Not lacking in slacking

       Let me begin this posting by asking you to please conjure up all of the apologies and excuses that may have been used by countless bloggers across the millennia to rationalize why they were remiss in keeping up with their blog entries. Go ahead, I'll wait. You could try using one of  Julius Caesar's excuses. I'm sure he had some doozies. (And I'm betting he probably had pretty spotty internet connections while out invading Britain.)

   Phew! Thanks. Now let's get down to brass tacks. Georgia finished out her middle school career on a very good note. She won awards for Most Improved in Phys Ed, and Reading. We stayed dedicated to our Stowell work to the bitter end! And then summer began. And our slothdom began. I should have seen it coming, really. But I was blinded by high hopes of getting SO MUCH accomplished over the summer. Georgia was going to be utterly transformed before the start of high school! We *have* had a pretty good summer, though. Geo did a week or so of volunteering with the multiple disability summer camp,  we drove to Boston for cousin Elliot's high school graduation, and did some fun touristy things! Saw big sister Maggie off on her 10 day whirlwind trip to Japan, and enjoyed all the gifties she brought back. Georgia gets excited about things her big sisters do, like Emily getting her first job! We had old friends visit for the Glorious Fourth, swam in the river, watched fireworks. And Georgia's aide, Tracey, took her for a fun-filled day at Waterville with her youngest daughter and two other friends. So although I've struggled with terrible feelings of guilt over not whipping Georgia in to top academic form during this summer break, as the months have rolled on, I've come to terms with the fact that we JUST. NEEDED. A. REST.

   I looked back over all of my calendar pages, and lesson plans of programs that we'd worked at, and worked at, and worked at since January. And I felt better. No, Georgia didn't drop all of the weight she'd gained since stopping her meds. No, her speech is not perfect. No, she's not reading on a 9th grade level. BUT despite our lack of regular mic work and CLS this summer, she has not regressed. In fact, we sat down on the couch just to read, and she did a remarkable job. On her own she is starting to TRY to decode words before spelling them. And when it gets tough, instead of just moaning, or acting frustrated and angry at the sight of what seems to be a long, complicated word, she will calmly say "Whew, that one looks hard", and then she'll simply spell it for me, and I will give the word to her. Right now I have her reading out of 2 books at different reading levels. One is an easy 2.3 level, the other is tougher at 4.5. But she is DOING it. I have to judge what kind of a day she's having, and then decide which level might do her the most good. If she's in a good mood and things have been smooth, I'll have her read the harder book. If she needs a confidence booster, we go to the lower level book. Yesterday we sat down to do some mic work (we're on AST-Reading lesson 22), and she read the passage in the phrasing section. I was blown away at how smoothly it went! When she finished she was smiling ear-to-ear and remarked "I didn't even need you to give me hardly any words!" And it was true! She felt so good about herself. Consider the fact that she was testing on a pre-primer level back in January. Yeah. She's come quite a distance.

    School starts in just about a week and a half. Georgia seems excited about going to high school. We've had a few moments of uncertainty, a few meltdowns, but after she went through registration her emotions seemed to smooth out. We are BOTH looking forward to the routine that the regular school year affords. And she has informed me that once school starts in earnest we will have to get back to our Stowell work. She seems happy about that prospect!

    I pinky-promise that I will try to do a better job of reporting Georgia's progress in this blog. It's gonna be an interesting year!

Aw, nuts!

We've added yet another program, and I'm actually excited about it! AST-Reading. So now we'll be working on 3 AST (auditory stimulation and training) programs, rotating them out each day. Yes, EVERY DAY, MONDAY THROUGH SUNDAY.  

First of all, here is a good summary of what Auditory Stimulation is: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-auditory-stimulation.htm
This is what we refer to as our "Mic work". In the program that we follow with Stowell, Georgia listens to 1 of 2 "prescribed" Samonas CDs, depending on what work we are doing, and wears a mic so that she can hear herself speak. As I've mentioned before we are currently working on AST-Language and AST-Phonics Actives. I've briefly summarized in earlier posts what we do, but here's the broader view: (the REALLY broad view): (you might want to pause here to take a bathroom break, and get a snack):

