Spectrum of Possibilities

PDD is not a four-letter word.

The Littlest Docent

		Saturday, 12 May 07 - 04:27 PM (GMT -05:00) By Andrea S. Stolz in Pervasive Developmental Disorder

 

A home schooling friend (and mentor) had at one point suggested that as Ben got older, if the shark fascination continued, I should look into possible intern programs at an animal shelter, museum or aquarium for him...that she knew of other home schoolers who were able to work out individualized opportunities for their children...

Yesterday, at the Atlantis Marine World aquarium in Riverhead, I had to remember that conversation and laugh.  We arrived in time to feed and pet the stingrays before heading up to the shark deck to hear the afternoon shark lecture.  The aquarium houses about four sand tiger sharks and as many nurse sharks in it's largest tank "The Lost City of Atlantis Shark Exhibit."  (There is also a 300-pound loggerhead turtle named Jaws in the tank, who, according to our lector, rules the watery roost!)

When the shark lecture was done, I urged Ben to go up to the lector and ask HIM all of the questions he tends to bombard me with at 11:30 at night, when reasonable children ARE ASLEEP.  

"Maybe he has a good working theory on why steccocanthus died out, go ask HIM!" I said encouragingly.  "This is your chance!"

But instead of asking any questions, Ben started pointing out possible problems with the guy's lecture.  

"You know, you were wrong when you said that aquariums have never housed a Great White...the Monterey Aquarium in California had a great white for three months, but unfortunately had to let it go because it was eating its tank mates."

Poor Dave.  The nervous-looking, college-aged lector.  You know that all the guy wanted to do was a little quiet professional research away from the public, but that this speaking bit was somehow tied to his internship or grant money.

"Well, yeah, that's true, actually," Dave conceded.  "It's just easier to explain things the way I did."

"Mmmmmmmmmm," Ben replied critically.  This is a child who never sacrifices truth on the altar of brevity.  Still, in this case, he was clearly willing to give a fellow scientist the benefit of the doubt.

The six-foot plus Dave and my prepubescent 11-year old son spent the next couple of minutes quizzing each other on shark knowledge.  I'm not sure if Dave was surprised, impressed or deeply shaken by the results of the conversation.  And, to add to Dave's already palpable tension, Ben was videotaping all of Dave's responses.

"Hun, I think you're making Dave uncomfortable," I finally whispered, and motioned that he put the camera away.

"Oh," Ben replied, looking at Dave and then his video camera in a bemused way, "sorry dude."



Later, while we were waiting for our lunch to be deep-fried, Ben went back over to the shark tank.  When I ultimately went to retrieve him, he was lecturing a four-year old boy and his mom.

"Now, these sand tigers may look ferocious, but remember: in reality, they very rarely attack human beings.  You are much more likely to be injured in a car accident or struck by lightening than you are to ever be attacked by a shark of any kind."

The boy and his mom thanked Ben for taking the time to talk to them as we left.

"I like doing that," Ben explained to me as we walked back to the cafeteria.  "It's my way of sharing what I've learned.  And I like to talk to kids because they're going to be making the decisions of the future."

How Wonderful is My Child?

		Sunday, 15 April 07 - 10:21 PM (GMT -05:00) By Andrea S. Stolz in Pervasive Developmental Disorder

(Ignore the mess and the fact that nothing in this room matches.  Zone in, instead, on the portable word processor on my son's lap!)

You have to understand when reading the following, that for as long as Ben has been in public school, he has had a baseball team's worth of specialists working with him.  I have been attending teacher meetings now for eight of his eleven years.  Meetings where I have had to emotionally brace myself before entering a room full of (at best: befuddled, at worst: hostile)  teachers and specialists, and then subsequently trying to explain away or make clear what *I* knew to be reasonable Ben-behavior, but that, oftentimes, the professionals in the room had never seen before, and did not always understand.

(PS: For anyone out there new to the game: bring your husband along to these meetings.  Explain to the man that: yes, this is worth half a vacation day.  It will save so much time and money in legal fees and marital counseling later...)

