough that they are not overwhelming, but long enough that I feel like we had a lesson. I am a work in progress as I figure out where that "line" is, and when I push my daughter too far, I lose her trust in me. I become, for her, the one who pushes her too far. And that is NOT the experience, the memory I want to give her.

So, I dove in at the beginning. Level One. The teacher's guide is well written with instructions that are easy for me to follow. I did not have to spend hours figuring out my role, how I would use myself, in this program. My part of the program is spelled out nicely. (pun intended) I am so pleased with the length of the lessons in the teacher's guide that All About Spelling provides in the set along with the student material packet. They are short, which means we can stop at just one, or complete several in one sitting. The lessons provide a valuable framework for ME to know when enough is enough.

The flash cards included in the student material packet keep us very organized. In addition to the flash cards, AAS provides file dividers for Review Cards, Cards Mastered, Cards Future Lessons in the categories of phonograms, sounds, key cards and word cards.

When we began, I realized very quickly that All About Spelling is so much more than a spelling program. It is a boost to a beginning or struggling reader. Because it is multi-sensory in it's approach, there is an auditory component that gives us practice that we need at our home in auditory discrimination. I realized right off the bat that my daughter wasn't always discriminating between a short "e" sound and a short "a" sound in the middle of a word.

Ah, All About Spelling spotlighted an important distinction for me. Auditory processing issues are different from, separate from autism. And AAS gave me a framework to use to give us practice and experience at discriminating sounds.

I am so tickled that this is a "between you and me" program--one that sometimes becomes a background activity for "guided participation"!

We sit in front of the white board with the letter tiles before us, with our index box of cards at hand, and work through a lesson. I am often surprised by what my daughter knows that I didn't realize she knows, and by what I thought she understood that she does not. When we come to a concept that she seems to not have mastered, we practice it briefly there at the white board w/ the letter tiles, and then we stop the "formal" lesson, and I use that as my springboard for the next few days, looking for ways to practice that during our chores and play. The time at the white board is for ME, not for my daughter, to help ME grasp the concept that the two of us need to work on away from the white board. We deliberately avoid that white board while we are building upon a new concept. We are taking the program slowly, and I see progress. ;) (YEAH!)

The All About Spelling web site is easy to navigate and the descriptions of the products are accurate and thorough. AAS provides a link to the scope and sequence of each level, there, so that you can see how the developmental approach plays out. There are sample lessons available for you to evaulate, and there are numerous articles for you as you research.

Levels do not correspond with grade levels, and Marie Rippel suggests that every student begin at Level One to insure no foundations are skipped. Level One and Level Two sets are priced at $29.99. Level Three and Level Four sets are priced at $39.99. They include a teacher's guide and one student material packet. Additional student packets are available for a separate purchase. The letter tiles are priced at $9.95 and the optional magnets are priced at $5.95. A phonogram CD is available for $14.95. You will need an index card box to hold the flash cards, and if you choose to use magnets, you'll need a magnetic board to stick them on. Level Five will be available in 2009 and a Level Six is in the works.

No, my daughter does not always like "school", and at this point, All About Spelling hasn't turned her into a child who begs to sit down for some academics. ;) But it HAS created a place where we can be competent together in short lessons at the white board while giving me the knowledge to carry the lessons to places in our day, and the program is touching not just spelling, but reading and listening as well. And for those reasons, AAS has a special place in my heart. I've recommended this program to friends who were looking for a spelling program, on yahoo groups when a question about spelling was posed, to a total stranger I met at jury duty, and I recommend it to you, too.

Other Crew reviews are available to you here.

Cookies for Santa - the gluten free, casein free, soy free kind

Today, I tried a new-to-me cookie recipe from a favorite gluten-free blog. I used a rice milk instead of cow's milk and the shorting I used is palm oil. And I managed to decorate mine. :) Now we have cookies for Santa Claus!

