Jane

dyslexia

autism

I have a Masters Degree in Special Education with a concentration in "Learning from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I worked as a Special Education teacher with Albuquerque Public Schools from 1985 to 2009 when I retired. I have had some experience with students who demonstrate "autistic-like" characteristics. Students with autism are delayed in their social interactions. They need a very controlled structure. For instance the materials will be placed inside a certain space. After retiring, I worked as a substitute teacher with APS. I observed programs set up by some excellent teachers who work with autistic students. The students may need a tactile "squeezie" in order to have tactile needs satisfied. Instruction needs to be one-to-one for the most part. When I worked with a first-grader who had autistic-like characteristics, I provided an area free of distraction. The student had a set of pictures and some words to help him to move from activity to activity. At the cue, "Check schedule" he moved the picture of a finished activity to the "finished box." This student showed an almost obsessive compulsion to play a math game of dice with tally marks. For a language arts assignment, he could write about that activity or draw a picture of it. For autistic students, social interactions need to be taught and practiced. I will find books that have pictures and some easy words about friendship and working together. We will use puppets and social dramas for this learning. I will tell social stories about him/her. The stories are useful for reviewing recent events and for planning the next activity. Easy games in which there is no winner will aid in the "how-to-relate-to- others" curriculum. The objective is for the student to self-regulate. As he/she develops some skills, he/she will be given opportunities to make choices. I will work closely with parents and with the student's classroom teacher in order to maintain the consistency that is needed. We will devise a system for him/her to earn rewards for complying with the rules/expectations. Autistic students do not mean to be anti-social. Rather they need special accommodations to learn how to interact successfully. They need to verbalize what they need. They need to internalize how to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Slowly progress can be made.

Aspergers

As a Special Education teacher in the Elementary schools in Albuquerque, the most depressing message that I have heard is from a third-grade teacher who said, "The students do not come to me with the basic sounds for letters and the patterns for phonics. I have to teach what they should have learned in first and second grade." Because I took classes in how to present phonics lessons, I know that the problems for these third graders can be "fixed." In 2003 I took the comprehensive classwork and supervision that was provided through the special Education Department at Albuquerque Public Schools to be come a certified Wilson Language -- up to Level 5. In 2008 a fellow Special Ed teacher introduced me to the SPIRE Program. I used the SPIRE Program with a group of students who needed specific training in phonics. I definitely choose this program, published by Educational Publishing Service for tutoring in one-to-one sessions. There are three main reasons that I choose to use the SPIRE (acronym for "Specialized Program for Individualized Reading Education"): [1] When I used SPIRE Program for training students who have not yet "caught on" to the sound-symbol patterns, I was delighted that students came quickly to the table for small-group instruction. They were being taught at their instructional level, thus eliminating frustration and eliminating the tendency for struggling to "guess" words incorrectly. I saw how they were motivated to "dig in" to the activities for the lesson for the day. [2.] The SPIRE program does not teach the phonics patterns in isolation. Rather, there are stories and questions for comprehension. The students follow the plot of a story and answer the well formulated questions. For this reason the Spire program can be substituted for the General Education's adopted series. [3.] The Spire program provides a slowly paced program that offers sufficient review for the student. He/she will become automatic in decoding/reading the words, sentences and short passages. The specific ways students mark words for their phonetic patterns really do help them improve. SPIRE is the answer to Why does the testing show that my child is "falling behind?" I would purchase the materials for this program to use with an elementary-aged student who needs a specialized program in order to succeed at reading. The SPIRE program also teaches spelling. This total approach to decoding and encoding is powerful. Parents will be delighted by the progress that their child makes and by the way that the phonics lessons transfer into reading to learn about topics of interest. In summary, the SPIRE program that would serve as the basis for my instruction in phonics supplies the needs of students who do not know their letter and syllable sounds. The three reasons for me to choose this program are: [1] The students do not resist the lessons; they become involved. [2] The students apply the sounds-letters in reading paragraphs. [3] The pace of the program is comprehensive. I can guarantee that your child will become automatic in decoding the letter-sounds patterns and will succeed in transferring that learning into actual reading.

ADD/ADHD

Students who demonstrate signs of ADD/ADHD need extra structure in order to attend to the instruction. Some silent cues will help the student. These include "when I touch my nose, Return to focusing on the lesson." Students need to increase time-on-task from the first lesson to the middle of the school year and the the three-quarters mark. They can be rewarded for approaching that goal. I am a Special Education teacher certified in the state of New Mexico. My training came from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At that University, I completed the requirements for the Masters Degree program in 1979. For this program I wrote a Masters' paper regarding "Locus of Control." I taught Special Education students with Albuquerque Public Schools from 1985 to 2009 when I retired. I have worked with groups of about 8 students at a time. As many as two showed signs of inattention due to ADD/ADHD. I have worked to establish systems to help the students stay on task and to refrain from bothering others. In working with students who show signs of ADD/AHHD, I will offer a change-of-pace activity. This activity is intended to teach systematic methods for the student to organizing his/her body movements and to improve the level of focus on the activity at hand. During the change-of pace activity/ies, students will use Yoga movements and music in order to relax and tune-in to the work of school-related tasks. Students will be allowed to request an opportunity to engage in "heavy-duty movements" such as running in place, lunges, jumping jacks. My records will note the use of this routine during the sessions. I will use this "feedback" information to determine how this student can increase in self control. The lessons must be highly structured with pictures or other icons to indicate the activities in a routine sequence. I will work with the student to "Check your schedule" on the strip of foam board where the pictures/icons are attached with Velcro. The student will remove the picture for the activity. For each session the sequence stays the same. Thus the student can predict what will happen next. This technique helps the student share in control of the situation. As a result, he/she is able to refrain from the ADD/ADHD behaviors.

study skills

special needs

ADHD

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

SAT writing

spelling

elementary math

elementary (k-6th)

phonics

GED

government & politics

literature

GRE

proofreading

ESL/ESOL

English

reading

writing

biology

vocabulary

grammar

prealgebra

American history

ACT English