# Public/homeschool, LD, Processing, any suggestions



## Marsh (Apr 29, 2003)

Hello, 
Sorry this will be a long post but I think background helps when your asking for help.
We haven't been around much to the boards here since we moved almost 2 years ago. Life has thrown us many twists and turns and most of it was not good. But that is another story. 
We need your help, opinions, suggestions. We are just so torn up. 
Our daughter has severe allergies and asthma. Possible Marfans syndrome, hit puberty late last year at 10. She's in public school going into middle school (grade 6 in Sept) 
Some of you may know that we have fought with the school since day one of her public school education. First it was your kids has ADD, medicate her! (that was the K teachers opinion.) We took her to an allergies who diagnosed severe allergies and asthma, NOT ADD! 
Grades 1 and 2 teachers (each teacher had 35 years experience in teaching) said she was unorganized, lacked focus, needed constant reminders, always kept her near there desk so they could keep an eye on her and help her. Daughter was either on task or out in left field.....grades very irradic but always managed to pass. Told us to always keep ontop of daughter and homeschool her over summer to keep her up with the other kids. (grade 2 diagnosed needing glasses and we got them. 6 months later had to get new ones because her prescription changed) grade 3 she was put in an inclusion classroom (mixed special education kids with role model kids. our was on the role model side of the room)and young teacher said she is doing fine as long as she is passing. (had to have her eyeglass prescription changed again during this year because it changed) We had words on more then one occassion with this teacher. I also had been working at the school for the past 3 years as a volunteer and I was also on staff as a monitor for the children when they had lunch and recess) It ends up the special ed teacher on the otherside of the room hears me talking...okay arguing with daughters teacher about our fears of how our daughter is doing. Special ed teacher and I have a meeting at this sped teacher request and she agrees that there could be a learning disability. But it's late in the school year by now and this teacher offers to tutor our daughter. I have to pay $50 and hour for this tutoring, sadly we do it. (I also am teaching daughter 2-3 hours a night at home at the kitchen table. Things the school hasn't gotten through to her and we have always homeschooled over summer) So daughter was going to school 6-7 hours a day, I was homeschooling 2-3 hours a night and tutor was 2 hours a week. Still her grades were erradic, lacked focus. But she passed to 4th grade. 
Well by now we had talked about homeschooling and saying to H-E double hockey sticks with the public school. During 3rd grade my husband worked out of state and was home weekends only. We decided to move over the summer of 3rd to 4th grade. Daughter went to 4th grade in the old school until we closed on the new location and it was awful. She just couldn't keep up, lost, it was just terrible and because the school knew we were moving they did nothing to help her. (she also got new eyeglass prescription again before school started) We got the same tutor for her as the year before we helped her until we moved 2 months into the school year. 
Finding a place to live was a challenge too because daughter can't be in a house with new carpet, pressboard, etc because of her breathing difficulties. (VOC just about kills her) 
We arrived at the new school and I explained what I just told you here to them. I said, "If you can't work with me and help me help her. I will homeschool her and that will be the end of it" (So much easier to homeschool legally where we live now then where we were. You basically needed a court order to be able to homeschool where we used to live) 
She did 4th grade here in the new state and she did okay. Took the teacher almost the whole year to get to understand our daughter and how she learned. (standards aren't as high where we live now) The 4th grade teacher here did say at the end of the year a tutor may be a good idea. (we can't afford a tutor anymore at this time) 
5th grade comes along and I explain before school even starts to her teacher about allergies, asthma, problems, learning problems , our concerns,etc. (daughter had to get bi focals to be able to see before 5th grade also had to start using allergy eyedrops ontop of her other meds)This years teacher (grade 5) is awsome. She started seeing things right off and by Dec. we were putting a 504 plan in place. Well the 504 didin't work enough and we had a meeting and we all said some testing was in order. So here we are with a week left of school squeezing the testing in hopefully before school ends. (She is moving up to another school, new teachers, much harder life in middle school and we see major problems with even simple tasks. getting a locker open should be a joy for the school. I don't see daughter being able to do it) 
They are currently doing academic testing, processing testing, and intellectual testing. 
So far it seems like a processing issue is what they were leaning towards. grades erradic, focus irradic, misunderstands almost everything, other days she is just like all the other kids, well she still tends to misunderstand alot of things. Very shy with other kids. 
Daughter is a good reader, doesn't always remember what she reads and the older she gets the more she gets bord with it quicker. Grades are all over the place 100%-60%. Short term memory is junk. focus is junk. you tell her feed, water, give the animals hay. She can get the firstone done, the second one sometimes, the third thing never! Teacher says she can go over directions in class and then with the 504 she goes over them special with our daughter. And still our daughter asks 100 questions about what she was just told 2 times or more. Some days she is right on task other days she is on another planet. (they were saying it was her allergy asthma meds and we know now its not. wether she is on them or not she is the sameway) 
So the short of it is we have a child going into 6th grade. allergy, asthma, sinus, and eye meds. as needed. puberty has hit (the body and brain aren't on the same level either) eyeglass prescription changes every 6-9 months, now in bi focals (marfans is a genetic tissue disorder, no test, just go by the signs, but this could account for her long legs, fingers, toes, eye problems and the fact she is taller then most adults)
I know nothing about processing problems or how to deal with them. Money is very tight here and we have very little to spend with meds and eyeglasses etc. The results of the testing will help us hopefully. But i fear the testing won't show a darned thing and daughter will be told to just "move along through the system" 
testing results will help us decied if we homeschool her or not as well. 
okay after my long winded post here. Does anyone have any ideas for us? Can you help us? We so want to help our daughter, she just seems to need alot of help to get it. And sometimes I just cant get her to get it. 
in the morning I have to pack her backpack and get her ready. If I don't she wouldn't be ready on time. It's like she is living in her own little world sometimes. You can tell by her face she gets it sometimes, it just can't get out to you, that she gets it. 
She has learned to knit with 4 needles in 20 hours of knitting lessons ( nice lady here has been a huge help in finding this one thing daughter can do well) And daughter was given an art scholarship for 1 week over the summer at the art school here. She is amzing when it comes to art, but even getting out what her head sees for art can cause her to get mad and melt down and give up. 
Any ideas? I am willing to listen to anything! You have no idea how frustrting this is for us and for our daughter. And her teacher this year is also angry that noone can find answers for our daughter. Like I said her teacher is an awsome lady that really cares and has risked her job to try to get us some answers. 