Puppetools dot com, a TOS Homeschool Crew Review

One of the characteristics that defines what we call "autism" is a developmental delay in the area of imaginative play. I am always looking for new ideas to support me at home in the area of imaginative play with my daughter, ideas that can take the two of us away from scripted play where we act out familiar stories from books or videos, and into the kind of play we make up together as we go along.

I "google" all sorts of stuff, looking for information and ideas, but, I would have never thought to "google" puppet making on the internet.

And then, I was introduced to Puppettools via the TOS Homeschool Crew.

WOW!

Nestled inside this web site are the directions to making a puppet hinge out of construction paper, along with dozens of pages of properly sized/formatted animal shapes that you can print and color and attach to your hinges to create your own families, towns and villages of puppets at home.

If you have a child with developmental delays in fine motor skills, folding the actual hinge makes for a GREAT fine motor activity!

Jeff Peyton has packed the web site with information and videos. If you are interested in the "why bother" of using puppets and imaginary play, it's there! You'll find a wealth of information about development here.

If you are like me and feel like you need a push getting the imaginary play going, there are all kinds of videos here from real folks showing how they've used Puppetools.

I thought the web site was a little difficult to navigate. The site is packed with information and videos. I have studied the importance of play and understand how puppets can be an important part of child development. I wanted to get to the actual hinge and pages to print, and I soon did, but I wish there'd been a quick-link of some sort to get me there right away.

I think Puppetools would be a super combined with story builders--and after the busy-ness of the holidays has passed, want to create a story and then find the characters on Puppetools to color/decorate and build so that we can act out the story in puppets.

A 60-day trial subscription for a family is just $20, and a year-long group subscription for a class room or co-op is $99.

Interested in the opinions of others who reviewed this product? Read the reviews of my Crewmates here.

Whiter than snow

Psalm 51:7

Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

The Psalmist writes about being washed whiter than snow. After seeing so much snow the past few days, I have to admit, imagining anything whiter is a challenge. Nice to know God can! ;)

Opportunities to learn

"Blending skill is one of those things you cannot hurry in children. You can't sternly shake your finger at Johnny or promise him cake if he gets it right. All you can do is give him opportunities to learn it, and one day you will see he is beginning to catch on. That's a great day. The major hurdle to reading is about to be crossed. Nurture his beginning skill. Help it grow."

Dr. Ruth Beechick, from her book, "The Three R's"

Choosing curricula, products, resources for a child with unique learning needs is not something I take lightly, and over the years, I have gained much experience about how to determine a next step in a given area of development. (I am thankful to have a consultant who provides strong support to me in my decision making, as well.)

Sometimes, you have seen me write in a review that my daughter might be able, at some level, to use a resource, but I prefer to wait for a later time to fully introduce that resource to her in order to give us time to finish foundation work. I think Dr. Beechick's quote does a good job of describing what I mean when I say I choose to wait.

In the early days of an autism diagnosis, I relied heavily on professionals who guided me to push cognitive learning and academics via a behaviorist route to my then barely-two-year-old, while ignoring social learning. That was a mistake. Finding a developmental approach to remediating the developmental delays commonly seen with autism has given me insight that those professionals from early in our journey never offered.

Explaining what I mean about "developmental" and "timing" to another parent is sometimes challenging. How do I sum up something so big into a few sentences? Recently, the excerpt at the top of this blog entry jumped out at me from the book I was reading, and I saw that, even though Dr Beechick is referring to a skill associated with learning to read, she is describing quite beautifully a developmental approach to all kinds of learning, both social and cognitive: offer lots of opportunities, wait for a discovery to happen, and then move forward to the next step of offering new opportunities. Build foundations and grow them--for lots of "great days". ;)

MOTHERBOARD BOOKS, Let's Make a Web Page, a TOS Homeschool Crew Review

Creating a web page of my own seemed like a daunting idea, and is something that I have never tried. So, when the TOS Homeschool Crew members were given "Let's Make A Web Page," an e-book byPhyllis Wheeler at MotherboardBooks.com, I wondered if the instructions would be too technical. And *then* I realized that this e-book is designed for 8-12 year old children, and I predicted that it would be something I could handle. ;) Wheeler recommends that children have some familiarity with typing and word processing before using this product. In terms of children with developmental delays, please know that in addition to perspective taking (choosing to focus on a web page that would please the user or one that would please a reader), a good deal of reading is involved, with shifting attention required, a back and forth between the e-book and the web-page-in-process, too.

