Advisories anyone?

[brain]

My son Steve, with his neuro-disabilities and mild
Epilepsy, one of his major handicap is his learning
disabilities - one of the reasons why the School
had thrown him out when he was in High School,
is because he cannot spell and everyone has to
write or type on behalf for him.

I am getting a new tower, while I have been teaching
him how to read, and he's done wonderfully at that,
slow reader, but is doing excellent!

However, the thing is - he had been for years very
heavily dependent on the "Voice Recognition" System
on my Windows 98 to "type" in everything for him;
in other words - relying on someone else to do the
work for him. I had been trying to teach him how to
write. It has been extremely challenging!

While his closest friends and I had been working with
him with this; they all now had moved away a long
time ago, leaving it now back with me to teach him.
He has a lot of trouble with this. But seems to do
better with typing than with writing because of the
spell check, but he is very, very slow.

With this NEW Tower I am getting, this will enable both
Kim and Steve to have online access and I won't have
to keep using my wireless all the time - as I have a desk-
top and wireless, even though I still have the Win 98,
but that's in storage and is a emergency back up
desktop. Now this Win XP with Vista will now be reverted
to meet their needs, and this new tower will be my main
and the PRIMARY central hub (MINE! They won't be able
to touch this one!) desktop.

Here's the issue:

We (Kim and I) want to teach Steve how to type without
having to rely on the spell check and without having US
do the work for him. His spelling is hideous!

While I DO have the Microsoft's 2007 (the big Power Pack)
and it has the One Note Feature where we can have privacy
where he can "communicate" one-on-one. I had been trying
to do this with my son, but he gets easily frustrated when
he types, because his words gets jumbled which is showing
me clearly he has Temporal Lobe issues; and he forgets the
simple words.

What is the best way to teach him how to spell? So that he
can remember? I have had him to type down repetitiously
the address, but even he mistypes it or gets it all wrong,
right down to the zip code, and gets confused. While he
knows how to spell his first and last name, but when it
comes to his middle name, he just cannot spell it properly,
or gets it backwards. *sigh*

I am getting frustrated.

I have purchased books - all the way up to ABEKA books,
and while he can follow along with that easily because the
words are there - but when it comes to independently, it's
like ::::::: whoosh ::::::: over his head.

Advisories anyone?

Both Kim and I want to teach him, and he really wants to
learn to type and spell - since no Adult Schools will take
him in (due to budget cuts and they just have no resources
for handicap / disabled people for years). We had already
twice with the Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor get into
this, and they tried and it was without avail, because of the
above implications.

I am opened to anything that anyone can think of.

Steve really wants to be able to talk (post) in here on his
own, and I know it's going to take a lot of patience and a
lot of time - just like it took me years to teach him how to
read (and it paid off). I know I've posted this before, I am
not positive if I've posted it in CWE, but he cannot do math,
it just does not register in his head at all. But we have finally
worked with him on this, and the Stores here (Managers and
Clerks) knows about his disabilities - they will not rip him off,
and actually works with him (short changing him or over paying
him on purpose to teach him if they are not busy) so they do
help teach him and I appreciate it (for I was the one who alerted
them of this). He has improved a lot with his "money handling"
but still has to be monitored, and he has a friend or friends
with him if he goes "outside" of the area (like to the mall) or
myself or Kim, if he wants to buy something. (However, there
are a couple of Stores there whom the Manager / Assistant
Manager and some Clerks who knows him who handles him
personally, and I just 'stay away' and let him have his in-
depence on this end, because I trust them, and they are
teaching him. So he knows when he doesn't have enough
money to buy all that he needs, they help him with the
decision of what he can have and cannot have, I appreciate
their time in working with him on that.)

However this current issue here is SPELLING and TYPING...

So post away!

 

[Molly97]

Sharon,
I was an elementary school teacher (primary grades 1-3)in another life. If he can read, he knows what letters make up what sounds. It is slow going at first but he'll get the hang of it.
What's wrong with him using SpellCheck? If he can spell phonetically, he's on his way.
And besides, there's lots of adults who are bad spellers. What is he doing in life that it really matters? What matters is that he's communicating.
On another note. You are extremely fortunate to have your young man surrounded by people who understand his limitations and who will take the time to help him be "all that he can be."

