Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Boy, did I get up late! The alarm went off at 5:30, as usual. I thought I’d sleep for another fifteen minutes; I got up at 6:30. The vog was so bad, I couldn’t make out the horizon. The sea and the sky were one.
I had an appointment with M at 9 am. we continued working on her story. Using co-writing, I can teach her all the elements of story writing and reading. It took us the full half-hour to complete the changes. It becomes less difficult to pull information out of her. There are some passages where the details of a situation just flowed out of her. I need feedback from her mother; I want to know if what I am doing has any impact on either of her children, M or H.
I needed a lie down after the session. I have been feeling very tired. II could be from having to breathe in the polluted air from the volcano. Sulfur fumes aren’t great even when they are 100% natural. This pollution is not man-made.
My tiredness could also be because I’m isolated. It could also be because L’Engle’s book, Two-Part Invention, details her husband’s travails after he was diagnosed with cancer and his death. De Je Vu all over again. While I am aware of how her experience reminded me of my own, I don’t think of myself as experiencing grief. However, that would make perfect sense.
Another problem was my hair. I managed to miss not one but two haircut appointments. Randee, my amazing hairdresser, said she would get me in as soon as possible. I told her not to worry; her haircuts are fantastic and looked good forever. Then the other day, I wrote that I felt desperation coming on. Today, I wrote, “I am desperate.” I feel so droopy. Will I feel better if I get all this hair cut off?
I had a session with D. at 11:30. I did a little with the visual perception exercise I have been working with. Today, I made a change; I had him make the shapes I made. I was working on my laptop; he was working on his mother’s iPhone. I figured ‘if he wrote with his index finger, he might be better off than writing with a writing utensil and holding it incorrectly.
I did some reading with him Today. OMG! He started off well, but he moment he came to a word he didn’t know . . . . No, that’s not accurate. There were a few moments where he stopped, considered, and came out with the correct word. However, there were other situations where he misread a word, scrambling letters, and was unbothered by the lack of sense. I must say, the passage was a grammatically complex one. However, when I told him to decode the word, he had no, I do mean no, idea what to do. I have taught him a procedure we covered every time we met, probably several times in the same session. This has gone on for a year now. He had no recall of the procedure I taught None! I knew he had a problem remembering his math facts, but this was a procedure he couldn’t recall. That’s a different part of the brain. I have no idea how to help this child.
I immediately wrote to his mother and his classroom teacher, encouraging them both to get Daniel evaluated. I wonder if this will do any good. The problem isn’t what he doesn’t know; it is that he had no memory. It isn’t that he doesn’t know all his multiplication facts; it’s that he can’t remember them no matter how many times you go over them. That, of course, is not quite accurate. His automatic recall is expanding. What’s missing is some conscious way to recall his ability to consciously retrieve information out of long-term memory.
As I wrote this, I had an idea. What if I explain how the mind works, how it recalls information; will that help? It has helped others. It is a long shot, but I don’t see that there is anything to lose.
I got a text from J. yesterday. I had told him that we wouldn’t meet again until next Monday. He texted to see if we had an appointment Today. He’s the most diligent, or is it a compulsive student I have ever seen? I told him again that I think he needed a break. I came to that conclusion after our Monday session. The work wasn’t that hard, but I felt like I was carrying a load of rocks up a steep hill. I concluded it was because he had had it.
We have been working three hours a week. If I could only give half an hour one day, he pushed for make-up time. I’ve never seen anything like it. He is prepared to work hard, very hard. I told him that a good student works hard and knows when to back off. Backing off, relaxing, giving time to absorb new learning is an integral part of the learning process.
I told him I thought he had made progress with reading comprehension. We had to work on his auditory processing to more easily understand what people had to say. No, his problem is not just because his parents don’t speak English. He has as much problem in Spanish as he does in English. His younger sister speaks both English and Spanish better than he does.
I told him if he wanted to work for the pleasure of it to let me know. Otherwise, I thought a break was a good idea. He finally said he wanted a break with a sigh.
I went back down for another nap. I was exhausted, and I had a good night’s sleep the night before.
Judy called as I was waking up. She apologized for not calling over the last few days. Right before she called, I became aware that I hadn’t heard from her. I assumed that she was busy with her own life, and I was slipping into the background. Oh, well. She assured me that was not the case. She didn’t call because she was dealing with a medical issue that was potentially serious and didn’t want to tell anyone and ruin Christmas. It was a shock. It could be bad—prayers from one and all for Judy.
After the call, I got out in the yard and did some work. I want to tend to the lower forty area next to my neighbor’s fence. It can become overgrown easily. I keep putting it off. It’s a huge job.
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