Tuesday, April 6, 2021

 Tuesday, April 6, 2021

            

            When I posted the update to the blog, I found I was working on the same variation of my walk now as I had a year ago: I was pushing out my left hip. I remembered a massage therapist telling me that the way to solve a physical problem was to do the exact opposite of what I used to do. The acupuncturist thinks it has to do with my hip. Indeed, it’s the placement of my hips; the question is, how much does it have to do with my lost cartilage in my one hip?

            I’m in a bad state. I have to deal with several people in my family who don’t really like me. They don’t enjoy me. Then don’t look at me and smile, glad that I’m around. I hear/feel them groan. I can’t afford these folks anymore. When I dealt with them in the past, I could come home to Mike and have my core value as a decent human reaffirmed. He would smile at me in delight. He would hug and kiss me. Being around people that hang on by a thread only because they are family is unbearable. I have to cut off from them for the time being. I feel lonely in their company. Sad, but I have to find my own. 

            I worked on the blog and updates. I had a new student today, K. He is completing second grade now. His mom sent me his report grade. He gets good marks for his word recognition skills but not his comprehension. I started with first-grade material, Using Context Clues. I was disappointed to hear how he read. His mom was sitting by his side. She said he fidgets the whole time. They have a bouncy ball for him at school, but she doesn’t one that at home. His mom said his reading was much better than what he was doing for me. He didn’t want to focus; he just wanted to get back to his video games. Mom said if he didn’t focus, he wouldn’t be going back even after the session. An immediate improvement! Okay. I usually ask parents not to interfere. In this case, I’m going to need the mom. His comprehension was pretty good. It seems his biggest problem is his attention. That’s what we’re going to have to work on that– with some reading practice thrown in. Mom said he does poorly on his work because he doesn’t bother reading the material to start. He just wants to get it over.

            I had an appointment with J. Today he worked on reading comprehension on a drama assignment. He read several plays and answered comprehension questions. I asked J if he was in a program that promoted him as he improved or if the teacher assigned the piece. He said the teacher assigned it. He didn’t know if the whole class got the same assignment. I didn’t see any numbers or letters on the text. I still don’t know his reading level. He’s doing well with the work he does. He said he is getting most answers correct when I’m not there. 

            I asked J again if he had listened to the audio file. He said no. I believe it will help him. Well, at least it won’t do him harm. I asked him to determine how much he liked the audio file on a scale from 1 to 10. The ten was his mom’s tamales. He said a four. Instead of playing the audio file, I dictated the transcription from the text of a book I was reading. I slowed it down; he said that was better. Ah! A clear sign of an auditory problem. First, I wrote the letters as well. I discovered he was falling asleep. I told him that was fine. I read like that for a good fifteen minutes. I have to do this more often with him.

            I had A immediately after J. I asked him how he was doing with automatic processing. He said fine, but then he decoded every word. I don’t think he had a clue. However, he’s moving through the comprehension exercises rather nicely.       At the end of the session, he read the Carpenter story A #7 for the first time. He hit some glitches, but he did rather well. 

            I finished Made you Look and started another video that Damon recommended, The Creative Brain. Very interesting. They emphasize how the creative mind is good at combining disparate things. Chabon talked about not trying to write an original novel but one using the past. He said what I believe; you can’t help but write an original. You will put your imprint on something no matter how close you try to copy. Individuality is inevitable; skill at your craft is not.