Where was I????  Oh, yeah!  Eight years of bonking my knees on the low tables as I tried to get comfy in one of those ittie-bittie chairs...

Eight years of: "Yes, he does that."

"We're working on that."

"I understand how that could be a challenge for you in the classroom."

And...

"The doctor says that that is not unusual in the PDD population."

A great many of the professionals that I have had to work together with in these last eight years have been driven, intelligent, and well-meaning--though certainly not all...as I suspect I may have made abundantly clear in more than one previous post...

The system of special education, though, is created to deal with negatives, remediate deficits, list and quantify problem behaviors, reach for solutions.  It is inherently a wearying journey that places the focus of all involved on what does not currently exist.

My teacher/parent experience as Ben's mom can best be summed up by two phrases:

"He's so smart--but..."

and

"I've never seen a child quite like him before."

I have always loved my son and his rare perspective.  I've almost always understood him:  Fears.  Needs.  Loves.  But the external message I have received from a large part of the world outside of him and me for the last eight years has been:

He is flawed. 

Loveable?  "Meh! We suppose."  And hey! We'll give you quirky without a moment's thought.  But there's a whole shopping list of things we the professionals believe are just not working right with this kid:

Sensory integration disorder, auditory processing disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, gross motor dysfunction, fine motor dysfunction, nonverbal learning disorder, dysgraphia, dyslexia, dyspraxia, stuttering, tics, insomnia, anxiety...

Today a show came on the Discovery Channel...something about early life evolving into dinosaurs, then amphibians.  I was working on an assignment for school, so I couldn't sit with the boys and watch it.  It was two hours long, though--this show.  And Ben, on his own, grabbed his AlphaSmart and took notes on the entire show.

Really, really good notes.  Thorough.  Well-chosen.  Main points.  He even printed them out afterwards!  Got himself a binder we weren't using, placed the notes inside...

Here's the miracle of this kid--and of all the people who have worked with him because I cannot take all of the credit:  Despite that laundry list up there?  He is happy.  He is curious.  He is motivated.  He is smart. 

My son is smart.  And I am so incredibly proud of him.

Nonverbal Learning Disorder: A Primer

		Monday, 26 March 07 - 02:14 AM (GMT -05:00) By Andrea S. Stolz in Pervasive Developmental Disorder

 NONVERBAL LEARNING DISORDER
(An example of a Multiply-Handicapped Child)

DESCRIPTION

    The individual with a nonverbal learning disability has serious needs because so many aspects of their functioning are affected.  Unlike the individual with verbal weaknesses for whom the learning of language arts is difficult, but social and sports activities may be a relative strength that helps to compensate, in the case of nonverbal disabilities both social and athletic skills, as well as certain aspects of academic learning, are impeded so that the individual is hampered in both academic and non-academic areas.  Finding a compensating strength can be more difficult for these individuals.

    Nonverbal learning disabilities often go undiagnosed until they become an issue of emotional and behavioral dysfunction because reading ability tends to be  the chief indicator of academic well-being in most elementary public schools.

    Because children with NLD are highly verbal, parents and teachers tend to attribute their academic and social failure to laziness or poor character. This can lead to emotional problems like depression and anxiety that may be expressed in physical ways (e.g. nail and cuticle biting, headaches, stomach problems, phobias) or in over-reliance on familiar habits and routines that structure their world but block new opportunities for learning and adapting.

ETIOLOGY

Nonverbal Learning Disorder is currently:
•    Seen as an issue of neural wiring.  Brain scans of this population often show atypicalities of the white matter on the right hand side of the (Thompson, 2002).

•    Often indicated when a student’s verbal IQ is more than 10 points higher than his/her analytical IQ.

•    Anecdotally recounted as recurring in families.  
•    Seen to be an issue of genetics.
•    As common as dyslexia.
•    Affecting males and females equally.
•    More obvious in today’s society:
➢    Fewer opportunities for unstructured play where children have opportunity     to develop social skills outside of the classroom.
➢    More opportunities to become perseverative, devour information, stick     with what feels good to the child, avoid what is difficult.

