2nd Optometrist Appointment

Tomorrow Stacey goes for her 2nd appointment with the Optometrist, to use the Intuitive Colorimeter to determine the exact shade she needs for her Irlen glasses. She's excited and so am I... more because I'm hoping that this will make a difference to her reading speed and her comfort with reading books.

We are going with the lenses simply because since it was obvious the overlays helped, this will hopefully help her in reading things off the board, off the computer screen as well as when she is doing her exams and having to write on white paper as well. If her brain doesn't have to work so hard compensating for the perceptual "interference", then it can apply itself to the task of comprehension and expression better, I suppose. In other countries, you can request that the schools support you by printing on coloured paper (notes, test papers and so on), but I think for that to happen in Singapore, you'd need to find yourself a teacher who is willing to go that far out for you... and while there are many many lovely teachers in her school, I wouldn't dream of asking them to go to that extent just for one child, when I can simply help her by giving her the filters right there in front of her eyes.

So far, she's preferred books where the print are nice and big and the line spacing is also far apart. This means that she normally ends up with books for younger readers. I've tried buying her books meant for kids her age, but she dislikes certain kinds of print... font that are too small, or the words look too "crowded"... she has steadfastly avoided all such print. So I'm hoping that with the Irlen glasses, we can "graduate" to books meant for bigger girls, and she can then be exposed to more ideas and sentence structures and hopefully that will help her more in her writing and expression as well.

Ah well. We'll see. I better not count my chickens before they hatch. :p

Visual Stress or Meares-Irlen Syndrome

Brought Stacey to see a pediatric optometrist because despite having generally very good eyesight, she would consistently complain that her eyes hurt after reading for a short while - usually around 10 minutes, and never longer than 15mins at a stretch.

I had read about how some eye problems can translate into a child being diagnosed as dyslexic and heard also from the Educational Psychologist that there was an optometrist here who could look into such things, and so, after hearing her complain again, for the umpteenth time, I decided to sign her up for a full eye examination.

Since the time she was little and was starting to read a little after starting OG lessons, she would complain of being tired after reading or doing work. So this has been a consistent complain for the last 4 years or so. One day, her cousins and my kids were having a read-a-thon, and they were competing to see who could stay reading the longest... and oddly enough, after reading for about 10 mins or so, she stopped, saying that her eyes were too tired to go on. She was also reading one of her favourite books - from the Magic Puppy series, so I knew that it was not the book or the story that was boring and causing her to stop. Her competitive spirit would also usually push her to go on no matter what, so for her to have stopped was a big deal. This was when I knew that the discomfort was real and not just an excuse.

At the optometrist's, she went through a whole battery of tests and was given a completely clean bill of health as far as her eyesight and condition of her eyes were concerned. However, the optometrist was concerned that she was complaining of discomfort after only such a short period of reading... so he decided to try out another test. This one involved the use of coloured overlays on a page - designed to ease the strain of reading. The explanation is a rather technical one, but I immediately knew what he was talking about because I find certain colours more soothing compared to the glaring white of a page on a book. This is especially so when the fonts are messy and complex. I don't like reading off a computer because of the illuminated screen, which is why I prefer the Kindle to the ipad for reading and so on.

So it was no surprise when she readily responded to the overlays and when she finally settled on a colour that she preferred (that caused her eyes to be more comfortable) the optometrist conducted the test, but getting her to read a paragraph that was really a string of about 6-8 easy words that were put together (seemingly) randomly.

With the overlay, she read more quickly, more fluently and covered more words in a minute, compared to without the overlay (same words, different order, different card) where there was obvious hesitance and more faltering with the reading. She also covered fewer words in the one minute. I think she also made more mistakes. So it was quite obvious that the coloured overlay helps. This is called the Meares-Irlen syndrome.

While this syndrome is not widely recognised as yet, more and more research and studies have shown that children are helped by the use of overlays and coloured tinted lenses during reading and work and so on... and it was obvious in the simple test conducted that day.

So we go back again for yet another test - this time to use a machine that will help pinpoint the exact shade that works for her... and we will be making her a pair of glasses that are tinted to help with her reading and work.

She's excited about the prospect of getting glasses, but also somewhat worried because she knows that she will look different from others and that her glasses will be different from that of all the other bespectacled children in her school. I pray that she will have supportive and understanding teachers who will help her cope with this change when she begins school next year. Since we will only be testing on Tuesday the 28th, I am not sure we will get the glasses in time for school when it reopens exactly one week later, especially over the New Year holiday... but we'll see.

Melody - Informal Assessment and Lesson 1

Spent some time going through the informal Assessment with Melody recently.

She's an almost 7yo child, going into the Primary School system next year. I've known MummyB since the time Melody was born, and since Shannon is the same age as Melody, it was always easy to do a running comparison between the two, even though Shannon is a whole 10 months younger than her.

