Learning How to Learn

 

It’s taken the second semester of grade 7 to feel like I’m finally understanding how to reinforce what J’s learning at school at home. I feel like we’re starting to get a good system going with J’s paras and teachers in how to modify assignments, tests, and practice assignments that will help J learn the best.

J’s strengths lie in memorization, and he does really well with flashcards (homemade ones or through Quizlet. Are you familiar with Quizlet? It’s a wonderful free little app that lets you practice through flashcards, matching, definitions, etc). He’s funny with the memorization though. You give him a map of Africa and he can fill out all 55 countries in 2 min or less, but you give him a human body and it’s a lot harder for him to label that “map.” One thing I’m learning with him is that all skills aren’t equal. If it’s a subject he’s interested in, then you’ve hit the memorization jackpot (think superhuman skills–I’m not exaggerating on this). If it’s something he’s not interested in, he can still memorize it, it takes more time and diligent practice. That’s one thing that we’ve been working with his teachers and paras. Trying to get notes and terms and concepts home ASAP so we can start working on them weeks before the test (not a few days before). I know it sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s a lot harder than it sounds. It takes a lot of coordination, and a lot of stuff being sent home and sent back to school. I’ve been really excited this last month, however. I feel like we’re getting into that back and forth groove.

J came home with some AWESOME practice sheets his para made for him to help him study the human body. BIG versions of the traditional 8 1/2 x 11 computer printouts and laminated so he can use a dry erase marker to do that repetitive practice (also to accommodate his handwriting issues!). He also has flash cards to practice the functions and definitions of certain things (mechanical digestion, chemical digestion, arteries, etc). His science teacher has modified the amount of content J has to know (he has to label 10/16 bones on the skeleton, 4/11 parts of the heart–right/left ventricle and right/left atrium, etc). Enough to give him an introduction of the human body and practice a way of learning and studying without overwhelming him.

Labeling the ventricles on the heart

Identifying bones

Practicing the definitions through handwriting and modified paper

J is also a nontraditional learner. His body language can fool you into thinking he’s not paying attention, tired, or checked out. This first video shows him practicing Latin numbers. With his head on the table, it looks like he’s checked out, but if you listen to him, you can tell he’s really concentrating (and trying not to look at the answers on the table). Don’t judge my Latin pronunciation–the only language I know besides English is French, and J has already corrected me a few times of my French-ish pronunciation of Latin terms. This is one of a million reasons why his paras are so important–they can undo any damage I do when I don’t teach him things exactly right.

J earns jellybeans for studying masses of words or definitions. Since he has to learn his colours in Latin, I make him tell me what the Latin colour is and the Latin number of jelly beans before he gets it. Whether we’re studying Latin or the heart. It’s good “not studying” studying.

Sometimes we use Quizlet, and sometimes I make a homemade version. Here’s J practicing his Latin colours through matching.

I also try to mix up the ways we practice things (like the jellybeans). Here’s J identifying body parts by just touching his body.

It’s taken a lot of coordination and a lot of organization (personally–I am not an organized person by nature). I try to get as much of my work and writing done before the kids come home so we can focus the rest of the night on studying. Sometimes I have to multitask and make dinner, but we make sure we do the daily practice DAILY. I admit there are some nights where I just don’t want to do it (and think his paras can do it during resource) but in order for J to really learn (and understand what he’s learning is important) we need to reinforce at home. Sometimes it’s a fight. Most times he’s willing to practice.

It’s not Pintrest worthy, but here are my binders for J’s practice sheets and studying. That way I don’t have piles of papers on our counters and I can keep copies of practice sheets and Ziplocs for flash cards and other study helps with each separate subject. This has made my life a million times easier.

The funny thing about this whole study experience, is that I’m learning all of this over again as I’m working with him. I don’t know exactly where my trachea or small intestine is, and I get along just fine. I always Google things when I need to. I have a basic idea of what an artery is, but I don’t remember the exact definition. I know that blood flows in and out of our heart in different directions, but I don’t remember how or where that happens until I start reading his textbook again. J’s teachers and I go back and forth a lot on what exactly will be helpful for J to learn and what won’t matter in the end. But the more I work with him I realize, that the content he learns now isn’t the only thing that matters. Most of us forget at least half of the content (or more) learned in middle school and high school by the time we graduate. It’s the practice and discipline and thinking skills that are the most important for J to learn, because those are the real life skills most of us develop in our public school experience. It’s those skills that take us into our post secondary education or job sites and it’s those skills we practice daily that get us the knowledge that’s most applicable for us.

So on the days I’m frustrated when J forgets where his gastrocnemius muscle is (ps, it’s not in your stomach like you’d think) when he absolutely knew where it was the day before I try not to get discouraged. Because in the end, learning to learn is a process. And that’s a whole lesson in itself.

Adaptations and Modifications

J and Steve working on Geography homework.

It’s been about a month since J’s IEP meeting and I’m really excited about some of the ideas the team came up with. I guess that’s what happens when you get over a dozen people in a room to discuss J.

