I am fortunate to stay in contact with parents and students over the years and follow and celebrate some major achievements and milestones of these hardworking individuals. Kevin was starting third grade and his parents were concerned that the school year would be challenging for Kevin. His mother felt that Kevin’s “auditory attention” was not what it should be. Kevin was slow in his ability to verbalize and make decisions. Kevin had a negative response to loud noises and could not concentrate when a loud noise was present. Kevin’s sensory issues at age seven pointed to vestibular processing weakness. The screening and exercises completed during our assessment indicated that Kevin needed additional support to strengthen and fine-tune his vestibular processing. (Vestibular processing affects auditory and visual processing and strong vestibular processing is a requirement for successful reading.)
Kevin was tested with the SOI L version evaluation and was gifted in 7 of the 11 abilities tested. He was average in verbal sequencing, word recognition, and visual memory. Kevin’s auditory memory was very low. An additional auditory processing screening, (SCAN – C) was done at this time to determine if Kevin had an auditory processing disorder.
Kevin’s treatment plan for the summer was to focus on developing his auditory memory and completing the SOI Language Prep program. Additional memory modules were added to his work. Kevin demonstrated a visual-spatial learner style—introducing sight words using a whole language approach to increase Kevin’s reading vocabulary was added to his program. The Listening Program ™ Brain Builder software was added to Kevin’s protocol to give an additional boost to the auditory memory. Kevin did well with the visual memory exercises, but still fell behind in the auditory memory exercises.
An additional Auditory Assessment was completed testing for Auditory Cognition of Units, Auditory Memory of Units, Auditory Discrimination, Auditory Semantic Sequences, Auditory Cognition of Units with background noise, and Auditory Discrimination with noise. This assessment pinpointed Kevin’s auditory processing weakness to Auditory Discrimination. The Listening Program™ by Advanced Brain Technologies was added to Kevin’s daily routine to assist in developing auditory processing skills. Kevin continued to improve and third grade went well for Kevin. halfway through fourth grade, Kevin went to his mother and told her he thought he needed a “tune-up”. His mother noticed he was falling back into some old resistance habits that he had demonstrated earlier regarding his homework. Kevin was fatigued and not able to follow through on his assignments and chores at home. Kevin was retested with the SOI CR version test—this tests for up to 27 abilities. Because of Kevin’s learning style and the public school “drill and kill” mentality, Kevin’s abilities did not develop at a level that would address the added work requirements of 4th grade.
We had created a proficient 3rd-grade reader with basic skills of reading, age-appropriate auditory and visual memory, an adequate vocabulary, good word-attack skills, verbal sequencing abilities, and a fundamental understanding of our language structure. Kevin was missing the development of critical thinking skills and concepts. Critical thinking skills required Kevin to go beyond simple identification of the facts; he must understand the interrelationships of ideas and be able to transform those ideas and understand what the material implies. Dr. Mary Meeker (2001) described concepts as having the conceptual meaning to which words are attached. We may know what each word means, but how do we use this word in context with the rest of what we are reading? That is the difference between basic vocabulary and a concept used in context. The need for concepts emerges in the fourth grade because the curriculum shifts from a focus on the process to a focus on content or comprehension.
There is a transition period between the third and fourth grades, and the expectations of reading proficiency change. The demand for more advanced abilities and concepts is required and Kevin was not prepared. In many cases, students may be so ill-prepared for this transition that they “lose” proficiency in reading to the point of becoming poor readers. From kindergarten through the third grade there is a steady linear progression in the development of reading skills that will enable reading proficiency in an individual with a linear thought process. This causes problems for a visual-spatial learner like Kevin.
Kevin’s mother decided at the end of grade 5 to home-school Kevin for his middle school years. Another SOI assessment was done at that time as a benchmark for his homeschool program and his mother continued to work with Kevin through middle school. Again the transitional period between 8th and 9th grade is significant and after looking at a variety of schooling options, Kevin decided he wanted to attend a private high School in the San Francisco Bay area. The school is known for its rigorous curriculum as well as placing graduates in some of the best colleges and universities in the country. Kevin completed high school and university and continues to thrive. The formula for Kevin’s success was his attentive parents and Kevin’s determination to succeed, understanding his visual-spatial learning style, developing low abilities, and also focusing on gifted abilities.
Yorumlar