I'd always noticed, once Melody started learning her letters and sounds, that she was rather slow in it. I did make a few suggestions once in a while that perhaps MummyB might want to monitor her a little more closely since she seemed a little slow to pick up the reading... and it was only finally this year when MummyB officially asked me if I could do something for Melody. When I said I would earlier this year, the cost of the sessions put them off because both MommyB and her hubby didn't earn that much and it would be a struggle to pay for twice a week lessons, even at the reduced rate I was offering them. So they waited longer... and because it seemed that Melody was finally making a little bit of improvement, they said that they would wait and see some more.

Finally, a few weeks ago, MummyB asked me again to come and do an informal assessment for her Melody. They were very concerned since she was obviously not ready for Primary One. So I did. Given that Melody was less than a month away from turning 7, I prepared both the lower level Informal Assessment and the "normal" one (meant for school-going children) for the session... but it turned out that I didn't need it.

Melody's issues involved even telling left from right, and even getting the alphabet right. She knew most of her lower case letters, but seemed confused as to which were lower case and which were upper case. She could not produce the alphabet in its entirety from A-Z.

I had a page of CVC words that were quite simple for her to work on. They all contained only short vowel sounds, and nothing "tricky" like "th" or "sh" or anything like that. She could only read a handful, and tried to sound out the rest with little success.

According to her mom, she had been attending some phonics lessons for over a year when she was younger, but they stopped it more than a year ago when it became apparent that she was not improving. She had also seemed to pick up very dodgy vocalisations of the sounds - they all had an additional "er" attached to them... so /t/ ended up as /ter/ instead of the just the unvoiced consonant. And this so totally messes up their ability to blend. This is what makes the work so frustrating too... that I know have to un-teach an already struggling child the poor teaching that she has had, in order to get her to learn it right! Ugh!

Anyway... we also tried some spelling and with the few exceptions that she had had drilled in her already, her attempts were very shaky and often didn't pan out.

So in her first lesson, I first had to tackle her left and right issues, which I did by getting her to pick up an imaginary pencil each time. I also got her to practice different hand actions to associate the movements better with left/right.

Then I also had to deal with handwriting as well as the many reversals that she had... so we are moving quite slowly. We only managed "a", "t" and "b" in that first lesson... and even then, she was a little resistent to the learning of the cards... interestingly, she loved writing... something Stacey always hated.

I'm going to see how much of Lesson 1 she retained before really deciding on what kind of a pace I need to move at. On the one hand, she is far far behind her classmates... on the other hand, her school is the type that begins its school year with the P1 starting from the very basics of phonics and basically assuming that everyone has not been overtaught in Kindergarten. So that will be good for her in the sense that she will have more reinforcement in school... but it depends on how far ahead her classmates are. MummyB did say though that they did some testing in order to stream the children, so that will be helpful for Melody for the time being.

Pathetic at blogging

Sigh... I am so pathetic.

This blog keeps on going into comas... haha.

Well, this is yet another effort to restart it. Mostly because I have somehow gotten myself a new student. I just couldn't bear to say no. Even though I don't really have the time with Zach having so many more therapies now and all 3 of my own kiddos being in Primary School next year, I couldn't say no to my friend B who's daughter Melody (not her real name) is in need for intervention.

Since Melody is a January "baby", I have recommended that mummy B contacts the Ed Psych to get an assessment soon.

So yes, I'm back on track, and hoping that taking the time to prepare Melody's lessons will get me going getting Stacey back on track... and even Zach, if we can fit it in between all his other interventions.

Missing AE...

The hubby received a call today from Stacey's school - asking about the kind of support Stacey was receiving... and hubby referred them to me. Only, they didn't follow up and call me back. So I called the number that was logged on his phone.

Turned out it was not the AE for dyslexia... it was another lady - and she is the Learning Support Coordinator for the LSP. She was apparently collating data on the children, asking who needed support from the school in dyslexia. Stacey was supposed to have seen the AE at her school this year for support and OG lessons during her MT periods... but she only went for one lesson, after which, all was quiet. I only found out today that the AE had left in June or July. Quietly. Without so much as a word of farewell or accountability. Am not happy.

So the school is waiting for a new AE to be assigned, and meanwhile, there is simply no support whatsoever for the girls with dyslexia... and the new AE is not expected to come in until the 2nd half of next year.

Which accounts for my new resolve to reinstate Stacey's OG lessons to their rightful place. Sigh.

This blog keeps dying...

Yes... because my commitment to my own children's OG lessons is so lax. Oh excuses abound... somehow, when it's your own child, and not a "paid" (or even FOC) intervention slot for someone else, it's so easy to push it aside - oh, someone else needs help with schoolwork, which is more urgent... they need to complete their school hw... I am simply feeling lazy... or I simply didn't get down to preparing the next lesson! Argh.