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any input. 
Marsh


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## nerdrebecca (May 20, 2009)

I am a teacher, I have home-schooled and plan to do it again, and I'm a mother of 4 children - one of which reminds me of your daughter. I have some ideas for you.

My children are Jessica (13 - just finished 7th grade), Noah (12 - just finished 6th and turned 12 on June 10), Annie (9 - just finished 3rd) and Lizzy (7 - just finished 1st).

You may need to bring in a counselor or child psych in addition to your teachers and pediatrician to come up with a good plan for your daughter. 

I home-schooled Jessie and Noah until they were almost 7 and 5, and I put them in public school because I had to go back to school because of our economic situation. Although Jessie had completed her 2nd grade coursework, and Noah was well into 1st, I put her in 1st grade and Noah in K - there is much to learn in school other than academics and I didn't want them to be pressured. (a side note: if you put your child in school on the early side of the grade level - like I did with Noah - it seems great that they are young for their grade. however, as they mature and get into high school, they'll be taking college entrance tests [ ACT or SAT ] at the age 15 or 16 and making decisions about college and vocation at this age, too. That's a lot of pressure for a kid that age.) 

If I knew then what I know now, I would have put Noah into a pre-school program and given him another year of maturing. Noah is my child who has some things in common with yours. He isn't riddled with health problems, but he is very emotionally "keyed up." He's so sensitive that little things will hurt his feelings. He lies constantly at the smallest thing up to the biggest issue. He feels like he'd rather tell you what you want to hear rather than the truth. 

