Sunday, April 9, 2023

 Sunday, April 9, 2023

  I had to be up and out early this morning because I had church at nine am, and I would squeeze in a very short session with first-grade Steven before I got ready for Mass.

      Elsa and I were on our way by six thirty. We made it all the way up to the intersection on Kukuna. I ran into Gordana for the second time this week. She and her husband bought a house here with plans to retire. They were nowhere near that yet. In the meantime, they come for occasional visits from their home in California. I ran into her right in front of her house today. She lives in the three-acre lot development on Kukuna. She's very attentive to Elsa. She misses her dogs when she travels.

   I called Melissa this morning to share my bright idea. First-grade Steven's lack of phonemic awareness was evident. He may learn it quickly with some explicit instruction. We'll see. He's a very bright child, but that doesn't mean he can learn everything independently. Steven was born three months early. He spent those three months in the NICU. I realized it was three months with limited language stimulation and a lot of white noise from various lifesaving machines.

  Babies are exposed to language in utero. They know that exposure has an impact because they can test babies' responses to language within hours after birth. When babies hear something they find interesting, they suck more. They suck more when they hear their mother's voice than someone else's. However, they also suck more when they hear someone uttering the vowels of an unfamiliar language versus their mother tongue. Is Steven's problem discerning phonemes because he didn't hear speech enough in those last three months of his development? 

  Melissa is an OBGYN. While she is retired, she spends at least six months a year in the Australian outback delivering babies. I shared my bright idea with her. The mothers of preemies should record their voices, reading stories and conversations. Those recordings should be played for those babies several hours a day to make up for all the language input they would be missing.

  I had another brief session with Seven today, which was under five minutes. He was all over the place, turning the tablet upside down, but he continued to participate orally. That's all I was after for now. He already did better than he had done yesterday. He imitated me when I pronounced each phoneme separately. It was very encouraging.

  Getting into the church parking lot was a challenge. Cars were backed up. I expected to be sent to the grassy area directly because the lot was already filled. I was directed to the lot at the back of the property. Unbelievably, there was one space left when I arrived. I was in my seat well before the Mass started. Today was the first day the parish center was open. It was filled with folding chairs. Despite the official seating area, I chose to sit where I always have, under the overhang right next to the church glass doors. People kept coming and coming during the Mass. By the middle of it, the parish center seats were almost filled. It was an impressive attendance.

   Judy called before I left for Mass this morning to ask if I was going to the nine. She had Easter lilies she wanted to put on Mike's grave. I tried to track her down after the Mass. When I went inside the church, she was in the front with a group of people. She led the RCIA program for the adults who received their confirmations today. She was taking pictures with them. I ran off to the bathroom. She was still with them when I came back. She said she was getting some coffee from the hospitality committee. I stayed inside the church, talking to Sandor. Then I went out to look for Judy. No Judy. I called her. "Where are you?" She was at the gravesite waiting for me. More than a little confusion. I rushed out to her side. She was coming back to get water for the already parched plant. She was in a hurry. She returned to the gravesite with me because I promised to get the water. I poured water from my water flask which just ran through the container. I doubt it did much good.

  My next stop was Costco. The gate was closed.; the store was closed for Easter. I was going to have to come some other time. When I got home, I had a lovely nap.

  At 4 pm, I had an appointment with 2nd grade M. Her teacher sees her as having difficulty. I have seen her progress at a good clip, which may be beyond the second-grade level. Today, I got a glimpse of what the teacher must be seeing. She was back where she was when I first met her.

  I saw M at 4 p.m. We worked on the math work the teacher gave me and a brief reading passage. She was a little off in the math work, more insecure and defensive than I've seen her lately. When I asked her what the reading passage was about, she gave me a partial answer. She had the rest of the information. She quickly answered my follow-up questions. Then, I asked her a question that required her to use analogous thinking. She responded as I hadn't seen her in a long while. She didn't answer the questions I asked. She didn't answer me when I asked if she had some background information that would help her understand the passage. She had to say yes or no. She said nothing. She didn't understand what I had asked. She went into freeze mode. She hadn't done that with me for a long time. These days, our sessions usually involve lively back-and-forth sessions. She's confident, takes risks, and does well with making mistakes. The girl I saw today was more like the girl I first started working with. The changes have been substantial and have shown up in all aspects of her life. Is this what her teacher sees?

        M's word recognition and reading fluency are reasonably good, if slow, as she figures out words. We are reading passages considered to be on a third-grade level. She uses decoding skills appropriately. She sometimes skips words. That's a problem, especially if she deletes half a sentence. She sometimes misreads words but has the right meaning, mistakes all good readers make, too.

  She understood the passage we worked on today. When I asked her what it was about, she answered correctly but didn't give enough information. When I asked follow-up questions. she answered them correctly.  

  She demonstrated a problem with analogous thinking. I don't know if that's expected from a second-grader. The passage was about buses marked with images of animals and cartoon characters to identify them for young children. I asked her how buses are marked for older children. She spoke about a key card. She had the right idea; this was how she saw children ensure they were on the right bus at school. But she didn't address the question. I did get the information out of her when I drew a bus and a space for the image of an animal. She then knew there would be a number there for the older children.

    She responded with silence when I asked her direct yes/no questions to get an idea of what she knew or didn't know. When I asked her if she understood my question, she said no. This is how she was when I first started working with her. She got up and walked away from the screen when I talked about something she didn't know. M goes into freeze mode when scared. She goes brain-dead. She can't hear what I'm saying.

  I have seen remarkable changes in her. She follows what I say, asks questions, and even challenges me. Today was a setback. I hope it was only a bad day and nothing more. However, I get concerned if this is what she does when she gets confused, says nothing, or gives illogical answers. I have several students like that. I have to call them back from the beyond.

   I look forward to my evening walks with Lutz. Our discussions are lively, like a good tennis game. We challenge each other. We will stop in the middle of the street and yell at each other, but it is all in good spirits. Tonight, Lutz and I argued about enlightenment. He claims he achieved it with psilocybin. He lost his sense of self; it completely dissolved. Each person's experience is relative to who they were before they dropped acid. He says it had a transformative effect. No one can argue with that. He knows who he was and who he became as a result. I do not see him as someone good at cognitive empathy. I have seen an example where he is good with emotional empathy.

   He was wonderful with my grandnephew, a five-year-old at the time. He wanted to check a rash on his arm. He knelt, dimmed his intense effect, and asked gently to look at it. It was a wonderful moment. I don't see that in him usually. I don't see him as enlightened. He says research claims psychedelics create a near-death experience. They affect different parts of the brain than endorphins, adrenaline, or narcotics like heroin. I would be interested in trying it under controlled circumstances.