Marguerite
Active Member
The reading issues sound interesting. Does he have a strong preference for one or the other hand, or does he seem ambidextrous? How well cooordinated is he? How flexible are his joints? What are his ball skills like? What about his sense of balance? Is he large, or is he small and weedy? What is his eyesight like? Have you had it tested in the last couple of years?
I'm going to pick the brains of some contacts of mine, as to what would be the best area for you.
It's a pity we're just at the beginning of school holidays; the people you need to talk to will be on leave as well. But don't worry - if you really wanted it to, things could move really quickly. I had to transfer difficult child 1 to Distance Ed (halfway through Year 12!) and they were able to organise it for me within three days.
I think your best bet would be to talk to both primary and secondary, pick their brains about how it all works and what could be put in place for your son. The schools could help with the academic stuff, but the reading issues, I think there are a couple of possibilities there, too.
What did the psychiatric say about his Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) score? Or is that why they ordered the neuropsychologist assessment?
That assessment is going to be valuable. When you talk to Distance Ed, tell them that the assessment has been ordered. The things to mention are his anxiety/depression, the history of bullying, the difficulty the school seems to be having in meeting his needs (although legally they are supposed to ensure he has equal access to education, in practice they just aren't set up to help when a kid is just too needy). Also mention the problems he has with reading - the material they send IS generally highly visual, but they must have this problem regularly, they would have ways to deal with it. They may also have some useful suggestions. I DO know that they have said to us, that if necessary difficult child 3 can give his answers via a tape recording or sound file. I also know there are kids with dyslexia at Distance Ed; we sometimes cross paths on study days (which are optional).
Distance Ed Secondary from Sydney covers a big area, I'm not sure how big. But we have met kids from Wollongong and from Central Coast, turning up to study days. Also Blue Mountains. Despite having such a big area, study days rarely have more than about 10 kids. You can also request individual lessons (face to face, one-on-one). difficult child 1 needed this when he had to learn how to write an essay for his HSC - they worked really hard on him in the few months they had before his first exams. He dropped half his subjects but kept English and Ancient History, both of which required essays (which at the time he was NOT good at). If he'd stayed in mainstream he would have failed everything. But they got him through his first three subjects that year. Then he did Year 11 again for the other three subjects, then the year after that he did Year 12 and his exams (this part-time option is called Pathways).
Are you going to be in a position to be his supervisor? Or if you're not, is there someone else who could do it (easy child's partner, maybe)?
Being a supervisor is mainly a matter of keeping the paperwork straight, keeping him on task (as best you can) and calling the school if he's struggling.
To even consider doing this, I first talked to difficult child 3 about this. I spread it out for him as a PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) and explained how it would work - instead of having to go to school with a classroom and a lot of other kids with a teacher out the front and everyone doing the same work at the same time, he would be working at home for as long as he wanted to on each subject. I wouldn't be his teacher, all I would be was the contact person with the school (if he didn't want to make the call himself) and help him keep his papers straight. I would be allowed to help him as much as I could, but this way he could learn at his own pace. He could stay in his pyjamas if he wanted to. And if he put in a good effort during school hours at home, there would be no homework. That meant he would be able to go visit friends when THEY got out of school.
The down side - we would be cooped up together all day every day. Sometimes if I had to go out to see a doctor or whatever, he would have to come too and bring his schoolwork. There would be no classmates in the room with him, nobody to deflect attention away from him.
The interesting - he WOULD have classmates, some of them doing some very interesting things. He might even get to meet some of them. Classmates would share their stories and he could find out what other students were learning the same way. He could do at least some of his lessons on the internet, he could type his answers as much as he wanted to. He could use his strengths to do well (would be encouraged to do so).
I had to let difficult child 3 have some part of the decision. It was the "no homework" that swayed him.
The other things that have been interesting - while difficult child 3 is working, I will sometimes cook a hot lunch for us both. Even in summer I'll make us a salad. I just put the food in front of him and keep him working - I let him choose when, where and how he works (as long as he DOES work).
Unlike what was happening in mainstream, here the work won't evaporate if he ignores it. Eventually he will have to do it. As a result, I found difficult child 3 learned to just knuckle down and do it. If he finds it too challenging, I call the school.
Early this year difficult child 3 had trouble with English. I felt the teacher was asking too much of him and felt increasingly frustrated. I was also frustrated with difficult child 3 as well - he would sit there, staring at the page and not write a thing, all day. He seemed despondent, too. Finally he said to me, "I know I'm not doing enough. I can see the answer in my head, I just can't seem to get it from my head into the pen and onto the page."
I called his specialist - something was wrong. It turned out to be his medications. He had a combination of too low a dose and a change in medications that wasn't working. We're still adjusting his medications but he is now working much better.
Another contact for you - if your son scores positive for Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) in the neuropsychologist, there is a research study happening at Sydney Uni that you may be interested in. They're looking at the role of oxytocin in how Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) kids learn, especially facial recognition/social skills. At the moment it's a double-blind trial to see if oxytocin has a noticeable effect, but if they can prove it does, they will possibly then be doing a therapeutic trial. They're after males aged 12 to 20 preferably with a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). Other concurrent conditions as anxiety - they did ask us about that too, so it's on the agenda somehow.
