Thanks to Melanie at This Ain't New York for sharing this bit of sad news with us. Her blog just wouldn't be the same without the apostrophe.
Be thankful ~
Karen
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
History of a Learning Disability, Part 3. Finally.
Read History Part 1 here and History Part 2 here. Then you'll be caught up and know what we're talking about.
Abbie had her psycho-educational testing in late December and early January, and we were finally able to meet with the psychologist to get the results.
What an eye-opener.
Some things were no surprise, like the fact that she has plenty of intelligence. No lack in that area. But for her to hear it from a professional did Abbie a world of good. In most tasks, she scored from average to sky-high above average, especially when it involved pictures. In one test, the doctor showed her a complicated geometrical drawing involving all sorts of random shapes, lines, criss-crosses, squiggles, and dots and had her draw it. Ok, fine. Then 30 minutes later she said, "Remember that picture you drew a while ago? Draw it again. From memory." And Abbie was able to almost perfectly (and to scale) reproduce it. Amazing. Show her a picture of a bunch of things and she can remember all of them, where they were, what expressions people had on their faces, and can tell you what's missing from a replication of the picture.
Tasks that used her auditory system were a breeze for her. She remembers everything she hears, even long-term. We used to help her memorize Bible verses for AWANA by singing them to familiar tunes.
But anything that involves the reading of small symbols, letters, or numbers is a huge struggle for her. Her processing speed in that area drops to the fourth percentile, and even below the first percentile on one test. It blew my mind. It's not an inability to see--she sees fine. It's not an inability to read--she reads fine. She does math fine. It's the processing of the information that slows her down. Her brain's perception of those small symbols somehow doesn't work right. She can do anything anyone else can do, it just takes her much, much longer. This is not something that can be "fixed." We may be able to improve her processing speed slightly with various therapies, but basically it's just part of who she is.
So where do we go from here?
We look at compensatory strategies--what we can do to help her in her weak areas and take advantage of her strengths. We can get her textbooks on CD so she can listen to them. She can record lectures and listen to them again at home. She can use notecards that have very short blips of information on them, rather than long, detailed paragraphs. I can study aloud with her. We can get longer test times. She can use spell-check.
On the bright side, she has plenty of strengths. She is a wonderful musician and a gifted artist. Her people skills are outstanding--everyone loves her. Her character will take her a long way.
There is no doubt in my mind that Abbie can succeed at whatever she wants to do. And now that she knows she is just as smart as the next person, she has great hope.
Be thankful ~
Karen
Abbie had her psycho-educational testing in late December and early January, and we were finally able to meet with the psychologist to get the results.
What an eye-opener.
Some things were no surprise, like the fact that she has plenty of intelligence. No lack in that area. But for her to hear it from a professional did Abbie a world of good. In most tasks, she scored from average to sky-high above average, especially when it involved pictures. In one test, the doctor showed her a complicated geometrical drawing involving all sorts of random shapes, lines, criss-crosses, squiggles, and dots and had her draw it. Ok, fine. Then 30 minutes later she said, "Remember that picture you drew a while ago? Draw it again. From memory." And Abbie was able to almost perfectly (and to scale) reproduce it. Amazing. Show her a picture of a bunch of things and she can remember all of them, where they were, what expressions people had on their faces, and can tell you what's missing from a replication of the picture.
Tasks that used her auditory system were a breeze for her. She remembers everything she hears, even long-term. We used to help her memorize Bible verses for AWANA by singing them to familiar tunes.
But anything that involves the reading of small symbols, letters, or numbers is a huge struggle for her. Her processing speed in that area drops to the fourth percentile, and even below the first percentile on one test. It blew my mind. It's not an inability to see--she sees fine. It's not an inability to read--she reads fine. She does math fine. It's the processing of the information that slows her down. Her brain's perception of those small symbols somehow doesn't work right. She can do anything anyone else can do, it just takes her much, much longer. This is not something that can be "fixed." We may be able to improve her processing speed slightly with various therapies, but basically it's just part of who she is.
