Saturday, September 15, 2007
Well we are one week away from being on Dore for 6 months. After noticing lots of little changes early on, and the flowery feedback from Mrs. S., her teacher after just 8 weeks on the program and a time of regression, we went a long time with no noticable changes. We were to have had her assesment 3 days ago but she got sick with strep and we had to reschedule. I was looking forward to finding out anything I could from the assesment but am happy that it is in two weeks now. More time for changes. I am at this time, suspecting she has had some positive things going on in that little cerebellum. There are more expectations at school this year and she is doing fine with it, suprisingly. This is the first year she gets grades. All of them have been very good so far. She has to study hard for those 20 spelling words but the fact that she is getting them correct is pleasantly surprising me. She has gotten a 100% and a 95%. She also does not seem as overwhelmed as I would have expected her to feel. She still has a long way to go, but I am very happy so far!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Our last assesment was Tuesday, June 19. She has continued with the regression, which I find not all that exciting to report. But restructuring is part of the process as it is in any situation that you reorganize. I try to remember that when we clean out the garage, things look worse before they look better....and in the big scheme of things, it is positive to be in this process of restructuring.
Here is where I wil be posting all of her scores. I will begin with the earliest and move to the latest.
Initial Assesment on March 21, 2007
Equilibrium Score
1. 90 green
2. 76 red
4. 77 green
5.38 red
Somatasensory 84 red
Visual 86 green
Vestibular 42 red
Composite 64 red
Second Assesment May 5, 2007
Equilibrium Score
1. 74 red
2. 48 red
4. 65 red
5. 25 red
Somatasensory 65 red
Visual 86 green
Vestibular 32 red
Composite 48 red
Third Assesment June 19, 2007
Equilibrium Score
1. 86 red
2. 57 red
4. 60 red
5. 33 red
Somatasensory 66 red
Visual 70 red
Vestibular 37 red
Composite 52 red
Here is where I wil be posting all of her scores. I will begin with the earliest and move to the latest.
Initial Assesment on March 21, 2007
Equilibrium Score
1. 90 green
2. 76 red
4. 77 green
5.38 red
Somatasensory 84 red
Visual 86 green
Vestibular 42 red
Composite 64 red
Second Assesment May 5, 2007
Equilibrium Score
1. 74 red
2. 48 red
4. 65 red
5. 25 red
Somatasensory 65 red
Visual 86 green
Vestibular 32 red
Composite 48 red
Third Assesment June 19, 2007
Equilibrium Score
1. 86 red
2. 57 red
4. 60 red
5. 33 red
Somatasensory 66 red
Visual 70 red
Vestibular 37 red
Composite 52 red
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Bumps in the Road
Paige has now been doing Dore for 12 weeks. When we were at our last assesment 6 weeks ago, Sara, program specialist, warned me that sometime in the near future Paige may get grumpy and irratable and it may last a week or two. I had felt we had breezed through this because we had not noticed any change in her behavior other than her acting very babyish for awhile in there. That is also normal as the brain reorganizes itself....the person goes through periods of regression. The regression seems to be over but we are now noticing a very stubborn girl, and a grumpy, irratable girl!
I guess I am glad we are getting proof of progress and going through all of the normal phases.
We go for her next assesment on Tuesday.
I guess I am glad we are getting proof of progress and going through all of the normal phases.
We go for her next assesment on Tuesday.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
May 26, 2007
School ended two days ago. 9 weeks into Dore. I continue to be amazed at the changes she has shown. At home, it is somewhat hard to tell. You notice things and then wonder if you are being wishful. But last Friday, 8 weeks into Dore, Paige's teacher, Mrs, Schubert, stopped me at school and went on and on about the changes she has noticed over the past month. She says that across the board, she has noticed improvments. Reading is better, math is better, writing is better and much better concentration.
I too have noticed the reading. She reads to me every night. I still have to use my finger to keep her place or she jumps around, skips words and even add words. But the level of difficulty she can handle has jumped and forever she seemed to be just plugging along not making much progress. I noticed that homework was not such an issue and she got it done with much less complaining and better focus.
A friend of mine was in the hall outside of our classroom one day when the math tutor returned the kids that are taken out for help....Paige being one of them. The tutor spoke to the teacher saying "Paige is really catching on, really flying through these last few weeks!"
The biggest change her teacher noticed was the focus....which had been her biggest problem. Her comment was that she had blown away by the amount of time Paige was focusing on her work, finishing projects she never would have been able to handle a couple of months ago. She is no longer so frustrated having melt downs and crumbling feeling the pressure is too great. Mrs. Schubert said, "I don't know if it is those exercises you are doing with her or something you are feeding her, but she is a different child!"
