"My other name is Krista"

One of the things I have managed to teach Valerie is that I have a name other than Mommy and Daddy has another name too. I would point to myself and say to her "My other name is Krista". I would also write it on her Magna-Doodle. I did this over andd over until she got it and now when I say "My other name is----------" she will finish it saying "Krista".

Summertime

Well I have actually gotten Valerie to some library activities this summer-and she sat quietly and learned! First, there was a wildlife exhibit where she sat nicely next to me. Then yesterday she read out loud to a certified therapy dog whose handler brings him to the library so kids can practice reading out loud to him. With her autism I was afraid she would not want to do it if there were too many little kids around but we were the next to last ones to read so there were not many left at all.We learned about what a therapy dog does for people with disabilities.

When we walked in the dog came right up to Valerie and greeted her. When he needed to get up to stretch he came to her again. I think he sensed that she has a disability. We are going to read with him again next week.

I finally found a homeschool group for special needs kids, so I hope to join it in the near future. There is also an Autism social club that I plan on joining. Maybe Mom can finally get socialized.

Been busy lately.

My public school kids are off for the summer so since we just have one working computer there is usually a line in fron of it.LOL!

Valerie of course, is still doing homeschool in the summer.She will regress if she does not. We have begun the plus two adddition tables and will continue to work on that and telling time by the half hour. Her focus on her lessons is improving and she gets a stamp of her choice on her workbook pages when she is finished with each one.

One of the most rewarding thigs about homeschooling a severely autistic young person is knowing that I was able to accomplish things that several years in the public school did not. It is so gratifying to hear her read her books out loud and be able to answer some simplee questions about thhe pictures.Of course we are still working on her other deficits in self care, behavior and communication. We are planning to join and Autism Social group in the fall. I am researching distance ABA programs that we could potentially start.

One of our chief concerns right now is the skyrocketing cost of the gas it takes to drive her to thirty-six therapy sessions a month. She gets one right after another so we go three dayss a week. We are in a rural area so we have to go about thirty miles one way.We may have to cut dowwn to one day aa week so I want to be able to make up for that as much as I can.

Still working on math

We are still working on addition with Valerie.She continues to do well with the Kumon Workbooks and I think she is ready to learn the addition facts.Kumon uses a number line which seems to work with Valerie. When initially working with her I used a pencil to show how many "jumps" there were between the numbers. For example: If the problem read 2+2= I would have her find 2 on the number line, put her pencil there and count two jumps and have her tell me what number we were on.She seems to have figured it out. She still requires constant prompting when doing any kind of homeschool activity.

We are going to use the Kumon workbooks until she has advanced beyond them, then we will look into other math programs.For the future I am thinking about using Devlopemental Math, Miquon or Singapore Math. Kumon is not a complete curriculum for math, but they focus on the primary things that children need to learn. As soon as we get our darned stimulus payment that the U.S.governement has been kind enought to offer us I am also going to order her funtastic frogs, counters and workbooks. I have heard that Math-U-See is a good curriculum for autism too.

Teaching Valerie math.

Valerie does not like math at all. Or at least she didn't until I started her on the kumon workbooks. I bought her the addition, counting coins and telling time ones. After months of frustration on her part we are finally making progress. I found a free online game that she loves that has made a big difference.It is called Rainforest Maths and is by Jenny Eager. Saxon math is great for normal kids, but not for Valerie.I stated her off in the Kindergarten level math since she is so far behind academically speaking. With Saxon Math, the lessons are all scripted. I gave up on it when we were midway through the book.She seems much more relaxed with Kumon workbooks.She is even doing much better with the worksheets that I print up for her.

For those who do not know,Valerie has severe autism and is still pretty much nonverbal.I have been homechooling her for a year now.

Dick and Jane.

One of the first things her therapists did was start her reading. They have some of the old Dick and Jane readers and they began to teach her sight words straight out of them. "See Spot Run" and "Oh Oh Oh" (that one makes her laugh for some silly reason).

I took it from there and proceeded to buy her as many of the reprinted books as I could. I also scored several vintage readers from ebay like Alice and Jerry and Betts Basic Readers. She enjoys them now and will read them on her own. Today she is at about a first to second grade level in reading and we work on it daily. I do not use a box curriculum for her. My approach is much more like unschooling since we do not have set times for lessons and there are no grades, tests or homework. We are always looking for new material to use for her. I was using Saxon Math K, but found myself correcting her behavior more than I was teaching. We use vintage science and social studies readers. She is going to have a small garden this year, since she likes to read about seeds. Her Dad wants her to grow watermelon but I suspect that he has an ulterior motive for that.

"We've Been to Seminars"

Valerie is still working on toilet training. At eleven , it is a work in progress for her. We have tried everything. We were almost there when the toilet we trained her on broke resulting in some major plumbing repairs that we are saving up to fix. We do have another bathroom, but with her autism it has been nearly impossible to get her to change to that one. At school she was fairly well trained and they wanted us to send her to school on the bus in uderwear. We refused, because it would mean a long bus ride without access to a bathroom. This would almost certainly result in an accident and an unhappy bus driver who would then have to clean it up.We told the teacher and the principal this to no avail. We had a meeting with them both and basically were told that they had had extensive training on teaching autistic children to use the toilet and kept repeating "We've been to seminars". The end result of all this was that the school won out and we had to start sending her to school in panties. However that was not the end off our troubles with them, as we were to find out.

We were not being heard. It seemed like everything Dan or I said to these professionals went in one ear and out the other. Our concerns were disregarded. They wanted us to stop using pull ups at home and have her wear underwear all the time. Our experience was that this would result in her having "accidents" frequently and ruin our carpets and furniture, which would then have to be replaced . We also explained that we had three other kids who should not have to live in a place that smells like urine. Our objections and concerns were dismissed. "That won't happen" they said. Well it did.