•    Seen as co-morbid or an element of:
➢    Asperger’s
➢    ADD/ADHD (sub-clinical)
➢    Tourette’s
➢    Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
➢    Mental Retardation
➢    Traumatic Brain Injury (secondary problem)

CHARACTERISTICS

•    Sensory Integration Disorder
➢    Sensory defensiveness—feels too much.
➢    Sensory under-responsivity—doesn’t detect pain.
➢    Sensory seeking—seeks out stimuli often through inappropriate behaviors.

•    Marked Motor Deficits
➢    Gross motor—dyspraxia: cannot turn sensory information into appropriate     movements (negotiating desks in a classroom, for instance).
➢    Fine motor—ie: handwriting, painting.
➢    Oral motor—ie: articulation, tone.

•    Poor Executive Functioning
➢    Short term memory for non-verbal information poor (Rourke, 1995)
➢    Poor ability to multi-task.
➢    Poor ability to prioritize tasks appropriately.
➢    Poor metacognitive processes (“What am I doing?”  “What have I     done?’).

•    Poor Pragmatics
➢    Math—marked deficiencies in mathematical reasoning.
➢    Social—conversational turn-taking, personal space, appropriate touching.

•    Unusual language strengths and weaknesses
➢    Strength: vocabulary, spelling, decoding (skills that require     memorization).
➢    Weakness: comprehension (reading between the lines).

PROGRESSION

•    Pre-school:
➢    Generally early talkers and early readers.
➢    In early years appear oppositional: tantrums, stubborn.
➢    Decreased exploratory behaviors.
➢    Extreme difficulty with transitions (moving from one activity to another).
➢    Extreme difficulty with changes in schedule or routine.


•    Early Elementary School:
➢    Poor graphomotor skills (handwriting).
➢    May focus on topics that are of little interest to peers.
➢    Display a marked tendency toward sedentary and physically limited     modes of functioning. This tendency often increases with age (Rourke,     1995).
➢    They often try to gain information about the world around them by asking     endless questions of adults rather than by exploring on their own.      (Teacher may feel the child demands a disproportionate amount of their     attention and help).
➢    They may evidence significant difficulty dealing with cause-and-effect     relationships and evidence marked deficiencies in the ability to appreciate     incongruity.
➢    They often do not exhibit age appropriate sensitivity to humor and also     evidence poor pragmatic language usage (Rourke, 1995).
➢    May initially be labeled as gifted due to precocity with language and     decoding.


•    Later Elementary School:
➢    Either avoidant of novel situations or exhibit controlling behaviors like     endless negotiations (trying to control environment to achieve success).
➢    Poor organizational skills become more apparent as increased     independence is expected in classroom.
➢    Experience social failure through pragmatics and athletic deficits, and     academic failure through math and reading comprehension deficits.
➢    Often perceived as “lazy” and “not trying.”

•    High School and Adulthood
➢    Not unusual to be agoraphobic.
➢    Suffer unusually high rates of anxiety, alienation and depression.
➢    Higher than normal rate of suicide.


 
BEHAVIORS & MANAGEMENT

Clumsy
•    Keep classroom uncluttered.  
•    Be proactive in avoiding accidents.
•     Encourage sense of humor.  
•    Make sure that child is receiving therapy from occupational and physical therapists, as necessary.

Hyperlexic
•    Encourage reading.
•    Model deeper thinking and “reading between the lines” with graphic organizers and analytical questioning that begets interpretation.

Difficulty in math
•    Use teaching practices that model metacognitive processes such as the “Solve It!” process detailed in the strategies section.
•    Channel student into remedial math instruction, as needed.

Over-reliance on adults to navigate environment
•    Teacher needs to see child as having legitimate needs and disabilities.
•    Teacher needs to wean child toward independent behavior.

Social difficulties
•    Find a peer mentor.  
•    Make sure that child is put in for social skills classes with school psychologist, if possible.
•    Use classroom meetings as a way to model appropriate social and problem-solving behaviors.