School ended two days ago. 9 weeks into Dore. I continue to be amazed at the changes she has shown. At home, it is somewhat hard to tell. You notice things and then wonder if you are being wishful. But last Friday, 8 weeks into Dore, Paige's teacher, Mrs, Schubert, stopped me at school and went on and on about the changes she has noticed over the past month. She says that across the board, she has noticed improvments. Reading is better, math is better, writing is better and much better concentration.
I too have noticed the reading. She reads to me every night. I still have to use my finger to keep her place or she jumps around, skips words and even add words. But the level of difficulty she can handle has jumped and forever she seemed to be just plugging along not making much progress. I noticed that homework was not such an issue and she got it done with much less complaining and better focus.
A friend of mine was in the hall outside of our classroom one day when the math tutor returned the kids that are taken out for help....Paige being one of them. The tutor spoke to the teacher saying "Paige is really catching on, really flying through these last few weeks!"
The biggest change her teacher noticed was the focus....which had been her biggest problem. Her comment was that she had blown away by the amount of time Paige was focusing on her work, finishing projects she never would have been able to handle a couple of months ago. She is no longer so frustrated having melt downs and crumbling feeling the pressure is too great. Mrs. Schubert said, "I don't know if it is those exercises you are doing with her or something you are feeding her, but she is a different child!"
Saturday, April 14, 2007
April 14, 2007
Since last reporting we received the results from Paige's testing. It looks like she has a form of dyslexia, ADD (no H in there....thank Goodness for small favors!) and auditory processing disorder. She can be screened the beginning of next school year for the Alpha-phonics program which begins second semester of 2nd grade. Everyone agrees, it would greatly help her. She is a good sight reader but does not seem to connect the sounds in new words. She hears them fine with her ears but does not process them once inside her brain.
She is just over 3 weeks on Dore now. She has been a trooper with her exercises....not without complaint but never missing a session, even when they make her nauseous.
There are several small things we are noticing....a bit of maturity, much better handwriting without the major labor she used to have to use, a bit better concentration and focus and better coordination like actually hitting a whiffle ball and riding two scooters at one time. Other little things are happening like being able to play Jr. Monopoly with Dad and actually following the rules, working hard on a project at school beyond her usual ability and talking to Mom about deeper concepts than anyone knew she was aware of.
Since last reporting we received the results from Paige's testing. It looks like she has a form of dyslexia, ADD (no H in there....thank Goodness for small favors!) and auditory processing disorder. She can be screened the beginning of next school year for the Alpha-phonics program which begins second semester of 2nd grade. Everyone agrees, it would greatly help her. She is a good sight reader but does not seem to connect the sounds in new words. She hears them fine with her ears but does not process them once inside her brain.
She is just over 3 weeks on Dore now. She has been a trooper with her exercises....not without complaint but never missing a session, even when they make her nauseous.
There are several small things we are noticing....a bit of maturity, much better handwriting without the major labor she used to have to use, a bit better concentration and focus and better coordination like actually hitting a whiffle ball and riding two scooters at one time. Other little things are happening like being able to play Jr. Monopoly with Dad and actually following the rules, working hard on a project at school beyond her usual ability and talking to Mom about deeper concepts than anyone knew she was aware of.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Journey on Dore
Hi, today is Friday April 6, 2007. I am writing this blog so that I can look back from time to time and see how far we have come.
My seven year old daughter, Paige, began the Dore program two weeks ago. We are hoping that the program will stimulate her cerebellum to increase the number of neural pathways that run through it so that she will be able to read with ease and pleasure, understand the work she has at school and find it easier to learn, be able to focus, gain coordination and balance as well as maturity and increased social skills.
We adopted Paige from Vietnam when she was 4 months old. Everything was very normal other than the fact that she was a very fussy baby and toddler until she was about 2 and a half. She was very slow to develop speech, had some Early Childhood Intervention and was found to be within normal range by about 3.
All along she has been a sweet child (other than being that fussy baby!), compassionate and well behaved( also beautiful!) There are however, things that concerned us besides the slow speech. It has always seemed difficult for her to learn new things. She tends to be the last child to learn stuff....to tie shoes, to ride a bike, to read, to learn the dance steps, to memorize rhymes or our phone number. I have wondered all along if she is just a late bloomer or she was going to come out with true learning disabilites. At times I even thought that maybe she was not very smart. And then she would do something to prove me wrong, like help me find my way in the car when I got lost or tell me where I could find potting soil when I thought I had to cross town or various other things like that.
Kindergarten went fine and so did the first half of first grade other than her deplorable handwriting. But after Christmas break the teacher started to have concerns about her. She was not progressing well, was becoming frustrated and overwhelmed with the work and not getting anything done, sometimes spending long periods of time in the bathroom.
