April 8-9, 2015

I have to admit that I didn’t teach Robert anything new in the last three months. Those were rather difficult months.  Each of us got sick with either bad cold or flu or both.  Five weeks in a row, we got snowed in so bad that there was not even possibility to go skiing.  Then in March, Robert and Jan went skiing to Killington Mountain in Vermont three times to use six tickets that were given them by Robert’s grandmother.  It is a long way to Killington and requires staying in the hotel. Moreover, ice dams formed on the gutters of our house and caused  leaks that required extensive repairs.  They are not finished yet. A lot of  unpredictable obstacles demanding that we change plans and adjust to the presence of different crews of contractors. Well, I was exhausted and unable to seriously plan Robert’s lessons.  So I was in a mood for only  reviewing and reteaching, believing that maintenance of skills doesn’t require much effort on part of a teacher or a student.  It should be almost mechanical and easy.

During the last three months we did mostly very light/easy work and we both settled for maintenance of what Robert already knows or ALMOST knows:

Adding and  subtracting different amounts of money presented in decimal forms. Multiplying and dividing costs of items by whole numbers.  Operation on fractions with an emphasis on leaving the result in the simplest form.  Changing units of length, weight, and capacity.  Gallons, quarts, pints, cups and ounces still need a lot of hands on practice.  Robert and I need to cook more to get a better grasp on those amounts. Somehow, the abstract form of changing units (by dividing or multiplying) doesn’t result in understanding of what those units represent in the real life.

We continue with reviewing/ relearning third grade vocabulary words.  As always we do a lot of language exercises but with an emphasis on practicing what is easy.  If Robert has difficulties saying a sentence, I don’t ask him to correct himself  but I cut the sentence  short by disposing of unnecessary words or changing the  sentence to two or three phrases that are easier for Robert to repeat.  I use the ideas from Articulation Curriculum Super Pack as a starting point to give me general direction but then I adjust problems to Robert’s abilities and all his interests/experiences.

The sentence, “Fred eats fresh fruit on Friday.” I replace with, ” I eat fresh apple every day. I ate apple last Friday.  I like fresh fruit. Mother likes fruit. She like fresh fruit. ”

Yesterday, we completed all exercises from Speech Improvement Reproducible Masters.  I asked Robert to repeat after me all three words containing a specific sound (at the beginning, middle or end.)  Given Robert’s problems with short memory, I am pleased that he can do that now. To my  Robert really liked those tasks that required repeating the same sentence structure with only one word changing. The sentences were relatively easy and were accompanied by funny drawings.

I began using  a new workbook Comprehending Descriptive Language. Although the book is new, the skills are not. I am supposed to read two adjectives and Robert should follow with circling the picture of the proper object.  Except, I make it more challenging for him.  I ask Robert to repeat after me those two adjectives and follow with an appropriate noun.  Saying three words in a row (two adjectives and one noun) demands Robert’s attention, memorization, and flexibility needed for switching from remembering two words to chosing the third one.

We almost finished the Evan -Moor Reading and Understand Grade 3.  Yesterday, we read the story of Daedalus and Icarus. I was not eager to read it.  I was apprehensive of Robert finding that Icarus fell to the ground and died.  Robert, however, was attracted to the story by  a drawing of two people flying.  So we read it.   However,  we didn’t talk about the story.  It was almost 8 PM and Robert was tired. He wanted to finish answering the questions, take a bath and go to bed. So I didn’t tell Robert how I FELT about the story and I didn’t ask Robert about his feelings. Mistake!

I have to rethink the goals and methods.  Working only on  maintenance of previously acquired skills is never successful without teaching new things that would connect all concepts with new ones.

April 6, 2015

Today, I read a story in New York Times, Letting My Autistic Son Go Where the Wild Things Are by Linda Davis. I don’t think I have any opinion about the article. I don’t even know what to think about the ideas behind.   Experiences, thoughts, and interpretations of lives of people with autism are, I believe,  impossible to be translated from one life to another.

The title, however, reminded me of one of the most piercing images I have of my son.

Robert was three or four years old. But small for his age, he looked like two years old toddler.  It was a cold and windy autumn day.  Or maybe it was winter already as maples and oaks  managed to lose all their leaves. If I am not sure, it is because there was no snow on the ground.  Very few people were walking in Blue Hill State Park  that day.  At least not on the same trail we followed.

