I found my old dorsal brace. The doctor had told me to wear one to help with my plantar fasciitis. When I got up in the morning, it was easier to walk in a balanced way. Having the brace on my right foot made my right leg longer. Ah, if I want to balance my hips, it makes sense to make my right leg longer and force my left leg to reach for the ground. To do that, I had to bring my right hip back further and my left hip forward. I switched the heel insert from my left shoe to my right.
The insert had been in my left shoe because the PT and everyone else believed my left leg was shorter than my right. My left leg may or may not be shorter than my right. What I do know is my hips and back are twisted. Until I fix those two problems, there is no way I can know what is going on with my left leg.
I had an appointment with D. this morning. We have been working on comprehension for quite a while. Sometimes, he initiates reading several pages out loud. However, he continues to make the same mistakes. I don’t know how to help him.
I started back to the beginning. I had D. read the sentences slowly. He confuses reading quickly with reading well. He confuses quantity with quality; he races through the words.
We haven’t made it through chapter one yet. Every word is work with this child. Fortunately, his mother sees that he is improving. She doesn’t understand the process, but she does see the effect.
When he made an error in a sentence, I transcribed the whole sentence phonemically. I did the writing. Then I had him read the transcribed sentence. He made the same error. I pointed out his mistake and had him reread the sentence. He read it correctly.
He spoke about having to do everything right. I told him that wasn’t the objective. The objective is to develop strategies, so everything can get better. I’ve had variations of this talk before. Hopefully, some of it will get through.
At four, I had a Zoom appointment with Et. and his parents. This session was more with the dad than with Et. Unlike our first appointment, I couldn’t engage the child. I asked dad if he had tried any of my suggestions. Yes, he had tried stepping up when he saw the confusion on an adult face when his son spoke to them, announcing he was the boy’s translator. He said it made his son feel better. I asked him if it made him feel better. He said yes. I told him that was just as important. Children are very keyed to their parents. If a parent shows stress, the children become stressed.
The dad told me that the boy has been listening to the audio file with phonemic awareness. He said he listens, sometimes makes the sounds along with the tape, and then asks to have it played again when it’s over. Wow! Okay.
I had noticed that the boy had problems enunciating the phonemes pronounced in the back of the mouth. Dad said those used to be his go-to sounds. Huh?
I suggested that he touch places on his son’s tongue and some other part of the mouth and challenge his son to get those two points together. This is to develop body awareness of his mouth, not to pronounce any particular speech sound.
I talked about how this exercise will relate to producing speech sounds. I talked about how different sounds are formed. Dad had the necessary background to get this easily. He had speech problems as a child and had therapy. The mouth formation was discussed then. I was providing a refresher course.
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