classroom accomodations?
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| Mon, 05-28-2007 - 12:47pm |
Recently while waiting for our kids at therapy, a bunch of us moms were talking about varying accomodations at school. The kids are a mix bunch of adhd and spectrum but all in the age range of 5-8. I shared a couple of things I do to accomodate (we homeschool) and the one mom was very against what I did. She kept insisting it was crossing the line ebetween helping and doing it for him. She kept insisting that he just needed less difficult work. Another mom commented that her son's aid would NEVER do such a thing.
I don't see the problem so I wanted some other opinions. If it amtters DS is 7 and was in 1st grade this year.
One of the things I do is to grid his math worksheets. If there are 4 rows of 6 problems each I draw lines between them to give him a visual of where each problem is. With that many on one workbook page, his writing gets big and then he thinks he answered problem #9 but really it is the problem's answer above just written big. With my grid in orange marker (always orange marker), he can easily see where each problem ends and it helps keep his writing in the pace. If I don't do this he is missing prolems and getting a lower grade becasue problems are missed not becasue things are wrong. When I do this he gets almost 100% each time.
Sometimes I let him take math test orally especially if he has had a lot of phsycial writing in other subjects. (This the mom had a horrid time with).
The biggest issue they had is that I underline the directions. One color is for a one step direction. I use 2 colors if there are 2 steps and so on. He is perfectly capable of reading the directions and understanding them but if it a multistep thing he misses again not becasue he can't do it, but beacuse halfway through steps get forgotten. I have found that by underlining he remembers better to complete each step. Thsi pops up a lot in grammar. Read the paragraph, cross out the misspelled words, underline any capitalization mistakes and add punctation where needed. My hope is that next year I will work with him on underlining in different colors the different steps himself to foster that independence.
Am I overstepping? Thoughts welcome. Heather

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I don't think there is anything wrong with what you're doing. As a matter of fact, I was going to work with Vic over the summer to help ease his transition to middle school and think the idea of teaching him to first underline directions in different colors is wonderful. Like you said, if you take the time to get him to do it by himself next year, it will foster more independence, which is our big thing right now. At almost 11, Vic has a very hard time completing assignments unless someone is standing right on top of him.
Maybe what those parents are doing works for their kids, but only you know your child the best. Both my kids math books this past year has their math problems gridded, so I know that is nothing out of the ordinary that you're doing there.
I say more power to you and keep up the awesome job.
Alexis
I'm curious what kind of therapy appt this was?
Your accomodations sound great to me. And you are *far* from doing his work for him. What you're doing is pretty standard for kids with visual processing issues, sensory overload, and executive functioning/organization difficulties. Oral testing is very common as is having a scribe in public schools. Even our lazy school in a poor district is happy to have someone scribe for DS in class and for kids during testing. It was one of the easiest accomodations to get.
I've also found using a piece of paper to cover up sections of DS's math work to help reduce visual clutter. He gets overwhelmed less and is able to concentrate on the line that's visible. You're teaching him things that he will be able to easily do himself one day. A sheet of easier math problems isn't going to help with the visual processing thing, but a grid will. Geeze a kid with a very high IQ that can do upper level math might not be able to do a sheet of 1+1 if he had trouble with the visual clutter.
I think the next step is teaching him to implement the organizational strategies himself before he starts an assignment. I'm a little taken aback by the other mom's difficulty with what you are doing as these strategies have been in several different books I've read about teaching kids with executive functioning deficits, ADHD....etc. I don't think forcing my DS to learn like everyone else does will help him learn any faster or better. It's like throwing someone who doesn't know how to swim in the water and telling them to try harder as they drown.
I wonder what they consider an accomodation to be? And what does the aide do then?
Keep up the good work!
Chrystee
I think those accomodations are FABULOUS!
Heather,
Lots of Spec. Ed classes here do math worksheets on paper with grids for this reason. I don't see you doing anything harming to your child.
take care,
Anandhi
By the way...I also meant to mention that all of the elementary school kids in our district (including gen ed) are taught to highlight the instructions they way you are in 2nd and 3rd grade and are expected to do it all of the way through school. This technique has proved vital to improving the districts test scores. It helps the teachers to know whether the student misread the directions or is truely struggling in that area so they get the instruction they need. All of the schools in our district are state and nationally accredited (with 8 elementary, 4 middle and 2 high schools) that is saying a lot and this was one of the changes made to increase our scores and aquire that ranking.
Seriously...keep up the good work!
Cassie
I don't have any idea why the other moms had such a problem with it. I think what you are doing is fantastic. In fact, I need to remember that about making a grid on the math sheets. Haley has had problems with that too. We have always underlined the directions too because Haley frequently needs to go back and read them. Her teacher does the same thing for her.
Jill
Mom to Erin (19) and Haley (10yo Asp
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