So where do we go from here?
We look at compensatory strategies--what we can do to help her in her weak areas and take advantage of her strengths. We can get her textbooks on CD so she can listen to them. She can record lectures and listen to them again at home. She can use notecards that have very short blips of information on them, rather than long, detailed paragraphs. I can study aloud with her. We can get longer test times. She can use spell-check.
On the bright side, she has plenty of strengths. She is a wonderful musician and a gifted artist. Her people skills are outstanding--everyone loves her. Her character will take her a long way.
There is no doubt in my mind that Abbie can succeed at whatever she wants to do. And now that she knows she is just as smart as the next person, she has great hope.
Be thankful ~
Karen
Friday, January 23, 2009
Birthdays and non-birthdays.
Yesterday was baby-girl's 19th birthday. Hard to believe my fourth child is almost out of her teens, but there you have it. Every year on her birthday, she wants to go to the March for Life in Washington, DC, and yesterday was no exception. Boo goes with us, and we've heard rumors that there are more kids who want to join us next year.
Here they are when we first got to the mall:
All day people shouted, "Happy birthday!" to Abbie. As the dignitaries were leaving, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) saw her sign and waved and wished her a happy birthday. It was such a good day I didn't have the heart to tell her she should have set the "mom" apart with commas, it being an appositive and all.
Elijah got up in a tree and took a few pictures of the crowd for us:
Then some girls yelled, "Boys in trees are HOT!" and he was on the ground in two seconds.
Abbie's favorite sign:
It's a great event, and this year was especially nice since it wasn't raining and 25 degrees like last year. Unfortunately, as we were marching, our newly elected president was removing the regulations prohibiting our tax dollars from paying for abortions and abortion counseling in foreign countries. It will get worse before it gets better, I'm afraid.
Be thankful ~
Karen
Here they are when we first got to the mall:
All day people shouted, "Happy birthday!" to Abbie. As the dignitaries were leaving, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) saw her sign and waved and wished her a happy birthday. It was such a good day I didn't have the heart to tell her she should have set the "mom" apart with commas, it being an appositive and all.Elijah got up in a tree and took a few pictures of the crowd for us:
Then some girls yelled, "Boys in trees are HOT!" and he was on the ground in two seconds.Abbie's favorite sign:
It's a great event, and this year was especially nice since it wasn't raining and 25 degrees like last year. Unfortunately, as we were marching, our newly elected president was removing the regulations prohibiting our tax dollars from paying for abortions and abortion counseling in foreign countries. It will get worse before it gets better, I'm afraid.Be thankful ~
Karen
Friday, January 16, 2009
I have no creative title to put here. Sorry.
Two issues came up today that I want to clarify.
1. insure means to take out, or issue, insurance on--I insure my car or my life.
ensure means to make sure of something--I ensure I pay the premiums so I will always be insured.
2. There is no such grammatical construction as "my hair needs cut." If to be or not to be is the question, to be is the answer. My hair needs to be cut.
3. And just because I can, here's a third one: Leah is student teaching at a high school not far from home. She is required to wear an ID badge, so one was issued to her by the school. The badge includes proper procedures to follow in case of different types of emergencies. At the bottom, it says something like, "the person who's badge this is . . ." Did you catch that?
And they wonder why I teach my own children.
We won't mention the fact that I pointed out a missing hyphen on a well-known restaurant menu tonight. Ben says it's a sickness.
Be thankful ~
Karen
1. insure means to take out, or issue, insurance on--I insure my car or my life.
ensure means to make sure of something--I ensure I pay the premiums so I will always be insured.
2. There is no such grammatical construction as "my hair needs cut." If to be or not to be is the question, to be is the answer. My hair needs to be cut.
