New here - help for 11 year old please!!

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

Hi everyone,

I am finding this site way too late in the game, but I really need help. I am writing about my 11 year old daughter, in 6th grade. She has been diagnosed since 1st grade with processing disorders - mostly visual. Her reading is far behind, her multiplication facts are still incomplete, and she has having problems telling analog time (tho this seems to be getting better lately - hooray!!).

The school system has been supportive, but we need more. She is just struggling too much and while her close knit group of friends in elementary school understood and accepted her disabilities in middle school she gets made fun of - her self esteem is sinking.

My daughter is extremely bright - totally bilingual, her verbal abilities have been at the 8th grade level since 4th grade! Nonetheless, she needs more than what is being given.

I literally do not know where to look outside the school system to get her help. We live in Palm Springs California and I would like to know how I should proceed to get her the assistance she needs outside of the school system. I feel like she needs a consultant to share with us local resources, tutors, et cetera that will bolster what is happening for her at school. How do I find this help? Is there something else I should be looking for?

Thanks for listening and for your help. Happy New Year 2007!!

Submitted by scifinut on Sun, 12/31/2006 - 3:21 AM

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The first thing that comes to mind when I read your post is getting an evaluation by an educational optometrist or a visual therapist. There are many things that can be done to help, depending on what the visual issues are. http://www.visionhelp.com/
You may also want to consider Irelen Syndrome as this causes issues with visual perception and processing. http://www.irlen.com Accommodations that can be made would be auditory books or Text-To-Speech programs. These can be great for kids who are very intelligent but have things getting in their way. I particularly like the TTS programs as a lot of them also help with visual processing - they highlight the words as they are read which helps with visual tracking.

As for the math, I like Touchmath - http://www.touchmath.com Its a kinetic way to connect the numbers to the brain and can be really helpful for some kids. My dd hated math until we started Touchmath, then everything clicked and now its one of her favorite subjects.

Don’t be afraid to try things on your own and reseach different things. Not every kid does well with what are considered “standard” programs. Sometimes you need to really be flexible and innovative to find what works for your particular child.

Submitted by geodob on Sun, 12/31/2006 - 7:28 AM

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Hi Bruiser,
In regard to visual processing disorders, has she learnt how to Visualise? Can she picture words/ numbers in her mind?
Also what is her Spatial thinking like?

Submitted by Sue on Tue, 01/02/2007 - 6:36 PM

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If her verbal abilities are her strength, then she may like using that to make the math make verbal sense. Marilyn Burns and Peggy Kaye have both written several *excellent* books about making math meaningful for different kinds of thinkers; you can “teach” a lot just in everyday things in math. (If she struggles with spatial thinking… then touchmath may be a frustration. The “story” approach to “Times tables the fun way” - google that phrase and you’ll find it - might be better, or some of the “number sense” strategies I’ve got on my site ( www.resourceroom.net - click on “math” and there’s a bunch of stuff about the times tables including some chapters from a book about it).

Submitted by Nancy3 on Tue, 01/02/2007 - 9:41 PM

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How were the visual processing deficits diagnosed? Visual processing deficits (pattern recognition, visual sequential memory, directionality left/right) are often the result of undiagnosed visual *efficiency* deficits (convergence insufficiency, slow accommodation, inability to track, etc.). Visual efficiency deficits are usually very responsive to vision therapy.

For more information about visual efficiency deficits, see http://www.childrensvision.com . To find board-certified developmental optometrists in your area, see http://www.covd.org.

Incidentally, visual efficiency skills are not evaluated in regular eye exams. That’s why you need a developmental optometrist.

Once visual efficiency skills are in a normal range, most children this age will need follow-up to stimulate development of visual processing skills. PACE is an excellent program for this (see http://www.processingskills.com or http://www.learningrx.com).

For multiplication facts, I recommend trying QuarterMile Math software. You can call or email the company for a free demo disc. Website is http://www.thequartermile.com. To use this program, plan on sitting down with your dd for 10 minutes a day (set a timer) and keyboard for her (allows more practice to be fit into 10 minutes). Start with facts she knows, and gradually add on those she doesn’t. Plan on doing this *daily* for several months, and you should see very significant improvement. (I have heard this is the program that Sylvan Learning Centers use now to develop math fact fluency — accuracy combined with speed.)

Nancy

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