It's been a long while...

Wow, last posted two years ago. At that time, Zach had just gotten his Irlen glasses. For some reason, his eyesight has "improved" with the Irlen lenses. He has not had to change his lenses because his "degree" has stabilised... He has been with DAS for about 6 terms now - the improvement is nothing to shout about... but it's better than no support I suppose.

Stacey is on her third pair of Irlens now... she's had to change her lenses twice as she grows and needs new colours. In her P6 year now, she now has new accomodations of larger exam papers (printed on A3 sheets instead of A4) with the corresponding enlarged print, as well as the usual extended time which she always had.

I've stopped teaching Melody - she has since started with DAS - and while her mom says she wishes the progress could be faster (understandable since she was having individual lessons with me, while it's only group lessons in DAS), she is still pleased that Melody is coping reasonably well in school.

In the last few months, I have taken up a new student for OG - little Cloud. She is a K2 student right now, preparing to go to Primary 1 next year. I started lessons with her in March, so tomorrow will be 4 months so far. Tomorrow we will have had 25 lessons in those 4 months since she sees me twice weekly. It should have been more but there were interruptions due to holidays and such. Still, I am pleased with how far she has come. A totally reluctant not-quite-reader, she was somewhat anxious and lacking in self-confidence... today she has blossomed and become a much more confident reader. We are making our way to the magic-e words tomorrow and she has already learnt how to read Rabbit words. Her letter formation has improved by leaps and bounds and she hardly makes mistakes now with writing her letters, although she still gets a little confused by where on the lines some letters sit or stand.

I have also taken on another student, Kay, a P5 boy with Asperger's Syndrome. I don't give him OG lessons though... I tutor him in Maths and hope to prepare him for the PSLE next year. I'm open to taking on children with mild ASD as I have come to learn a great deal about ASD and SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) since my own chlidren have them.

Life has become more and more packed as I take on more kids... Zach is now much more mature and already in Sec 1. He travels independently and settles down to his work on his own. He helps me around the house as well, and doesn't need me to "chauffeur" him around anymore. :) With Stacey in Sec 1 next year as well, I expect only to be running around after the little one now... and so hope to have more time to teach. And maybe I will have more time to update this blog as well.

Zach gets Irlen lenses too...

Yup. Zach's definitely got it. (And actually, so do I... but I'm only gonna get myself tested some time later... too many big purchases this month already).

We will be going back on Monday to get his specific colour, and hopefully we will receive it within a month. Then we gotta take the lenses to a regular spectacles shop and get the specs made. So in a month's time, we will have two coloured lensed children in our house.

Today, Doris Ang of Irlen Dyslexia Singapore took a detailed look at him, and I was pleased with the process and the outcome. I think Zach also was more convinced that the overlays would be of greater help. Today he received two overlays (and no, we didn't pay extra for them, it was probably already worked into the $380 I forked over for the initial assessment) - one pink one for computer work, and a lavender one for reading. Hopefully he keeps them in better condition for the next month, until he receives his Irlen lenses.

I'm thinking of getting Stacey to get hers done soon too. Especially since she cannot wear hers out into the sun. That's quite annoying... but we'll see. Like I said, we need to space out the expenditure.

Getting extra help...

We have so much on our plate that I am finally caving in and getting help from DAS (Dyslexia Association of Singapore). Stacey's OG journey has been short and very interrupted. I have failed to give her the regular support that she needs, and so I have finally signed her up for classes with DAS. I hope I am not too late. At the same time, the new SNO or AE, as they are now called, has arrived at her school. However, she is not OG trained, so it's just as well that I signed Stacey up for classes at DAS. Ah well.

Zach is also going for classes with DAS but I am hoping that they will give him Maths support. He already gets language support at school, which is great.

We go for Induction this Saturday (oddly though, we only have to attend one session, whereas everyone else I know who have attended this in the past always attended two), and hopefully soon after they will be assigned a class near home. The nearest DAS centre from our home is a direct bus journey away, so if the going gets too tough, I'll get the kids to make their own way there and back if necessary. :) That's part of the advantage of having them of an independent age I guess.

Update on the Irlen Syndrome

So Stacey received her Irlen lenses late Jan... there was a huge delay but she finally got them. I think the glasses do help her because in the last two weeks or so she was starting to get lazy about wearing them... I often caught her without and had to remind her to do so... and correspondingly, she was also getting more tired and grumpier... even her ballet teacher commented that she was not "getting it" as she normally did. So I reminded her to put on her glasses as often as she could, and things have improved tremendously since...

On the same topic, Zach is going for his first appointment with Irlen Dyslexia Singapore. I decided that I would give Irlen Centre a go, and see how things are different. With Zach, the results of the testing with the overlays are not as obvious, but I think there are other benefits besides reading, just as Stacey gets other good "side effects" out of them too. Hopefully, I will remember to come in here and update on his findings and what we do in the end. I am also thinking of getting myself tested as well, because my eyesight is really getting "wonky" especially when I have been looking at the computer screen for far too long.

Update on Melody

I have had about 36 lessons with her in total already, and have already brought her up to doing Rabbit words in syllabication, teaching her the 1-1-1 rule using the "ing" suffix, besides the floss rule as well. In terms of phonograms, we have finally completed the basic level, bringing her up to "tch".

We had to stop for the whole month of June because after I came back from church camp, one of the kids came down with chicken pox, and because Melody has an infant sister, I didn't want to risk spreading chicken pox to their family. In the end, it was all in vain because I gave Melody all of one lesson before she ended up getting chicken pox anyway (not from me though) and we had to stop lessons again for another two weeks.

A big development was that she was officially diagnosed as Dyslexic with DAS. She also has Language Processing Disorder, for which she will have to see a Speech Therapist as well. So I will continue to give her lessons until she joins DAS officially. Mother B had initially asked whether I would continue to teach her, but I advised her to allow Melody to go for classes with DAS as it would do her good to come into contact with other children who also have dyslexia... and perhaps she might be more encouraged if she saw that others are struggling as she is, but also trying despite it... and the group situation might give her enough push to keep her going when the going gets tough, since she has a propensity to start whining and bargaining when confronted with yet another new rule or sound that she has to learn. I hope to finish teaching her the "magic-e" sounds before we stop lessons... and if we can take her to the reptile words in syllabication, that would be awesome, but we really have to see how fast she can go given the 6-week break she has had (with the exception of the one lesson in between).

Comatosed again...

This blog slipped into yet another coma... this time for 6.5 months... bleah. But there is plenty to update on. Again, apologies for not managing this blog better... but I simply haven't got all that much time these days because Zach is requiring such a lot of intervention, and that takes me out a lot. Still... here are the updates on what has happened over the last half a year.