 

[Bernard]

I really don't care if he posts in the forum and every word is misspelled. The important thing is to communicate an idea. Have at it Steve!

 

[brain]

Well the thing is he would spell
and write like, things like this:

i stur dad wint me bak 2 nn hurz abat

:huh:

How the heck am I supposed to know what
that was all about? After a long time I finally
figured it out that he went to the store with
his dad and won't be back in about 2 hours?

That is what I am in reference to.

 

[Bernard]

Practice makes perfect? onder:

 

[Molly97]

Sharon,
I see what the problem is. It isn't his spelling, and like Bernard, I don't care about spelling as long as he's communicating.
In your example, does he speak this way? I taught a Language Development Program to 1st graders years ago. The main premise of the program was this: What I say, I can write; what I write, I can read. The program started with the child dictating to the teacher, who would point out letters, sounds and words as they went. That would turn into a "Can you find?" game where the teacher would ask the child "Can you find?" such-and-such word. It worked very well.
Have you considered this as an expressive problem; he doesn't write words in the same order as he thinks them or says them.

 

[Kansas Educator]

Sharon,

What a lucky boy Steve is to have you! I was a classroom teacher for quite a few years but now coordinate/administrate a program for families with preschoolers for my public school district. I am thinking that some of the strategies we work with very young children might be helpful. Here are a few ideas.
1. With young children, the more the various senses can be involved in learning, the more likely it is that the learning will "stick." So, I would try things like having him use his finger (or even toe!) to spell words in sand/cornstarch/shaving cream, play dough, etc., etc. -- anything with texture. At the same time he is doing that, have him say or even sing (and thereby, hear), the letters he is writing down and then the completed word. If he knows the alphabet in sign language, have him then spell the word using sign. Be creative -- just incorporate as many of the senses as we can.

2. Start with words that have the same phonemic pattern and stick with that pattern until he has it down. For example, I would start with words in the "at" family. cat, hat, bat, mat, etc. etc. Do them over and over using the above techniques before you move on. Then go to another phonemic pattern such as "it" -- bit, hit, sit, etc. As he masters one pattern and is ready to move on, continue to go back and review the previous patterns a few times a week. I would recommend doing the short vowel sounds before you move to the long vowel sound patterns such as hide, side, etc. The last words I would incorporate would be the irregular words such as of, the, etc. They rely totally on memory because they don't fit the phonemic patterns. So I would leave those until last to avoid confusing and frustrating Steve. Once you get all that learned, then I would start practicing breaking words into syllables with him and show him how to use the patterns he has down to spell each syllable independently.

3. Try to do a little every day but not to the point of frustration.

These may already be ideas you are trying, Sharon, but I hope it gives you one or two new ones! .........................Roxie

 

[Bernard]

... In your example, does he speak this way? ...

He spoke perfectly fine the time I talked to him on the phone.

 

[brain]

He speaks fine as Bernard says.
His verbalization is excellent.
But his coordination and cognitive skills
in writing, reading, and math - is POOR!
He forgets!

He had been in Special Education nearly
all in his life since we put him in private
Pre-School, in which the Teacher there was
a long time Special Education teacher for
many years and saw this problem immediately!
She had a conference with me right away and
she was on the dot! She tried working with
him, volunteering her time, 1 hour after
everyone else went home - to work with
him, but all she saw was "problems" ahead;
even with me being there.

Then she phoned the Doctor and had a talk
with him, and from there he went to the Neurologist
and he had EEG's, it reflected that he had Petit
Mal (Absence), but the last EEG he ever had
done was when he was 7; I finally learned the
age not that long ago from the records. While
he attended to both Public and Private Schools,
the Private Schools including the Home Schooling
were far more of benefit to him than the Public
School System, however it was costly to us! We
could ill afford to keep him there (it was making
us broke)

Again - as Bernard implied - he talks just fine,
no one would dream he wasn't the type that
could not write, do math --- but now he's able
to read... THIS is the issue.

On one side of the coin:

My son and I are similar.

On the other side of the coin:

My son and I are the complete opposite.

