Mom reports that both girls are still making progress and being challenged in different areas given their individual weaknesses within their ability learn. Distinct measurable improvements are still being seen from working with this software program.
Week 4 progress report from Anita
Perhaps less exciting than previous weeks, but we are continuing to progress with the program. Both girls have in a sense "hit their wall" on a couple of the games, but at this point it is a good thing.
By the fairly rapid progression in the first few weeks, their confidence has been built significantly. Now, as we begin to tackle some of the cognitive weaknesses, the "I can't" syndrome still arises, but it is steadily being met with a determination to keep pushing through.
Barbara is still working on Sky scanning level 3. We have tried several variations, including her feeding the numbers to me. I have tried to demonstrate closing your eyes and visualizing the numbers….one of their significant weaknesses is in visualizing, and manipulating things in their minds.
She had a real tough time with one of the games that required you to rotate a tic tac toe grid 90 degrees clockwise, and place the x's in the correct position. She kept selecting locations really fast, I tried to slow her down and get her to visualize the x's moving around to a new slot, but she just had a really difficult time with that one, although she did finally get it. The Tree tic tac toe Level 4 is nearly as challenging for her as the Level 3 sky scanning….she has completed level 4 in all the other games, and has started Level 5 in a couple.
On the positive note, Barbara feels that she is performing better at her job in a local gas/convenience store, and is proud that when they have "drive-offs", she can usually get and remember the license numbers.
Susie is still working on sky scanning Level 2. She is making progress, even though she doesn't see it. She is getting better about holding 3 numbers in memory, and re-arranging them, she just doesn't seem to have the stamina to do it the number of times required to pass the level. I believe it will come with practice.
Bear Shuffle Level 3 is giving her a lot of trouble….trying to put letters in reverse alphabetical order (and remember their positions), is a real challenge for her. For several days, I tried having her start with A on the right, and work her way backwards to the left. It was such a struggle, that for now, while in practice mode, I have written the alphabet in reverse on a whiteboard, that is here in the room with her, so that she has something to refer to. Remembering the letters and their locations (once flipped), is as much of a challenge as figuring out the reverse alphabetical order.
The time requirement on Cave comparisons level 3 is tight for her, and with Jaguar Flash, she is having to learn to pay close attention, and quickly view the "big picture", in order to catch subtle differences in arrangements of letters. She has completed level 3 in all the other games, and may have started level 4 in one or two of them.
On the positive note for Susie, getting to see her "character" climb onto the school bus the first time, was a really big deal. I will say that her mastery of multiplication facts has significantly improved between the Brainware and our recent purchase of "Schoolhouse Rock" (those of you from my generation may remember this Saturday morning series quite well).
After almost 2 years of various software programs, endless repetitive drills, and anything else I could think of to try to get her to remember those facts…she was still having to think really hard to pull them out when you'd ask her one. Now she is able to answer most of the facts fairly quickly and easily.
The supplemental materials that Colleen has recommended for visual and auditory skills do seem to be helping. I will be consulting with her privately regarding those at a later time.
I guess that about sums up this week!
There is an interesting phenomenon occurring with Susie on the game Cave Comparisons…I believe it is Level 3. She completed the level today, but how she did it was really weird. In this game, there are shapes above and below a horizontal bar, and there is a sentence that says something like "The square is ________and ________the circle." Then you might click same level as and to the right of. One of the unique features is that the word left is on the right side of the screen and the word right is on the left side of the screen. After a while, she sort of got that the words were switched, (while in practice mode, we taped the little L & R to the correct sides of the screen). We took those off for scoring mode, and she would verbalize "above and left", but then click on the word Right, because she knew it was really to the right of the other object, but seeing the word left in that position caused her to say the word left, though she knew she had to answer right. I know this sounds confusing, but I thought you might want to comment on this Colleen, as other kids that mix up lefts and rights may do the same.
I will post another weekly report at the end of the week, though we'll be out of town for a couple of days, so it may be late.
Thanks for all your help!
Week 5 Weekly report
The holiday weekend did in fact delay my posting.
"Barbara" (19) has completed level 5 in several games, however she is still struggling with level 3 Sky Scanning and level 4 Tree Tic Tac Toe. I am beginning to suspect more auditory issues with her, and/or perhaps issues with sustained attention (she was on ADD meds from about age 11- 17). When she repeats back to me the numbers that she "heard", sometimes she doesn't get them right, even the first time. A week or so ago, we tried her writing them down, and calling them to me. She can get them written down correctly, so it may just be a very weak working memory. When she can hold them in memory, she is able to rearrange them in the correct sequence. The three grid Tic Tac Toe is especially challenging for her. She has improved, and one of the things I'm doing in "practice mode", until she gets better is to "call out" which grid she needs put her next mark in (1st, 2nd, or 3rd). This gives her a few more seconds to focus on which spot the mark should go in. At this point, we are battling a lot of negative self-talk especially on these two games. I've been reading some material on the value of physical activity prior to "brainwork", so this week hopefully, I will be able to get her to do some jumping jacks, or perhaps a quick walk around the block before beginning. She is working some odd hours this week, so getting our time in is a bit more challenging.
Susie has completed level 4 in a few games, but she is still wrestling with level 2 Sky Scanning, and Level 3 Bear Shuffle. Reverse alphabetical is still very hard for her, and once she has moved a card, it is very difficult for her to remember what the new sequence is.
Interesting occurrence with the Jumping Jaguar ~ we spent almost a week on Level 3 ( a quick glance of several blocks that contained 5 characters each, and be able to tell which one is different). level 4 was 6 blocks, but only 3 characters per block, and she was able to beat it right away.
I am seeing some improvement in her reading. She still skips words occasionally, but it seems to be a bit less frequently. Some of her "summer reading" time is dedicated to a church assignment of reading the book of Mark. We are using an NIV version that is fairly small print. I have been really surprised and pleased that she has done so well reading this orally to me, and missing so few words.
I think I need to find some ways to add in some "fun" or rewards as we progress through the program. Both girls still have that tendency to not see their progress, and I know that a sense of success strongly affects how much success actually occurs.
I have been working on going through Colleen's webinar on memory, her explanations are wonderful, and I hope to have Barbara listen to it soon, as it will help her understand why she struggles so, and hopefully will come to a better understanding that it's not that there is something really wrong with just her, but that a lot of kids struggle with these issues.
I guess that about sums our week up!
blessings to all of you.
Anita
Addendum to Week 5 ~ I should have mentioned the importance of hanging onto the logic and reasoning games…. spreading them out so that on those really tough days, when we couldn't pass a single level of anything, you can end the day on a positive note, by talking through the answers. Even if you don't get it on the 2nd try, you can read the explanation, and you get credit for completing something. Several sessions that would have ended with tears, instead ended with a smile. Blessings to all!
Anita
P.S. We tried a couple minutes of jump rope, and a nice big glass of water before starting brainware today. I let Susie start with Turtle Recall, and when she got it right (Level 4) on the first try, she was so excited she jumped up and hugged me and said "I got it right, and I got it without getting all frustrated". She then did much better with her hearing/recall on Sky scanning. We haven't beat Level 2 yet, but I really believe it's coming soon!