Dysnomia...now there's a mouthful!

Being the daughter of a dyslexic and the mom of two dyslexics, I've always struggled with what to do when my kids or Mom are struggling with finding a word. It's like they can remember every other word to describe what they are trying to say, but not the word they mean. Here's an example of how it goes....my son was telling me a story about something he saw on the way home from school and he couldn't remember the word for bus, but he remembered that it was yellow and big. It carries the kids to and from school and it's a vehicle. I felt like I was playing a word game, which I don't mind because I love word games, but I always feel bad for him when he has a moment of suffering from dysnomia...yes, it has a name. Actually, it's a disorder and it has a medical classification. As usual, my attitude has been...call it what you want just tell me how to help my kids and my mom, while we are it.

I went to a workshop recently at Woodland Hall Academy, the school my children attend, and thankfully the principal provided some answers and shared some tips on how to help someone who has dysnomia.

My oldest son seems to suffer the most from dysnomia. He has a very difficult time remembering names and recalling words. When he reads, I can give him a word he doesn't know, but he can't remember it the next time he sees it in a following sentence. It can be frustrating for both of us but the workshop I attended provided strategies and ways to keep us both from getting frustrated. Here's a few that we have found useful...

1. Don't play the rhyming game. In other words, don't say it rhymes with a word. People with dysnomia aren't good at rhyming.

2. Give the person time, don't get frustrated with them when they can't come up with the word.

3. Sometimes it's best just to give them the word. This reduces the frustration and provides the opportunity to focus on the content of what they are saying.

4. When reading and they can't remember the word, just give it to them and focus on the story.

At this point, I'm grateful for the tips and hope they help others. I'm also so grateful that my children are at a school they love and, most importantly, they love learning!!!

Normal and New

Normal...have you ever contemplated that word? I have and I'm happy to say that a few people have recently used the term to describe my kids. Although the issues our boys are dealing with are mild compared to what others face, I was sad when I found out they would be dealing with lifelong challenges. Fortunately, we didn't stick our heads in the sand. We didn't wait for them to out grow any of it. I am so grateful for the early intervention we did and all the help we have had and continue to have along the way. So, whatever normal means, I'm happy to hear it as a term to describe the boys. I know it's a silly, silly thing, but the most important part about it is the progress they have made. For that, I am truly grateful!

On a different note, I wanted to share a great article entitled "Dyslexia: What Teachers Need to Know". I recently saw it in the "Instructor" magazine produced by Scholastic. As a teacher educator, I often subscribe to such magazines and just like the public schools, I've never seen mention of the "D" word, dyslexia. My favorite part about the article was the positive slant, particularly that "dyslexics are strong learners". Oh so true! It's amazing what Marshall can repeat. He is like a sponge, but he does have to share that knowledge with others. I also found the half page of Quick Facts About Dyslexia a great way to hit on the important aspects of dyslexia.

The article was well written and included some excellent resources. I'm not sure which website resource I like the best, but I was pretty impressed with the Kids Health site which included a way to listen to the content on the page.

The International Dyslexia Association http://interdys.org/

LD Online http://www.ldonline.org/article/Dyslexia_Basics

Kids Health http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/learning_problem/dyslexia.html

Dyslexic Teaching Today http://dyslexia-teacher.co.uk/

I hope you enjoy these resources and share them with others!!!! Thanks for reading!

All In

School started yesterday and I'm amazed at how quickly we are back in the groove. I guess summer school helps to keep us on track and makes the "reentry" to a new school year much smoother. Lately, I've been thinking about how grateful I am that we stick to the school policy of low sugar - less than 3 grams. I can't imagine what it would be like if Mike and I weren't on the same page with this.

Over the summer we had some friends from school over to swim. I was a little caught off guard when one of the mom's asked me if we did the "low sugar thing" on the weekend. Of course, I said yes and we enjoyed watermelon and veggies when we took a break from swimming. The complex sugar in fruits doesn't effect the boys the way that processed sugar does.

When you spend a boat load of money on your kids' education, it's worth that investment to go all in. We try to do our best in the areas of food. I'd give us an A- for effort and implementation and an A+ for creativity. We have come up with some very creative alternatives that have been rather popular. Here's a example, the boys are in cub scouts which equates to camping trips,

camp fires and typically smores. Obviously, smores aren't on the low sugar list, but cocktail wienies are. They were quite the hit with the other scouts too as were the big bag of carrots we were eating by the camp fire. How funny is that??

The times that we have given in to the need for treats it has been nothing but disastrous. For Marshall, it takes him four days to come off a sugar high. I remember the weekend of Jensen's birthday they both had too many helpings of ice cream. The following week they both got in trouble at school and got sent to the office. I felt particularly bad because I was the one who let them have more. I felt like a mom who had given her kids crack!!!

I do have to give my mom and dad props for going all in too!!! Coco and Papa, as they are known, have been gracious enough to spend extended time with our kids for winter breaks and spring breaks. They have been wonderful about ensuring the boys are eating right. I can imagine that as a grandparent it must be hard not to give the grands "treats". They, too, have found some special alternatives that are nice treats for the kids like low sugar protein bars.

