Friday, July 16, 2021

 Friday, July 16, 2021

 

It was K's crew at 8:30 am. I had K first. I had him write his first and last names. I waited and waited. I finally realized he was just sitting there. He had forgotten my instructions. Then he wrote just his first name. He was still struggling with forming the lowercase s, so it looked as good as the other letters. I told him to write his last name too. It's only four letters, but he still finished it faster than he has done in the past. I've been concerned about how slowly he writes. At some point, this had to be sped up. Because I couldn't observe what he was doing, I couldn't correct his body mechanics. Hmm. Maybe I could have mom videotape him writing so I could observe him. But then, how would I correct him over Zoom?   

His concentration was good. I told him to write, 'The fox jumps over the dog.' I modeled it and then removed the model from screen share. He wrote fox on his own, commenting on how he formed the f. When it came to jumps, he said he didn't know how to write the j. It took a minute to figure out what that meant. He didn't know how to spell it. I led him through sounding out to discover the spelling. I didn't have time to check what he did. I was in a hurry today.

Next, I had Twin E. We always had to review the direction of the print. I numbered the letters, so there was a one above the a and a two above the t in at. I introduced a second word-family the other day, -ap. Now she had to identify both word families correctly. I worked with cat and cap. The big thing is getting her to use the cross-body blending and holding the sounds as she does.  

Lastly, I had Twin A. I reviewed some of the letters she is still having trouble remembering. She could correctly name i, c, and r but was still having problems with n. However, she had a good strategy. She said the letters in her name. Yes, there is an n in it. It would be good if she could remember it without this trick, but the trick is a strategy she developed. It's worth its weight in gold.

I tried Dorothy again. When I called her the first time, she was racing to catch a train. She was heading for Connecticut. When I tried her the second time, her train was arriving in Greenwich. Her daughter, Karin, was picking her up. The memorial service for Karin's mother-in-law was scheduled for Sunday. The temple had strict rules that everyone had to be vaccinated and had had no contact with anyone who might be sick ten days before. No children could come because they are all unvaccinated. That means 2-year-old Sam wouldn't be able to go My best guess is Dorothy will stay home with him. Everyone else was closer to Nancy than she was. Sam was familiar with Dorothy. That part will be fine. However, he knew his Nan was no longer available and was distressed.  

At 10:30, I had sixth grade D. He said he saw some improvement. I had him read the sight word sentences, designed to practice those words students often confuse. Out of the seven words in the first sentence, he missed three. Ow! Something wasn't working. I checked his auditory processing center.

I had already worked with D's visual working center, but not his auditory one. He repeatedly told me that no disturbing movement was interfering with his visual processing. Now, that was the question with his auditory processing.  

He processed sounds way further back in the brain than the auditory processing center I have seen work. He tried to use the point by the temple toward the center of the brain. He couldn't hold the sound there. I had no clear instructions on how to proceed. Those 'instructions' have something to do with my intuition. I am careful not just to follow a prescribed procedure but wait until I think of something that feels right. I will sit in silence and pray until I get a sense of what to do. 

I asked him the color of his currently preferred region toward the back of the brain. Blue. A pretty blue or an ugly one. Ugly. Then I asked him the color of the auditory processing center toward the front of the brain. He said orange. Pretty or ugly? Pretty. Okay. Where to from here? I asked him which he preferred. Definitely the blue area. We established that he felt cozy there, comfortable. The orange center felt like nothing. I led him through a release on the blue area," "Release anything negative about your love of this blue area and keep anything positive or anything you still need." He did that. It didn't do much.

When he tried to use the orange section, his focus slid back to the blue section—looking from the top of the head, the slide formed in a C shape. No, it did not continue spinning; the arch stopped dead at the blue patch. 

I finally thought to ask if there was disturbed movement inside the blue patch. Yes. It moves in a zigzag pattern confusing the sounds and substituting one word for another. I often do a spin release at this point, but it didn't feel right. It came out that D could compress the zigzag pattern as you could a slinky. He said it made it feel organized. 