Around this time we began taking her to a reading tutor, she was beginning to get pulled out of class for math help and staying late once a week for handwriting tutoring. After the second week with the reading tutor she suggested we have Paige privately tested for learning disabilities, particularly dyslexia. (She was not doing poorly enough on standardized tests to warrant testing at school yet. Rather than wait, we decided to do the private testing.)
Around this time we also heard about Dore and other programs that help to develop the cerebellum so that a person can actually reach their potential. We began the private testing with the psychologist in February and the Dore program after the last test day....on March 21st, 2007. We meet with the psychologist tomorrow for the results of her testing and then with the school on Monday in hopes that she may be able to receive special support there.
Though they tell you to expect to see subtle changes after being on the Dore program several weeks (and expect to finish in 12 to 18 months) we are already noticing changes and so is she! She seems a bit more coordinated, has been able to hit a whiffle ball with a bat, skip, and ride two scooters at once all the way home from school! She has been reading in a one-word-at-a-time style until lately. About a week into the program she started to read with some honest to goodness fluency. The other big reading change is that she normally starts out fine with the book her teacher sends home and then about half way through, starts to get tired, wiggly and has trouble with the words....as if the book just got a lot harder. This past week, she was able to read her books all the way through without pooping out! Not to mention the tantrums we had been having with homework have stopped. She now sits down and gets it done. No big deal. It has been amazing!
Her classroom teacher has not mentioned any changes but the handwriting tutor, who had not seen Paige in a few weeks, pulled me aside and said "her handwriting is beautiful, she was totally focused and really cared about how it looked. I felt like she was a completely different child! What are you doing with her?!"
She has been a trooper with her twice daily exercises and I think she feels it is already paying off. Yesterday she said, "Mom, I think the Dore is helping me." I think she is right!
My seven year old daughter, Paige, began the Dore program two weeks ago. We are hoping that the program will stimulate her cerebellum to increase the number of neural pathways that run through it so that she will be able to read with ease and pleasure, understand the work she has at school and find it easier to learn, be able to focus, gain coordination and balance as well as maturity and increased social skills.
We adopted Paige from Vietnam when she was 4 months old. Everything was very normal other than the fact that she was a very fussy baby and toddler until she was about 2 and a half. She was very slow to develop speech, had some Early Childhood Intervention and was found to be within normal range by about 3.
All along she has been a sweet child (other than being that fussy baby!), compassionate and well behaved( also beautiful!) There are however, things that concerned us besides the slow speech. It has always seemed difficult for her to learn new things. She tends to be the last child to learn stuff....to tie shoes, to ride a bike, to read, to learn the dance steps, to memorize rhymes or our phone number. I have wondered all along if she is just a late bloomer or she was going to come out with true learning disabilites. At times I even thought that maybe she was not very smart. And then she would do something to prove me wrong, like help me find my way in the car when I got lost or tell me where I could find potting soil when I thought I had to cross town or various other things like that.
Kindergarten went fine and so did the first half of first grade other than her deplorable handwriting. But after Christmas break the teacher started to have concerns about her. She was not progressing well, was becoming frustrated and overwhelmed with the work and not getting anything done, sometimes spending long periods of time in the bathroom.
Around this time we began taking her to a reading tutor, she was beginning to get pulled out of class for math help and staying late once a week for handwriting tutoring. After the second week with the reading tutor she suggested we have Paige privately tested for learning disabilities, particularly dyslexia. (She was not doing poorly enough on standardized tests to warrant testing at school yet. Rather than wait, we decided to do the private testing.)
Around this time we also heard about Dore and other programs that help to develop the cerebellum so that a person can actually reach their potential. We began the private testing with the psychologist in February and the Dore program after the last test day....on March 21st, 2007. We meet with the psychologist tomorrow for the results of her testing and then with the school on Monday in hopes that she may be able to receive special support there.
Though they tell you to expect to see subtle changes after being on the Dore program several weeks (and expect to finish in 12 to 18 months) we are already noticing changes and so is she! She seems a bit more coordinated, has been able to hit a whiffle ball with a bat, skip, and ride two scooters at once all the way home from school! She has been reading in a one-word-at-a-time style until lately. About a week into the program she started to read with some honest to goodness fluency. The other big reading change is that she normally starts out fine with the book her teacher sends home and then about half way through, starts to get tired, wiggly and has trouble with the words....as if the book just got a lot harder. This past week, she was able to read her books all the way through without pooping out! Not to mention the tantrums we had been having with homework have stopped. She now sits down and gets it done. No big deal. It has been amazing!
Her classroom teacher has not mentioned any changes but the handwriting tutor, who had not seen Paige in a few weeks, pulled me aside and said "her handwriting is beautiful, she was totally focused and really cared about how it looked. I felt like she was a completely different child! What are you doing with her?!"
She has been a trooper with her twice daily exercises and I think she feels it is already paying off. Yesterday she said, "Mom, I think the Dore is helping me." I think she is right!
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