What kind of learner are you?
Any parent of a child with a learning disability or anyone who has payed attention to her learning style knows that each person has a dominant way of learning. Some are auditory learners, taking in everything they hear. These are the students who actually remember lectures. Other are kinesthetic learners, who learn by doing. These are the students who thrive in lab classes and frequently rewrite notes while studying. And then there are the visual learners. Those whose eyes are vital to their education. Isabella is clearly of the final category. This was apparent years ago when the traditional teaching […]
School planing meeting
We just had a planning meeting for Isabella’s eduction with her school and caseworker. These are the meetings that I dreaded. In the past, I was known to break down sobbing or run out the meeting or both. I have not done that in a very long time. This meeting was about testing. Okay, for those of you who have taken standardized tests, these tests are much worse. Think about how many people who you know say, “Iam not a good standardized test tester.” Well, no kid with a learning disability is a good standardized test taker. They completely suck. […]
Making gluten-free cupcakes
It’s the annual Feast at Isabella’s school and she thought it would be a good idea to have a gluten-free treat for her class. Well, probably really for her, but she’s a generous soul. So we embarked upon the baking. Per usual, my kitchen does not have all the necessary ingredients. No butter. Isabella offered to go around the corner to buy the butter. She has never gone to the store. It involved crossing a street. She asked how much butter cost. Do not know, but it must be less than five bucks. Off she went. I looked at the […]
Leaving home for more than an errand
A 13-year-old (same age as Isabella) boy with Asperger’s left school and rode the subway — for 11 days. Just writing the sentence makes my heart sink. He was reprimanded in school and did not want to deal with further scolding at home, so he rode the subway until a transit worker spotted him. All parents worry about their children getting abducted, thanks to all the publicized incidents since Ethan Patz in Greenwich Village. I remember seeing his image on milk cartons. Parents of children with development disabilities have much greater worries. We worry that our kids will get distracted […]
Age inappropriate behavior
I was planning on posting about Isabella’s greatly improved handwriting and show a birthday card that she wrote without help. But, I’m too annoyed to celebrate success. In the shower today, my very precious Aveda shampoo and conditioner bottles were upside down. The way any use-to-the-last drop consumer keeps her personal products when they are almost finished. Impossible. I just paid good money for brand new, nearly full bottles of shampoo and conditioner. They were totally empty. Nothing in them for even a last wash. I began to sob. And not because I would not be able to style my […]
Using language
Another milestone of sorts, not the kind that most parents mark, however. While dining at Fork in Philadelphia (highly recommended), Isabella provided a possible glimpse into her future. While eating — she duck, me risotto, her dad branzino, our companion hangar steak — Isabella proclaimed that she had developed a rating scale for restaurants. One was for terrible, two was for okay, three was for good, and four was for excellent. The rating encompassed service, as well as food. Our evening at the highly-acclaimed Fork was nearly demoted to a three when I had to ask for a red wine […]
School & nutrition
Finally, a parent-teacher conference where the teacher didn’t recount all of Isabella’s shortcomings. How they have tried every math program available, including the one that I insisted on, and have had zero success. How her inability to stay on topic hinders all of her attempts at class participation. How reading, well, reading — Orton-Gilingham should be working; it works with every other child with dyslexia. I dreaded those meetings. Truth be told, I avoided them. I let the teachers phone me, so they couldn’t see my stricken face. This year, however, I filled out the form to attend the conference and […]
Food & Mood
Halloween marks the anniversary of a bad scene. Many years ago Isabella apparently ate a ton of candy while trick or treating. I had sent her with her sister who was as diligent as an older sister can be on Halloween. The next morning Isabella had one of those outer body experiences akin to the Exorcist. This was not your normal tantrum. I made an emergency phone call on a Sunday to her neurologist. Though he is open minded, he is not particularly cutting edge. His estimation: it’s not necessarily the sugar in the candy, it’s the chemicals. I started […]
Being a teenager
Two biggies. Driving in the car, Isabella told us that she hated a song and named the group — correctly. Of course, the radio dial was changed immediately until she found an acceptable song. And then she sang along, knowing every word. Okay, she was completely off pitch and her words weren’t perfectly synced with the radio. Who cares! She memorized all the words. This has positive implications for school and learning. Later, at PF Chang’s, where we go for the gluten-free menu, she was cold. She politely asked the waitress to close the take-out door because she was chilly. Speaking up and […]
We need a better calendar
Something bad happened. We forgot to bring Isabella to a weekend birthday party! Because she doesn’t have any great friends in town, getting invited to parties of school friends is a big deal. Isabella talked about this party incessantly. The birthday girl was a new friend. Maybe that’s why we forgot. After a while, when talk becomes repetitive, you stop listening. We realized that we forgot the same day of the party — when it was over, of course. We didn’t say anything. The next day, when Isabella came home from school, she told me that we forgot the party. […]
Dancing without inhibition
Our family was invited to a swank bat mitzvah, which was more like a wedding. The music involved a DJ, a host, and several entourage people whose job it was to get the guests on the dance floor. The moms did not need these dance wranglers, nor did Isabella. She perched herself above the floor by the DJ. She was clearly having fun. I got a pang as I watched her contemporaries dance together even though she was the only one really dancing. They were jumping in a mitzvah mosh pit. I longed for a brother-sister act. Will that ever […]
Bike riding
Having grown up in the great borough of Brooklyn, I rode my bike everywhere. Unless I was walking or taking the subway. I was in a lot of bike accidents. None that involved cars. Many involved stairs or water. You got a bike, a better bike, not a car, upon high school graduation. Mine was a Schwinn Suburban in a sort of electric blue. But it wasn’t exactly a Suburban. The guy at the bike store made some changes to the bike that made it suitable for my type of riding, which required a helmet. Who knew from helmets back […]