The Journey Continues

Milk intolerance. How do you deal with it? Do you make sure you drink milk more often? Maybe you should just drink it a little slower, try more milk products. No, if you suffer this pain, you avoid dairy at all costs. When you realize that you need the nutrition of it, you find other sources.
What about if it is painful to read? Do you do it more often? Maybe go a little slower? No, you avoid it at all costs. This is how many people with learning difficulties deal with it. They memorize everything they can to avoid having to read it again. Being unable to decipher alphabet and phonetic code is not an indicator of a low IQ.

After weeks of 'learning assistance' I've realized that we are achieving nothing. It's like talking to someone with a language barrier. Why do we get louder and slower???? They are never going to understand. Learning assistance is just that. Ridiculous.

When we changed schools, it was because we were looking for a way to get answers. I was very clear with her Learning Assistance teacher that I wanted to know if she did in fact have Dyslexia or if she's not reading well because of other reasons. Mr. Roberts told me to my face that he knew nothing about Dyslexia. How in the world do you become a Learning Assistance teacher without learning about Dyslexia? It is a neurological learning difference that affects 1 in 5 people! Because it is a spectrum disorder it looks different with each person. It is also hereditary. People who never forget anything may have it. Also people who are 'sight readers' most likely have it in some form or another. It is not just the reversal of letters like b and d.

So now I ask myself. Why are we in the public system? Finally, I pushed Mr. Roberts enough that he is willing to test her for 'learning difficulties'. Really? Didn't we determine that already? But the wonderful public education system has set up certain steps to take. Let's refer to them as hoops.

Here is a copy of the email I received from Mr. Roberts on Monday:
Unfortunately we do not have any tests here that can diagnose her with dyslexia; however, I can conduct a couple of tests that may or may not suggest that she has a learning disability. If we find out that she does have a learning disability (and it could be related to her dyslexia), then we will talk about her at a School-Base Team meeting to decide what kind of support she needs, such as adapted learning and additional learning support. If we do decide that she needs learning support, then we can decide when would be a good time for her to come in where I can offer her some support in her studies. If she continues to struggle with adaptations and learning support, we can then proceed with more in-depth testing from the school's psychologist; however, to get this testing done, we do have to show her achievement history, what kind of screen testing has been done and what kind of adaptations have been put in place. Furthermore, the waitlist to get this testing done is quite long.

This does not sound very encouraging to me at all. While in Kelowna this past weekend I was renewed and challenged at the Christian Homeschool Conference. I attended a couple workshops on the Susan Barton System of learning as well as Fast ForWord. I will include links at the bottom of this page.

Maybe some people would stop here and not try to figure this out. It can be emotionally and mentally challenging. It is my responsibility as her parent to do what I can for her. It's true that many people can become quite successful in life without learning to read. But why would I set her up for potential frustrations for her whole life, when I have the resources available to me.

I met a woman trained in the Susan Barton program (Rita Pape). She is a wonderful Christian woman who has been commissioned by Heritage Christian Online School to support families like mine. We spoke at length on Tuesday about what she can do to help us along this journey. She was quite surprised that we had opted to leave HCOS for a public school in the quest for help. Apparently HCOS has an amazing system set in place to help families with LD children. It seems that we 'fell through the cracks'. Of course I feel beyond frustrated. I can have free access to Rita's knowledge and the Susan Barton program. She suggested I pray about returning in the fall to HCOS.

So here we are, at another crossroads. Mike supports whatever decision I make and he thinks we should go back to HCOS with a new support teacher. Diane loves her new school and enjoys the social aspect of it. But, truthfully, there are many years ahead of her for social time.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5

Susan Barton Program
http://www.dys-add.com/

Fast ForWord
http://www.scilearn.com/products/