I don't know how we got to the next step, but he said he didn't like confusion. I talked about the difference between confusion and anticipation. They both involve a state of unknowing or not-knowing. Confusion is a negative response to not knowing, and anticipation is a positive one. I drew a SUDS line from 1 to 10. I showed him that people responded differently. One person will experience a small amount of confusion and a great amount of anticipation. For others, it is the opposite. An extreme in either direction isn't good. I'm with Franklin: moderation in all things. We also respond differently in different situations. Mike responded with confusion in his private life but responded with anticipation in an academic context. He loved to learn something new. He hated to be in an unstructured social setting. I believe we are best in those contexts where we have a higher tolerance to confusion and not knowing.  

While I 'know' a procedure I could have used with adolescent D to reduce that confusion, the disturbing movement. It didn't feel right to use it yet. I had him read a few of the sight word sentences. He read them all accurately, but I could feel he was exercising control. I asked him if he had seen his parents drive on a rocky road. Did he remember how they had an iron grip on the steering wheel? He said yes. I told him it felt that was how he was now, holding on to dear life to control his brain. He agreed. It was time to end the session. I wouldn't see D again until Monday. I looked forward to seeing what he did over the weekend. Once I tell them that brain organization can be changed, they often do something on their own. Do they do this consciously? I doubt it, but something often happens anyway.

I briefly participated in a Step-Up Tutoring event, Annenberg PetSpace. I had no idea what it was, but Julia said they were anxious for participants. Knowing how I feel when no one signs up for my office hours, I agree to join. I had no idea what it was. I'm still not sure. It was a medical facility for cats and dogs. Someone took us on a tour, interspersed with videos about their service. I learned it was a high-end pet adoption center. I don't know if a volunteer tutor works there or volunteered to give this tour to advertise their service. I thought it was chaotic, and the videographer wasn't trained. It was not a professional job. I blocked a video image of myself and left to do something else. However, some children on the zoom asked questions and found the presentation interesting.

At 1:45, I had an appointment with my primary physician at Kaiser. I showered and drove down there. When I checked in, I was told I didn't have an in-person appointment but a video one. How the hell did that happen? I didn't even know it was an option. I tried to do it on my phone but couldn't - very frustrating. I wanted the doctor to see a spot on my leg. The receptionist was banging away on her computer keys the whole time. She finally said they would see me upstairs in person now. I ran up there. 

It was so lovely to see my doctor. She is so warm and friendly and appreciative of me as a patient. She laughed and said she expected my blood pressure to be through the roof because of my frustration. It wasn't. It was 139/77 on the first trial. I knew I had to go quickly. I showed her the growth on the outside of my left thigh. She said it was benign, and there was no way to get rid of it. I told her about my problems because of a tipped something or another in my abdomen. She made an appointment for me with GYN. I asked her to write another script for physical therapy for my spinal curvature. Done! And then I showed her my foot. I told her what the chiropractor diagnosed, Morton's neuroma. It looked like that to her. I told her I was icing it and applying magnesium oil to the leg and foot at night, besides having a magnesium drink and massaging my foot with a golf ball. She ordered an X-ray and gave me some exercises.  

I was home for my 3:30 with J. He didn't respond. I called him. He was canceling again. He said he had to do some cleaning. He has canceled several classes. It was all after that one class where he was working on material that was hard for him. He had successfully completed all the exercises in the Barnell Loft, Getting the Main Idea series through the end of grade six. There is a huge jump in difficulty between grades six and seven. He would be starting grade seven in a few weeks. He didn't know how to deal with complex language.  

I signed up for Masterpiece theater. Their shows look like something I would like. However, when I tried to open one of the advertised shows, it asked me if I lived in Hawaii. Yes. Then I had to pay an additional $50 -$60. Huh? I don't think so. It would have been one thing if I had been told before I ordered the subscription, but afterward? It does look like I have access to some shows without this extravagant surcharge. I turn to Halifax: Retribution on Amazon Prime. I usually avoid serial killers and psychopaths, but I watched the first episode and enjoyed it.