He's brilliant and was identified before 2nd grade as "gifted" and place in the enrichment program, but not in the same way that Jessie was identified. His is a strange, creative intelligence - not one of memory and test-taking abilities. He "gets" things normal kids would never think of or try to process. All that said, he pays little attention to instructions, has major problems turning in homework, keeping up with assignments, making "A R Points" by reading and taking little tests afterwards - all the simple stuff.

As a teacher, I see this constantly - especially with boys - and with my education (Masters in Elem. Ed) I know in my gut this is mainly an issue of maturity. It takes a degree of self-determination and self-control for a child to get the "school" thing down. No parent can DO everything to shore up their child's education when the child just won't participate. (Here, I really want you to see that you as a parent have done a great job, and I'm sure you will continue to.) You can't know every assignment the teachers give, and you can't be at school with your child. Furthermore, if you try to do this, you are enabling (in some ways) the behaviors that you want to eliminate. You want to encourage independence in this child and the desire to achieve. When your child wants to improve, she will modify her own behavior. When her behaviors begin to embarrass her, she will improve her own behavior. Unless she's like Noah, and she can not.

With that said, Noah wanted to improve, would get down on himself for repeated careless work (behavior), and would decide that he'd do better only to fail to improve over and over. This came to a head in 5th grade when the math teacher required the one thing my child cannot do. She required a notebook be kept with homework assignments in the notebook to be checked every two to three weeks. She posted the assignments on her website after assigning them in class and the due date. Almost every time the notebook was due, we were up for hours getting him to complete (or find!!!) assignments we didn't know he had until deadline. SO frustrating. He'd make 90 or 95 on tests, but he had a D for the class because of the homework!

The enrichment teacher, who is a VERY brilliant woman who has seen lots of children like Noah over the years, tried to comfort us by telling us that he's like the "absent minded professor" and that we need to let him grow into himself in some ways. Other social problems began happening, too. He just doesn't understand other boys his own age and they don't "get" him. 

So, we went to a counselor to help him with behaviors and together with our pediatrician explored medication to help him do what HE wants to do better. We began with the traditional ADHD meds and they helped with behaviors, but the emotions got worse. We had to go to a child psych doctor who specializes in depression, and he adjusted the meds until we had the perfect solution FOR NOW. Over the last 12 months, we've done SO well emotionally and with school work. Noah's still not "normal" and he will never be - and we've all decided we're glad of that.

School's out and I've encouraged him to get off the meds unless we have some special occasion or summer camp thing. I've told him that the meds are just a training tool that help him control his behaviors until he decides he's ready to control himself. He's doing so well with his household and animal chores even without meds now. I'm encouraged. He is handling strings of instructions very well that he NEVER did before. Medication is working for us, and I know we won't have to do the meds forever.

With that said, I wish he was headed into 6th grade now instead of 7th. His emotional immaturity is in SHARP contrast to his intelligence and academic ability. We are considering home school again, and are constantly fighting the battle between helping him function normally with other kids his age and saying "forget it" and just educating him ourselves to his abilities and letting the "normal" thing go. This kid may be the one who figures out a new source for alternative renewable energy for the world or something.

I am against medicating every child with ADHD symptoms. As a teacher, I am painfully aware how little I can do for a class full of children when I have 2 or 3 in the classroom that require SO much of my attention through bad behaviors or neediness of any kind. You are faced with lots of decisions, and my advice to you is work with those you trust and find a pediatrician that can help you explore different aspects of your WHOLE child, not just the medical side. When your teachers, you, and your doc work together to advocate for the child, you WILL come up with better solutions than isolated things. 

As for the financial part, once you find the right set of solutions with counseling, meds, and school, you will be using the finances efficiently to provide what your child needs. It cost us a good bit in co-pays, counseling, and meds until we got our current set of solutions. You may email me privately with specific questions or to give me more or different info. I'll be happy to give you more details as needed.

You didn't say if this is your only child or if there are siblings. You didn't say what things you've tried for the allergies and asthmas other than traditional medicines. Let me know if there are other details that might change an overall plan for your daughter.


