What Is That You Read My Lord? Words, words, words

Before my son was born I read about a wonderful
book. The good news is my son liked the book 
too. He still does.
Is this bad news? I'm not sure. I wish he would
read the books other kids his age do. But perhaps
he still needs something he finds in this book.
Maybe, like so many kids with an Autism
Spectrum Disorder, anything constant is
reassuring. Maybe he likes that I never, ever
quiz him about it. Maybe he likes the pure power
of word throughout the book.
If you've read other entries, you know that 
his mind lets narrative slip past while tenaciously
grabbing puns, palindromes, anagrams and rhyme
(see We Talk Silly Most Days & Word Play)
Sometimes trying to get him to talk about the 
story is fighting against the tide.
So, ride the wave? Fight the tide? If your kid goes
here, what do you do?
-Spectrum Mom

Autism Reads! The Book

While this blog is a perfect place to post short reviews
bring up topics and discuss them,
I've realized that if you want a guide with lists
and more information, an ebook would help you
more. 
So I'm going to publish Autism Reads: A Guide 
in March to complement this blog.
So far, that 's the only decision I've made
for sure. The book will probably be in ebook
format only. Send me your comments about what
you'd like in the book.

-Spectrum Mom

Wiggle While You Read

This year I saw my boy's wiggle cushion on the seat of his
chair on the first day of school.
A small triumph, but one worth celebrating because contrary to everyone's (except his) hopes and wishes, he is never going to 
"sit still and read." If we, and I include myself in that we,
can accept that, we'll make progress faster-or at least not 
knock out our brains against the wall.
Currently the favored posture is feet, hands, and book on the floor;
tummy elevated on the footstool. But this morning he was prone on
his bed, a typical position for a typical boy if he had not been
wiggling a string. He was reading a book I checked out for his
younger brother, but hey, he has Spanish too. Pictures continue
to be part of the essential mix that grabs his attention for more
than a few seconds.
-Spectrum Mom

Beginning Readers

Because my boy is eleven, (ten when I started) 
this blog often focuses on that age group. I do
try to look back, but I also appreciate and post
tips for younger kids.
Fortunately, there's a wonderful group of moms
of kids with special needs that I know on and off
line. What follows is a chat about teaching your
young child to read sight words.
K: I'm wondering if I need to sell a kidney to pay for tutoring.
First grade homework is going to kill me!! 
Well, maybe not the homework but a certain first grader I know. 
One day he knows his sight words, the next it's like he has never seen them. 
Don't know if it's because he is tired or if it's normal.                              
Any books or resources to read about helping a little one?                                        Any classes or workshops to attend?    
L: Write each word on a separate 3x5 index card and tape it to a door. 
He must say the word before he enters the door                                             
(bedroom, parent's bedroom, front door, garage door, etc.)  

make it a game and he will get a lot of exposure seeing them on a regular basis. 
Change out weekly or when mastered. Hope this helps!

J: We drill with index cards. Five new words a week, starting with Primary Dolch list. Try and show the little guy each word five times, just sitting down and flashing them.... we do a zero second delay for the first few days -- meaning, we just show Charlie the card and say the word. After a couple days of that we start giving him five seconds.... meaning, we show him the word and wait silently for five seconds, if he doesn't say it then we say it for him and ask him to repeat it. Sometimes he needs a verbal prompt "read" just to get him unstuck. But this works really well for us. After a week he's usually mastered them. We start news words the next week, and a couple of times a week we show him the words he learned previously to make sure he remembers them. As we moved along we started to use the learned words for fill in the blank sentences. That also helped with handwriting practice.... sorry that was so convoluted, happy to show you sometime if that doesn't make sense.

K: We use index cards too. It just gets so frustrating sometimes.
http:www.leisahammett.com: Try the Vanderbilt reading clinic 

(http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/site/services/disabilityservices/readingclinic.aspx)

  J: Our strategy was a little like L's, except we labeled practically 

everything in the house using a label maker (chair, floor, clock, window, etc..). 

Once he had an opportunity to examine these with no pressure for a bit, 

I would write same words on post-it notes (starting with just one word to 

keep it simple), and he would match by sticking post-it on labeled item. 

After all these were mastered, we removed labels and just gave post-

it's for him to stick in appropriate and varying places 

(still window, but different window) to check for comprehension and 

generalization. 

