I just wanted to share some of the things I have done to help my son learn in spite of his differences.
Since handwriting is difficult, he learned to type and has been typing lots of messages to other players when he plays Runescape. I know there have been a lot of negative things said in the news recently about these games being addictive, but if you limit the time spent on these games, I think they can even be educational.
My son pays more attention to spelling so that he doesn't embarrass himself on the game. He is willing to work on preparing for a Pee Wee spelling bee, using the words from last year's list. There are over 3000 words on this list and I have seen some of these words on 8th grade spelling lists that I found online. I ask him to spell the words without having seen them and I only have him write the ones he misses. He gets a lot of them correct without going over the words first. He got phobia and hemoglobin correct because he had seen these words recently in things he had read. I am guessing he saw the word phobia in his sister's college psychology book. Since I usually ask him to spell words for me while he is playing video games he doesn't mind working on spelling. I let him do it this way because he is good at multitasking, so why not use it.
I don't know if he has a bad case of psychomotor overexcitabilities or if it is his sensory issues but he has a hard time with sitting for long periods of time. He learns well if I let him move around while I read to him.
So he does some of his learning while he plays on the Wii. I really like the Wii. Not only does it get him moving, but he can read the news and he enjoys reading it to me. I encourage him to read the science and health and technology sections. Occasionally there is something there that I wish he hadn't read, like yesterday one of the articles he read mentioned "erectile dysfunction" and I had to think of an excuse to leave the room in a hurry so he didn't ask me what that was.
He is enjoying reading an online high school/adult level version of The Wizard of Oz with over 1,000 SAT words added to the story. You can click on the SAT words and it gives you the definition. I would love to have my son's reading comprehension tested after he finishes this. I have never heard of some of these words and others I never bothered to look up the etymology. I never needed to know the exact meaning or other meanings but my son likes doing this because you can make more jokes if you know more words. The only problem is that where we live (small town) a lot of the adults wouldn't understand the jokes because they don't know what some of these words mean. He knows not to use some of these words around kids because he knows they wouldn't understand, but with adults it is more difficult. At least he found a "geeky" group of friends that he can talk to without worrying about this. The only problem is, most of them are three and four years older and everything is so age segregated here. He couldn't be in the same class in Vacation Bible School as most of his friends. His age mates in his class noticed the difference and one of them even said he thought my son had to have at least finished sixth grade and must be in the wrong class. My son likes to participate in discussions and since he is homeschooled I think it is difficult for him to know how much to lower the vocabulary level he is using in his speech. I think when he is an adult this will no longer be a problem.
I leave Popular Science magazine in the backseat of the car so he can read it when we are in the car. He likes to read it to me while I am driving, at least when the battery runs out on his Nintendo DS.
It is a shame that kids like my son are held back in our public school because of sensory or motor issues. He just wants to learn, in the way he learns best, so we have to homeschool.
It has been three weeks now and our Department of Education will not answer my emails about our problems with the school. I will try to get my letter to my senator written this week and also have my son type his own letter. If I can get up the nerve we will deliver the letters in person.