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## Marsh (Apr 29, 2003)

I sent you a Pm with my email address. The children sound VERY much alike. I would love to talk to you more indepth.
I can give you more information. About her birth, meds, 504 plan, etc in private email. 

Our meeting friday will consist of the principle, guidance counselor, her teacher, me, special education teacher and a phychological service provider. To determine if she is eligible for services and IEP. No matter if she is or isn't, we still want to try to help her. My main thing was to have her tested at school, before we decided to homeschool, because as you stated. We didn't want to enable her and we also didn't want to be making something worse, because we didn't know about it. 


But those of you wondering, yes, she is an only child. Although they think early in the pregnancy I may have lost her twin. I also tested 5 times positive for Down Syndrome during my pregnancy, she is not. I was told the test for DS is wrong 50% of the time. Sometimes I wonder if any of this plays into her situation. 

Like we said we are willing to listen to any ideas anyone has.


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## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

Okay, I have some ideas, but would like a little more info first. A few questions, first.

1) did your daughter have a traumatic birth experience? Is she your birth daughter or adopted? If she was adopted, do you know what the pre-natal health was like? Is it possible she was prenatally exposed to drugs, alcohol, or carcinogens?

2) Does she seem to require higher than normal levels of sensory input? Does she like to be held tightly, or did she cry if she wasn't "swaddled" as a baby? As a toddler, did she seem to intentionally bang into furniture and walls, or throw herself on the floor? Did she every "relate" to others by pinching or biting?

3) Look straight at her. Note the tips of her nose and ears -- are they pinker or redder than the rest of her skin, or, if you are a person of color, are they paler? What about around her mouth? Is there a blue or red tinge around her mouth? Does she have a "wrinkle" across the tip of her nose, or under her eyes?

4) does she ever "zone out"? 

5) is she a picky eater?

6) has she ever bit the dentist or dental hygenist? Does she hate brushing her teeth?

Her visual issues are the big clue for me, actually -- is she seeing an optometrist or an opthalmologist?


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## Marsh (Apr 29, 2003)

okay here goes. 


1) did your daughter have a traumatic birth experience? I was very ill while I was pregnant with her. My liver and kidneys shut down at 3 months. I gained 100 pounds with the pregnacy. i had high blood pressure from the pregnancy and was on best rest from when I was 8 weeks pregnant due to the possible loss of the twin till the end of the pregnancy. They put me on hormone suppositories until the second trimester. At 20 weeks along the pregnancy I was told she had a 2 vessel umbilical cord. I had preterm labor at 33 weeks. by 37 weeks of the pregnancy they had to induce me because I was in danger of seizures but through all this baby was showing fine. (other then the 2 vessel cord and the possible DS test saying positive) When she was born. I did have an epidural because labor was 22 hours long because i was induced. She was 5 pounds 9 ounces and 19 inches. She had a skin tag on her ear that looked like a pimple. They said this went along with the 2 vessel cord and kidney problems. They assesed her at birth with being 34 weeks because she still had hair all over her. I passed out after her birth due to a placental ucreata (unattachable placents) They lost me during the surgery to remove and luckily I came back. They had to do an emergency sub total (so only child we could ever have) Is she your birth daughter or adopted? If she was adopted, do you know what the pre-natal health was like? Is it possible she was prenatally exposed to drugs, alcohol, or carcinogens? My husband was a smoker and I managed a gas station. I quit work when i was 8 weeks pregnant for obvious reasons ( to not lose this baby) my husband was then told he no longer was allowed to smoke in the house at this time and I was banned from all caffeene. (I did have caffeene withdrawls  (they were very unplesant) 

2) Does she seem to require higher than normal levels of sensory input?As a baby yes! She never did like to stay with anything very long and never missed a trick. She still doesn't miss a trick, even when se looks like she's not paying attention she can still tell you whats going on sometimes.  Does she like to be held tightly, or did she cry if she wasn't "swaddled" as a baby? YES and YES!As a toddler, did she seem to intentionally bang into furniture and walls, or throw herself on the floor?Not intentionally but she did seem very clutsey so to speak Did she every "relate" to others by pinching or biting?  In my memory no. she more ran away and stayed by me. SHe wasn't interested in other people or kids. Her great grandmother was the only other one who she went to. We did play groups and she just didn't want to be bothered with the other kids. She wanted to be held and cuddle. Playing wasn't something she did with others. She liked to play only family memebers, adults, never really with kids. She still doesn't overly like kids. SHe rather relates better to adults. I have been told even now she can pick up on adult cues very well. Kid ques she comepltely misses