Another alternative that has been especially nice for celebrations has been Publix's sugar free cakes. I have to order the cakes in advanced, but they look great and taste great, too, as does the no sugar added Eddy's ice cream. It's much better than the alternative crazy behavior and it makes for a nice birthday party too! The other kids aren't loaded up on sugar either.

I can tell when the boys have had too much sugar even without knowing what they ate. Recently, they went on a trip and I stayed home. The night they came home, I sat down to read with Jensen and he couldn't sit still, he couldn't focus on the words, and he couldn't keep his place in the story. It was miserable! I thought about the teachers who had to deal with our kids when they had eaten too much sugar...oh how sorry I am for that.

So, we do a pretty good job when it comes to low sugar food. The times when we do goof up are teachable moments and ones we don't want to repeat. The important part is that we get back on track and go all in again!!!

Honk Your Hours

While reading a book about cars, Jensen was doing a great job until he came to a sentence that said "Honk your horns". He read it as "honk your hours". I had to keep from laughing because it just sounded funny, but it reminded me how different he sees the world and what a challenge reading is for him.

I'm happy to say that he's getting it. With lots of practice and direct instruction, his reading has improved. His fluency is better and he is remembering words when he sees them later in the story. Even though his progress is slow, it is in a positive direction....what more could a mom ask for???

Sitting on My Phone in Concrete

I'm sure the title of this blog caught your interest...it is a rather funny story! My family was in the car one day and Mike asked me if I had received a specific email response. I said, "No and I have been sitting on my Droid all day." From the back seat came, "sitting on your phone...won't you break it?" Mike and I started laughing and I said in a whisper to him, "I forgot how concrete the dyslexic mind is." From the backseat came, "why were you sitting on your phone in concrete?". I just didn't quite no how to answer that one. Anyway, it was a good laugh!

Silly Bandz Aren't So Silly

The Silly Band craze has struck the Barrett household, but in a very different way. We have learned just how motivating Silly Bands can be. As I mentioned in my last posting, Jensen is working on a 100 book challenge and building his vocabulary is part of that adventure. When we are reading, I write down words he doesn't know on index cards and then we play our favorite sight word game, called Three Strikes and You Win.

Here's how the game works, once we have a stack of cards, say 20 cards or more, I show the cards to Jensen one at a time and if he says the word correctly I place a "X" on the back of the card. Once he has three "X's" on the card, he gets the card. The Silly Bands come into play after he has earned five index cards. Then, he gets to stick his hand in the bag and grab a Silly Band. Last count he was up to 25 Silly Bands. What a fun way to build a vocabulary!!!

In case you are wondering where we got

the game, we saw this in 2007 at a reading workshop we attended at Buck Lake Elementary called Building Better Readers. The Families Building Better Readers workshop was sponsored by Just Read, Florida!

Race to the Space Police

The new challenge is on and this time it's for Jensen. Mike challenged him to read 50 books and he could have a new toy. During the trip to Toys R Us, the challenge quickly changed. Jensen talked his Daddy into a bigger Lego set, a Space Police Lunar Limo, if he read 100 books. Wow! I'm happy to hear that Jensen upped the challenge, but wow! Jensen really struggles with reading so I was REALLY surprised by his enthusiasm for this adventure.

Reading with the boys is my passion so I had to set up a process to make all of this happen and record the books. The first step was to let him pick out the books. He quickly dug around the house and came up with 50 books at a variety of levels....all his choice.

The next thing we put in place was how he would keep track of the challenge. Jensen needs some work on writing, too, so I decided to get a special notebook and have him number, write the name of each book, and a little something about the book. This didn't deter the excitement level, I think it only increased it. Jensen was excited that he would keep track of this challenge.

So, it was finally time to get down to the business of reading books. One of the issues that Jensen has with reading is learning new words. If you give him the word, he can't remember it the next time he sees it. I started writing down the words on index cards...I'll tell you more about that later...and on we went. We read Biscuit and the Baby, Biscuit's New Friend, Biscuit Goes to School and then we came to a book about Houdini, a chapter book.

Once again, Jensen surprised me. He dove into the book and began reading his first chapter book. Although, we had a pile of words to learn, night after night, we plugged away through that book. I've seen much improvement in his fluency and he started to remember the new words the next time he saw them, at least a few of them. In three weeks, he has read 20 books including the chapter book and we only counted that as one. Maybe we should have counted it as eight, but we didn't.

As Jensen was packing up for a trip to visit his grandparents, I decided that I would give him a break from the reading and not push it since he was doing so good. He came to me and asked if he could take his notebook and of course I said yes. That was worth a big smile....I think he thought I would say no. I told him that any book he read to his Papa or Coco counted.

I'm so happy that Jensen is excited about reading because I do believe that if you can read, you can do anything. I learned to juggle by reading a book! I can't was to see what Jensen learns from reading.