3. And just because I can, here's a third one: Leah is student teaching at a high school not far from home. She is required to wear an ID badge, so one was issued to her by the school. The badge includes proper procedures to follow in case of different types of emergencies. At the bottom, it says something like, "the person who's badge this is . . ." Did you catch that?
And they wonder why I teach my own children.
We won't mention the fact that I pointed out a missing hyphen on a well-known restaurant menu tonight. Ben says it's a sickness.
Be thankful ~
Karen
Thursday, January 15, 2009
What I'm thinking about today, with no explanations whatsoever.
In a handy list format because I feel like it.
1. God's timing cannot be improved upon. Learn to wait.
2. The rebellious back row will always exist. Do you want to be known as one of the good kids? Steer clear of the RBR--you're known by the company you keep.
3. Do not, under any circumstances, assume that when your doctor refers to your ANNUAL physical, he means every other year. He means ANNUAL. That's why he says ANNUAL and not EVERY OTHER YEAR.
4. Headlights left on when the car is shut off drain the battery quickly, especially in cold weather. Don't ask me how I know this.
5. Red tile and a blue stove may cause an adverse reaction.
Have a lovely evening.
Be thankful ~
Karen
ps. I love this picture of the dogs.
1. God's timing cannot be improved upon. Learn to wait.
2. The rebellious back row will always exist. Do you want to be known as one of the good kids? Steer clear of the RBR--you're known by the company you keep.
3. Do not, under any circumstances, assume that when your doctor refers to your ANNUAL physical, he means every other year. He means ANNUAL. That's why he says ANNUAL and not EVERY OTHER YEAR.
4. Headlights left on when the car is shut off drain the battery quickly, especially in cold weather. Don't ask me how I know this.
5. Red tile and a blue stove may cause an adverse reaction.
Have a lovely evening.
Be thankful ~
Karen
ps. I love this picture of the dogs.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Back to school for me.
So I've started my class with Abbie - ITE 115. It's required for everyone at the community college, but I just wanted to learn a bit about Excel and Powerpoint. The class covers the entire Microsoft Office Suite.
Abbie and I started reading chapter one and, so far, we've learned that "click means to press the left side of the mouse and release" and I am not making this up. I'm so glad we spent $546 on tuition plus $88 for the book. It will be an invaluable resource, I'm sure.
Chapter one also told stories of way back when, when computers had to be given instructions line by line, and only understood certain words or groups of words, and only in a certain order. Geeks back then had to learn computer languages like BASIC and FORTRAN.
Yes. I know that history lesson is true because I lived it. When I was in college (when it was uphill through the snow both ways) we had to take classes in computer languages. The commands were typed into a little machine which then punched holes in a long, narrow, folding piece of cardstock (think hanging chads). The command sheet, as it was called, was then fed into a reader on the side of the computer and the computer would do what you told it to do. We made our computers do all sorts of fascinating and useful things like draw squares and add three digits. I don't think my life would be as well-rounded as it is today had I not taken that class, but I do wish we had figured out how to make it wash the dishes.
Be thankful ~
Karen
Abbie and I started reading chapter one and, so far, we've learned that "click means to press the left side of the mouse and release" and I am not making this up. I'm so glad we spent $546 on tuition plus $88 for the book. It will be an invaluable resource, I'm sure.
Chapter one also told stories of way back when, when computers had to be given instructions line by line, and only understood certain words or groups of words, and only in a certain order. Geeks back then had to learn computer languages like BASIC and FORTRAN.
Yes. I know that history lesson is true because I lived it. When I was in college (when it was uphill through the snow both ways) we had to take classes in computer languages. The commands were typed into a little machine which then punched holes in a long, narrow, folding piece of cardstock (think hanging chads). The command sheet, as it was called, was then fed into a reader on the side of the computer and the computer would do what you told it to do. We made our computers do all sorts of fascinating and useful things like draw squares and add three digits. I don't think my life would be as well-rounded as it is today had I not taken that class, but I do wish we had figured out how to make it wash the dishes.
