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Dawn
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I just posted about my 5 yo's challenges and experience with the Feingold diet in Our Lady of Good Remedy. I have been wanting to ask in this forum about preschool programs.
I would like to know what you have "done" for early learning with your young special blessings.
I know this is a very broad question. I guess to begin with what I'd like to know is, did/do you find structure is best for teaching, or did/does a laid back approach work better? Do you use a formal/prepared preK curriculum or did you put something together yourself?
Thank you so much for your help!
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Kim F
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We have done a very informal Montessori-ish program with ours. We also try to get books from a variety of sections at the library to include biography, science, folk tales, art, etc. Videos like Signing Time or Families From...(name a country) round it out.
I tried Little Saints, FIAR, Learning At Home, you name it. Some worked better than others. If I only had littles I would use something like Story Stretchers. By and large however I found that none of the more formal programs matched up exactly right since children of that age vary so tremendously in their skill areas. It was better to have separate curric than to hope to find a combined formal program that was at their level for every subject.
I've also enjoyed using the Cuisenaire books, Building Thinking Skills, Handwriting without Tears, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and the Fr Lovasik religion books. Those along with Natural Structure and Elizabeth Hainstock's Montessori in the Home bks provided more than needed for academics.
Kim
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Elizabeth
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Kim F wrote:
We have done a very informal Montessori-ish program with ours. We also try to get books from a variety of sections at the library to include biography, science, folk tales, art, etc. Videos like Signing Time or Families From...(name a country) round it out.
I've also enjoyed using the Cuisenaire books, Building Thinking Skills, Handwriting without Tears, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and the Fr Lovasik religion books. Those along with Natural Structure and Elizabeth Hainstock's Montessori in the Home bks provided more than needed for academics.
Kim |
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We've done the above and then we have all the FIAR books. I've done FIAR more or less loosely, depending on life. But, regardless of whether we do activities or plan units or whatnot, those books get read and read and read again. And lots of discussion and rabbit trails naturally happen.
I'm also a big fan of Leap Frog DVDs along the letter Factory lines... A also like the Children's Treasure Box. I thought it was sort of saccharine sweet but my kids love it.
and we do Bible narrations to bind into a book using a Bible Storybook.
I've just realized that you've put this question in Special Blessings. I think one thing I'd do differently wrt a kid like Earlybird is I'd impose more structure. We're pretty relaxed. Christian is so relaxed he's horizontal. He really, really needs structure and those habits ideally are laid at the very beginning. He acknowledges now that structure is important and would help but re-training is wayyyy harder than training.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Dawn
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Elizabeth wrote:
| I've just realized that you've put this question in Special Blessings. I think one thing I'd do differently wrt a kid like Earlybird is I'd impose more structure. We're pretty relaxed. Christian is so relaxed he's horizontal. He really, really needs structure and those habits ideally are laid at the very beginning. He acknowledges now that structure is important and would help but re-training is wayyyy harder than training. |
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Yes, this is what I was thinking. With my older two we were very relaxed at the pre-school level. Mostly reading and exploring nature and concepts. Not much structure.
When EB was diagnosed (and they suggested I put him in school  ) they said he needed structure (something along the lines of 25 hours a week).
When I had my final consultation with his OT in November she suggested we follow a structured pre-K curriculum at home with him. (Side note - though he's finished with OT for the time being, he still attends speech at the same practice. His OT is available to us anytime for questions or even to start therapy back up - a nice (albeit expensive) safety net.)
Kim, I agree about the need to piece it together, though it would be ideal to find one program and have it all laid out. I have Little Saints but it would never meet all his needs. I am curious about Natural Structure; I'll have to take a look.
I guess I need to begin with a list of goals for him this year and then take suggestions from you all and make up a daily/weekly plan to follow.
I know he needs structure, as you suggest, Elizabeth (I need to go back and re-read your Special Blessings chapter this weekend). He kind of bucks being put upon, so I can see where that's heading.  My first aim is to get him to sit and pay attention for longer periods of time.
ETA - You know what I could use is an outline of skills for different ages (in his case a 5yo, though he's a year or so beind). I know I will have to tweak it, but it can be hard to keep track of all the things that he should be doing. The olders just did them, kwim?