Little Robert got maybe 100-150 feet ahead of us .  He didn’t run, but walked  quickly and with a great determination as if he were pulled by some invisible magnet. I called him to stop, but at that time he didn’t react to his name or to the “stop” request.  As he walked, he made sounds.  He didn’t scream. He didn’t cry. He didn’t whine. He didn’t hum. The sounds were long, as if he were singing.  But he didn’t singing.  I could say that he was howling but  with the menace of the gusts of wind tempered by the softness and sadness of birds’ cooing.

It seemed that Robert was trying to dissolve himself in this cold autumn/winter day. He heard the call of the wild and echoed it.

He was leaving us behind as if we didn’t matter any more. As if we didn’t exist. He was going into the landscape carved by melancholy ready to be swallowed by it.  He was three or four years old. He was determined, he was lonely, and he let us know.

Amanda and I rushed toward Robert.  Amanda, five or six at that time, had to be as shaken by Robert’s sounds as I was. Except, she was much more sensitive and much less inhibited. She knew that the only way to break the sadness and loneliness of that moment was to join Robert in his howling and or cooing.  So she tried. She tried to imitate Robert’s sounds.  Of course she couldn’t.  Her sounds were the sounds the people make when they try to imitate strange sounds. Robert’s sounds were organic sounds of nature itself.  So she couldn’t imitate them but  she ran to Robert and continued with her attempts.  She didn’t mock him.  No, not at all. She wanted to join him so he wouldn’t have seemed so terribly withdrawn and lonely.

Amanda and I took Robert’s hands.  He looked at us as if our presence startled him but he he didn’t pull his hands out of our grasps but with serious expression on his face walked with us back to the car.

March 31, 2015

From time to time, I go back to the shelf where I keep those workbooks Robert and I had already completed a month, a year, or a few years before.  Luckily, their pages are still untouched by Robert’s pencil, as I usually make copies of new materials not sure how easy or difficult the problems presented in workbooks might be for Robert.  The first encounter with the worksheet is always on trial and error basis for both of us. Although we worked diligently many concepts slip through our minds.  I said ours for a reason.  On one hand, Robert doesn’t appropriate new terms during that first encounter, on the other hand, I neglect to practice them out of the teaching table.

Enriching the vocabulary

It is crucial to use new words all across the settings wherever and whenever appropriate. That is the way to bring new words into a fold of one’s personal experience and to let them be assimilated and understood in different contexts. It is crucial, but too often, I don’t do that.  I am just forgetting the words I introduced to Robert  in the table settings, and he forgets them too.  That is why, a month or a year later, we go back to the old workbooks to refresh our memory and relearn the concepts.

I use workbooks, because I would not know which words Robert should know.  That is not exactly precise statement.  I know that Robert needs as many fundamental, basic words as possible.  I just don’t know what those words are.  If there were any workbooks on the kindergarten – second grade level left I would buy them all because I assume that they contain the most often use words.  In the past I used 2 different workbooks for grade 1 and 2.  Now, with some doubts as to the immediate usefulness, I am working with vocabulary words on the third grade level.

It is a second time around Robert and I do the same pages.  this time however, I am choosing words to practice with Robert also out of the table.

1. When we go visit his aunt and grandmother we will practice HOST and GUEST. When friend stops over, I will remind Robert to be a good host and bring cookies to the table or a glass of water or juice.

2. When we go to Audubon park, we will be waiting for arrival of CYGNETS

3.As Robert’s physical exam approaches, we will check in the calendar when is Robert’s next ANNUAL check-up.

One might ask, the matter I am asking myself, “what is the point of enriching the vocabulary of a young man, whose independent speech production is on a level of 3-4 years old toddler. what is the point of immersing such person in the ocean of new words?

And the answer is: Because Robert  can express very little. Since his speech is difficult to come out and carry to another person, it is imperative that he understands most of his surroundings.  He cannot ask for clarification, explanation by himself.  Asking is even more difficult.  That is why he should know language context.  Knowing names of things and actions is to understand better those things and those actions.

Sounds

I also brought back Speech Improvement Reproducible Masters.  A couple of years ago we did all the exercises.  At that time, I believed that Robert’s biggest problem with speech production was not extending long vowels, squeezing syllables into one unrecognizable sound.  Now, I noticed that he also has problems with clarity of his consonants. Again, I wish it was a trained speech pathologist who would work with Robert, but since there are nowhere to be found, I am working with Robert on practicing the same sounds we had practiced years ago.

