Mince Pies

We went to see the class teacher tonight, she is very pleased with his work,

in his maths book was a test on percentages and he had a Level 4- , which is great as this moment in time, average is Level 4 by end of primary.

The teacher is very pleased with his handwriting it seems average in form but still a little slow. We have the 1:1 help at least to the end of the school year (July 2008), the SENCO hasn't bothered to inform us so we are pleased about the fact that she at least remembered to apply for it! He is going to get both sets of spelling words for the spelling tests next year (easy and harder) as he is doing so well with them, he has some catching up to do.

The biggest problem is getting his thoughts down on paper before he gets them jumbled, and keeping on task, the helper is still egging him on, on occasions. He has lots of good things to write, still it's processing speed letting him down. Science is good.

So very pleased altogether.

Assessment with mental distractions Follow up 8

I am pleased again with these results. Matthew was turning again to look at his score on the screen just as he was finishing each session. Grrrrrrrrrrr. I also noticed he was twitching his hands quite a bit as he listed things, on the floor moving trials this however didn't seem to alter his balance he seemed well in control. He needs to tighten up those scores (the bar indicating range of 3 tries). Matthew always has trouble with test 2, don't know why! but I have been told that 4 + 5 are the most important. We also did the eye tracking. Smooth persuit was excellent and saccades had three red bars(a bar chart was shown to me on the computer comparing this time to last time) compared to 7 reds last time (they indicate speed of movements, slow movements = red bar).

Voting on X-factor

Absolutely no worries about Matthew's working memory anymore. It's better than mine. Matthew loves "Same Difference" and asked me if we could vote for them. We waited for the number to flash up and I quickly punched in the wrong number. As I grasped for the number, he just shouted across to me 09016161104. Makes me smile as he is so much quicker than I am these days, always correcting my awful memory.

Occupational Therapist at school

As promised the OT came out to the school, (delayed 2 weeks because she was sick). She assessed Matthew with a handwriting assessment, talked to the class teacher, observed him playing football. She chatted to Matthew to discover what he would like improved. Waiting for the report now.
She has 5 strategies to help him
1) Tying laces, which he knows how to do just doesn't get practice in this age of velcro.
2) Strengthening shoulders
3) A wedge for him to sit on
4) Strategies for organising his work (not himself)
5) A special knife and fork to make eating easier, although he is ok he just prefers not use them.

She is going to give him a handwritng program called ?Meska to help with fluency. She discovered his class teacher went on a course a few weeks ago called "Write Dance" which the teacher is going to implement with the whole class as well as with those that need more help.
Finally an OT assistant is going to come out and give him a short 4-6 week course doing some of the above with him probably in Feb.
She stated that much that she would have done with him had been done already through Dore so her job was much easier. As she was trying him on some exercise matthew kept saying "I know that one".
Waiting for the report.
If only we had had this a year ago we would never have needed Dore?- Joke as good as the OT dept is I don't beleive their programs to be long enough or relentless enough. Unless somebody knows different.

Cubs Astronomers Badge

Last night Matthew came home proudly with his Astronomer's badge. The Cubs have been absolutely fantastic with Matthew. The Leader of our Scout pack has a Dyslexic son only diagnosed at 14 due to the schools labeling him thick and lazy. (Another horror story). This unfortunately had to be filled in quickly, and he had trouble getting it down at speed, but it's all his own work, and he was very proud.

Handwriting Dec 2006 and Nov 2007

Click on the picture for bigger image.
An example of Matthew's writing Dec 2006, note that fis= this and fers = there's, he couldn't discriminate the "th" sound.

Much better, this is a dictation test I did with him after learning 50 spelling words ("Stairway to Spelling").

Great Day on Friday

Matthew came home and tells us he has had a fabulous day in school. I must congratulate the school as due to the accomodations and help he gets he is currently very happy. He was becoming despondent during early Spring term last year he just hated not finishing his work and feeling stupid, his 1:1 teaching assistant started May 2006 , and although she is not the LSA promised, she has successfully boosted Matthew's confidence. He is enjoying learning the songs for the Xmas concert for the first time. Of course he is now able to process the information better and is in tune with what's going on. He was laughing that he has to remind his best friend not to forget things, as "he forgets everything and loses things and I find them!".

Reading Support Teacher

Just been to see our Reading support teacher, and she reports that Matthews reading age is 9.6 for English and 8.10 for Welsh. Spelling about 8.6 but coming along. She's new and when we were telling her how he was last year she said "oh he sounds Dyslexic!!" and was surprised to be informed by us that he has a diagnosis of Specific Learning Difficulties (dyslexia but could also be dyspraxic in nature). So he must be doing well (you'd think they'd know if a child has a diagnosis though, wouldn't you?). He is still slow at getting his thoughts down on paper, but he can do the work.
When explaining to her just how bad he was last year (as we thought we ought to put her in the picture), it really made us realise how far he has come in just 1 year.

A little recap for any new comers:
Oct 2006 Matthew didn't know what day of the week it was, didn't know months of the year, couldn't tell the time, had no concept of time, was confused as to what was happening in class, his work had platauxed again etc etc!
Oct 2006 Previous Reading Suppport Teacher tests Matthew when she starts, she goes straight to the class teacher and asks "How are you coping with Matthew he is severley Dyspraxic". The class teacher reports that she "isn't coping" and wants help.
We meet with the same lady and she tells us Matthew in her opinion is like a Venn diagram with Dyslexia/Dyspraxia/ADD in the 3 circles Matthew being in the intersection of the 3. She tells us to try to get 1:1 Dyslexia LSA support within the school as "there are children not nearly as bad as Matthew being given support, although due to the fact that he is already receiving 1:1 for S&L he probably won't get it".
Nov 2006 Ed Psych called out urgently to reassess situation. At this point he was thinking ASD (we weren't I must add) and Dyspraxia, so refered to the Paediatrician. He also diagnosed Sp LD and had worries about ADD.
Dec 2006 Dore (thank God).

Reading?

Just thought I'd add this. Matthew was caught reading tonight!!

Occupational Therapist

We had a very good meeting with the OT on Monday, she chatted with us about Matthew and what we had put on the questionaire. Very interested at the fact he hadn't crawled and thoroughly tested his Primitive reflexes (just like Dore only 12 months too late). He still has a slight retention of the ATNR reflex. She was very supportive of our decision to go to Dore, I explained that some of their work had been based on Jean Ayres work (American OT who used motion based therapy 30 years ago- yes 30 yrs ago and there's still people out there saying it doesn't work e.g. Dyslexia Action, BDA), she quite agreed that waiting for OT support for 12 months is not an option if at all possible. Of course some people haven't the option and have to wait. Shame on our government I say. She also checked out his muscle tone and handwriting skills.
She wants to assess him at the school, so is going to arrange that before November is out. She recommends trying a wobble cushion to try and encourage him from putting his head on the desk to write. The Ed Psych in his observations reported that the teacher was asking him to sit up each time he slumped down (yes these educational professionals don't have the knowledge of how uncomfortable these children get trying to get on with their work). They are getting him a sloped board to write on, something else to try. These will be on loan for a term to see if they help, if they do and IF the school will fund then he will have them full time, but she told us it depends on the school budget (yes I know shocking that the could turn round and refuse!) I am hopeful our school would find the money as they have been v. good with funds.