Life has been moving on.
As the days progressed, Jack has become more and more like his old self - a very happy boy.
I thank God every day. Whether it was something we did to help him or he just figured it out on his own, I will never know.
Over the last couple of week, Jack has been reading to me at night. He bought a book home, a Level 2 reader, and relishes his time reading with me at night. As we read, I help with words he doesn't know. I help a lot.
What I have noticed during this time is that he rarely uses word attack skills (the ability to try to break down a word and sound it out.) At his age and with all the work his tutor is doing with him with phonics, he should be trying this approach more often.
Then switching over to sight word abilities, he may recognized a word in the first sentence, such as the word 'time', but when the word reappears again on the same page, he has no idea what the word is. He just looks at me and says, I don't know. As if the word isn't actually on the page.
When he reads the word 'one', he always says 'now'.
He rarely has been able to read a 'wh' word, such as who, where, what, when, and why. For some reason, these always draw a blank.
This is a child that do math - many grade-levels ahead of his time - in his head. Why can't he read who or what... we've practiced them a million time. Do they all look the same to him?
For two weeks, I'm thought about this - maybe to the point of obsession. I have read and re-read the Mislabeled Child brain functions and learning disability descriptions over and over. I remember how in Like Sound Through Water, the little boy with APD failed at phonics-based reading, but when his teachers switched him over to sight word reading, he soared. Phonics, sight word, and whole word learning - none of them have worked so far for Jack.
When I think of it all, it just doesn't seem like it can all be hearing related to me.
... and math symbols! A few weeks back, Jack came home with a 50% score on math homework. It was basic addition. He can do that in his sleep. His scored 100% on word problem math homework, which would be harder for most people.
Out of curiosity, I verbally gave him the math problems that he got wrong on paper. He got them all right. So I asked him if the teachers read the word problems to him, and he said yes. Then I asked if they read the math equation work to him, and he said no. As I looked closer at his homework, I could see by his erased attempts and final answers, he was confusing +, -, and =. I pointed this out to him and he told me, I only do math one way. He then showed me left to right with the = at the end. It was clear, he needed equations to be in a certain order to understand them.
I asked the teacher if they can read the equations to him too, and they agreed. Last week, Jack was moved to the advanced math group and is soaring. I was convinced. Mixing up math symbols can't be phonics-based - can't be hearing related.
So I am facing my fears. I called the Children's Hospital today about a learning evaluation. When the director called me back, we chatted about my observations and she - along with every other education-trained person I have access to - confirmed it looks like something other than APD.
I'm filling out paperwork tomorrow. The first open testing spot is in two months.
God bless his little heart. He is such a bright, happy kid... with a beautiful smile. Why does he have to struggle so much?
I couldn't love him more than I do right now.
