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Autistic kids and CM
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Some very fascinating food for thought:
1. Relationship Development Intervention has some *striking* parallels with Charlotte Mason (I am doing a lone ranger version right now). I believe one of the RDI Hotlist books, “Awakening Children’s Minds,” will tell you why (and I have been blogging this book and comparing it to Charlotte Mason). This book describes the research of a contemporary of Charlotte Mason (Lev Vygotsky).
2. Dr. Carroll Smith, one of the board members of ChildLightUSA, just wrote an article in the Winter 2007 issue of The Review, comparing the work of Vygotsky to Charlotte Mason. He also believes there are many parallels to their work!
3. I might as well spill the beans here. Carroll was looking for a speaker who was knowledgeable in Charlotte Mason and Vygotsky. When he found out I had been blogging his work and comparing it to CM’s, he invited me to be a plenary session speaker at this year’s Charlotte Mason conference in Boiling Spring. (It must be a rather obscure topic.) So, I can promise you: autism and Charlotte Mason will be mentioned at the conference. Cheri Hedden (another mom with special needs kids) and I always try to make sure there are presentations and opportunities to meet and support parents with special needs children. I think ChildLightUSA will be posting more information on February 15. Oh, and they are also slowly uploading audio files from last year’s conference!
You can all thank Sonya . . . the page on RDI at her intentional parents site was what got me taking it seriously almost a year ago today! 🙂
Hi, Amy!!!!
Rachel,
As I was reading your post about your daughter I was wondering if you’ve ever talked to a therapist about attachment issues. She exhibits many of the classic symptoms, and with her history, I would be surprised if her attachment isn’t either weak or broken. It is called RAD (reactive attachment disorder) and full-blown, the reading can be quite scary, but many children have a lesser level of concern, and benefit from some help strengthening the bonds.
El:-)
I’m not sure how helpful this will be, but I bought this book for my son’s speech therapist to use with him a couple of years ago. It’s called “From Sentence to Narrative” by Marilyn M. Toomey. It’s published by Circuit Publications. I’m not sure where I got it from, probably somewhere like Super Duper.
The last 2 activities in the book are retelling stories: The Ugly Duckling and The Little Red Hen. It relies heavily on pictures as prompts. Unfortunately, my son’s therapist never got that far with him. For The Ugly Duckling it suggests that you point to the pictures in the book as you read the story. Then you point to the pictures as you encourage your child to retell the story, one scene at a time.
We’re getting ready to start doing narrations and I’m a little anxious about how this will go myself, although I feel like this is a key area that we need to work on for future language development and comprehension. Lakeshore learning used to have a lot of manipulatives that you could use to go along with stories but I don’t see many on their current website. We have the Caps for Sale set but my son knows that book by heart so we won’t be reading that one.
I’ve also heard that the Winter Promise curriculum has a lot of visually appealing books in it. You might check their website or catalog to see if there are some books that may be appropriate. My son is in the 3rd grade. His sister is in kindergarten. To begin with I’m going to be asking my son to narrate his sister’s books.
HTH,
Vicki
El,
When we had her placed with us, the only thing we were told about her was that she had RAD. However, in the ensuing mths. and even now, we have not recieved her medical records from age 6 mths. to age 3 other than one psychologist session. I have read info. on RAD, but she has so many symptoms and they all intersect with each other under different diagnoses.
Since my last post, I’ve been able to move forward alittle with her. Her previous therapists stopped taking her ins. so we went on the lookout for more. It’s a blessing actually. Since they did not provide a home therapy plans for us. It was just an appointment to go to. I did obtain all her records from the OT and Speech. She does have disfunction in EVERY sense.
I have made an appt. w/ a leading developmental pediatrician; in NOvember. DR. Leslie Rubin at Emory. I told his office that DEFACS were not providing me w/her med. records, so maybe they will have more pull. I have also set her up for another set of therapists and testing. I was going to go to marcus in Atlanta, but they had a severe anti-homeschooling bias that was expressed to me. I was recommended to Challenged Child in Gainesville, which is only 20 min. or so away and a speech therapist in the same town. Challenged Child can do the same testing as MArcus. We are set up for evals. in June at both places. CC even mentioned genetic tests and cat scan for her brain (for FAS), which no one has recommended so far, even her GP whom I told I wanted to start ruling out diagnosese and I knew that was part of the steps.
Next on my list is a reg. therapist for her emotional problems. I have two places to call for that. Actually, three because one place is for sexual abuse.
I will make a list of her “issues” and a list of treatments I’ve read about so they can answer my questions on what might be helpful. I have a Super Duper catalog, too but it is overwhelming to choose. I know that they will be able to guide me. I’m looking forward to being able to post some successes and progress in the coming mths.
Thanks for asking about her, my husband and I have been frustrated.