Perseverative
•    find ways to connect limited interests into the workings of the classroom while simultaneously encouraging the child to “stretch.”

Loner
•    teach social skills,
•    foster resilience,
•    play to strengths

Disorganized
•    break down routines into manageable sub-routines
•    “Fill in the blank” classroom notes
•    Do not assume child can keep organized independently
    

ACADEMIC PLACEMENT
(Least Restrictive Environment)

    With appropriate team members in place (occupational therapist, speech therapist, remedial math teacher, school psychologist, behavioral interventionist), these children can often be placed in a general education environment.  More restrictive environments may be necessary, however, depending on co-morbidity of additional disorders.

STRATEGIES

The nonverbal learning disordered child particularly benefits from:

•    The use of graphic organizers when discussing subject content.  Graphic organizers such as venn diagrams make concrete, abstract connections and comparisons while also modeling these metacognitive thought processes and patterns.
•    Social skills classes given by the school psychologist.
•    Pragmatics analysis given by the school speech therapist.
•    Occupational therapy and/or to improve motor function and expand sensory diet.
•    Training on the metacognitive processes of mathematics.
•    Class meetings where social conventions and rules of appropriate communication and conflict-resolution are discussed and modeled.

The ideal teacher for a nonverbal learning disordered child will:
 
•    Help the child make connections in the curriculum through deep analysis.
•    Help the child break down organizational tasks into manageable subtasks.
•    Create a supportive, socially-inclusive classroom community that fosters resilience through constructive feedback, clear standards and opportunities for collaborative work and personal choices within the curriculum.

The nonverbal learning disordered child would benefit from math instruction similar to the Solve It! Paradigm designed by University of Miami researcher Marjorie Montague because it models appropriate metacognitive and cognitive strategies for math problem-solving:

•    Reading the problem. Students are taught how to read mathematical problems, including using reading strategies to understand the problem (e.g., focusing on important information), developing mathematical vocabulary, and recognizing when they do not understand relationships among mathematical terms and quantitative concepts expressed in a problem.
•    Paraphrasing.  Students are taught how to put the problem into their own words and convey meaning.
•    Visualizing.  Students are taught to draw a representation on paper or to make a mental image of the problem.
•    Hypothesizing about problem solutions.  Students are taught how to decide the number of operations that are needed to solve the problem, select and order the operations, and then to transform the information into correct equations and algorithms.
•    Estimating the answer.  Students are taught how to stay focused on the type of outcome (e.g., number of yards rather than feet), and then how to predict the answer by using the information in the problem and their projected solution path.
•    Computing.  Students are taught how to recall the correct procedures for working through the algorithms and the necessary math facts for accuracy.
•    Checking the problem. Students are taught how to check the mathematical problem solving process to ensure that they have understood the problem, accurately represented the problem, selected an appropriate solution path, and solved the problem correctly.

The nonverbal learning disordered child benefits from classrooms that are democratically rather than autocratically governed because in a democratic classroom rules are discussed and evaluated.  When teachers use classroom meetings to solve these problems rather than rely on their own authority, they:
•    Build initiative in children.
•    Convey the dual messages, “Kids are problem solvers” and “problems are opportunities to learn.”
•     Give children opportunities to practice the skills of exchanging ideas and listening to one another.


 
REFERENCES


Bickart, Toni S. and Wolin, Sybil (1997). “Practicing Resilience in the Elementary     Classroom.”  Principal Magazine.
    http://www.projectresilience.com/article17.htm

Clearver, Roger L. and Whitman, R. Douglas Ph. D. (1998).
    “Right Hemisphere, White-Matter Learning Disabilities Associated with Depression in an Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatric Population.”
    Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease. 186(9):561-565.

Miller, Lucy J.  (2006).  Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder.  New York, NY: Perigee Penguin.