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Elizabeth
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Dawn,
Really focus on attention. Get him to listen to a story and make sure he understands that he will need to tell you EVERYTHING he remembers about it. Keep periods of intense concentration bounded on either side with physical activity but mental rest. And bear the burden with him. Stay really, really close. Narration in everything is great for all kids, but especially these kids. I have two in particular who aren't big talkers to anyone but me. But they will talk to me and it's important that I'm there and fully attentive to to what they say since I'm their biggest opportunity to practice those skills.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Kim F
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I will be honest - the NS is still more guidelines and ideas than lesson plans so don't purchase if that is what you could use.
As far as structure I think household routine is very helpful for distractable kids. They don't do well with a curveball thrown at them. I saw a nice chart for daily routines here: Redeeming the Time
Don't let the Toddler part throw you. To me it is a great visual for distractable kids. They can see even across a room where they are in the day and what comes next. They can also track easily what was done and what is yet to do. This is HUGE for an ADD type. Forgetting an upcoming chore or event equates to a curveball when that item is brought to their attn later.
I found these links to both child development profiles and academic scope and sequences for this age:
five yr old development
Kindergarten s and s
another
Are these what you were looking for?
Kim
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mom3aut1not
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Dawn,
With Katie, my least impaired ASD child, I didn't do anything unusual until K. Then I focused on phonics, math, religion, read alouds and did science, social studies, etc. informally. (It was the last year people did not have to register children for K in MD.) I did work on problem areas year round, but her program was the closest to "normal" of my three ASD children.
Kristin did preschool and K in public school and started hisng in first grade. I did work with her on phonics and math and did lots of reading while she was still in school. When I did start hsing her, I had to step things down a bit as her language skills were worse than Katie's and her thinking is more.... autistic.
Both young women (now 21 and almost 19) are quite intelligent but impaired to a greater or lesser degree. Katie is trying to finish up an AA degree in computer security. Kristin is trying to finish high school.
For my youngest Special Blessing, things are harder. Joseph is almost 7 yo. He is not potty-trained, and his speech and langauge skils vary from less than 2 years to 3y 7m. Otoh he is doing RightStart Math B and Sing, Spell, Read, and Write 1 with me. I work with him every week day (we get two weeks off each year) which he needs. After taking a week off when Grandma was here, I am struggling to regain his attention. So I homeschool even I'd love to take a week off and get the house neat or when I'm sick or whatever. Spontaneity is not big around here. I have been working with him on language skills aat least since shortly after his second birthday. Until I had to worry about the school system, I just worked on speech skills with him and read to him a lot with some informal math work.
MD law demands that I teach (and show that I teach) L Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Music, Art , PE, and Health. (Yes, even in K.) Yet he is really at a preschol level for most of his dtudies. For subjects like science, I put together units with books by Cathryn P. Sill, Jim Arnosky, and so on. Social studies is mostly a waste, but I do it. The best thing I've found is to put units together as I did with science. I really try to focus on specific language skills -- like understanding under, behind, first, next, and last. (You can see why social studies is a waste; a child really needs basic lanuguage skills for it.) Science, math, and so on are studies he can experience concretely, but he has real trouble with religion and social studies. I know things will get better, and I am looking for materials with an eye to the future.
More concretely, we do the following:
Hello -- we exchange greetings, ask and answer introductory questions. I am also modelling "small talk" and starting conversations.
Prayer -- right now it's the Apostles Creed and God bless -----.
Music -- songs for SSTW, HET term 2 cd (only one folk song this time as well as the Schubert selections), and other kidd' songs
Table -- math, handwriting, speech skills, phonics sometimes, caldendar
Book -- poetry, Catholic Mosaic sometimes, religion, science, social studies, and other books as desited and phonics
sometimesfollowed sometimes by PE or Art or games or Speech and Language therapy (the last twice a week)
Oh, as for Health we are working on potty training, hand washing, and covering one's mouth or nose when coughing,sneezing, whatever. We do that throughout the day.
If I had no homeschool regulations hovering over me, I would mostly do the same. I use Handwriting Without Tears and/or work on fother ine motor skills. (I have found the Kumon workbooks for little kids really helpful in that area.) I would skip any fomal social stuidies.but I would continue science with preschool level books and kits. For preschool religion I like I Learn About Jesus from DSP as well as Montessori materials. I have also done the primer from Living My Religion, but Jospeh is not ready for it or Once Upon a Time Saints or other materials I like.
I am not going to worry about narration and so on until he has the speech skills of at least a six year old child. I just expose to poetry, music, and so on without expecting any verbal output from him. Even if he doens't "get" it completely, I figure the exposure is good for him and reminds me to offer him a "generous" curriculum and not just focus on skills.