March 29, 2015

Every evening, Robert reminds me, “Notebook, notebook.”  He takes the notebook from the drawer and brings it to the dining room table. He looks at me expectantly, waiting for the first prompt. If the prompt doesn’t come, he begins on his own, “I went to”, he hesitates and then adds what is appropriate for the day, Mac Donald, swimming pool, grocery store, bowling alley, walk.  It is harder on those days when Robert just stayed home.  The phrase, “I went to” hangs in the air.  Robert looks at me for help.  “Cross it” ,I tell him and suggest the word “ate”.  Robert gets back on track. “I ate”, he writes, “chicken (or poblano, or potato and cheese) for dinner”. Then he adds, “I did laundry” ,”I watched Netflix”, “I read”, or “I studied with mother”.  If the worksheets are still on the table, I point to some of them to elicit more specific answer, “I learned about tornadoes” (or digestive system, or magnets…)

This evening, Robert wrote about his trip to Vermont.  He informed his job coaches at his day program, that he stayed in Hampton Inn, skied at Killington Mountain, ate at the lodge and at the UNO restaurant.  He was able to add important to him details – swimming in the hotel’s pool, going up the mountain not on a ski lift but in a gondola, and stopping at the rest stop on the way there. I still help him by asking him questions, giving him two choices, suggesting the useful word.

Writing in his Notebook seems very important for Robert.  It is Robert who reminds me about this obligation.  If he forgets to do so in the evening, then he tells me, “Notebook, notebook” early in the morning before he even dresses up.

I believe that writing in the Notebook helps Robert relive his experiences and learn to express them for his own benefit and the benefit of the reader.

I cannot overestimate the importance of his writing – from learning some of the useful (repetitive) phrases, to putting events in order, to learning to communicate with others, to being able to analyze his actions.

I cannot overestimate that importance.  At the same time, I am acutely aware that one of the reasons why Robert is so keen on writing in his Notebook, is because his job coaches/instructors at his work, are reading them.  Their readings make all the difference for Robert.  He feels that what he is not able to say, but what he can write, has some significance and meaning to others. And that makes all the difference.

Sadly, that was not his previous experience.

The Past: Spring 2005

Robert joined a new collaborative program.  Everyday, Robert carried to school packets of worksheets he had completed at home with me.  I asked him to do that hoping that bringing worksheets to school would: 1. Let the teacher be more aware of Robert’s skills and deficits. 2. Increase the importance of home studying in Robert’s mind.

Well, I thought so. But, one morning, after dropping Robert in the classroom a few minutes before the first bell, I realized that I forgot to tell something to the teacher, so I returned.  As I opened the door I saw Robert throwing all of his home worksheets into a recycling wastebasket. Knowing Robert, I was sure, that he did what he saw his teacher doing every day.  He just wanted to spare her trouble, so he threw the papers away himself.

I learned a bitter lesson about parent-teacher cooperation then. My need to share was considered presumptuous interference into this teacher’s field of expertise.

In the following years, sending to school Robert’s worksheets or journal entries didn’t seem as meaningful to Robert or his teachers, as I hoped for.  But Robert, at my insistence, continued to do so. While some teachers responded positively, some just ignored Robert’s work, but never disposed of his papers the same way the teacher in the collaborative program did.

I don’t regret that.  Robert formed a habit of writing and now he, with the help of his job coaches and instructors, benefits from it.

March 16, 2015

Amanda, Robert’s sister, read all those books.  She read Rainbow Fish, Streganona, Amazing Grace, and many, many more.  She, of course, read Stellaluna.  She loved the book so much, that she bought it with her lunch money during one of the Scholastic Books sales at her elementary school. But when Amanda got older, other books filled the bookshelves in her room.  I felt she outgrew the picture books and thus I brought them all to Salvation Army store.