 

[brain]

3. Try to do a little every day but not to the point of frustration.

These may already be ideas you are trying, Sharon, but I hope it gives you one or two new ones! .........................Roxie

That's his MAJOR PROBLEM:

He's easily FRUSTRATED and CONFUSED!
His brain doesn't comprehend nor grasp
the concept of anything and plus he forgets
everything that one has put all the efforts
into it! No matter what all one has done
repetitiously, over and over and over again.

 

[Molly97]

A private secretary perhaps! Just kidding!

We all want your Steve to be independent and able to face the challenges of life. I know you said you've tried Abeka curriculum. Have you investigated the reading/writing/spelling curriculums that are done with adults? Somebody help me out here. You know, the way they teach adult illiterates? Might be less frustrating/confusing for him with something aimed at his level.

I think the biggest challenge in this is his apparent visual memory.

 

[brain]

A private secretary perhaps! Just kidding!

We all want your Steve to be independent and able to face the challenges of life. I know you said you've tried Abeka curriculum. Have you investigated the reading/writing/spelling curriculums that are done with adults? Somebody help me out here. You know, the way they teach adult illiterates? Might be less frustrating/confusing for him with something aimed at his level.

I think the biggest challenge in this is his apparent visual memory.

When he was in Home Schooling; this was a special type
of a home schooling where every Friday, all students had
to report to the School. However, they did have classes
(special classes for High School) throughout the week.

They had a retired Tutor / Professor / Special Education
Teacher who specializes in Neurological Disabilities. He was
exceptional in assisting with Steve! In fact, he helped him
a lot with his - "hand & eye coordination" as well as "foot
& eye coordination"; we all three worked together trying
to come up with all sorts of options there. But we only
got so far, due to the fact we could no longer afford it.

The Public School were of no help! No matter how many
times I had approached them, it was like beating a dead
horse; they basically did not want to be "bothered".

 

[justPassing]

Making the link between how he speaks and typing

Hi Brain,

Just my two cent :twocents: , we have moved quite a lot over the years hand my children had to go to school in France, Spain, UK and now back into Canada in French. They always went to the local public school, so when they were back last year my oldest (9) was a good reader in three languages but only knew how to write in English...

So he had to start to write into a language he spoke perfectly with a lot of vocabulary but knew not how to put on paper. It has been, and still his, a very frustrating situation for him. On the contrary of your situation we only have had good experiences with local public schools, luck I guess.

Since summer I have tried to go back to basic skills with him, so that the writing technic was no more an obstacle. To have him learn some technical skills on the keyboard I used: http://tuxtype.sourceforge.net/download/ I was already installed in the Linux OS I always uses at home but is available for windows also.

The Idea is basically to develop the typing reflex on the keyboard then you try to get the sounds right. All that wrapped into a game. I have had a good rate of success with it, and my youngest as started to play with it on her own even if we were asked not to teach her writing yet.

To finish with my oldest we have started to reward him in books when he did write, properly, answers to a set of 15 questions about a book he has finish reading, he as taken to it readily.

So keep at it and try to find ways for him to integrate the writing skill into some sort of play, leaving it up to him as much as possible, he may want to do more by himself than with you watching.

Cheers,

 

[brain]

Thanks ....

I made the LINK live .. and it's exceptional! And for
those who wants to look into it, before downloading
it (It's good for all OS (operating systems) versions),
there are screen shots there and what is all there and
available.

Thanks a lot for sharing this one! In fact, I am going
to use this one on the other computer too, and it
does look like it will work out for him. He does know
how to use the keyboard and computer, so this looks
very good, I've already downloaded it and tried it,
and I admit, it was kind of "fun" when I mistyped it.

 

[justPassing]

He does know
how to use the keyboard and computer, so this looks
very good, I've already downloaded it and tried it,
and I admit, it was kind of "fun" when I mistyped it.

Happy you're happy :banana:

This is typical of some projects that are the result of Open Source development. There are are the bunch of nerds (of which I must admit to be) that made the free to use tools that makes community Internet and forums like this one go and have a life.

In the children development sector there is many many tools. They are not always supported for Windows for obvious reasons, conflicts of take on the world.

But do not hesitate to ask.
:brain::brain::brain: are not only epileptic, some time they work! ;-)