Be thankful ~
Karen
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Missy and a Sticky Bean update.
Has it really been a full week since my last post? I promise I have really good excuses, and if you don't believe me, ask my boss.
So here it is. Last Thursday (New Year's Day) we left the house at six in the morning for our ten-hour drive to Jacksonville, Florida (think warm sunshine and flip-flops - it was glorious). The daughter of our good friends was getting married on Friday.
Let me stop here and preach for just a minute (men, go away, but come back when I'm done). We met Tom and Addie in the late 1980s when we were stationed together in Willow Grove, PA. They didn't like us at all. But for some reason, right before we moved to Memphis, they invited us over for dinner one night. (Long story shortened here) Ben told them the gospel and Tom got saved right there at the kitchen table--jumping-up-and-shouting saved. Had Tom not fallen down at the feet of Jesus that night, there's no telling where their family would be today. But we got to see the rest of the story.
Their daughter, Melissa, was married last Friday, a godly young lady, kissing her godly young man for the first time at the altar, and God was greatly glorified.
Here's Tom walking Missy down the aisle:
My point in telling you all this is that you have no idea what impact your willingness to share the gospel will have on future generations. Missy has benefitted, as have their other four children. Missy's husband John has benefitted, as has his family. All the people Tom preaches to each week benefit from it. It's better than compound interest! So do it.
In other earth-shattering news, we found out today that Sticky Bean is a BOY! And his name is Jonathan David! And we might be just a little excited about it! Deb's due date has been moved up to May tenth, which is one day after Leah's graduation, so I'm not so sure she'll be here since it's twelve hours from home and her midwife might not think too highly of that plan, but we'll see. I'm conspiring to find a midwife here, just in case. Anyway, Deb was in the wedding and she was just adorable! in her blue dress.
In other news, oh, wait, there is no other news. I sit at my computer and edit, answer e-mail, tell kids to do the laundry, sweep up the dog hair, vacuum the rugs, run my errands. Come to think of it, this isn't so bad.
Be thankful ~
Karen
So here it is. Last Thursday (New Year's Day) we left the house at six in the morning for our ten-hour drive to Jacksonville, Florida (think warm sunshine and flip-flops - it was glorious). The daughter of our good friends was getting married on Friday.
Let me stop here and preach for just a minute (men, go away, but come back when I'm done). We met Tom and Addie in the late 1980s when we were stationed together in Willow Grove, PA. They didn't like us at all. But for some reason, right before we moved to Memphis, they invited us over for dinner one night. (Long story shortened here) Ben told them the gospel and Tom got saved right there at the kitchen table--jumping-up-and-shouting saved. Had Tom not fallen down at the feet of Jesus that night, there's no telling where their family would be today. But we got to see the rest of the story.
Their daughter, Melissa, was married last Friday, a godly young lady, kissing her godly young man for the first time at the altar, and God was greatly glorified.
Here's Tom walking Missy down the aisle:
My point in telling you all this is that you have no idea what impact your willingness to share the gospel will have on future generations. Missy has benefitted, as have their other four children. Missy's husband John has benefitted, as has his family. All the people Tom preaches to each week benefit from it. It's better than compound interest! So do it.
In other earth-shattering news, we found out today that Sticky Bean is a BOY! And his name is Jonathan David! And we might be just a little excited about it! Deb's due date has been moved up to May tenth, which is one day after Leah's graduation, so I'm not so sure she'll be here since it's twelve hours from home and her midwife might not think too highly of that plan, but we'll see. I'm conspiring to find a midwife here, just in case. Anyway, Deb was in the wedding and she was just adorable! in her blue dress.
In other news, oh, wait, there is no other news. I sit at my computer and edit, answer e-mail, tell kids to do the laundry, sweep up the dog hair, vacuum the rugs, run my errands. Come to think of it, this isn't so bad.Be thankful ~
Karen
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