JS: We did that, loved that my kid recognized "refrigerator" 

before he had a clue how to say it. But what to do after you've 

labelled and mastered all the nouns in the house? If anybody is 

interested, here's a link to the 220 Sight Words (Dolch List) 

that is used, it's separated into pre-primer, etc. and there are 

some great lists and printables here, too.
 http://www.mrsperkins.com/dolch.htm

*the above chat was lightly edited-any mistakes are mine.

Many thanks to all who contributed

their wisdom-I withheld names except

for Leisa's (she said I could link

to her wonderful blog) but friends, 

please feel free to comment

and take credit if you wish. 

-Spectrum Mom 

P.S. The book at the top is a rhyming 

sing-songy fun version of "over in the

meadow" with knights and dragons-just

right for this age group and for kids who

like patterns.

Back to the Books

I'm finding it very hard to get back in the blog.
My apologies if anyone's missed this weekly
word of  .  .   . wisdom? Perhaps
screed of struggle is more accurate.
My boy continues to pick up picture books in
preference to others, so I keep looking for a
compromise. Big Nate, like the Wimpy Kid
books, embellishes (or interrupts) its narrative 
with a lot of pictures. Author Peirce alternates
text and short comic strips. The cartoons are sometimes
Nate's thoughts, but not always. This is fine for 
the usual reader, but not useful for a rule oriented
one mainly looking for patterns and word play.
Which makes me think it would be cool to find a book
which always used drawings for the protagonist's thoughts
and regular text for what is actually happening. 
For kids who do not understand that you are not thinking
the same things they are (theory of mind), this could
help make a needed demarcation between interior
and exterior life.
On its own merits (instead of my wish list), 
Big Nate is engaging and accessible.
The fact that it took us half an hour to read
eleven pages of not dense at all text gives you an idea 
of how unfocused my kid currently is about text.
I have known for a long time my son pays
more attention to the page numbers than the
characters and prefers word play and poetry to
the most exciting adventure story. 
But after months of struggling through
summer reading I think that narrative holds no
appeal for him at all. Neither fiction or non-fiction
intrigue him into asking "but why?" or "what happens
next?"
Still, after reading Big Nate with his dad, he at least sat
looking at it on his own for a while. He asked about
words while reading it, so the level is fine for him-
an eleven year old sixth grader (!how did that happen?) 
with autism. In general, the book targets the same
audience as Diary of a Wimpy Kid 
with a similar setting (school),
themes (teachers, bullies, sports),  and characters
(underachievers, brains, jocks). 
Completely different wish list idea: 
I'd like to see one of these books with a slacker 
girl, they're either smart and annoying or sweet 
and distant.
Both my boys are remarkably good-looking 
(completely unbiased opinion) so I'd like them to 
have a better understanding of girls than is offered 
by boy kidlit.
I have read them a bit of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Judy
Blume and Cynthia Rylant. 
Anyone have other suggestions?
-Spectrum Mom

Acting Out

 
"Gon out. Backson"
Sorry for the long hiatus.
Hope you caught up on classic posts while the boys
occupied my every waking moment, or, better yet,
read classics like A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh,
The House at Pooh Corner, and My Father's Dragon.
My boy remembers this book from last vacation.
Mainly for the mouse who misspeaks.

Also, make comments. Like do any of your kids
want to act out what they read?

My son with ASD wants to knock on doors,
rush down halls-whatever is described in the book.

-Spectrum Mom

Response to Hugo

My boy and I are slogging through summer reading, so no new suggestions 

today. Here's a brief peek at our process. The school offers three options for

summer reading reports, the traditional report, the response journal, or the 

cereal box. When we did the cereal box in third grade, it seemed more parents

than child. But of course the others involve a lot of prep work from us too.

For instance the response journal offers pages of questions. This is a bit much 

for him to process. But deciding which options to offer does not always take us

very deep in the book. Here's his work on Chapter Four:

Chapter 4

• Describe a character that you would like to meet (which doesn’t mean that you

think you would like the character, but that you think the character would be

interesting). List 4 questions that you would ask.

pg. 99-105

The girl has hair and eyes that look black.

The girl says that the old man made Hugo go away before she came to the booth.

What is your name?

What color is your hair?

What color are your eyes?

What color is your face?