3) Look straight at her. Note the tips of her nose and ears -- are they pinker or redder than the rest of her skin, or, if you are a person of color, are they paler? This is a tough one. She has severe allergies and asthma and it always effects the color in her face. She has always had rosier cheeks then most. 9 out 0f 10 she is always red nose and cheeks.What about around her mouth? Is there a blue or red tinge around her mouth? her lips are reder then most. most days she looks like she is wearing lipstickDoes she have a "wrinkle" across the tip of her nose, or under her eyes?under her eyes possibly...she has allergy eyes. so they tend to be puffy alot. And they get that dark circle around and under them from the allergies. She does have more wrinkles across her nose when she wrinkles it up. but it's not noticable when you look at her.

4) does she ever "zone out"?YES she does. She gets side tracked real easy and other times you talk to her and she just can't hear you because she is someplace else. Listens to tv and music rather loud to me but she claims she can't hear it. We have had her hearing tested and it's fine. We chalked it up to her allergy congestion in her ears all the time. 

5) is she a picky eater?Not at all she will eat just about everything. or at least try it.

6) has she ever bit the dentist or dental hygenist? Does she hate brushing her teeth?NO but she doesn't like the dentist because she feels they open her mouth too wide and this bothers her. So she avoids the dentist. And YES SHE HATES TO BRUSH her teeth!! I have finally fgured out, unless I stand in there and watch her or they don't get done. Even then she cries it hurts to brush and throws a fit. There have been occasions where I end up brushing them and yes you have to watch your fingers because she won't do it and its a huge issue because her teeth are bad from all the meds and steriods we gave her in the past for her allergies and asthma. (we have cut back on her meds bigtime because we feel drugs aren't always the answer if we can avoid them) it's like fightig cityhall and she can turn real bear on you if she feels it;s bothering her. She will cry and say I hate you. 

Her visual issues are the big clue for , actually -- is she seeing an optometrist or an opthalmologist? Optometrists since we moved here 18 months ago. The firsttime he saw her, He was amazed the other doctor never said she needed bi focals. He said it was very obvious she needed a prescrition to read and another to see distance? We also found transitional b focals (the ones without lines) she CAN NOT USE. She has to have the line so that she knows where to look. Even at that she still complains some days that she can't see anything out of her glasses. So that is when we start the allergey eye drops again for a few days. Sometimes this helps other times I wonder if she just says she cant see with them. Just so that she doesn't have to use them. or if sometimes dependig on the day, she just can't see with or without them. 

Marfans syndrome can also effect their eyesight but its limited to the cornea? the ligaments that hold them in place can detach because they are weak. 

There are days where the shoes don't fit right. the tags in her shirt bother her. the glasses dont help. she has longhair to her butt and brushing that is a chore for me. She tries but end up putting it in more knots. Sometimes when we do ponytails or buns with it. It feels like it's in the wrong place and she starts crying and rips it out. And says just forget it! It's like somedays nothing makes her happy or nothing is "right" for her. 

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask anything else. It seems the older she gets the worse these things get. That is why we pushed the system so bad this year to try to help her. 

PS she has hit puberty and hormones have started. But she doesn't seem any more moody then usual no matter what week we are on


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## joyfulheart (Mar 26, 2009)

With all this medical attention-- has she been tested for pecotious (sp) puberty?

Also, has she ever been to a pediatric neurologist? While it could be Marfans, it could also be a lot of other things.


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## Marsh (Apr 29, 2003)

According to the doctor she is on schedule for puberty. 9 and up is considered normal now for puberty and the monthly cycle to start. 

