There is a student who goes to the center where I work who undergoes speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and Language and Literacy Program with me. I have given him an assessment year 2006 but they didn’t push through with the program.

They came back August last year and we started the program on the last Wednesday of August 2007. They got a Wednesday slot, after his speech and language therapy session. For the first two months, attendance was good. But from November to February, the child was almost a no-show. Not just to me but with the other therapists too.

No, he didn’t get sick. He just didn’t want to go to therapy. Mom lets him do what he decides to do, just go home after school and watch tv.

February the child wasn’t coming so I decided to not continue with the program. My time is valuable to me, I can teach another student needing my services.

This week, they went to their developmental pediatrician who got mad because they didn’t have any report from us three. She wrote a letter, demanding to know why, demanding to have those reports as she will ask the child to come back after two weeks. Yeah right.

If only they were able to at least consistently attend their program schedule. If only follow-up is given when take-home works are brought home. If only the doctor explained what is EXACTLY wrong with the child, then perhaps, the mother would understand why her child is not learning the way she expects her child to learn.

We can’t tell her that, it is not our place to tell what exactly is wrong with our students because it is the doctor’s role.

We felt insulted.

I felt insulted. I do my work, more than the usual that I can give and do. I have had students with me, who consistently go to me for special ed services, some for over a decade. They are still with me, not because they didn’t improve but because they know that together with their families and their support, we can make things better.

A few minutes after I got the message about this,I set out to write a very detailed report. I even included every session’s objectives and goals as well as the drills given. For 17 hours worth of program implementation. From August 29 till February 5.

Too little time to show or even warrant improvement in the Language and Literacy Program, especially if attendance is inconsistent. Sigh.

JG had bacterial meningitis before she turned two. I haven’t seen JG and her family since they moved from the inlaws’ rented apartment.

M I think, had the same (not really sure though) when she was still a baby. Up to now, she still takes some medication for her condition. Her condition had effects on her learning.

Both of them have hand grip problems.

JG I am not sure what hand preference has the grip problem but she had difficulty peeling a banana or tying shoe laces or even doing tasks that look quite simple enough. JG is a teenager and has learning problems.

M’s hand grip problem is her left hand, which was fine since she is right-handed. MQ can not open up her left hand properly nor perform tasks using that hand.

I am not sure how these should be addressed. Perhaps with assistive technology yes, assistive technology would definitely help them have some improvements. But this type of intervention still has a long way to go here in the country.

Individuals with mental retardation develop their skills more slowly than others in these different aspects of development:

• social development
• emotional development
• academics
• physical skills

Most children diagnosed with mental retardation have mild or moderate disability. Educational services should begin in infancy. Services should continue way into their critical developmental stages, until they have reached their full potential, depending upon their capabilities and/or diagnosis and/or intervention programs.

To read more about Intellectual Disability, click here. The four different degrees of mental retardation can be read here.

These children did not want to have this diagnosis, in my humble opinion, it is a disrespect to use the word “retard” when referring to them OR to other people.

Short Term Memory is a skill about processing and holding information in awareness and then manipulating it within a few seconds.

Have you had some problems like these? You are about to say something and you stop in mid-sentence, completely forgetting the word or thought or idea that you are about to say? My children tease me about this, having “memory gap”, teehee, :D. If these happen at times, rest assured, nothing serious is the matter. Especially for those who are moving up the age brackets, you know what I mean.

But if these happen with children? Then there is an underlying problem. Some of the “symptoms” for short term memory problems can be:

• poor memory about physical/action sequences (tendency to forget activities in school, steps on how to do a project, dance steps)
• inconsistent visual memory (tendency to forget what has been seen or watched)
• inconsistent auditory memory (tendency to not being able to listen to or hear words spoken, having difficulty memorizing song lyrics)
• disrupted flow of ideas when speaking and writing (happens when words, or images or thoughts were forgotten)
• repetitions numbering more than the required number of times to be taught, in other words, drills will be taught, retaught, over and over again but there are still parts or bits that would be forgotten.

What are social skills: communication deficits?

Social skills are skills necessary for people, including children, to interact with others. But somewhere along the way, these skills are not developed, not used properly, specifically with children who have special needs. Not that they lack social skills per se but because they perceive the world around them differently from typically developing children. How would we know if these communication skills are amiss in order to foster a good social skills interaction?

Read on:

continue reading this entry »

Social skills with typically developing children are not really directly being taught. Most of them observe how these are done or just being told the how, why, when and where and they are able to acquire these (good and the bad) social skills. There are also times when social skills are taught directly depending upon the situation. Like saying “I’m sorry” when one accidentally hurts someone else or discussing why and how we show respect to our elders.

These social skills should be directly taught to children with special needs, especially to those with autism, language disorders and ADHD. Why? Because they have social language dysfuntion which somehow affects their social language development. These social skills need to be explained, role-played, embedded in activities as well as practiced until these are perfected or aptly applied.

continue reading this entry »