List of Sensory Diet

We have been working hard with Clem with her new OT and the start of new school all in one bang.

A list of sensory diet for the home:

Choose 2 to 3 activities per circuit, allow no more than 30 minutes per circuit, perform activities circuit 2-3 times a day if feasible at the same time of day and or time)

spinning with a spinning chair – 3 to 5 times clockwise then anti clockwise

jumping on trampoline – 50 times per set

jumping  on trampoline – 10 times and crashing on cushions

bouncing on therapy ball – 50 times per set

bouncing on therapy ball – 10 times and crashing on cushions

throw and catch a ball

bounce and catch a ball

bowling

swinging

going up and own slides

swimming

wheelbarrow walk on hands

throw and catch bean bag

shooting baskets with beanbag

riding around with bicycle

running around in circles or length of corridors

Listen to Plato

Close up of Plato from School of Athens, a fresco by Raffaello Zanzio, 1509.

“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”- Plato

This is just so plain and simple, but the bureaucracy will get in the way of seeing what we are doing to these bright children that just need the right methods to bring out their brilliance.

How to teach math? How to teach science?

It was Wednesday night, Theo and I decided to play cup stacking. It is a great fine motor skill task and it is fun. Just stack up the cups as fast as you can without letting it toppled over. You learn about strategy since we have two different kinds of cups, he has to decide whether to put the small cups on the bottoms or the bigger cups. You learn about gravity. You learn to count to make things even out.

Just so happened we have a basket of marbles. Marbles are always so much fun. I decided to grab some and put it in the cups. And then an idea came to me that I had grabbed my mini food scales down. I asked him which cup do you think weights more. I taught him how to use the mini scale. And something so simple as playing turns into teaching and that could be applied to many things.

Now he is weighing everything in sight. And he learns about numbers and the higher the number correlates to heavy. And also not everything that looks big is heavy. It is so much fun to see him light up.

Orton-Gillingham training in Hong Kong

I finally contacted the Orton-Gillingham Centre in Hong Kong. The course is a bit pricey, but then if I have the power to teach others then I see it has a good investment.

The trainer is Ronald Yoshimoto and he has more than 25 years of experience in training in O-G methods and trained parents and teachers working with dyslexics.

http://www.msl-orton.com.hk/training/accredit.htm

Date: 28th Aug to 1st Sept 2012
Venue: Singapore International School,
23 Nam Long Shan Road,
Aberdeen, Hong Kong.
Time: 9am - 4:30pm

Registration fee: HKD$3,000 (non-refundable)
Course fee : HKD$18,500 (includes materials)
Total Fees Payable : HKD$21,500

Phonological awareness and Phonemic Awareness

I have been reading on the topic of phonological awareness and phonemic awareness. What are the differences between those two terms in reference to the English language?

Phonological is an umbrella terms that covers all sounds awareness. Sounds of instruments, you listen to the beats and sounds of words you also listen to the beats refer to as syllables, onset and rimes, and phonemes.

Syllables are speech sounds.
Examples: clean has one beat = one syllables, eleven has 3 beats = 3 syllables divided into e / le / ven
If you have written haikus before you will remember the rules of 17 syllables divided into 3 phrases of 5 syllables, 7 syllables and 5 again

Onset and Rimes are description of syllables.
Examples: bag is a one syllable or monosyllabic word, b is the onset consonant sound and ag is the rime vowel and the rest that follows.
Not all words have onsets.

Phonemes are the basic sounds in the smallest possible unit.
In English (American) there are 44 phonemes.
long vowels, short vowels, 2 letter vowels, consonant sounds, diphthongs (ai, aw, oy etc)

Phonological awareness is the ability to distinguish sounds.
Phonemic awareness is the understanding of sound and manipulating of sound in order to make it into words.

The foundation of language would be phonological awareness that a child can tell the differences between sounds of the words three vs free, lice vs rice etc.

Clapping to syllables help with phonological awareness. 

And for phonemic awareness, games like rhyming words, stories by Dr Suess, or making up silly words.

Water Memory ... Pseudoscience?

I have been contemplating on this idea of water memory after a 3 hour seminar that I attended last Saturday, May 5th at Bioenergetic

It is hard to say if hard evidence would ever arise or people are drawn into different types of energy that ones feel at ease and right for them. I am still skeptical about this transferring of energy to a cup of water.