The hard thing about J is that there is no academic setting he really fits into. J is what I call “middle autistic.” If you think of a line graph where “low functioning” is on one side and “high functioning” is on the other, I would put J smack dab in the middle. So where do you put an “in the middle of the spectrum kid” in the public school setting? He would be bored to tears and be a behavioral nightmare in a magnet special ed classroom for lower functioning students. He doesn’t even really fit into a typical magnet autistic classroom either. Right before J entered kindergarten, I took the tour of the magnet autism classroom and thought, “J could never learn here. The meltdowns, the defiance, all the things that J exhibits too when he’s frustrated–it would just reinforce his own behaviors.” It was also really, really loud. J would go crazy with all of the auditory stimulation and be so stressed out, he wouldn’t be able to learn. No, the magnet autistic classroom really wasn’t an option either.

J manages changing classrooms, the transitions, and  going to all 8 periods of the day just fine. He opens his locker on his own without help. In fact, when W had to navigate her locker before school started, he easily opened hers on the first try. He LOVES geography, choir, FACS, and art–all classes he wouldn’t have access to if he were in a magnet special education or autism classroom all day. Even though he is absolutely dreadful at social interactions, he loves to see his friends throughout the day, so he’d miss a lot of those opportunities if he were placed in the “low functioning” places in the current system.

But he isn’t “high functioning” enough to navigate a regular classroom on his own. He needs a para with him at all times (primarily to help him regulate his emotions and behaviors), he needs someone to make sure he’s on task and he’s got his work organized. Someone to make sure his work is legible and his work is turned in. He’s not like the Aspies who can demonstrate savant-like qualities that make it easier for students and teachers forgive those “high functioning autistic kids” of their social-emotional deficits.

Sometimes he can be disruptive or say and do inappropriate things. How do you manage his learning with the learning of his peers in his class? How do you be fair to them and make sure they have the right learning environment that they need?

How exactly do you educate a kid like J?

Middle school also throws a wrench in the situation because instead of one classroom teacher who sees J intermittently throughout the day (while he is pulled for speech or OT or extra help on an assignment), J has 8 different teachers a day who have less than an hour to figure him out as well as the rest of the kids in the class and teach their lessons.

That’s why I’m so grateful that we have great teachers and paras who are willing to work with him. I know this kid can learn–he loves to learn. You have to be creative sometimes, but boy when that boy gets it, he GETS IT. The big challenge is how do we make this work for him and everyone else? How do I, as a mother who knows my kid can do things–who may take years to learn things but will absolutely learn things–how do I make sure he’s in the right situation with the right people?

I feel like we’re sort of the trailblazers and that we’re making mistakes all the time–torching fields left and right. Breaking new ground along side educators trying to find out how to help J academically, socially, and emotionally is hard. Many educators with their decades-long experiences in the classroom have never had a kid like J come through the system. But my gut says that J’s not the only “middle autism” kid out there. That there will be plenty more coming through the pipeline in the years ahead.

Since J’s come back from winter break and started a new semester, the team has come up with a few (I think) really great ideas to help J navigate the classroom a little better and hopefully in the long run, gain some more independence. This is the idea I’m the most excited about right now:

This is an example of J’s daily sheet. There are personal responsibilities like taking care of himself and his property that are set daily expectations. Then there are two expectations in each class that the teacher and para decide are appropriate for that day that J needs to meet. Classroom expectations are the difficult ones to anticipate because they change on a daily (sometimes even within the classroom time). This way J knows that he can strive to meet two expectations each class. The percentage at the bottom is how many items he completed (which helps me gauge what he’s motivated and doing at school).

We’re also working on modifying his classwork. Through our IEP discussion we discovered that J’s academics boil down to two big things. 1) He’s great at memorization and facts and 2) He really really struggles with applying knowledge and abstract thinking.  So he may be able to tell you every capital city of every country in the world, but he won’t be able to tell you why people build economies around certain natural resources. So we’re modifying some of his assignments a little. For example, if a classroom teacher expects the class to, say, understand 3 abstract concepts during the week, J might be expected to understand 1. This idea is still in the planning stages, but I think it’s a great modification. J gets really frustrated when he’s overwhelmed with a list of things he feels he “can’t do.” If we narrow that list down to a few things, then he can work at understanding those concepts a lot better.

I know this kid can do this. This summer he could barely scribble color on a Mario coloring page. Now he colors in countries on maps in Geography. Yes, he’s delayed in many ways–but this kid has got potential. It may take him days, weeks, months, even years to figure something out. But he’ll do it. That’s why I can’t give up on him. That’s why I have to make sure the system doesn’t give up on him.

J’s latest geography test. he got 37/40 countries correct. (I’m embarrassed to say I wouldn’t be able to do that). But the thing that really, really gets me excited–CHECK OUT THAT HANDWRITING!!!

We’ve come from this last year:

Copying out one definition

To this!!! (Be still my heart!):

J, if you promise not to give up trying, I’ll make sure other people won’t give up on you.