Garrett is fifteen and just successfully completed his freshman year at Edward Little High School. This was his first year as a full-time public school student. Two years ago he started begging us to let him go to public school. We wanted to let him, but knew he had his work cut out for him if he were to be prepared for college prep courses.
Those of you who know Garrett have probably noticed that he is kind of clumsy, slouches alot, and isn't great at most sports. If he has written you a note, you will have noticed that his handwriting and spelling are very poor. Here are the labels to match those difficutlies- coordination disorder, low muscle tone, fine motor impairment, dysgraphia, specific learning disability in written language and spelling. You may also have noticed that Garrett has an amazing memory for Bible verses, jokes(not necessarily funny ones), and movie lines. He is also very good at learning accents and song lyrics. The label for that is highly to profoundly gifted auditory memory. He can still recite entire scenes from a play he did in 7th grade!
Armed with these labels we set to work. It was amazing to see how hard Garrett ws willing to work to achieve his goals! First we met with Lori, our wonderful OT. She se up a new plan with Garrett, he jumped right in without complaint. He was already swimming 3-5 times a week which helped tremendously with the coordination and strength issues. Finally, I found, Phonetic Zoo, by Andrew Pudewa. I would highly recommend it for auditory learners. Garrett's spelling improved by 4 grade levels and he only got through 2/3 of the lessons!!! The last piece of the puzzle was writing. I was relentless in making him write, write, write.
At the end of 8th grade we met with his high school guidance counselor. I had to push a little to get Garrett enrolled in college prep courses, but it was done, pending his test scores and a writing evaluation. His test scores came in above grade level, and the English teacher felt his writing was only slightly below average. He did it! We are so proud of him!!
Garrett is a fun, outgoing kid who loves to perform. This past year he played percussion in the school band, and sang in the school choir. He was also very busy in the theater. Garrett has had large roles, but is perfectly happy to take any part on or off stage. This year he was involved in:
Annie Get Your Gun with CLT, Guys and Dollswith EL Players, A Christmas Carol with CLT, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with Kingsbridge Theatre. He had small roles in each of these shows. He had some wonderful auditions, and we are so proud of how well he handled his disappointment at not getting the parts he really wanted. He had a great attitude and earned the admiration and respect of all the adults he worked with.
Garrett's other passion is swimming! He may not be the fastest swimmer on the team, but he is probably the most loyal. No one could have been prouder to wear the Red Eddies uniform. Garrett was the only freshman to get a time in every event. He placed at the regional meet and went to the State championship as an alternate. He had a great season, especially considering he lost 3 weeks of practice to a bout of pneumonia!
He is enjoying the summer. Most of his time is spent at home, but he does have a cool job. He gets to go out on "sting" operations with a sheriff. His job is to try to buy tobacco products. If he succeeds, the sheriff goes in and fines the store. Other than work his only activities have been youth group. He attends 3 at 3 different churches. It is great for him to network with Christian teens. He is hoping to join a teen worship team at our church.
Those of you who know Garrett have probably noticed that he is kind of clumsy, slouches alot, and isn't great at most sports. If he has written you a note, you will have noticed that his handwriting and spelling are very poor. Here are the labels to match those difficutlies- coordination disorder, low muscle tone, fine motor impairment, dysgraphia, specific learning disability in written language and spelling. You may also have noticed that Garrett has an amazing memory for Bible verses, jokes(not necessarily funny ones), and movie lines. He is also very good at learning accents and song lyrics. The label for that is highly to profoundly gifted auditory memory. He can still recite entire scenes from a play he did in 7th grade!
Armed with these labels we set to work. It was amazing to see how hard Garrett ws willing to work to achieve his goals! First we met with Lori, our wonderful OT. She se up a new plan with Garrett, he jumped right in without complaint. He was already swimming 3-5 times a week which helped tremendously with the coordination and strength issues. Finally, I found, Phonetic Zoo, by Andrew Pudewa. I would highly recommend it for auditory learners. Garrett's spelling improved by 4 grade levels and he only got through 2/3 of the lessons!!! The last piece of the puzzle was writing. I was relentless in making him write, write, write.
At the end of 8th grade we met with his high school guidance counselor. I had to push a little to get Garrett enrolled in college prep courses, but it was done, pending his test scores and a writing evaluation. His test scores came in above grade level, and the English teacher felt his writing was only slightly below average. He did it! We are so proud of him!!
Garrett is a fun, outgoing kid who loves to perform. This past year he played percussion in the school band, and sang in the school choir. He was also very busy in the theater. Garrett has had large roles, but is perfectly happy to take any part on or off stage. This year he was involved in:
Annie Get Your Gun with CLT, Guys and Dollswith EL Players, A Christmas Carol with CLT, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with Kingsbridge Theatre. He had small roles in each of these shows. He had some wonderful auditions, and we are so proud of how well he handled his disappointment at not getting the parts he really wanted. He had a great attitude and earned the admiration and respect of all the adults he worked with.
Garrett's other passion is swimming! He may not be the fastest swimmer on the team, but he is probably the most loyal. No one could have been prouder to wear the Red Eddies uniform. Garrett was the only freshman to get a time in every event. He placed at the regional meet and went to the State championship as an alternate. He had a great season, especially considering he lost 3 weeks of practice to a bout of pneumonia!
He is enjoying the summer. Most of his time is spent at home, but he does have a cool job. He gets to go out on "sting" operations with a sheriff. His job is to try to buy tobacco products. If he succeeds, the sheriff goes in and fines the store. Other than work his only activities have been youth group. He attends 3 at 3 different churches. It is great for him to network with Christian teens. He is hoping to join a teen worship team at our church.
3 comments:
Garrett, we are proud of you! It goes to show what a good Mom advocate can do for her children! The sting operation sounds like fun!
Thanks Kris! It is great to know someone (other than my kids) is actually reading my blog.:)
My son also has coordination disorder, low muscle tone, fine motor impairments, ADHD, language based learning disability that effects reading, spelling, writing and his speech ( gets word order mixed up etc) and we just discovered that he also has some visual perception issues. Was your son born premature or did he have any other early issues that may have caused his impairments? My son was born premature but only by 7 weeks... but i knew by 8 mos old that he was strugging with things that seemed to just come naturally to ther kids around his age. He loves sports but isnt up to speed with other kids his age which is hard for him to deal with on the playground ( he just turned 10), he looks like a typical kid from a distance so it also makes it harder for him because people think he's just not trying or is just "dumb" ... do you have any advice to share??? Plus we just found out that our insurance policy has changed and his OT and PT will only be covered up to 30 visits COMBINED... he's been going once a week for 8 mos now and he doesnt qualify for OT ( which FLOORS me and his private OT) or PT at school... he does get resource room help though.
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