The Next Teaching Challenges

So now that we "have" the letters, and I say that very loosely. The next challenge is to combat all the processing issues that Hannah has. Many of these letters she will only recognize as capitals, so this challenge took about an hour to match the capitals with the lower case letter. Her visual processing issues cause her problems with seeing letters and being able to write it, say it or connect it. It is hard to explain and understand.

Drew is dyslexic (was), so I have dealt with some of these issues before. But with Hannah there is an added stress issue. If she feels pressure she will just shut down and really not be able to take any input.
--With her speech this showed up as a stutter till we put no pressure on speech of any kind (no questions) for about 2 months, thanks to the advise of her new wonderful speech therapist!
--With numbers we saw this when she got 1,2,3 then could get no other numbers for about eight months. Then we realized that she did not get 4 because it is written in two different ways (you know, like this closed 4 and an open one). We tried to skip '4' for a long time, but the stress of 'knowing' it was still there to be dealt with caused her not to be able to move on. For some reason last month she 'got' 4 and now knows them all the way to 10 most of the time.

So understanding this you may better understand my trepidation as we move on with Hannah's letters. Taking them one at a time, when she was finally ready, she was able to tackle them. If they are presented together, such as Aa, Rr or Bb, she can confidently move forward. But try to present them as r,b, or a, and she will shut down-hard. I saw that today.

The issue with the number 4 took eight months to tackle, now I have 26 letters that all present the same dilemma to her. And the letters a and g are often written as you see here, not as they are taught, adding to the challenge. Add to that b, d, p, q, m, w, n, u the all-around challenge letters that are copy cats and her visual processing comes to a halt.

Interestingly, I am not real discouraged. Hannah has made such tremendous progress in the last nine months, I know she will continue to bloom and move forward. Now we will just be moving forward into a new chapter for her and seeking the best ways to help her grasp these concepts.

I remember thinking some time ago, before the new kids came home, that I 'knew' how to home school. Isn't it interesting how God challenges our thinking and our pride to bring us back into total dependence on Him!!

"Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 19:15