Warger, Cynthia (2002).  “Helping Students with Disabilities Participate in     Standards-Based Mathematics Curriculum.”     http://www.cec.sped.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE    =/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=1796

Whitney, Rondalyn Varney  (2002).  Bridging the Gap: Raising a Child with Nonverbal Learning Disorder.  New York, NY: Perigee Penguin.




FURTHER READING

NLD on the Web: http://www.nldontheweb.org/

Twice Exceptional Newsletter: http://2enewsletter.com/

Teaching Assistant vs. Aides

		Monday, 12 February 07 - 04:32 PM (GMT -05:00) By Andrea S. Stolz in Pervasive Developmental Disorder

 Look what I got from P2P today...

A post from the state of New York on the difference between a TA and an aide.  Unfortunately, qualified TA's are hard to come by.  That's why districts are allowed to provide autistic spectrum kids with an aide, instead.  However, since the aide is less expensive, some districts don't try to provide anything more.

Here a Lee, There a Lee (Serious-Lee)

		Thursday, 01 February 07 - 12:02 AM (GMT -05:00) By Andrea S. Stolz in Pervasive Developmental Disorder

Ben's class is working on a big American Civil War project.  It's a fifth grade showpiece kind-of-project; culminates in the parents visiting the classroom, snacks afterwards, etc., etc. 

The idea is that each child chooses a historic figure, researches it and writes up an essay (childhood, education, historic significance...), and then creates a mini bulletin board replete with pictures and pertinent quotes.  Then, the day of the parent-visit, the kids each dress up as their "person" and scatter around the gymnasium to form a living museum.  Younger students and parents shuffle through, press a black button in each child's hand that brings the figure "to life," and then listen to an oral presentation on the figure.

Now, theoretically: this is pedagogical pay dirt.  You've got your personal connection to content.  Use of your dramatic, verbal, artistic and visual modalities... This?  Is a textbook example of that ever-elusive deep-dive into content--the kind of curricular depth and breadth that  educational theorists plotz over and that the school wants parents to remember come the annual budget vote...

Theoretically. 

I took a look over darling boy-of-mine's shoulders the other night as he was typing up captions to photos that he had printed out that day in class.

"Why do you have so many pictures of the Confederate flag," I asked.  In what I deemed a reasonable tone of voice.

"Well, this is what came up when I googled "Confederate Army" today in computer lab," darling boy replies.  Somewhat dismissively.

"Don't you think your pictures should support your text?" I ask.  Reasonably. "I thought you were writing about Robert E. Lee, not the Confederate flag.

I am told not to worry.  Furthermore?  That perhaps I should...mind my own beeswax.

Talk about your tactical errors.  Antietam had nothing on the five minutes of monologue that then ensued.

"Let me see your essay...do you even know why this man is special...asked to head both armies...man of honor...smart...could've been president under different circumstances...didn't want to fight against his country...complicated, fascinating stuff--WHO EVEN WROTE THIS BECAUSE THIS SURE ISN'T YOUR HANDWRITING!!!"

So, here's the upshot of the situation.  This is a big, sexy project that puts the fifth grade teachers and their students center stage.  Literally.  And so my child was going to have to present something that day.  Whether or not the assignment made sense to him.  Whether or not he did any of the work.

His one-on-one paraprofessional (a mother in the community with no college experience--which while legal and cheap is certainly not preferable to, say, a slightly more-expensive graduate student working on his/her accreditation that might teach him content that he found confusing or perform task analysis to break this assignment down into manageable subtasks), had written his essay.  Not just transcribed.  Wrote.  So of course darling boy had no idea what pictures to include.  He didn't even know what was in the essay.

Additionally?  And this is me at my most cynical: It was a really boring essay.  He wasn't given the opportunity to connect emotionally with the research and he sure as heck wasn't going to connect with the finished product.  All that my son was learning from this show-piece project was that, in a pinch, grown-ups will do your work for you and that, generally speaking, class work is a meaningless waste of time.  Oh, and: he didn't have what it took to complete a project like this on his own--but that was okay.  Expected.