She has never seen a nerologist because according to many a doctor "nothing is wrong with her " They also don't live with her day after day.


For her learning we recently have heard from the school system without testing her...autism spectrum? just lazy? bored? processing issue? and on and on. they dont get it either. I had to fight tooth and nail to get the testing we have because they said "I don't think we will find anything useful to help her" 
My nice reply was "well I have a question for you? Why do we send her to your school here for 6 hours a day to be taught. If I have to sit 2 hours a night and all summer trying to RE teach her at home because she doesn't get it. If I have to continue to do this I may as well keep her home and homeschool her. And if I do that I will make sure I send documentation to the proper places to make sure you don't get anymore funding to teacher her nor get any extra funding for your Special ed testing" DD teacher also backed me up wanting answers to help DD learn. They gave in and started testing. I am so wanting to see what the results say. But if this one lady doesn't show up this week. We will have to wait until the end of Sept to find if testing showed anything.


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## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

Marsh -- a couple of suggestions. Get her in to see an Opthamologist. I didn't know there was a difference (or rather, I hadn't NOTED a difference, if I'd really thought about it, I probably would have realized) until our OT told us there was a difference, and our son needed to see the proper one. Optometrists diagnose VISION problems and prescribe corrective lenses. Opthamologists diagnose SIGHT problems, and lenses are not always the answer. It was certainly the answer for our son.

Try some sensory massage with her. If you have access to a surgical supply (ask at your pharmacy), get a surgical brush and "brush" her arms and legs with it. Do deep pressure massage on her back and shoulders. See if this helps. For kids with sensory issues, it can be the difference between night and day when it comes to helping them concentrate.

Which comes to what I think you should look into. Please google "Sensory Integration Disorder". So many children are wrongly diagnosed (or teacher diagnosed  ) with ADD or ADHD when, in fact, their attention problems have nothing to do with a real attention deficit disorder, and everything to do with a sensory malfunction. It goes hand in hand with extreme allergies and asthma, and traumatic birth experience or prenatal issues. 

Find a good Pediatric Occupational Therapist who works with kids with sensory issues, and get your daughter assessed. Here, it costs about $200 for the initial assessment, but is worth EVERY PENNY.

We were where you are. Our son had extreme issues, and it was only because of the loving assistance of an amazing educational consultant that we discovered it. He was a preschooler. He's now a perfectly normal 13yo who struggles with some conceptual educational issues, but is far beyond what the doctors told us he would be if we didn't medicate him (and we've never medicated him). I am shocked at how many kids I know of now who have these issues. Most are mild, but some are so extreme they've spent their lives on various meds, and for many, it's so unnecessary. 

The treatments for SID are, typically, non-invasive and non-chemical. Get started with the massage and, if it helps, I'll give you the complete run-down on what we did. As your daughter has extreme allergies, you're probably already doing everything that would need to be done dietarily -- but just to make sure: no food that isn't food! Nothing with additives, preservatives, colorings, etc. No soda, no commercial candy, no commercial snack food, no citrus, and keep her diet filled with as much fresh fruit and veg and complex carbs as possible. Watch the dairy consumption, and if she "spaces out" after consuming dairy, cut it out, too. And keep her hydrated! LOTS and LOTS of fresh water.


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## Marsh (Apr 29, 2003)

Thank you Tracy! 
I am googling it now 


I will research SID and let you know how things look. 
Thank you so much 
Marsh


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## HOTW (Jul 3, 2007)

I'd also recommend a great allergist. I have a firend who has severe alleries like your daughter and they sound alike. She has a hard time concentrating very apt in the arts but canot remeber thigns half the time. She writes everythign down that simportant carries a notepad with her everywhere. She is allergic to dairy, eggs, chemical additives, dyes, you naem it she has it. If your duaghter can get soem relief from her allergies you might see an improvement.


