The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Welcome to the first in a series of columns ad- dressing the questions that homeschooling parents (and grandparents) have about their child who is working hard, but continuing to struggle in various areas of learning. Each month I will select one question from my “mailbox.”

“I’m taking my 7 1/2 year old daughter out of a Christian school in January. Her IEP showed a 1% working memory and a low processing speed. She is ambidextrous, but uses her left hand for writing. She struggles a great deal with writing. She is being privately tutored by a Wilson Certified Teacher, but the progress has been very slow. She just started the second book. She is repeating first grade this term.

Her main problem areas are reading, spelling and math. Any suggestions for curriculum would be appreciated.”

First I would like to congratulate you
on your resolve, realizing that your
daughter would do so much better at
home, under your tutelage.

A Quick Review of her Testing

In my experience, a low working memory usually means two things: 1) an auditory processing issue . . . especially if the “digit span” subtest in the WISHC-IV was low; or 2) a focus/attention issue. Many times it involves both. Her low processing speed could involve two areas: 1) if her subtest, “coding” is low, this shows us that she is struggling with a Visual/Spatial/Motor processing glitch; 2) the other area that can give a low score in “processing speed” is her inability to track her eyes quickly from left to right. You will be able to observe this as you watch her eyes track while she is reading aloud to you. The good news is that all of these processing glitches can easily be corrected at home.

Another factor to consider, of course,
is that first graders do not generally
test well. Their unfamiliarity with test
taking, and anxiety usually give falsely
low scores. Do not over-concern your-
self with those scores. Let’s just take
care of the learning issues that she is
struggling with.

You can easily ascertain which learning gates are blocked for your daughter by using the checklist, “Identifying Blocked Learning Gates.” This is an easy to use, downloadable form from my website and will give you much insight. I used this checklist in all my IEP meetings when explaining the child’s processing glitches to the parents, and to make my teaching plans, when I was teaching in my Resource Room in school.

What Curriculum to Use

My experience is that the phonics programs like the one she is presently being tutored with, that rely on tapping out sounds and syllables, etc., are too auditory for these children who already have an auditory processing glitch. The progress can be very slow. I prefer to use the Right Brain Reading method which involves using the child’s strong