I am now, however, living with a bona fide Robert E. Lee fan.  Because if you read anything about the man you cannot help but be intrigued by him.  And oh, did we read.  Upbringing.  Family history.  FFV.  Lee's surrender at Appomattix Court House.  And the essay?  We researched it together over the course of three hours (a true deep-dive that is nearly impossible in a public school environment...).  It is good.  With lots of really good pictures that darling boy found himself with help of our good friends at der google.

God bless the bloody Republic.

Nobody Asks For the Spanish Inquisition...

		Monday, 29 January 07 - 10:03 AM (GMT -05:00) By Andrea S. Stolz in Pervasive Developmental Disorder

The other day, Ben's teacher went to collect the social studies homework assignment from the previous evening only to discover that a quarter of the class had chosen not to do it.  Frustrated with the lack of compliance (instead of, I don't know...questioning why a  full quarter of the class did not find the assignment meaningful enough to complete...), she told that group of 7 or 8 kids that they would not be getting recess that day as a punishment (a practice that I am sorely against, btw).

At this juncture, darling boy of mine, who had, in fact, completed the assignment, pipes up with a comment to the tune of, "well, maybe if social studies was made interesting and taught better people would do the homework!"

To which the teacher responded by immediately revoking his right to recess.  Since the kids were having indoor recess anyway, this meant sitting at his desk instead of socializing with the other students.  When darling boy of mine then went to pull out a book from his bag to read (something he does most days at recess anyway), he was instructed to put the book away.  That detention at recess meant sitting quietly at your desk. 

This is so anti-education it makes my head explode.  But, additionally, when you have a child who has a difficulty understanding abstractions and social niceties, you wind up with a child constantly getting punished for their learning disabilities--which just takes this scenario to whole additional level of wrong.

Last time I checked, blind kids weren't put in detention for not seeing.  Hearing impaired kids don't get it for not hearing.  But PDD kids get punished all of the time for not understanding the pragmatic ramifications of speech despite their documented disability. 

Because You're Mine, I Walk the Line

		Thursday, 25 January 07 - 02:41 AM (GMT -05:00) By Andrea S. Stolz in Pervasive Developmental Disorder

 Back on the old version of Spectrum of Possibilities I had two quotes on the front page...

Education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform.

and

Nurture an appetite for being puzzled, indeed for being openly stupid...it is true that a lot of knowledge can be a dangerous thing...use your ignorance as well as your knowledge for creative means.

Things That Make You Go 'Hmmm'

		Tuesday, 23 January 07 - 01:30 AM (GMT -05:00) By Andrea S. Stolz in Pervasive Developmental Disorder

    Ben has been mopey a good bit lately.  I don't know if this is a product of his age, the changes going on in his body, his learning differences, or what.  And mopey is the happier version.  We've also had more frequent visits from Belligerent Ben ("No, you're the one trying to dominate the conversation, mom!") and Lachrymose Ben ("People think that sharks are the mindless killers, but it's us!  Why did I have to be born a human being???").  I'm checking my watch and I'm seeing a good bit of space between here and the legal age of independence...

    But the big one this year is "I hate school" Ben.  Sundays of late have been filled with frequent countdowns to doomsday (aka: monday morning)...as in, "I can't believe that I only have 19 hours until I have to go back to that place."

    I've asked.  Nobody is picking on him.  He likes his classmates (though nobody else is as fascinated by sharks as he is...).  He likes his teacher.  He likes art, music, and recess.  And science.  Social studies is okay.  He gets to pick interesting books for independent reading.  Math is hard and he hates it.  One negative.

    Finally, this morning, he turned to me and asked: "Why can't school be more like the school in Finding Nemo?  Where we learn by doing stuff, going on field trips and figuring things out for ourselves?  That seems like a much better idea than just reading about little bits in a textbook."

    I've been looking into homeschooling him next year, anyway.  Middle school is notoriously difficult for spectrum kids.  But that question just took my breath away.

    It's a pretty rational question...particularly from someone who still believes in Santa Claus.

... More items are available in my News Archive