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Teaching Jeremiah, A Journey into the Mind of an Asperger's Child
Feb. 20, 2008
A Speed Bump
Ok and it's not the big table size speed bumps that you can glide slowly over either. It's one of those little obnoxious ones that jar you uncomfortably no matter how slowly you go over them.
For the last year at speech class, Jerry's teacher has focused mainly on teaching Jeremiah the "c" sound (hard c). He has made tremendous progress and, when he thinks before he speaks and speaks slowly, he actually uses what he has learned and says his "c" words right. Last week at speech Miss Ramos (Jerry's teacher) told me that she was going to switch to a new letter for a while because Jerry was over-exaggerating the c sound now. I sort of knew what she was talking about, but found out for sure this past week.
Week 4, letter four. I picked the letter Tt. Jerry has always been able to make the "t" sound and so I chose this letter for success. I asked Jerry to say turtle. He said, "curtle". I said toys. He said, "coys". I said table. He said, "cable". I said tooth. He said, "cooth". Do you see where I'm going with this? And the more I tried to correct him, the more frustrated he got and he just shut down, yelling, "I can't do it!"
Now, can you say, "AAArrrggghhhhhh!" It's like three steps forward and two steps back. After a little re-grouping, I decided to just make this a review week and reinforce the C, M, and R sounds he learned over the last three weeks. At this rate, he might know the alphabet by the time he's ten!! Ok, now I know I am exaggerating and that he will get it eventually. I also know he needs more time to process and learn things that other kids his age learn in 1/2 or 1/4 of the time, but remember, I am obsessive-compulsive!! I want him to learn NOW! God is working on me. That's for sure!
All mommies reading this...when your child whines during school, when they cry over writing a paragraph, when they take an hour to do five math problems just because they daydream too much...just be grateful they are getting it! I know Jeremiah is too, but it sure is an eye opener when you have three other kids in the home to compare learning styles and rates to. I wanted to cry on Monday at this new discovery, but I know it's just another little hiccup that we'll get over soon enough. Just wanted everyone to know how they could pray for us this week.
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Feb. 21, 2008 - Untitled Comment