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## Marsh (Apr 29, 2003)

We have seen one of the best in each state we have lived. We have been seeing and allergy and asthma specialist for 7 years now. 
DD takes Zyrtec (allergy pill), nasacort (sinus spray), asmanax (asthma preventative), proair (emergency inhaler), patenol (eyedrops), epi pen (severe allergy) 

She is allergic to weeds, trees, molds, dust mites, mild cat and mild dog. red food dye makes her agressive (kick, punch, bite.So allergist considered this a allergy or intolerance) can tolerate only so much dairy (limit is reached when she congests or gets constipated, allergist said this is an intolerance) natural foods (meats, veg, fruits) seem to test negative, But ate instant chocolate pudding once and had anaphylaxia. She has been allergy tested for just about everything. 
We run air purifiers for her and we try to keep things as allergy free as we can. We also keep her diet as natural as we can and always watch for signs of anything. Also we use meds as needed. Med side effects are something we are very concerened with because yes they help the allergies and asthma (not entirely obviously, just tries to make them livable)but they also do nasty things to you. 

We had her special ed tested because we saw little improvement weather she was taking meds or not. (in 7 years you can pretty much tell if things work or not fairly easy) Health wise yes she is better but other things remain the same or less prevalent but there. 

EX: 2 nights ago she made cornbread. She used water and not milk. She swears up and down she read water where the word milk was. (the word water wasn't anywhere on the page)

lastnight she made banana bread. It took her a longtime to figure it out but she did. She said this one says water not milk. But it took a bit for her to figure out which it said. 

things are right in front of her but he can't see them sometimes. even if you give her specifics directions to object. She sometimes can't figure out what your saying to her. its like she knows but she cant get out she knows.

We feel so helpless and the doctors keep saying she is fine, she looks fine blah blah blah. 

So we are trying anything we can to help her. 
Even the teachers are puzzled and the testers seem a little puzzled about it as well. They see things but can't figure out why.


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## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

Marsh -- have you considered a complete elimination diet to figure out exactly what her sensitivities are? It's difficult to do, hard to keep them on, but so very informative!

As to the instant pudding incident, does she have a corn allergy? If she does, that's your culprit. *MOST* pre-packaged and convenience foods have corn in some form, and corn allergy is much more common than you might think.


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## Marsh (Apr 29, 2003)

A few years we did the elimination diet. YES it is VERY hard and it did tell us ALOT. Took 8 years before we did the diet and we figured out the dairy intolerance. She did well with everything else. She doesn't like seafood so that wasn't an issue.

We also did the food allergy testing before we moved. (less than 2 years ago) Showed no allergy to anything. 

Corn seems to be okay. She eats corn chips (tortillas) corn on the cob and corn bread and no problems. We (doctor included) said its a preservative probably in the instant pudding. She can eat cook and serve pudding. (which we let her do once every 6 months because its dairy and not something good for her) We find popcorn is great for her as far as relieving constipation for her. (no idea why but she eats it and by next day shes good) wheat she is okay with. Seems the more white flour and sugar bothers her. (we don't use white much but she gets it other places. Not everyone has wheat bread and not everyone stays away from white sugar) 

we keep a food log. Yeah I know, pain in the butt writting everything down. But you never know when you will need to refer to it.


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## Marsh (Apr 29, 2003)

We got some test results yesterday. We should get the rest of them today. 

It seems with academic testing she tests Average-High average. Most areas are in the high range. Which is nothing new to us. She was one on one in a quiet environment when given the tests. Also I think it was a room with no carpet with a fan on. (This is what DD said, I have no idea by the results what environment she was in. How "allergen free" it was) The class observation says she is comparable to her peers. Except she doesnt sit up at her desk. She sits very relaxed at her seat and wiggles her legs and plays with her shoes the entire time she learns. She looks around every once in awhile. Then goes back to her work. (the classroom is over half carpeted. So this is NOT an "allergen free" zone for her.) Non of either of these tests so far tells us anything we already didn't know. Pretty much tells us what we expected to see. Although we didn't know she was high average. (bordem? with the work?) 
Recommendations so far are:1. To have DD make sure someone checks her homework is written down daily and she has it before she leaves. 2. Check she understands the directions for work, homework, assignments and tests (Have her repeat the directions back) 3. Encourage her to re-check her work 4. Encourage her to slow down to stop silly mistakes.