I felt, that those books were of no use to Robert.  He had, after all,  other books. The books which should provide concrete information about animals, plants, human body.  All of them written on a level of kindergarten – third grade student.  Robert also had many other workbooks that were supposed to address deficits in his comprehension.  So they addressed one aspect of comprehension at a time: getting details,  answering WH question, finding main  topic, making inferences, and so on…They were called Comprehension Quickies, Close Reading, Addressing Specific Skills Series and so on… They all addressed some sort of deficits, I believe.  I used them a lot with Robert.  He didn’t enjoy them and I didn’t enjoy them either.  Moreover, they didn’t seem to improve Robert’s comprehension or my ability to teach reading comprehension.

Still, I believed they were right way to go, as they were short.  ‘Short’ was a synonym with easy and survivable. I believed, at that time, that Robert cannot listen to long stories.  I believed that Robert, despite his ability to decode the text, was not able to understand the plot. To make a matter worse, Robert didn’t want us to read to him, because he couldn’t listen. He would rather read himself then listen.  He would read, because when he was doing that, nobody expected him to listen at the same time.

I still remember how doubtful I felt, when I had to read to Robert (relatively) long stories from Reasoning and Writing Part A. I was sure, that he would not sit through.  And he didn’t.  He got up a few times during the first part of the story, and another few times the following day when I read to him the second part. But, I expected worse.  So, I continued, and Robert stopped getting up in the middle of my reading.

As we followed with reading stories from Reasoning and Writing, Robert learned to listened and I learned to read to him.  I learned to stop, add a comment, ask a question, repeat a sentence, pretend to explain it to myself,  and so on.  Nothing special.

Then, I looked through The Power of Retelling and realized how much Robert could learned through proper reading instruction. How much his vocabulary would improve, his ability to connect concepts in the way that would weave a path to better understanding of his  life.  But I wasn’t trained Reading Instructor, so I couldn’t transform general idea into a practical instruction. Luckily, someone on one of the parents’ internet list advised The Magic of Stories.

The Magic of Stories, brought me back to Rainbow Fish, Streganona, and Stellaluna.
From  The Magic of Stories,  I learned how to prepare for reading, how to read, and how to place the book in the context of readers experiences, abilities, challenges.  How to make more probable, that the reader  is not just capable of answering WH questions but that his language and his life is clearly enriched by the stories.

So, I got Stellaluna from our library.  No, I didn’t make any preparation for reading.  I didn’t follow any of the advises from Magic of Stories.   They are great and I will use the ideas behind them in the future. But this time, I was just curious how Robert would like this book as we alternate reading it, looking at the pictures, predicting what might happened and trying to figure out  some of the  confusing statements.

I had the feeling that Robert loved the book. He was relaxed, calm, and smiled with his eyes.

Later that evening, I called my daughter to tell her that Robert liked Stellaluna. “Oh, I adored that book”, said Amanda.

Sadly, I realized that I was feeding Robert with many  texts created specifically to address comprehension deficiency, but I have never read him stories that would match his humanity.  Moreover, I also realized that had I ever fed such educational  texts to my daughter as I fed them to my son, she would have lost her love of reading before finishing second or third grade.

Mine is a foolery of replacing wonderful children’s literature with soulless texts in the name of teaching.

Well, Robert is 23 years old, but he doesn’t mind reading Stellaluna again. Neither do I.

March 5, 2015

Today, Robert  had difficulties drawing ocean animals. Copying slanted lines and curved lines going in different directions seemed to be very confusing to Robert. So, I went  back to Write from the Start by Ion Teodorescu and Lois M. Addy. I looked through the exercises in both parts of that curriculum with emphasis on those which would help with drawing. ( I couldn’t help but wonder to what degree those exercises helped Robert with writing cursive letters, in the past) Still, this time I looked for something else.  I looked for ideas that would helped Robert to draw curved backs of dolphins, wavy shapes of seahorses, and sharp endings of  curves representing bodies of different fish.

I thought that the closest match to what Robert needed to relatively successfully complete his ocean picture was to practice drawing circles inside and outside triangles and squares.  I expanded on that ideas with exercises that demanded that Robert draw ovals inside and outside rectangles.

Another good suggestion taken from the book was to draw sinusoid (wave) but going down vertically (With horizontal waves Robert didn’t have as many problems.) By spacing either points or different length line segments I prepared pages for Robert to draw waves (sinusoids) of different frequency and amplitudes.  Later, Robert was presented with tasks of drawing such shapes along slanted lines.

The exercises seemed easy.  Although mathematician would have a problem with Robert rendering of those shapes, they clearly demonstrated Robert’s understanding of concepts.

