Raffety's Testimony
We started home schooling Jonathan in 1992 when he was 4, almost 5 years old. We did the first year just for fun to "see if I could handle it"! Jonathan learned quickly. I used a combination of sight word flash cards and the book Alphaphonics. He was reading words in just a few months.
By the next year (1993), when the "real" schooling began, he had learned quite a few things and I was full of confidence that we'd sail through schooling without any problems. Occasionally during that school year he would say "I don't remember" when asked something that he had known countless times before. This puzzled me and I began to see it as a resistance issue. 'He'd rather goof around than move forward with the schooling,' I thought. We continued to make progress despite Jonathan's occasional comments about not remembering. By the following year (1994), he was also occasionally saying, "I can't read". This really had me puzzled but we continued anyway and made some progress.
By the 4th year (1995) we were spending 3 or 4 days per lesson just to help him remember. By this time we accepted the fact that Jonathan definitely had some sort of learning difficulty. As we began to approach professionals about testing and getting some answers, we were consistently told, "There's nothing wrong with your child." and one of the following: "He needs to be more disciplined." or "He will grow out of it." or "Boys are just slower than girls; give him some time." or "You're just an overprotective mother. You're smothering that child and you need to give him some space to be himself." or "You are too strict with him; your disciplinary practices are ruining that child!" Each time we knew another door had been firmly closed, for one reason or another. We kept petitioning God for guidance and continued to (try to!) trust His leadings, timing, and provisions.
We read Carl Delacato's book "A New Start for the Child with Reading Problems" and followed his guidelines for testing and remediation. Carl's tests indicated a definite mixed dominance for Jonathan and we worked toward correcting that. We saw some improvement but not enough to turn him around the way we felt he needed.
We heard about The Block Center (located in Texas) and tried their program for about 1 year. This program utilized a lot of Carl's methods in a more finely tuned manner. This program helped minimize Jonathan's increasingly deteriorating problems, but didn't get him turned around either. At the same time, we were using a vision therapy program our ophthalmologist/optometrist had devised for him. As with the Block Center, this helped minimize his problems but wasn't turning him around.
Eventually, Jonathan remembered little to nothing, regardless of how many times I reviewed the material with him. His recall was so very short! About this same time, behavioral quirks began getting very noticeable and difficult to deal with/manage. He was sleeping with a quilt and several blankets in summertime (70 degrees average nighttime temperatures) yet he'd wear shorts in wintertime. He didn't handle change well and loud noises paralyzed him. He was easily terrified but also oblivious to real dangers. He couldn't carry his end of a conversation and was very socially immature.
Finally, all I could do for school time was basic math (adding up to 10, learning it "new" everyday), daily phonics (lessons 1 to 15 over and over and over again), books on cassette (after 10 days or so, he'd forget them as well and it would be a "new story") and science or history videos (of which he would remember the very trivial parts).
Jonathan's yearly school test results showed 1st and 2nd grade proficiency. We had been working at this level for 8 years and I was frustrated beyond description.
By May 2000, Jonathan seemed to be in a meltdown mode all the time. Both of us were just trying to cope with Jonathan (i.e. entertain and keep busy).
Sometime in June 2000, I visited the VegSource HS board for used curriculum. I noticed they had a Special Needs board so I started reading some of those posts. Most of the questions, comments and solutions seemed to be about reading problems or math trouble but nothing like I felt we were dealing with. There were several posts by a Thom Simmons talking about something I'd not read about before (ND therapy, digit spans, etc.) and dominance/sidedness that I was familiar with from Carl Delacato's book. I bluntly asked him if there was anything to this ND "stuff" he kept talking about or was it "just another bunny trail" and gave him a quick, encapsulated, distilled history and "snapshot" of Jonathan's present situation. He referred me to Linda Kane. (At the time, I didn't realize Thom was also an ND.)
July 2000, Linda's responses to our situation were "There is much that can be done" and "Sure, I'd love to see you and evaluate Jonathan."
August 2000 we drove to Utah to see Linda (we didn't want to wait until late September when she would be in the Kansas City area again; we needed help ASAP) for an evaluation. The main things Linda noted about Jonathan were: mixed dominance, eyesight totally off (hyper peripheral with no macular), hearing way off and tactility way off (both hypo and hyper). We started his therapy program mid-August after we'd returned home and things had settled down (a relative term when considering how Jonathan was!).
After 3 weeks of therapy, we were both seeing results in areas of control, attitude, and overall temperament.
After 6 weeks, he was reading smoothly in easy readers (near a 2nd grade level). He was still saying that he couldn't read, however.
After 10 weeks, he was saying "I CAN READ!" and it was a revelation for him! Praise God, we were making some incredible progress!
After 3 months, he was making eye contact.
After 6 months, his handwriting was improving nicely and he had better control of himself; less outbursts of frustration and/or anger. We also caught him reading books in bed with his flashlight. (We disciplined that accordingly, but we were thrilled!!!! He was certainly hooked on reading now.)
After 8 months, his yearly schooling tests showed mid 3rd grade to beginning 5th grade proficiency. (YIPPEE! We were moving in the right direction!)
After 9 months, he was reading fluently.
After 12 months, he was reading adult level books. He read "In the Footsteps of Jesus" by Bruce Marchiano one chapter/day. He also started "getting" jokes and making some himself.