FWIW.....
In Christ,
Deborah
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Taffy
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Dawn, here's my two cents but I don't think they're worth much. My now 10 year old has PDD and I'm afraid that we've made way too many errors with him.
Looking back, I think that I really underestimated the importance of playing with him. I got caught up with the ABA approach and we had him in school which did him little good. In a lot of ways, we've had to waste a lot of time regaining what chances were lost.
Routine is very important. My boy gets bored easily and is pretty easy-going and I mistook this for structure not being needed. But, I now know that he really craves it. He doesn't really want to do the same thing everyday, but he likes to know that on weekdays we do our reading first, then math, then piano, etc. He's OK with my changing it, as long as he understands what's going on.
What really doesn't work for him is unstructured free time. I think that he gets overwhelmed and can't focus his thoughts on any activity in particular.
This page gives a great list of items to focus on to encourage the language skills necessary for later learning.
Read lots of great picture books with a focus on comprehension first. Reading the words will come but understanding what the words mean is more important.
Do activities that encourage his interest in interacting with you and following directions. For instance, if he enjoys playing with a ball, play with him the way he likes at first, then gradually start changing the rules. If his game involves kicking the ball, start kicking it back. Once he's OK with that, encourage him to kick the ball back to you. Once he's willing to cooperate with you, learning becomes much easier.
If you're interested in a more structured guide for language arts, here's what I'm currently doing...
Language Arts is divided into 4 major areas:
- Conversation Skills
- Critical Thinking Skills
- Language Use & Expression: 1) grammar & syntax, 2)writing and written expression
- Story Comprehension
Math should focus on sequencing skills as these are generally really poor in PDD affected children. Have him learn how to put things in order of size, group like objects together and tell how things are different or the same. Categorizing objects by certain traits is also important and can be done at this stage.
Critical thinking skills are VERY important and it's never too early to start. Create some stories explaining the concepts of SAFE and DANGEROUS. Have him copy simple structures you make out of Lego - then change it and see if he can adjust. Rigid thinking is often a problem and will make later learning difficult. The more flexible he becomes in his thinking processes, the easier it will be for him to learn new things and it will also help with social skills too.
Observation skills could be worked on now too. Go outside and try and get him to share what he sees or finds. We have a LOT of trouble with this. I think my son gets overwhelmed with the information. He's pretty good at drawing pictures but not at describing them. Draw pictures together. Help him describe a picture in a book. Draw bugs or plants from outside together. Have him descibe them to you.
I'm sorry, I'm afraid that I'm not making much sense at the moment. I'm alone with the 3 year old who's learning to potty train so I'm a bit distracted.  I hope to have added something helpful and if you want a further breakdown for the language arts skills, let me know.
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Dawn
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I have to log off right now, but not before I hit the print button on this thread and THANK YOU all for taking the time to respond - Elizabeth, Kim, Taffy and Deborah. Your replies mean so much to me and have given me a great place to begin. I will post more (probably questions!) as soon as I sit down and drink this all in and start my outline for EB's new year. I feel very encouraged and supported. God Bless!
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Angel
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Hi Dawn,
I'm not sure how much more I can add, except to chime in with Elizabeth that I would have been more structured with my oldest, if I had it to do all over again. I think in particular that I would have added in more Montessori practical life activities to encourage his motor skills, and I would have actually scheduled in a time to do social skills training -- through play, or using picture books to teach emotions and manners. When he was 3 and 4 and we were working on his language skills, we would make a point of getting down on the floor with him to play with his cars, or the dollhouse people or whatever, but we got away from that as his speech improved. I think we should have kept on with this focused play period in order to work on social skills.
If I had it to do over again, I would still read him lots of books related to his interests (he's always had all-encompassing interests, like your Earlybird), because I think this is largely the reason Garrett loves books and reading, and is so curious today. But I would try to expand his interests more than I did by reading him good books on a regular basis *not* related to his interests. I'd also have worked harder at narration with him.
I would definitely keep up our practice of being outside for hours every day. I would have had more exercise for him to do indoors, though, both to improve his gross motor skills (which were and still are delayed) and because he needs this activity in order to concentrate.
I'm not sure that I would have started handwriting or phonics any earlier than I did, though (which was at about age 6.) He needed a chance to get all his other systems in order first. BUT. I would have done a lot more readiness type exercises -- writing in the sand with his finger, listening exercises, those sorts of things -- than we did.