I've sent you a PM with my email address.
Hang in there. It can only get better from here.
Marg
I'm going to pick the brains of some contacts of mine, as to what would be the best area for you.
It's a pity we're just at the beginning of school holidays; the people you need to talk to will be on leave as well. But don't worry - if you really wanted it to, things could move really quickly. I had to transfer difficult child 1 to Distance Ed (halfway through Year 12!) and they were able to organise it for me within three days.
I think your best bet would be to talk to both primary and secondary, pick their brains about how it all works and what could be put in place for your son. The schools could help with the academic stuff, but the reading issues, I think there are a couple of possibilities there, too.
What did the psychiatric say about his Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) score? Or is that why they ordered the neuropsychologist assessment?
That assessment is going to be valuable. When you talk to Distance Ed, tell them that the assessment has been ordered. The things to mention are his anxiety/depression, the history of bullying, the difficulty the school seems to be having in meeting his needs (although legally they are supposed to ensure he has equal access to education, in practice they just aren't set up to help when a kid is just too needy). Also mention the problems he has with reading - the material they send IS generally highly visual, but they must have this problem regularly, they would have ways to deal with it. They may also have some useful suggestions. I DO know that they have said to us, that if necessary difficult child 3 can give his answers via a tape recording or sound file. I also know there are kids with dyslexia at Distance Ed; we sometimes cross paths on study days (which are optional).
Distance Ed Secondary from Sydney covers a big area, I'm not sure how big. But we have met kids from Wollongong and from Central Coast, turning up to study days. Also Blue Mountains. Despite having such a big area, study days rarely have more than about 10 kids. You can also request individual lessons (face to face, one-on-one). difficult child 1 needed this when he had to learn how to write an essay for his HSC - they worked really hard on him in the few months they had before his first exams. He dropped half his subjects but kept English and Ancient History, both of which required essays (which at the time he was NOT good at). If he'd stayed in mainstream he would have failed everything. But they got him through his first three subjects that year. Then he did Year 11 again for the other three subjects, then the year after that he did Year 12 and his exams (this part-time option is called Pathways).
Are you going to be in a position to be his supervisor? Or if you're not, is there someone else who could do it (easy child's partner, maybe)?
Being a supervisor is mainly a matter of keeping the paperwork straight, keeping him on task (as best you can) and calling the school if he's struggling.
To even consider doing this, I first talked to difficult child 3 about this. I spread it out for him as a PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) and explained how it would work - instead of having to go to school with a classroom and a lot of other kids with a teacher out the front and everyone doing the same work at the same time, he would be working at home for as long as he wanted to on each subject. I wouldn't be his teacher, all I would be was the contact person with the school (if he didn't want to make the call himself) and help him keep his papers straight. I would be allowed to help him as much as I could, but this way he could learn at his own pace. He could stay in his pyjamas if he wanted to. And if he put in a good effort during school hours at home, there would be no homework. That meant he would be able to go visit friends when THEY got out of school.
The down side - we would be cooped up together all day every day. Sometimes if I had to go out to see a doctor or whatever, he would have to come too and bring his schoolwork. There would be no classmates in the room with him, nobody to deflect attention away from him.
The interesting - he WOULD have classmates, some of them doing some very interesting things. He might even get to meet some of them. Classmates would share their stories and he could find out what other students were learning the same way. He could do at least some of his lessons on the internet, he could type his answers as much as he wanted to. He could use his strengths to do well (would be encouraged to do so).
I had to let difficult child 3 have some part of the decision. It was the "no homework" that swayed him.
The other things that have been interesting - while difficult child 3 is working, I will sometimes cook a hot lunch for us both. Even in summer I'll make us a salad. I just put the food in front of him and keep him working - I let him choose when, where and how he works (as long as he DOES work).
Unlike what was happening in mainstream, here the work won't evaporate if he ignores it. Eventually he will have to do it. As a result, I found difficult child 3 learned to just knuckle down and do it. If he finds it too challenging, I call the school.
Early this year difficult child 3 had trouble with English. I felt the teacher was asking too much of him and felt increasingly frustrated. I was also frustrated with difficult child 3 as well - he would sit there, staring at the page and not write a thing, all day. He seemed despondent, too. Finally he said to me, "I know I'm not doing enough. I can see the answer in my head, I just can't seem to get it from my head into the pen and onto the page."
I called his specialist - something was wrong. It turned out to be his medications. He had a combination of too low a dose and a change in medications that wasn't working. We're still adjusting his medications but he is now working much better.
Another contact for you - if your son scores positive for Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) in the neuropsychologist, there is a research study happening at Sydney Uni that you may be interested in. They're looking at the role of oxytocin in how Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) kids learn, especially facial recognition/social skills. At the moment it's a double-blind trial to see if oxytocin has a noticeable effect, but if they can prove it does, they will possibly then be doing a therapeutic trial. They're after males aged 12 to 20 preferably with a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). Other concurrent conditions as anxiety - they did ask us about that too, so it's on the agenda somehow.
I've sent you a PM with my email address.
Hang in there. It can only get better from here.
Marg
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