Wonder what today will tell us.


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## Marsh (Apr 29, 2003)

We had our meeting today and What do you know! We were right. She tested above average in almost everything. It would seem she shows a vision similarity problem. Which is perceptual reasoning. 

"She exhibited a nonverbal concept formation ability/catagorical thinking that falls in the low average. Non verbal concept formation is the ability to identify similarities between things, except visual items in this case. Her weakness may make it more difficult for her to "generalize" learned visual info from one problem/situation to a new, yet "similar" one. 

This goes right along with what Tracy had said in an earlier post about seeing a different type of eye doctor. Which is out next step. 

I have started some massage with her and it seems to help. She is VERY ticklish so this can be a challenge for us. 
I am doing alot of research on SID and I am thinking where she is above average. Challenging her with her work would also be a place to start. 

The teacher took me aside and whispered, "you were thinking of homeschooling. You might want to act on that" 

Home schooling certainly would allow us to control the enviroment, less meds, more one on one with her to get the directions down. There could be so many pluses for our DD if I did homeschool her. She could work to her fullest potential without the system letting her down. 

All the recommendations including the one from the phycho eval say: 
1. To have DD make sure someone checks her homework is written down daily and she has it before she leaves.
2. Check she understands the directions for work, homework, assignments and tests. Give one direction at a time and make them VERY clear. Break bigger assignments down into parts (Have her repeat the directions back)
3. Encourage her to re-check her work 
4. Encourage her to slow down to stop silly mistakes from happeneing
5. When introducing new visual information, point out the similarities between the new problem and problems that have already been solved to help her identify similarities.
6. Preferential seating to limit distractions
7. Check in frequently with her to ensure she is on task making adequate process. 

Sounds like homeschooling is the way to go. Any input here?


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

Well, I have two kids with LDs Marsh, and we homeschool. It has been a very, very, very good thing for them! I can't really tell you what to do with your daughter, but I can tell you that instead of being behind, my LD kids are ahead in school. The Ed Psych we worked with said that this was "because" we homeschool. 

But I think the best part for them is that at home, we get to focus on their strengths. They don't have to spend all day feeling incapable. We still work on their weaknesses, but we over emphasize what they are good at! So they are very good at math, music, and art. We do *a lot* of those things! The things that they are weak in, we do those, but we spend much less time on them. So the larger part of their day is spent building their confidence. Strangely, that has made them better at the things at which they struggle. 

Good luck with your decision,
Cindyc.


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## Marsh (Apr 29, 2003)

Today the new eye doctor said he saw nothing more than a stigmatism and a bit of nearightedness in one eye. He put her back in single vision lenses and did away with the bi focals and said to recheck her in a year. Her prescription hadn't changed much. 
Didn't shed much light to help us.


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## tatanka (Aug 3, 2004)

My kids are now grown and looking back I can difinitively say we did the right thing by homeschooling them when we did. Our three kids were all very different learners as most kids in the same households are. Each homeschooling household will have a challenge learner just as Marsh seems to. The key is to unlock their world and open ours to them. 

There used to be a LD tape you could watch that actually made you LD. The presentations were presented in such a way you had some insight into the LD learners world. I cannot tell you how many times I watched that tape as a parent and homeschool mother to try to gain some insight into my sons world. 

I am no expert on teaching or raising kids but I do know that lots of trial and error and time on your knees looking upwards will work wonders. My kids would spend the summers picking out the subjects they were most interested in studying the next year for school. I would spend the summers studying those subjects and getting ready for the school year. Homeschooling focuses on kids strengths not on their weaknesses and failures. 

All three kids have graduated from college and all three look back with great memories of their childhood and homeschooling. They had opportunities because they were homeschooled they would not otherwise have gotten. They were allowed to be kids. Any day at home with your kids is awesome.

Marla


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## Cashs Cowgirl (Jan 26, 2006)

If it were me I'd take her out. Ther are too many variables that could be affecting her making it harder to learn. It definitely couldn't be worse at home than it seems to be now at school. Good luck to you!


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