Also... we had an OT who didBrain Gymexercises with Garrett at about age 5. I would have kept up with these. In fact, I would like to begin doing them again now. They aid in sensory integration and concentration.
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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KC in TX
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Elizabeth wrote:
Dawn,
Really focus on attention. Get him to listen to a story and make sure he understands that he will need to tell you EVERYTHING he remembers about it. Keep periods of intense concentration bounded on either side with physical activity but mental rest. And bear the burden with him. Stay really, really close. Narration in everything is great for all kids, but especially these kids. I have two in particular who aren't big talkers to anyone but me. But they will talk to me and it's important that I'm there and fully attentive to to what they say since I'm their biggest opportunity to practice those skills. |
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Dawn,
I wholeheartedly agree with Elizabeth. This is my biggest struggle with my high functioning autistic son. He is now 8 and we struggle daily with his attention. Part of it is his sensory problems, part ADHD, part training. I had a very loose program for him for K (pregnancy nausea) and for 1st grade we did some structure, but it was willy nilly. Even now, I'm still struggling to maintain structure and consistency, but that's another post. Anyway, work on his attention. Try working with a page at a time--that's what my son's OT does. We've had this diagnosis for 2 years now and I'm still learning and still working on a gameplan.
I'm happy to hear you are starting now. I feel I'm failing my son at times. Whoa, I don't want to hijack this thread so I will hit post.
__________________
KC,
wife to Ben (10/94),
Mama to LB ('98)
Michaela ('01)
Emma ('03)
Jordan ('05)
And, my 2 angels, Rose ('08) and Mark ('09)
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Willa
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Angel wrote:
I'm not sure that I would have started handwriting or phonics any earlier than I did, though (which was at about age 6.) He needed a chance to get all his other systems in order first. BUT. I would have done a lot more readiness type exercises -- writing in the sand with his finger, listening exercises, those sorts of things -- than we did.
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This is how I'm approaching it. We do a bit of handwriting and phonics now that Aidan is seven (functioning like a kindergartener).
I use the MODG Kindergarten syllabus as a loose framework expecting to adapt it. The materials used are:
100 Easy Lessons
some kind of math workbook
Parent/Child Masterpieces
Golden Bible with narrations and drawing to make your own Bible storybook
Poetry memorization -- mostly Child's Garden of Verses
To this I add Handwriting without Tears.
There is no way Aidan is ready for the Golden Bible -- not even my typical K-ers could handle that. So we have a book of very simple Bible stories and I don't expect narrations, just attention. I extend his attention by interacting with the text and with him. We do the Five in a Row approach -- not extra activities, at least not yet, but repeating the same story as many times as he is still interested in hearing it. In the end he knows the story by heart and can repeat sections and make connections to other contexts which is the closest he is yet to a narration.
With the Parent/Child masterpieces he is doing great and simply loves matching them! They have become his treasures. We extended this into "music matching" where my daughter plays the opening bars of a song on the keyboard and he IDs it. He is good at this and loves it, and since he is deaf in one ear we are working on therapy goals of hearing discrimination too.
We use Horizons math K as a spine for math; we happened to have it around the house (none of my other kids did Math in K so we hadn't used it). It is colorful and visual and Paddy likes it too. We supplement with hands-on activities and we move slow since he is still learning one to one correspondence.
He is actually a bit ahead of the game in 100 Easy Lessons and just starting to blend a bit. We also use Starfall and I'm going to experiment with some Montessori activities. He really enjoyed the Red Letter Alphabet Book as well as the blue Number one so that is obviously a good approach for him.
We haven't gotten far with the Child's Garden of Verses mostly because I don't happen to like most of the poems much (sorry, it's just me, but it does de-motivate me). However, I work with him a LOT on memorization partly because it helps with hearing discrimination, partly because it lays down auditory patterns in his head which have been useful to him in the past in extending vocabulary and mean length of utterance, and partly because he absolutely loves to memorize. He is very retentive; has amazed us by being able to say the Rosary in Latin just because his oldest brother and I were working on learning to say it all last summer.
His sister works with him on memorizing songs, which is a game to both of them, and I work with him on prayers. We do this very informally. Most of this takes place in odd corners of the day -- I see what you all are saying about structure. ...but I like the Montessori idea of flexibility within limits and he responds well to that, and that's what I imagine you are talking about, not "lock down mode". So I do have expectations but we work with what he's capable of that particular day. ... which varies. The main need for structure is MINE, so I can ensure his needs don't fall by the wayside when I get busy with the older ones. I usually don't really do Kindergarten, so I'm not used to it!