I use homeopathy and believe in it because it actually works on my two children. The idea of dilution of a substance, there is still the physical aspect of something placed in the water and even if the dilution surpassed the Avogadro's number of 10 to the 23rd.

Auditory Processing Disorder contributes to Dyslexia

I have been reading about dyslexia and many thoughts have come up to why this is a reading disability. If we have an education system that just feed the masses what are we doing to these children that has reading problems but yet has strength to think differently? I am sure not all children are on the non-dyslexia verses dyslexia.

I came across the book by Ronald Davis titled The Gift of Dyslexia. Most people say it isn’t a gift and most people would rather not read to keep it. This book gave me great insight of what dyslexia is from the author first hand account of his own dyslexia. And his proven method to solve the problem of dyslexia in having the person who has it controls it by turning it on and off at will. Doesn’t it sound science fiction; I was thinking along something like X-Men or any superheroes that has special powers? For a Dyslexic it is the power of projecting imagery, as it is reality in the head, which somehow cause interferences with ability to read.

The brain of a dyslexic thinks in images. If a word needs to represent a concept that cannot be conjured to an images that is what messes everything up. The word apple when you think in a picture form you likely to get a fruit that is red with a brown stem or it could be green, but either way you get a picture. But when it comes to “problem words” that Davis mentioned for example the word “the” doesn’t bring up any images association because in English language the word “the” is classified as an article to be placed in front of a noun to specify it. It is even possible to think of a picture of “the” other than just the letterforms. That is why the word “the” to a picture thinker doesn’t mean anything.

Another thing that I find very specific is how central auditory processing disorder is the main contributing factor of dyslexia. Since phonological awareness and differentiation is already difficult and the child have to compensate something for example to use more visual cues then of course it makes sense that dyslexia would occur.

The best part to help a child is to catch it early with any signs and symptoms and I say not to wait to the recommended age of 7 or 8. My son is now age 6 and he is already behind in speech and also some gross/fine motor skills that need to be trained up. Just comparing my youngest now age 4.5, she is able to name all alphabets and tell me the words that begin with each letters. I wished I could have drawn the connection and look into a solution sooner. But it isn’t too late.

Fractured toe

I somehow knew that one day it is going to happen to one of the kids.

The younger one likes to tease the older one and attached like a fly to a turd. My oldest is quiet most of the time and likes to play by himself and my younger is a chatter and needs a lot of sensory input. So when those two doesn't mix which is most days then that is when things get out of hand.

Door slamming happens a lot and just unfortunate for today that Clemmie's toes happened to be in the way of the door. I was so scared that her toes were going to fall off. Her left 3th, 4th and pinky toes were swollen and turned gray and white ... so lifeless against the blood gushing out slowly but surely.

I have a thing for blood that would sent me into a panic attack. I am not fond of anything red. Red is not a favorite color of mind along with orange and yellow. And I usually faint on the sight of blood. But when you become a mom you have to take on the role of rescue mission and anything and everything are dealt with in a matter of fact manner.

I quickly grab some ice packs and held the foot like a sandwich and grab tissues to soak the blood and off we go hop on the taxi to the closest ER.

As we got there, Clemmie's toes got some life back and the triage nurses were cleaning up the wounds. Her pinky toes is still swollen to match the size of her other toes. Clemmie fell asleep as we waited for the one doctor that was on duty during the holiday ... May 1st will always be commemorated by this childhood trauma. After the cue to the doctor, we went straight to radiology for an x ray and I did pray that she would be okay. And an hour after that the results came in with a fractured 4th toe.

Clemmie is a trooper. She was on pain meds for two days and decided that she didn't need it anymore yesterday. She is learning to use her whole right foot now instead of her usual tip toe self. Somehow this could be the turn of event for her sensory issues with her feet. This situation forces her to compensate and she has to use the whole sole of her feet or at least for her heels.

Second thing that comes is my son's guilt. He felt really terrible and scared that his sister cannot walk again. But then Theo also has a mixed feeling of all the attention dynamic shifted to his sister and he doesn't know what to do about it. He was frustrated yesterday when I helped her redress her wounds and it took awhile which for him is a lifetime to rescue him out of his bed. He wanted to be babied too.
He did tell his papa that he will never fight Clementine again.

I hope this happening will forever resonance.