Thank you, . . . teacher

Dear Reader,

Monday night, I was sitting in grad. class, I am motivated this summer to graduate and receive my Masters degree because my oldest son will be a senior this year. Yes, I feel old and wonder where the time went. Also, I regret not having pursued my education dreams sooner in my life. The funny thing is and hate to admit, but I really am enjoying my graduate classes. Well back to my Monday night class, we are watching a video, yes a VHS :) about one of my favorite children's authors Patricia Polacco. She is amazing!!!

In the video, she shared a part of her life that touched me, she talked about feeling "dumb" in school because she did not see the words like her friends in school did. She felt that something was wrong with her, to the point that she was contemplating taking her own life. How horrible. She has made an incredible impact on so many young lives as she shares her stories with them. There is so much a child can learn when they experience one of her books. I shudder to think that she ever felt like that in school, and the measures that she must have had to undertake to hide her difficulties from her mother, who is a teacher and her other teachers who would pass her along. It was Mr. Falker that discovered her disability, and found a way that she could taste the sweet honey found in books.

When she came to the realization that it was not her fault that she could not read, and that she was not dumb; it was that she learned or saw things differently from others. It was a turning point, a place in her life that she found hope and wanted to continue to live. At 14 years old, she worked extremely hard to catch up with her peers, she did and continued in her education receiving a PhD. in art history. Amazing, how a teacher can change the course of a child's life, and the incredible works they leave behind. Inspiring.

I think about my own son, and the wonderful teachers he has had. It is they who have made a difference in him, and held my hand along the path. It is a difficult path to take, but these students are Genius's as Patricia Polacco puts it, and it is the teacher who makes the difference.

Be sure to check out Patricia Polacco book, "Thank You, Mr. Falker."

-Maria Creighton

Children's literature for adults?

Dear reader,

One of my favorite activities is to read. I love to get absorbed in a book, and when I finish the experience, I find myself maybe seeing things just a little bit differently. Since I teach, I include children's genres in my vast diet of books and sometimes I come across one that changes my perspective. These characters I hold dear to my heart, as I try to connect to my own students in my classroom.

Many times I have students who have ADHD or have a difficult time paying attention, consequently affecting their ability to do well in school. Sometimes their minds are just so busy, or maybe just spinning around that they have completely missed the lesson. Instead of getting upset, I just take a step back and remember Joey Pigza, one of Jack Gantos characters. Poor Joey, he does not have an ideal home life, he is so impulsive that he tells his teacher that "I'll get back to you on that," but he has good intentions with a heart of gold. He loves to try to swallow a key and pull it out, until he swallows it one day. He had forgotten that the key was not attached to the string. Oooops. Reading Jack Gantos books has helped me understand ADHD by getting inside of Joey's inner self and realizing he is not a "bad kid." I recommend these books to my parents as well.

Sometimes, it is easier to bond and connect with our students, if we understand and be sympathetic with them. ADHD sometimes interfere with a child's ability to read or comprehend because they are unable to concentrate. As teachers, we need to adjust our lessons accordingly, and allow for a little more activity :) I love books because it allows me to experience a world that is completely different from mine, or connect to a world that is similar to mine.

-Maria Creighton

Is it a "b" or a "d"?

One of the most confusing letter for some children to master is the "b" and the "d." If we take a moment to look at these two letters, they have a lot of similarites. For example, there is a straight line going up, out of the side of a round circle. The difference is crucial because that is what distinguishes the letter. the way in which the circle is positioned. There are many mneumonics that can be used to assist children in determining what letter it is.

My oldest son was very fortunate because he had three b's in his name, he would write his name on the paper, and knew exactly, which was which. My daughter did not have a b in her name, so we had to put this issue to rest. No pun intended, we drew a bed and wrote the word. There are the two letters, side by side with e in the middle. Well, how did we know which was first well, b comes before d.

Of course, all children are different and there is never one approach that works 100% of the time. There more strategies we have the better. I want you to take a moment to envision, a big red balloon. This balloon needs to be incredible, so we will make it big and we will want to share it with the world. What would we need to do with it? Of, course fill it up with helium. If I let go, you know exactly what will happen. The balloon would go up in the air. If you take a child's left hand, because the majority of the time that child will have a pencil in their right hand, and have them make a fist (where you can not see the knuckles). Then have the child point their thumb in the air (the direction that the red balloon is going), now you have a b for balloon. Of course, we continue with the opposite, but in this case it is not the d. We think of pigs, and how much they love to play in the mud. These pigs like to go way down in the mud, now the child can point their thumb down to create a p for pigs. Now what about the poor d, well if we know that it is not b by looking at our left hand when writing, then we know it just has to be the other letter. The other letter, which is d. A multi-sensory technique.

What techniques do you use when helping children with these confusing letters?

What do you see?