Just before Christmas I started to experiment with a weekly visual calendar for him and he responded great to that so I am thinking that a chart comparable to the one Kim linked to, but for his bedtime routine, would be a good thing to try now.
We don't have formal history or science -- science is nature study, and health and hygiene, and very unstructured. PE is physical therapy. He gets a few vaguely academic "homework" assignments from his occupational and speech therapists and sometimes I extend them a bit particularly if he seems to like them.
So I guess, to answer your questions, I use a prepared curriculum but just as a basis; I tweak it a lot. And he is different from some other special needs children in that he rather LIKES structure and ritual and seeks it out. But our structure doesn't go further than he does -- in other words, he has responded badly when therapists in the past have used structure to try to take him further than he was developmentally ready to go. I don't know if that makes sense. The structure needs to be a support, not a sort of crutch or stretching rack, for him. Again, Montessori is probably the closest to how it works for him in practice, though I am no expert in Montessori and we don't have the equipment etc.
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Willa
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Dawn
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I am so humbled by all these responses. I know how much time it takes to post all those thoughts and links. Thank you all so much for your support.
Because on top of all the advice you generously supply, more importantly you give me so much support - practically and emotionally. I deeply appreciate that.
I am in agreement with it all. I see we need to work on structure, big time. (I date myself using that phrase, don't I?)
Like Willa said, I've never really done K - I guess in a way that makes me a sometime-unschooler.  So much of what I need to do with EB are things I never gave a second thought to with the older two.
First and foremost, we will work on attention span. Getting him to sit and pay attention to what I am doing. I will start with a small board book and ask that he watch me turn the pages and listen to me read. As KC said, even just begin with one page. I haven't asked a lot (enough) of him before so I will be eager to see what I can expect.
He is so verbally delayed (mainly clarity - he tries to say a whole lot more than he can manage) that I have never even really thought of narration, but it occurs to me, he can do it. He can do it in his way. This has been my shortfall all over with him. A lack of expectation. And I find all the time he is aware of sooooo much more than I give him credit for.
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KC in TX
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Dawn wrote:
A lack of expectation. And I find all the time he is aware of sooooo much more than I give him credit for.
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Dawn,
This is what I find doing to LB. He is always so much more aware than I give him credit for. He always springs things on me that he remembered. One thing I've realized is that because I live with trying to help him learn and function in the world, I tend to see how much he doesn't do instead of how much he does do. I like to receive people's reaction to him after not having seen him for a period of time. Mostly, people remark on his improvement, but it always surprises me that they say it. Make sense? I'm a bit tired.
__________________
KC,
wife to Ben (10/94),
Mama to LB ('98)
Michaela ('01)
Emma ('03)
Jordan ('05)
And, my 2 angels, Rose ('08) and Mark ('09)
The Cabbage Patch
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Dawn
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KC, it does make sense. I do the same thing. Because I am with him all the time, weathering the ups and downs and worrying about it all - big picture and little things - it can be overwhelming, to say the least. I do tend to focus on what he's *not* doing (because I see it as my bad - I am not doing enough there in that area) and I will have people point things out to me and I am pleasantly surprised!
For instance, last week at speech, we all troop in, and I am just in that frazzled moment of we-got-here-everyone-get-settled and EB walks ahead and over to a woman sitting on the couch. This other woman, with whom I am friendly, who sees us every week says "Wow, he's being very verbal today!" And when I look at her quizzically, she says "He just went up to that woman and said, 'Hi, what's your name?'" And here I was clueless. It hadn't occured to me he'd do that, let alone he could.
The other day he walked into the room and burped and said "Oh, I did a big burp!" Now, he's not saying it as clearly as I typed. I didn't even know he was aware of those things.
But he drinks it all in. And so many things are coming out that are - for lack of a better, more sensitive way to say it - just like a "neurotypical" kid.
My mum was here Tuesday babysitting and taught him to spell Hi. Yesterday he was playing with his Aquadoodle and i asked him to write Hi, and he did. Just like that!
I'm seeing I need to get on the ball and stop letting time slip away. I see I have a window to work in and well, I'd better get to work!
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4Real Forums : Special Blessings
Topic: Early learning
