I was bright-eyed and perky at 4 am. I stayed in bed for another half an hour and then started the day. As I headed out the door, the phone rang. It was Dorothy who had no reason to believe I would be up that early. She butt-dialed me but wanted to let me know that she had an appointment and wouldn't be able to share the morning walk with me.
I was tired by mid-morning and lay down for a nap. I love this feature of being retired, or is it just that I can play with my schedule. It means I can catch some sleep whenever I feel the need. And I do love my naps.
The phone rang while I was lying down and announced, "Unknown caller." I was expecting calls from two different sources. It would mean playing telephone tag, but I was too tired to get up. Indeed, the call was from one of the folks I had reached out to. Fortunately, she left a personal cell number, not the business number I had reached originally.
Michele is from the Easter seals society providing services for the autistic. M's parents asked me to work with her seven-year-old brother. They finally told me he is autistic. They do not want him to be in a contained classroom situation, where he only has contact with other children with autism. They want him mainstreamed. H. has some behavioral issues. The mother said, 'executive function,' which means he doesn't behave the way people think he should. The dad said he would walk away from people in the middle of a conversation. Well, that makes sense. The autistic have problems with overstimulation. They walk away when they feel overwhelmed. Ordinary social situations often make them feel that way.
The parents said nothing about providing him with other services than what the school offered. I checked out services for the autistic on Oahu, where they live, and found this group. H's family is Pakistani. Immigrant families tend to be more reluctant to get services for their children than American families. I know this is true for the Somali families I worked with in Ohio. That made sense when I learned about how mental problems were dealt with there. Diversity was not readily accepted. Schizophrenics were tied to trees, not as punishment, but just as a form of control, much as you tie a dog to a stake in your yard, so it doesn't run away. There weren't many options available.
I have a distant relative who has autism. His parents got him services by the time he was three or four. He graduated from Yale, has a full-time job, and got married recently. While he is very bright, his conversational skills were lacking the last time I saw him. No, he is not normal. But I hate to think of what he would have been like if he hadn't received the services he had. H.'s parents, while they are aware of his social and behavioral problems, expect me to fix his intellectual and academic ones.
He has some problems with verbal expression, but from the one session I had with him, I judged him to be of average intelligence. He didn't do well on the school's testing because he was uncooperative.
Michele told me that they were only offering remote services at this time, basically coaching parents on how to train their children. As to the price, they only accept insurance. The father is in the military. Michele said one of the insurance plans does cover their service.
I can imagine the parents asking why the school never mentioned this program if it was so good. Answer: anything the school recommends, they have to pay for. There probably is a co-pay that the parents have to cover. Now, the question is how to broach the subject with them. I'm thinking of writing an email. That way, I can make sure that both parents get the information. Michele told me that I had to make sure to speak to the dad. In Pakistani families, it is the dad's will that is done.
Dorothy and I got some time to edit my article on my reading method. Talking with her helps me clarify my own thoughts. I get new insights with each session. We only had three pages left to go. We got through a page and a half before her computer screen started acting up. It created an unstable image; the page became large and then small. We took it as a sign to just stop for the day.
I had my second appointment with J. today from the LA Step-Up Tutoring Program. I was full of ideas and quite excited. I was going to introduce him to the Quiet Queen audio file. I could help him download it from bandcamp.com. His instructions were to listen to it while he fell asleep at night. I also wanted his nine-year-old sister in the room as I worked with him. Given his problems mainly were with language, I figured she must have the same problem. Either way, she would benefit from observing the work I did with him. In the past, I had seen her dart in and out of the screen. I knew she was interested. She settled down in a bed on the other side of the room where I could see her but didn't directly participate in the lesson.
In our first session, we had worked at a T-reading level. That is at the beginning of 5th grade, while J. is in sixth. I suggested we bring it down a level or two. At the level we were working, it wouldn't make much difference for J., and it would be easier for his sister, who is in fourth grade.
We settle on a level R, which is beginning fourth grade. He picked an article on Blue Whales. The way I work, each sentence is thoroughly chewed. I started asking questions about a single sentence. First, I want the student to answer the question using the exact words in the sentence based on their knowledge of its grammatical structure alone. In other words, they may not know all the vocabulary or what the sentence means. That comes next. Then I make sure that every word is defined and every concept underlying the words is understood. As I said before, I chew the language.
One sentence read: "Even though blue whales are mammoth, the ocean is vast and wide." It followed a statement about scientists being out on the ocean looking for them. He knew what mammoth meant but not vast. I asked him to give me a 'logical' definition for the word. He said, "Dark." Well, since I knew what vast meant, I reacted negatively at first. I struggled to understand my student's point of view. Why would he say 'dark?" I managed to get what he was thinking before I said anything, which put down his choice. I then realized that his thinking was excellent, maybe better than the authors. After all, vast and wide mean the same thing. He must have figured it couldn't mean large because wide already expressed that concept. Of course, he was right. It is hard to find something swimming under the ocean's surface because it is dark down there. I told him that his definition was excellent. It wasn't the correct one, but it didn't do anything to disturb his understanding of the text. I asked him if he wanted to know the real meaning. My emphasis is on comprehension, not accuracy. That will come with enough reading. He will come across the word vast again, realize that dark doesn't make sense, and modify his definition.
Then I wanted to cover why the ocean's vastness made it hard to find whales even though they are huge. Now, I had a devil of a time getting that concept through. I had him picture a bathtub filled with water dyed a dark color with a single soccer ball in it. Would it be easy to find? Would a single soccer ball be easier to find if there were four in there? He couldn't get the concept. We were working with mathematical concepts of ratio and probability.
I switched to a different image when he said it wasn't clear to him. I switch to an aquarium tank just large enough for one whale. Would it be easy to find that whale in that tank? Yes. Would it be easier to find the whale in that tank or the ocean? He said he got it then. I found myself concerned that he didn't get the soccer ball image.
After an hour of tutoring, I needed another nap. I don't know if I'm actually tired, or it's just that my eyes feel heavy. I don't wake up in the morning feeling that way. It's almost like a sinus condition, but when I press on the acupuncture points, they aren't sore, suggesting that my sinuses are just fine.
It started pouring again in the afternoon. This has been day after day of prolonged rain. We never have that at this altitude. Well, not never, just infrequently. It's a drag. I had to complete my 10,000 steps by walking in the house. Fortunately, much of the house has a tiled floor, so I don't have to worry about wearing it out.
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