I remember when I was pregnant with Chad, my eye-sight had started diminishing, so I thought. We had gone bowling with some friends, and I had made a comment about how small the numbers were above the lanes, the best thing I could do was count them. My friend started laughing, thinking I was joking, which of course I wasn't. That prompted me to go to the eye doctor. Yes, the diagnosis was a astigmatism that I had, had all my life. I didn't pay attention to how tired my eyes were at the end of the day, how close I would hold a book when I read, or completely slanted my paper as I wrote because unconsciously I had made accommodations for my lack of eye sight. It was so bad, that I never noticed that I could not read the street signs until I was close to them. I remember the first time I put my glasses on, I saw the world completely different, and was amazed with all the unobserved details that I had missed.

When my child's teacher discussed her concerns with me, I panicked and did not know what to do. There are not many resources or places one can go for a diagnosis of Dyslexia. I found an eye doctor in Louisiana who specialized with visual perception problems and gave my child a lengthy diagnosis. In essence, our eyes are muscles that work together when visually processing text/information and sometimes our muscles are weak, thus do not work together. He claimed that his eyes would jump or react in a certain way to text, consequently interfering with his visual process. The images in front of him might be perceived as blurred or he would miss it completely. Best of all, this is corrected with eye therapy. The doctor gave me exercises that we would do after school, and then spent one summer traveling back and forth to receive therapy there.

The first time we did the therapy at home, I put on his colored glasses, and placed the color overlay on top. I could not see a thing, everything was blurry. As I was trying to go through the exercises, my child was laughing hysterically because he saw everything just fine when he used them. Of course, when I took the glasses off, I had done everything all wrong.

Imagine how hard it is to read text when something is interfering with the process. Sometimes, we may not even know that we see the world differently, but just make accommodations to adjust to it.

Looking through our eyes. . .

Have you ever thought about how big our world is, yet still so small? The same ideas that are talked about in one country, are the same that are discussed across miles of water.

Reading is a complex process. Yet, once we have mastered it, it becomes so automatic and natural that we do not stop to think about all of the skills we must possess in order to understand the text. I remember when I started driving, it was the most difficult and stressful thing imaginable. I am not sure if, it was because I learned how to drive from my mother or that we lived in Southern California and practiced in the midst of traffic. My driver's ed. coach, also did not have much faith in me, and surprisingly I passed my driver's test on my 16th birthday. (Thank goodness, that when I was asked to parallel park there was not a car in front or behind me). Today, I do not stop and think about all the visual information that I have to process and act upon while handling my car. Reading is the same way.

As we read the text, we have to process the print. According to Ronald Davis, the author of The Gift of Dyslexia, the reader who is dyslexic does not process the information the same way, thus the text becomes confusing. Many dyslexic readers say that they see images when reading, and not the words. For instance, instead of seeing the word RED, the reader my just see the image of the color red. While I look at the letters that are combined, and automatically think about the sounds, blend them together to create the word the color red, and then associate with the color. Same thing with the word cat, I blend it together to create the word cat, and then associate it to the image. While the dyslexic readers looks at the whole of the word, not the letters, visually imaging a cat. Sometimes the reader, can not visualize or it may be difficult to associate an image with the words found within a sentence causing confusion when reading.

How does this relate to my initial question? My mother-in-law returned from a visit to Ireland after visiting a friend and mentioned that one of the Sisters in the church parish tutors pupils who are Dyslexic. She uses the methods discussed in the book that I had just finished. Wow, can you imagine that. Her work is very interesting, she does a lot of visual therapy and has her students create images out of clay to associate them with words. It goes back to how we perceive the world.

Dyslexia

The Gift of Dyslexia by: Ronald D. Davis.

Interesting title, isn't it? Dyslexia as being a gift. The learning disability that causes many frustrations in reading, spelling and math due to the inability to "break the code," or perceive it differently. How can it be a gift? That is the exact question I thought of as I began reading the book.

It is funny, how a book can change you. That is one of the many reasons that I love to read, the fact that I can change my views and perspective. Wow, dyslexia can be thought of a blessing. It is their inordinate ability to perceive the world, they have an intuition that is incredible, and instead of looking at the details, they can see the whole. Amazing, they can perceive the world through their sense, with an incredible visual intelligence.

This book changed my melancholy mood about this reading disorder, to one of awe; the difference in how information is processed. It goes to show, it is in the high of the beholder whether the glass is half full, or half empty.

The "label"

A "label" is something we use to identify, and describe. It gives teachers, the background needed to plan for appropriate instruction and to meet the needs of the students. I never thought that it was a bad thing, but on the other side of the spectrum, as a parent; it was different. In my heart I did not feel the same way. I did panic, through the process because I felt that it was finite. It validated my suspicions. Ignorance can be bliss at times, because you can ignore that LARGE elephant that is in the room. But, now I am being selfish and thinking only about how I am feeling.