After all those exercises, I asked Robert to copy the drawing of the dolphin. This time I stopped myself from any “helpful” interference and let Robert worked out on his own all the curves and angles.  And he did.

March 3, 2015

One of the staple in teaching reading comprehension is the emphasis on comparing and contrasting specific elements of the text. Most often two characters are subjected to this treatment.  How are they alike?  How are they different?

In the past,  I used “Compare and Contrast” chart with Robert to compare  two simple objects: an apple and an orange, the fish and a turtle, or a stove and a refrigerator. I have never, however, used such chart in connection with a read text.

Today, Robert read a text, two pages long, which  compared alligators and crocodiles. It seemed very well suited, almost self-explanatory, to be used with Compare and Contrast Chart.

I gave Robert three highlighters of different colors.  The green one should be used with the information that related to both reptiles.  The yellow one was assigned to alligators and the pink one to crocodiles. After reading each sentence, Robert was to decide which color had to be used.  Robert was not used to stopping after every sentence and tried to accelerate the process by often taking what was in the closest proximity of his hand.  Slowing him down was the most difficult part.  I covered the highlighters with my hand and asked, ” Did you read about alligators, crocodiles, or both?”

Well, when the sentence was about both kinds of reptiles, Robert didn’t know what to answer.  Clearly the concept of “both” in this context seemed not fully developed yet.  As I was working with Robert, I realized that it would make much more sense to use two highlighters – for instance blue and yellow for such sentences.  That would add the third color –  green to the mixture and might result in better understanding of the concept of “both”  But, of course, I couldn’t make changes in the middle of the task and confuse Robert even more.   Luckily coloring the sentences that informed about only one of the reptiles wasn’t difficult for Robert.  When the sentence informed about both, I led Robert through the procedure.

Later, Robert use this color coding to fill the Compare and Contrast Chart.

I am not really sure what he understood about the whole process.  I think, I will write a couple of simple texts that would give him opportunity for more practice.  I think I might even introduce two people – young and old, tall and short, happy and angry.  After all, comparing and contrasting could be most valuable if it helped Robert find a tool to understand others.

February 25, 2015

When Robert is not feeling good, I usually change the format of our sessions to just doing simple puzzles,  arithmetic operations, map reading as planned by Daily Geography, and a few easy speech exercises.  (For instance,  asking questions based on pictures from No Glamour Asking wh Questions). It is not the time to work on reading comprehension or learning new science concepts. The work is mostly mechanical, easy to complete and doesn’t take much time. Of course, when Robert is very sick, I just let him sleep or watch his IPAD.

When I am sick, it is almost the same.  I prepare worksheets that Robert can complete with minimal help or with no help at all.  It is mostly because when I am sick, it is much harder for me to find a way to present something new, understand nature of Robert’s possible errors, and find a way to address them. We don’t do any language related exercises as I don’t want to breathe my germs on Robert.

I have been sick with cold or flu or whatever else that might be since Saturday.

On Saturday, I found myself completely unable to teach Robert anything.  When I got up of bed to make myself ginger tea and get an aspirin, I found the kitchen floor covered with breadcrumbs. It has been our custom to sweep the floor together.  I used the broom and Robert followed with dustpan and dust brush. Coordinating legs and arms movements necessary to do sweeping was  difficult for him. At least I have always thought so. But this Saturday, I was desperate so I asked Robert to sweep the kitchen floor. At first, he was slightly surprised, but then he took a broom with one hand and began sweeping. “Use both hands”, I said as I sat down to drink my tea. Robert did. When he kept the broom in two hands he was also better adjusting his whole body. It seemed that the problems with gross motor coordination almost disappeared.  Yes, Robert was not a very good sweeper. He missed a few places.  However, the coordination was not the culprit.  Lack of practice was.  When Robert took out dustpan to finish his cleaning, I returned to my bed asking myself why in the last ten or so years I had been convinced that Robert was incapable of sweeping.  Why did I assume that the fact that Robert was not able to do something 10 years ago meant that he was incapable of ever learning how to do it.

All my experiences with teaching Robert kept proving that Robert can learn if he is taught properly. So why did I give up on teaching sweeping?

Why did I have to be sick  and  break our teaching routines to gain a better insight into Robert’s abilities and into mine blind spots.