I downloaded the 60 page e-book and handed it off to my 11 year old daughter, and in about an hour, she had designed her first web page!

The first section walks the pupil through the process of an interview to help the child decide what the page will be about. Next, a software download is required for web page editor software, and Coffee Cup is recommended. (Coffee Cup offers a 30-day free trial period for new users.)

Wheeler walks the reader/web page creator through the process of creating a folder for the working document, and how to add background, text color, text, everything. The book is 60 pages long because it is full of illustrations that show the user *exactly* what the computer screen will look like, and which tab to open, which item to check, and how to change fonts. There is no guesswork -- the instructions are clear and simple! Wheeler explains how to add tables and photos and includes some troubleshooting in case a photo lands in the middle of your text. She guides the user through adding clip art, aligning the elements of the page, adding sound and hyperlinks. She walks the user through what NOT to do, also.

I asked my 11-year-old daughter to tell me what she liked and didn't like. She really enjoyed learning to make a web page! She told me that liked the fact that "everything was explained clearly" for her; the book contains pictures of the little pop-up boxes that she would see on the screen; and the book provided web sites that she could go to for clip art and animations. She said that she didn't like the fact that "at times, there were several outcomes of one click with different servers", and she "was confused trying to find the correct outcome a time or two". At one point, she accidentally closed an important window and lost some work that had to be redone. In the end, that mix-up taught her what NOT to do. I don't think she'll make that mistake again!

Her web page is beautiful, featuring some of her favorites in terms of hobbies and talents, and her friendships. "Let's Make A Web Page," guides a child to do exactly that!! ;)

I see a lot of value in using this product with a child on the autism spectrum when used in a developmentally appropriate way. Most individuals on the autism spectrum enjoy computer related activities. Children with autism, particularly those with Asperger's Syndrome, tend to have special interests. I am of the opinion that often, children on the autism spectrum do not NEED more time being reinforced for spending energy on a special interest for the sake of feeding a special interest--they NEED experience interacting with other people, and they NEED experience in perspective taking. I get a little bit excited when I think about the possibility of guiding a child through creating and comparing a web page composed of items HE/SHE likes to a web page he/she has created for someone else's interests! The "Let's Make a Web Page" could become a background activity that provides opportunity and experience in interviewing and perspective taking with others and self.

I have chosen to delay introducing my 9-year-old (w/ ASD) to "Let's Make A Web Page" at this time. I do believe she could make a web page with my assistance; however, I do not believe she is developmentally ready for the task. In the past, we gave her some "splinter skills" that need foundations behind them, and right now, we are working on those foundations. She needs time to make a few more discoveries about herself and about others before I introduce web page creations to her. I am so looking forward in the not-so-far-off future to bringing "Let's Make A Web Page" into our day. ;)

The price for Let's Make a Web Page is $29.99. Currently this is discounted as an introductory special to $19.99.

More TOS Homeschool Crew reviews are available here.

View from my kitchen window aka Do You See What I See?

Every time I walk past my kitchen window at night lately , I do a double take, because I think...

my neighbor's decorations look like "PooP" to me.

The photo is a good example of how obstacles can interfere with meaning and create breakdowns in communication. The trees that are between me and that neighbor block enough of the light display to change "NOEL" with two wreaths on top, to something that resembles the word "PooP" to me. It's no wonder that a child with autism misinterprets intent and communication when those around him create obstacles by talking too fast, saying too much, not allowing response time. When you figure out what the obstacles are for your child, you can begin to move them out of the way, and allow her to communicate. ;) Food for thought.