Rachel
Rachel,
Sounds like you are definitely on the right track. I have found it very much to be a circular approach – zero in on a symptom or group of symptoms that are causing the most challenges, find a diagnosis and/or treatment that helps, and as they get better I will then notice the next area our son is struggling in, and need to seek solutions for that. He is now 9, and as we have slowly unraveled the layers, we have gone from attachment to sensory to emotional to cognitive and back to attachment and sensory and so on as being the most important area to work on at a particular time. And remember, noone knows your daughter or your family like you do, so you often have to take the lead in saying which area is most important for you to address first, and it is not necessarily the same area as the biggest developmental delays.
Also, since I am sure at some point either now or in your future someone will suggest meds, be aware – children with prenatal exposure do not always respond to drug therapy in the same way as other children do, so be sure to research carefully and choose a knowledgeable doctor if this becomes necessary.
Good luck with all the testing! And if you get a report that doesn’t cover the areas that are of concern to you, or is written in an obscure manner, or doesn’t have suggestions, ask them to include them or to elaborate. It is your money and your report, so if it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work.
I wish I would have seen this thread years ago! My daughter is 13 and just diagnosed with pdd-nos 14 months ago. She was adopted at age 3 and came from a home of neglect. She has a lot of insecurities. We are really focusing on character and spiritual life. She has matured some in that area, but academically, she has really struggled in certain areas. I was just to the neuropsychologist yesterday for results from a language test. He told me many of the things he told me a year ago, but a little more in-depth. My daughter will be in 8th grade this fall and her testing reveals her connecting (horizontal) brain pathways at 4 years behind. And that is the level in which she is working conventionally. But, it doesn’t stop there. It carries into her emotional and social levels as well. She also has a lot of sensory issues? Along with all of this, she had a stroke in utero, causing CP and physical weakness to one side of her body. She has no trouble talking, but does not always use language and process language accurately. She is slow in her reading. Her math is not good at all. She has little concept of time and still has trouble counting money (mixed values of coins). So, we are dealing with multiple issues.
I have not been strictly using CM, but the psychologist said I should have her telling things to me to help with using her words in the right way. He said to reword things she does not say accurately, so she can hear it said accurately, and have her repeat it. I have done this in everyday life, but we have not done much narrating. So, I really need to use CM methods for narration and dictation. My struggle is knowing what language books to use. I am using SCM history and Exploring Creation Zoology 1 in the fall. I just don’t know what to use for language. Will SCM language books be a good fit? I’m at a loss for what to use. I’m going to keep grammar gentle, no diagramming. For spelling, the psychologist said to only give maybe 10 words at a time, and group them. I think reading, vocabulary and using words in the right context, along with spelling, needs to be our focus. In math, I need to focus on real life components. I am going to use SCM pet store business math in the fall. I am just not good at making up my own lessons, so I really like to have something to follow.
Sonya (or anyone else) – I am going to be checking into the resources on this thread. But, knowing what we are basically dealing with, if you can guide me to which would be the most valuable in our situation, I would appreciate it. Sonya, I didn’t know you had an autistic child. You definitely will understand. If you have any advice, I need it.
My first thought is that, if your daughter is operating at about a 3rd or 4th grade level in language, Using Language Well, Book 1, and Spelling Wisdom, Book 1, might be a good fit. (They are designed to work together.) It moves slowly (2 exercises per week) and is very gentle, especially the first half of Book 1. Those lessons are designed to be done almost all orally, so you could do them with your daughter comfortably sitting beside you on the couch.
The way they work is you
- Turn to the lesson in Using Language Well and the corresponding exercise in Spelling Wisdom.
- Read the Spelling Wisdom passage.
- Complete the short guided-discovery questions on that passage; the questions are given in Using Language Well.
- Either transcribe the passage to practice handwriting and lay the foundation for spelling or help the student study the passage until she is ready to write it without looking as you dictate it.
The focus of Book 1 is more English usage, capitalization, punctuation, contractions, synonyms, antonyms, syllables, things like that. Book 2 is where it will get into parts of speech/grammar. I would encourage you to take your time working through Book 1 and then decide at that point whether she is ready for parts of speech.
My one concern in your situation is whether the longer passages would be too much for her. They start short at the beginning of the book but eventually lengthen. With her physical weakness, I’m curious whether handwriting might be an issue with the longer passages.
It seems like the approach of keeping everything in context—vocabulary, spelling, and usage/grammar—would help with comprehension. If you wanted to follow the psychologist’s recommendation on spelling in groups, you could select one of the words in the passage and build a group with it (book, look, took, shook, cook, hook, etc.).
Download the samples of ULW and SW and see what you think.
Thanks, Sonya. I had looked at ULW and SW and just wasn’t sure. I will look again. Handwriting is not an issue. She loves to write. Her CP was a hemiplegia and affected just one side, which was her left side. She is right-handed. She likes to write letters to friends, but her thoughts are all jumbled. She jumps from one subject to another and back to the first, then onto something else. She needs to learn to put her words and thoughts in order. She needs to understand what words mean within the context. She needs to make connections. This carries over to history and science as well. Not just telling back, but understanding what was read. She has problems with attention as well. So, she doesn’t catch much of what is read, so she doesn’t always understand what’s going on in the story. Hope that makes sense.