I was scared over the "label," because even though my child experienced difficulty reading; he is extremely bright. So, I wanted his teachers to see beyond his difficulties and see him for the fantastic child that he is. In essence, he is unique and sees the world differently than the norm. As if a teacher would not see that; I was thinking crazy for fear of the unknown. As I was sharing my feelings with a friend, she had a completely different perspective. She had been trying for several years to have her child placed, so that they can be entitled to the additional reading instruction that would be beneficial. Again another bright child, who struggles in "breaking the code" of printed language, and unfortunately the gap is not large enough to be placed into the program.

Now, the most important thing is how did my child feel? Well, fantastic because he began feeling good. He was given the small, intensive reading instruction that was more specific to his needs. My child did not have that "shutting down" look, when he talked about school, as if it were not his favorite place to be, nor comparing himself with his peers, and wondering "oh-no."

Inclusion, special education, learning disability, 504, IEP. . . .

All these buzz words, that can be used to "label," but what is most important is looking into the eyes of the child.

Sensory Integration Disorder

I was at Barnes and Noble this morning, my favorite store. While I was perusing the Education shelves, I came across a newing disorder. A small percentage of the population experiencing this problem. There brains have difficulty processing information that comes to the brain through their senses. For example, the maybe sensitive to food and might not like certain textures. They can make themselves sick thinking about eating, and how certain foods feel as they swallow them, so they only eat a limited portion of foods. Or they might be sensitive to sounds or lights, thus finding it very difficult to concentrate in a room. The tag in a shirt might also bother the child, that they just HAVE to cut out. Interesting how we can all process information differently.

As I was looking through a book, a mother happened to glance over and tell me the story of her child. She shared that her child had sensory integration disorder and that she had to pull him out of school. He was unable to handle the environment, and the teachers did not know what to do with him, saying that he needed to be held back because he was having difficulty learning. She felt that her child was smart, and that his personality was difficult. He had always been a difficult child and as an infant would cry insistently without stopping. It was difficult to soothe him, and he was not fond of strangers.

It was funny how she mentioned in the course of her story, that she never thought her child was different or suffered from some type of disorder. It was when he was in school, and she was able to compare him with the norm, did she start realizing that something was wrong. Again, our motherly instincts took over as she researched him and got him diagnosed. What do you with a child who has this disorder? Well, according to her occupational therapy is the best thing.

It made me feel better that sometimes we can overlook symptoms because they are our children and we see their unique beauty, accepting, loving them whole hearted. They are perfect in our eyes, even though they might have a unique personality.

If Only. . .

Have you ever wanted to be a "Monday night quarterback"? Do you ever want to go back in time, and do things differently? I do. If I only knew, what I know today, circumstances just might be different.

Today, I am beginning to realize the connection between language development and reading. Oral language development is crucial for young children to develop, so as to provide the foundation or framework that they will use in later years to acquire writing language. Children need to be able to hear speech sounds, and realize that these sounds are made of words. In turn, children practice oral language in their speech. The problem is, is that they need to be about to hear and communicate. What about children who have experienced many ear aches or hearing problems during this developmental time, can this impeded their reading abilities in later years?

I think back when my child was an infant, he didn't speak much. He pointed to what he wanted, and being the third child, we just gave him what he wanted. He spent a lot of time on the go, observing the world around him. I didn't notice that he was not orally communicating with us, and just thought his speech patterns were normal. When he was 12 months old, I knew something was wrong, I just had that "gut" feeling, but didn't know what it was. I visited 6 pediatricians, who reassured me that they did not see anything wrong with the child. So I returned back to our family pediatrician who referred me to a ENT. At 18 months old, that doctor discovered that his adenoids were so enlarged that it affected his hearing. After surgery, I noticed for the first time that he was responding to sounds, jumping at a sound of a car passing by us. We continued with life after surgery, as his oral language was beginning to develop.

Today, I now wonder if the oral language delay played a role in his reading difficulties? Would speech therapy at a younger age would have developed the brain to prepare it for written language?

Why?

Dear Reader:

Why would I want to blog about a topic that is so uncomfortable as "learning difficulties"? Hopefully, to find some hope. I am a teacher who got into education because my child did not learn as easily as his peers. My husband challenged me, and asked me what I was going to do about this? He attended a private school where the mentality of the administration is, if y0u do not agree with what we are doing, then take him out of the school, but the public school was not an option. What is a mother to do? The only option I had was to leave my career of a nutritionist, and g0 back to school. Yes, I re-entered as an under graduated and realized that all students learn differently. I am okay with that, and have implemented that practice in the classroom. Today, I am a teacher and love what I do!! I can't imagine doing anything else. I feel that I am blessed that I have a job doing what I love to do in today's times, when parents ask me, "How do I do it?" I want to respond thank you for sharing your child with me this year. He/she has been a blessing to me. Going back to why I want to blog, is that my youngest child (my third, who I wish I was capable of having, the crazy person I am:)) has a severe learning disability and has been referred to Special Education. My desire is to find hope and inspiration as I take a new role as parent instead of teacher.

-Maria Creighton