[Grovenet] GroveNet Digest, Vol 54, Issue 1

[Theresa Carter]

Has anyone done any research as to what the best teaching methods are for children of Autism and ADD?  I have friends, with children, who have been tagged with those labels. They are both off the scale as far as intelligence too. That in itself does not make it any easier.  One mom ended up quiting her job, to home school her son and he is now studying to become a dentist.  The other battled the schools and her son is in Alaska fishing. Both are doing well for themselves and the families seem to be happy.  
 
I am not sure that with the labeling that the child actually gets a better education.  The parents too are questioning whether, that was the best thing to do but at the time it all seemed to be guided or driven, by the school.  Unless the school is able to truly teach these kids using different methods then it seems pointless to me, to put both parents and students through the testing.  
 
I have to mention that my younger sister, who has now been diagnosed with dyslexia. My mom saw her falling behind in school and spent countless hours teaching her to read.  Later, a tutor that my parents hired.  (She is 46 years old and at that time there was no additional help in the schools.)  My sister went on to a community college, in electronics.  She struggled but was determined in chasing her dream.  Now she is pushing polygons around as a mask designer, at Intel and doing very well for herself.  
 
My mom then became a reading tutor at the grade school, as a volunteer.  Some students simply needed a stronger foundation in reading and others had some severe family issues, that were distracting them from learning.  The one thing that she did see is that the individual attention helped with not just their reading but their self esteem and behavior as well.  She couldn't imagine putting any child through 13 years, of failure.  The one thing that she used to say to me as my sons were growing up.  "A child who can not find possitive attention will find negative attention.  No attention is the worst kind of lonliness."  
 
In defense of the teachers, the class sizes in Forest Grove are huge. My youngest son, a senior, at the high school dropped two classes this year because there were not enough seats to accommodate the class size. One was an AP class too.  It is next to impossible to give the attention that is necessary to just one or two in a class of twenty-five or thirty.  I do know that some of the students have a special person that shadows the students, who tend to be disruptive.  Maybe it would be better to have those people actually giving individual education, rather than having them in a classroom as a child's behavioral monitor, all day.  I personally feel that those dollars could be better spent on educating because the socializing will come with the students success.  
 
Theresa Carter