Parents Advocating for Student Success in EDucation (PASSED)
Monthly Lunch Gathering
Bixby’s Bagels (Mount Royal Shopping Center)
Wednesday, May 21st
11:45 ish to 1:00 ish
The movie “Journey into Dyslexia” will have two showings:
Monday, May 19th @ 6:30pm @ Cloquet Gospel Tabernacle
and
Thursday, May 22nd @ 6:30 @ Myers-Wilkins School (old Grant)
Questions call 340-7393 or email [email protected]
From ‘the parent connection’ Feb. 2013 workshop with Sarah Ward.
Top Ten Takeaways
1. Executive Functioning (EF) refers to the way the brain manages plans, organizes, and sets goals to execute and complete tasks in a timely fashion. Executive Functions are controlled by the prefrontal cortex of the brain. This area matures over time and is not fully developed until early adulthood.
2. Children with Executive Functioning challenges have trouble with “situational intelligence” or reading the physical components of a situation. Use the pneumonic STOP (Space, Time, Objects, People) to encourage children to read the room: for cues to gain the situational intelligence they need. To use STOP, have kids ask themselves:
Space – Where am I? Time – What is happening now? Later? Objects – How is the room organized? People – What are the facial expressions / body language of the people? 3. Often times children with EF difficulties are labeled as defiant or uncooperative. This is because these children have not developed the ability to visualize the future. Use ‘future glasses’: literally with younger students (have fun sunglasses or interesting frames) and metaphorically for older students (asking them to envision or predict the future). Have the student put on the glasses and picture what the finished assignment will “look like.” This skill will help the student plan and organize materials and time to complete the task. 4. Designate areas by color to reinforce the three steps necessary to complete tasks or school assignments. Encourage your child to physically move the items in progress from one stage to the next. a) “Get Ready” – yellow b) “Do” – green c) “Done” – red 5. Begin by asking your child to imagine the work “DONE” rather than starting with the “GET READY” phase. Prompt your child by asking “what would a finished math sheet, finished poster, or completed research project look like?” Visualizing the completed task or assignment will empower your child to formulate ideas and gather the material to GET READY in order to DO the work and get the work DONE. 6. Visuals and photographs are much more helpful than words lists. Use them whenever possible to communicate with your kids. 7. To help with routine tasks such as getting ready for school or sports activities, take photos of kids fully dressed with all their equipment or gear. Tor school that might include fully dressed, coat shoes, backpack, lunchbox, etc. Tell kids to “Match the Picture.” For sports, take a photo of kids ready for the sport with equipment, uniform, cleats, etc. This technique works well for cleaning a room, organizing a desk or setting a table. Apps such as Doodle Buddy or Skitch for handheld devices can also be used to help match the picture. 8. Break long-term projects into steps. Sketch or outline what each finished step looks like and cut out each step. Paste each step to a calendar to map out the timeline and get a visual of the time involved for each piece. Use sticky notes so that if a step is not completed on the day scheduled it can be moved to the next day and the student can see the work piling up if too many deadlines are missed. 9. Create a special homework space. Use a tri-fold board or transform a closet into a student carrel to avoid distractions and set up a flow for the work. Sarah suggests that children pull out and open all notebooks needed for the night’s homework. Stack them up on top of one another to illustrate the mound of work. As each assignment is complete, all materials get placed right back into the backpack, ready to go to school for the next day. 10. Be aware of “time blindness.” Students with EF issue are not tuned into the passage of time or pace of work. To help children develop a sense of time increments, invest in an analog clock and ask children to predict how long a particular task or assignment might take. Use time markers such as magnets or sketch pies of time on the clock (a glass face works best with a dry erase markers) to visually show the passage of time. It is also helpful to mark a halfway point to check that the task is being attended to. Help identify “time robbers” such as being hungry, scattered papers/notebooks, and too much phone/screen time.