So, in light of all that, do you think ULW and SP would be good for her? I think the longer passages may have been why I hesitated. But not because she couldn’t write them. I will look at it again. Looking at things on the internet is not the best way to decide, but it will have to do.
Have you tried giving her some mental hooks to hang her thoughts and narrations upon. Especially when reading aloud her history or science, skim the passage ahead of time and pull out a few key words or concepts. Write them on a small white board or sheet of paper and show them to her before you read. Discuss them, then tell her to listen carefully for those words as you read and to use them (in order) in her narration. Keep the list in sight while you read and while she narrates.
If she is writing a letter, maybe you could do a quick pre-writing touch. Ask her what topics or events she wants to include in her letter, then list those on the board. You might even ask in which order she wants to talk about them and number them or list them in that order. I’m curious if that visual guide would help her take steps toward putting her thoughts in order.
If she is struggling to grasp context, it seems like it would make the most sense to pull her English lesson and spelling lesson from a book she is reading anyway — one that she has already grasped context on. In that sense, ULW and SW may not be the best fit, because it introduces a new passage from a different source with each lesson. However, since you prefer not having to put together your own lessons, ULW and SW would at least give you a ready-made model. If you felt that you could put it together yourself, it might look something like this:
- Pre-read the passage in the history book or science book for today. Determine how to introduce the main idea of it. Pull 2 or 3 key words/concepts from it and write them on the white board.
- Remind your daughter about what you read in that book last time and ask what she recalls about it. (If you still have the key words from that reading, display them to give her the mental hooks to hang her thoughts on.)
- Explain briefly what you will be reading about today. Try to whet her appetite for it. Show the new key words/concepts and discuss them. Tell her to listen for them and use them in her narration after you read.
- Read the passage aloud and ask for a narration. Keep the list of words in sight. If you can, sometimes write her narration in correct sentence structure and read it back to her when she’s done.
- The next day look through that same passage and pull out one sentence that has good potential for reinforcing or teaching an English lesson and spelling exercise. Determine what English point you will teach or review with that sentence. Also brainstorm a group of spelling words built on one of the words in that sentence (as outlined in a previous post in this discussion).
- When it’s time for the lesson, ask her what she recalls about that reading from yesterday, allowing her to use the key words list as desired or needed. Show her the one sentence from it that you will be focusing on and have her read it. You might want to work together to identify synonyms, then use those to help her put the sentence in different words but with the same meaning.
- Either the same day or the next, depending on how long her attention will last, have her study that sentence and prepare to write it correctly without looking. When she is ready, dictate the sentence and watch as she writes it to make sure it is correct.
- Again, either during the same lesson as the dictation or on the next day, review the sentence she wrote, choose the one word in it and build a short list of related words for additional spelling practice (if you want to follow that idea from the psychologist).
Does that look like something you might be able to put together yourself? If you did each of those things on a different day, one passage could last you all week.
Sonya, thank you so much for this outline! I know it will take some discipline on my part, but I really think I could this. I just have to get past thinking I need to follow a guide or a text to ‘make sure she gets what she needs’. I feel like I have lost so much time because of not taking the right approach with her, and going through years of frustration and tears in her schooling. Not only schooling, but also dealing with her social, emotional, and physical needs. The psychologist has been very helpful in this way. I knew after what he said at our appointment the other day, CM was the way to go. We have been doing some, but my daughter actually likes doing workbooks. But, because of the problems with her reading, she does not always pay attention to directions. This year I was giving her more of the workbook style, because she wants to be more independent in her schoolwork. She wants to be independent like a thirteen year old, but she is doing 3rd grade work. She has done pretty good in those, but I just don’t see them being as effective in the long run.
So, how can I make some of this independent for her, when reading to her seems to be the best? Sorry for another question, Sonja. You have been so helpful. I am a little overwhelmed with everything I need to do, not just school, but also in the areas I mentioned previously. We are dealing with some emotional things right now, so with all the recommendations from the psychologist and trying to piece together curriculum and methods, trying to remember to do some of these things in everyday life is difficult. Social stories, asking questions (except why:) to make connections, trying to help her keep focused, needing to work on time management, dealing with impulsiveness, dealing with insecurities and negative attitudes, I feel responsible for the negative attitude about school. It’s a lot to think about. I try to look at the positive. She loves the Lord and I believe wants to please Him. She has some artistic and musical talents, she likes things neat and orderly, the elderly people love her because she is loving, she loves babies and looks forward to having her own family someday. These are areas she thrives on. We have been studying the virtuous woman and she seems to be paying attention to that. So, not all is negative. I just want to help her reach her potential and I don’t have many more years left. Thank you again, Sonya, for your help. Any advice on the independence would-be appreciated. I’ll stop with the questions……For a while:)
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