1st Day of School and Learning Disabilities

Warrior started school last Monday.  I can't believe I have a high schooler already!  Doesn't seem like that long ago that he was walking into the school for his first day of Kindergarten.

His first week went great.  They are on a block schedule so its going to take some time getting used to, but he's really enjoying.  So far.  We'll see if he feels the same in a month.

Sugar Pea started 5th grade today.  This just doesn't seem possible.  I feel like I missed some years somewhere.

This year is going to be different for her.  In 1st grade she was diagnosed with an Auditory Processing Disorder.  The audiologist explained it to me as dyslexia for the ears.  She hears everything we say, but it gets jumbled up.  So instead of saying.  "Put the milk on the counter."  She would hear something like "Put the counter milk on the."

She also has a really hard time if there is any background noise.  She's told me a few times that its like everything is so loud in her head that her brain feels like its going to explode.  

This explained a lot, and we found ways to help her.  Teachers use microphones.  Eliminate as much background noise as possible.  At home homework time is TV/radio off.

This just didn't seem to be working as much as we had hoped.  In 3rd grade, the teacher and I realized there was something wrong.  Jazzy could answer the questions orally, but she had a hard time putting the answers down on paper.

Her speech teacher and I decided to hold off on testing until we got her state testing scores back   That would give us a better idea of her strengths and weaknesses.

Then the beginning of 4th grade her teachers told us that she was doing really good and they had no concerns.  A month later at parent/teacher conferences they had nothing good to say.  Her speech teacher and I decided it was time for me to demand to have her tested.

So finally she was tested, and then everything with Tin Man happened and it wasn't until the last week of school that we finally got to sit down and talk.

She was diagnosed with a Visual Processing Disorder on top of the auditory.  This means that to much information on a page gets jumbled up in her head and she had problems deciphering what goes where on the page.

Reading books with small print is hard for her.  I bought her a Kindle and she's able to enlarge the print and now reading is much easier for her.  Same with math.  If she can work on 1 math problem at a time, its easier than trying to work on a page with 20 problems on it.

We're still trying to figure out how to modify the math at school, but the teacher agreed to letting her use the Kindle to read.

If you have any info or websites that would be useful, please message me at everydaymorning@gmail.com or leave a comment.  I'd be forever grateful.