Orton-Gillingham methods build strong, confident readers. If your child is struggling in school, consider working with an Orton-Gillingham tutor over the summer to help them build reading confidence and a lifetime love of learning. Don’t let them struggle for years. Signs that a child will struggle with reading are evident in kindergarten.
The sequential part of Orton-Gillingham teaches reading skills in a direct, systematic, orderly way and including: phonemic awareness, letter recognition, concepts of print, sound/symbol relationship, word reading and spelling, syllables, fluency skills, vocabulary, and comprehension. When a child struggles with fluency, usually one of the more fundamental building blocks, listed above, is weak. Fluency involves the pace and accuracy of reading and prosody. Prosody is the expression, volume, phrasing and smoothness.
Minnesota has adopted Read Well by 3rd Grade, but most of us don’t know what that means. We read to comprehend information, but before we do that reading fluency is key and before that, other building blocks. Today, in many of our schools children’s fluency is measured by giving them the same three grade level passages multiple times over the year and having a child read each for one minute. A recorder marks the errors a student makes and indicates the number of words the child read. Sometimes comprehensions is tested by having the student retell the story…. but that is a different conversation. Most research expect that a third grade child should begin the year reading grade level material at a rate of 70 or more words per minute and end the year reading 100 or more words per minute they are considered meeting their benchmark with 95% – 97% accuracy, respectively. The numbers for the rate of reading represent the 50th percentile. If a students falls below the midpoint they should be receiving additional intentional support in the area that they have demonstrated a weakness in that comes before fluency on the continuum of learning to read. If your child is not meeting the midpoint by the end of third grade, fourth grade will be significantly more challenging than previous years. I could argue that for some students meeting the middle is even too lower of a threshold.
I’m happy to talk with any family about reading, if I can’t help you, I can often direct you to someone that can. Please feel free to call me at 218-340-7393.
Just having bad handwriting doesn’t mean a person has dysgraphia. Since dysgraphia is a processing disorder, difficulties can change throughout a lifetime. However since writing is a developmental process—children learn the motor skills needed to write, while learning the thinking skills needed to communicate on paper—difficulties can also overlap.
Dysgraphia: Warning Signs By Age
|
Lunch Gathering @ Noon
Wed., Nov. 20, 2013
Vineyard Church ~ 1533 W. Arrowhead Rd ~ Duluth, MN 5581
This group meets monthly to share ideas and support one another. If your child struggled last year in school this may be a good opportunity to hear what others in our community are doing to ensure their children’s success in learning. Occasionally, a speaker joins the group to cover a specific topic. All families are welcome.
A variety of six inch subs, chips, cookies are available, with a suggested donation of $5.00. You are free to bring your own. Coffee, tea and water are available.
We also have a monthly evening gathering at Barnes and Noble 7PM. The next meeting for that is Dec. 12th.
Our lunch gatherings are usually the third Wednesday of the month and the evening meetings are usually on the first or second Thursday of the month. Email [email protected] if you’d like more information.
From NCLD.org
|
Always looking forward from a little different perspective.
With school just around the corner, it’s time to reread your children’s IEP or 504. Could a 504 with appropriate accommodations make for a more successful year? The following is from NCLD.org by Laura Kaloe, NCLD Public Policy Director
Is a 504 Plan Right for My Child? |
The IDEA law requires that your child must meet two prongs of the law in order to be served by special education:
This legal requirement essentially says that some kids with LD or AD/HD may not meet the state or district requirementsof the second prong. While the student may have a disability, it may not be impacting their learning in ways that qualify them for special education services. These students however, because they have an LD or AD/HD, may meet the requirement to have a 504 plan if their disability “substantially limits them in performing one or more major life activity.”
| Effective January 2009, eligibility for protection under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act became broader. Some students who did not qualify in the past may now qualify for Section 504 plans. Students with Section 504 plans may now qualify for additional supports, services, auxiliary aids, and/or accommodations in public schools.disabilities.For the rest of the article visit ncld.org and search 504 plans. |