In June, I stepped up the lesson prep for Stacey, since her need for OG is greater than Zach's... and had a 2-wk lesson plan all drawn up... but we never made it past lesson 2. Sad.

Today, I made a new commitment to Stacey to put aside time for OG. On her part, she must eat lunch quickly, and come in for "class" every Monday and Thursday at 2.40pm (she returns home from school at around 2.10pm)... and I, on my part, will keep up with lesson prep as if she were an "outside" student... I need to be accountable... and I need to make her OG lessons a priority. Argh! The same must go for Zach too... even though with him, I'm a little more uncertain because his powerful visual memory makes getting him to blend and learn rules difficult. He doesn't play by the rules. He approaches syllabication and reading in a topsy-turvy manner... sounding the word based on what he thinks is the correct spelling, rather than breaking it up by the sounds he hears. Then again, he could possibly have CAPD, which means that I will have to rethink my strategies with him. Ah well.

I haven't taught Kasser in almost a year. I've had to go to his home a couple of times, to counsel him and on one occasion to scold him, because he threw a tantrum when I asked to speak on the phone and defied his mom's request to come to the phone. Sigh. But there's been a breakthrough. Recently, I spoke to the Form Teacher on the mother's request, and I told the teacher my suspicions. As with most teachers unfamiliar with Dyslexia, she didn't see him as being LD... merely lazy or not trying. In any case, she was reluctant to do anything until the father agreed to the school referring the child to the counsellor... and that was a big hurdle in itself, because the father has "washed his hands off the children" of late, in exasperation and in an attempt to protect the children from his own temper. So, it was with great joy that I received the news that Kasser's mom successfully spoke to his dad and got him to give the approval to refer Kasser to the school counsellor and AE for Dyslexia. On Sunday, I helped Kasser's mom fill in a dyslexia screening form from the school... and I hope that he will get the help he so desperately needs.

Manipulating Syllables...

I'm soooooooooo happy... I've invested in about 3 or 4 sets (I bought them on separate occasions, so I've lost track of how many I have bought) of Bananagrams - basically a word game where you form words using letter tiles in a crossword form (kinda like Scrabble without the board) with other banana-relevant rules/twists. So I bought them because they have more tiles than a Scrabble set has, and there are at least 2 of every letter...

I'm using them to teach syllabication... just so the children have something to touch and move around, rather than doing it all on paper like we have been doing so far. Anything that doesn't involve writing excites the kids... so I feel this was a good investment. I also bought them at a time when Popular was having their 20% storewide discount thing... so they came cheaper than they were when they first appeared on the market. Now they seem to be everywhere!!!

My only complaint is that the letters are all capital letters... although with lower case letters, sometimes the orientation is rather confusing.

Now, I plan to use my paint pen to colour all the vowels red, the consonants blue and mark "y" in a different colour since it sometimes takes on the role of a vowel... now maybe to create some homemade long and short vowel indicators... :)

Updates....

It's been forever... Sep was the last entry, and things have moved on.

Kasser, my one and only non-family student, has his lessons on hold for the time being. This is because he has moved on into the morning session at school, having been promoted to Primary 3 this year. As such, his mother is still waiting for his schedules to be more firmed before embarking on finding two afternoons or evenings for me to give him lessons. The biggest problems in finding a suitable time arise from the fact that I do have to take care and help my 3 children in the afternoon when they come home from school, which is when Kasser is now free, and because I have to be home with my kids, Kasser's mom now has to bring Kasser to me instead of my going to his place (since that would mean my 3 children would be left home alone). During the holidays, when my children were home, Kasser came over to my house for several lessons. My OG classroom is now set up, and I have a place for all my resources and materials, as well as a proper setup for lessons with us facing each other on either side of a table. I can also close the door and shut out the noise of having 3 other children in the house. So I am still waiting. Waiting to see how keen they are in finding a good solution to the obstacles that currently stand in our way.

Stacey's and Zach's lessons also took a back seat towards the end of last year as well because we switched on the "preparing for exams" battlemode. They were swamped with homework and just getting all that work done and trying to ensure that they still had time to take a break and be a kid was tough... never mind making time for OG lessons twice a week. Some days, they worked till bedtime (8pm) and didn't have time to play. Sad.

Stacey and Zach did reasonably well in their exams, and I am proud of the tremendous improvements they made. Despite their difficulties, both managed to score within the Band 2 range... with Stacey making an almost 10% jump!

Kasser also had a 5% improvement in his scores, so I was thankful for that too!

This year, Zach will continue having group lessons on Comprehension with the SNO in his school during Chinese once a week. Stacey is supposed to have her OG lessons with her SNO but nothing has been arranged yet. I really must email her. I find that the support in Zach's school seems slightly better than in Stacey's... but it's probably too early to tell just yet. We are having Stacey do OG in school to see if she responds better in the mornings rather than in the evenings when she's already tired from a long day at school. Also, it is guaranteed to be more consistent, so that will probably help her as well.