The progress continues steadily and solidly. We continue to look forward to more improvements plus a better outlook and brighter future for Jonathan.
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By the next year (1993), when the "real" schooling began, he had learned quite a few things and I was full of confidence that we'd sail through schooling without any problems. Occasionally during that school year he would say "I don't remember" when asked something that he had known countless times before. This puzzled me and I began to see it as a resistance issue. 'He'd rather goof around than move forward with the schooling,' I thought. We continued to make progress despite Jonathan's occasional comments about not remembering. By the following year (1994), he was also occasionally saying, "I can't read". This really had me puzzled but we continued anyway and made some progress.
By the 4th year (1995) we were spending 3 or 4 days per lesson just to help him remember. By this time we accepted the fact that Jonathan definitely had some sort of learning difficulty. As we began to approach professionals about testing and getting some answers, we were consistently told, "There's nothing wrong with your child." and one of the following: "He needs to be more disciplined." or "He will grow out of it." or "Boys are just slower than girls; give him some time." or "You're just an overprotective mother. You're smothering that child and you need to give him some space to be himself." or "You are too strict with him; your disciplinary practices are ruining that child!" Each time we knew another door had been firmly closed, for one reason or another. We kept petitioning God for guidance and continued to (try to!) trust His leadings, timing, and provisions.
We read Carl Delacato's book "A New Start for the Child with Reading Problems" and followed his guidelines for testing and remediation. Carl's tests indicated a definite mixed dominance for Jonathan and we worked toward correcting that. We saw some improvement but not enough to turn him around the way we felt he needed.
We heard about The Block Center (located in Texas) and tried their program for about 1 year. This program utilized a lot of Carl's methods in a more finely tuned manner. This program helped minimize Jonathan's increasingly deteriorating problems, but didn't get him turned around either. At the same time, we were using a vision therapy program our ophthalmologist/optometrist had devised for him. As with the Block Center, this helped minimize his problems but wasn't turning him around.
Eventually, Jonathan remembered little to nothing, regardless of how many times I reviewed the material with him. His recall was so very short! About this same time, behavioral quirks began getting very noticeable and difficult to deal with/manage. He was sleeping with a quilt and several blankets in summertime (70 degrees average nighttime temperatures) yet he'd wear shorts in wintertime. He didn't handle change well and loud noises paralyzed him. He was easily terrified but also oblivious to real dangers. He couldn't carry his end of a conversation and was very socially immature.
Finally, all I could do for school time was basic math (adding up to 10, learning it "new" everyday), daily phonics (lessons 1 to 15 over and over and over again), books on cassette (after 10 days or so, he'd forget them as well and it would be a "new story") and science or history videos (of which he would remember the very trivial parts).
Jonathan's yearly school test results showed 1st and 2nd grade proficiency. We had been working at this level for 8 years and I was frustrated beyond description.
By May 2000, Jonathan seemed to be in a meltdown mode all the time. Both of us were just trying to cope with Jonathan (i.e. entertain and keep busy).
Sometime in June 2000, I visited the VegSource HS board for used curriculum. I noticed they had a Special Needs board so I started reading some of those posts. Most of the questions, comments and solutions seemed to be about reading problems or math trouble but nothing like I felt we were dealing with. There were several posts by a Thom Simmons talking about something I'd not read about before (ND therapy, digit spans, etc.) and dominance/sidedness that I was familiar with from Carl Delacato's book. I bluntly asked him if there was anything to this ND "stuff" he kept talking about or was it "just another bunny trail" and gave him a quick, encapsulated, distilled history and "snapshot" of Jonathan's present situation. He referred me to Linda Kane. (At the time, I didn't realize Thom was also an ND.)
July 2000, Linda's responses to our situation were "There is much that can be done" and "Sure, I'd love to see you and evaluate Jonathan."
August 2000 we drove to Utah to see Linda (we didn't want to wait until late September when she would be in the Kansas City area again; we needed help ASAP) for an evaluation. The main things Linda noted about Jonathan were: mixed dominance, eyesight totally off (hyper peripheral with no macular), hearing way off and tactility way off (both hypo and hyper). We started his therapy program mid-August after we'd returned home and things had settled down (a relative term when considering how Jonathan was!).
After 3 weeks of therapy, we were both seeing results in areas of control, attitude, and overall temperament.
After 6 weeks, he was reading smoothly in easy readers (near a 2nd grade level). He was still saying that he couldn't read, however.
After 10 weeks, he was saying "I CAN READ!" and it was a revelation for him! Praise God, we were making some incredible progress!
After 3 months, he was making eye contact.
After 6 months, his handwriting was improving nicely and he had better control of himself; less outbursts of frustration and/or anger. We also caught him reading books in bed with his flashlight. (We disciplined that accordingly, but we were thrilled!!!! He was certainly hooked on reading now.)
After 8 months, his yearly schooling tests showed mid 3rd grade to beginning 5th grade proficiency. (YIPPEE! We were moving in the right direction!)
After 9 months, he was reading fluently.
After 12 months, he was reading adult level books. He read "In the Footsteps of Jesus" by Bruce Marchiano one chapter/day. He also started "getting" jokes and making some himself.
The progress continues steadily and solidly. We continue to look forward to more improvements plus a better outlook and brighter future for Jonathan.
Back to Testimonies