AST-Language uses picture cards, and involves the instructor (Me! Surprise!) giving the student (Georgia! Woo!) words to describe each picture. There are 3 steps to each part. An example: one picture card has six photos of people doing various jobs. Part One: Nouns: Step One:: I name each person (Fireman, Builder, Workers, Policeman, Musician, Teacher), then Georgia repeats each after me. I name and point at random, until she can name them all clearly and with ease. Step Two: I say each person's "name", and she identifies by pointing to that picture and saying the name. Step Three: I point to a picture, and Georgia identifies by saying the name. Part Two: Adjective, Verb "to be":  as the header says, we're adding an adjective and forms of verb "to be". We run through all 3 steps like for part one. (Example: Smart builder.- The builder is smart.; Busy workers.- The workers are busy.) Part Three: Questions and Answers with the verb "to be" and adjective: is a question and answer exercise designed to further strengthen auditory memory, and work on articulation and flow: "Is the worker busy? Yes, the worker is busy". With the question and answer portion we break it up during one of the steps so that on one go-through Georgia asks the question, and I answer. Next I ask, and she answers. Part Four: Adjectives, action verbs, and objects: "The smart builder is studying plans." Again, we run through all three steps for this part until she is clear in her articulation and can remember the phrasing.
We've actually had a lot of fun with this one. It may sound a bit plodding, but we've been able to laugh when she gets tongue-tied, and make jokes along the way. While working on this at Stowell, one photo was supposed to be about two boys, but one of them clearly was a girl with a very short haircut. This was not overlooked by Georgia, and she had to correct it EVERY time she saw it.

AST-Phonics Actives begins by reviewing the vowel sounds she's learned up to that particular lesson. Then we go through 6 other steps using four columns of words.
So, Step One: Review all learned vowel sounds. Pretty much sums that up. Step Two: Listen and Repeat: I dictate syllables (words) in first column, one at a time. Georgia repeats, and points to and says  just the vowel sound. She uses the vowel chart for this. Step Three: Listen and Repeat Auditory Chain: I say the first two words (or syllables) in column two, Georgia repeats. Then I say the 2nd and 3rd, she repeats. Then I say the 3rd and 4th..... until we've gotten through every word. Example: "hurl; hail", "hail; mail", "mail; marl". The syllables create a chain in which only one sound is changed. This is REALLY difficult for Georgia. Step Four: Auditory Sound Blending: I say each sound in the given word, Georgia instantly blends the sounds to make the complete word. Totally auditory. This step has gotten much easier for her!  Step Five: Visual Spelling: I say a word. Georgia repeats the word and mentally pictures the spelling of the word. She then spells the word. SHE HATES THIS ONE. But, she has gotten so much better at it. It's amazing to see! Step Six: Mental Manipulation of Sounds: I orally spell a word. Georgia visualizes the letters to "read" the word. I then manipulate the word in one way, or another by changing a sound or letter. I then ask her to "read" or visually spell the new word. She also hates this step, but for someone who says she can't "picture" letters at all, she's gotten remarkably good at this! Step Seven: Syllable Reading: Georgia reads the vowel sound and then the whole syllable doing down a column. On alternate columns, she has to mentally notice the vowel sound but ORALLY read only the whole word. Again, she has made huge strides in this step!

The final portion of this learning trifecta:
  AST-Reading. The phonetic/language content emphasis of our first lesson is: sh, ch, tch. Step One: Listen and Repeat Syllable Discrimination: I say a syllable pair (ship-chip), Georgia repeats. We're looking for clear artic of ALL sounds. Step Two: Listen and Repeat Phrases: I say 2 phrases (chicks will hatch - chickens will hatch), Georgia repeats. Step Three: Contrasting Sentences: there are 6 pairs of sentences. (1st pair; The catcher was ready for the pitch. The catcher was not ready for the pitch.) I read each sentence with appropriate intonation and rhythm. Georgia repeats and taps each sentence....one tap per syllable. This is really working to build her memory as well. Step Four: Phrasing: consists of a four-sentence passage, split up in two columns. First column the passage is broken up at about 3-4 words per line. Georgia reads one line, then pauses before moving down to the next line. The second column is about 6-7 words per line. She is to pause at the end of each phrase, and pause longer at each comma and ending punctuation. Step Five: Visual Clusters for Decoding: We have word cards for this. I show the card ("This is the word 'ship'") and rapidly ask questions ("What letters say /sh/?" "What does the 'i-p' say?" "What does the 's-h' say?") to help her to see and identify logical visual clusters. (I do not point to them, she needs to see it as a whole). Step Six: Spell-Read: I use a book about on her reading level and she spells and then reads EACH WORD. If she doesn't recognize the word after spelling it, I just tell her and have her repeat. As the instruction says: "This helps her to notice all of the letters in a word and improves orientation and synchrony between what she is seeing and hearing when reading."
                                                                                                       

And that's it in a nutshell. Albeit, a very large and complicated nut. One that any squirrel with even the smallest amount of discernment should abandon. But not me. Well, for one thing: I'm not a squirrel. Yet I like to imagine that I might have a *bit* higher degree of perspicacity than your common ground squirrel. So I'll just continue trying to crack this nut until we get to that meaty center!