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RE: [xmca] Fwd: Notebooks of LSV
Eric,
My son had the same teacher from when he started at the school in May 2007 (our academic year goes from end January to November), until three months ago, when she had to stop teaching suddenly due to health issues. The past three months have been a time of huge upheaval (new teacher, possibility of the school closing), which as you would understand has been really difficult for my son and the other kids at the school to cope with.
The school was started some 20 years ago by a lady who had 5 ADHD children, as was herself diagnosed with ADHD in her early 30's. It is a self-paced learning environment, as well as being chemical-free (cleaning products used include vinegar and baking soda, no make-up, spray deodorant, and a list of food additives that are not allowed in any food provided for lunches). Currently the school has 8 students in total, all of which have various behavioural/learning issues. I once spoke to a principal from another school who stated that my son's school provided an education for the students who attend as well as assisting students who attend 'regular' schools (one of the kids from my son's school in a regular classroom would disrupt the entire class). Unfortunately it is hard to get funding for that.
School resumed last week after the two week mid-year break, and I am relieved to report that not only does my son seem to have got over his instantaneous dislike of the new teacher, but he actually came home with an award for working well. - Maybe after 1 term of the new teacher, the new teacher is now a consistency in the environment. The two week break seems to have got my son off his 'I do not like this person and will not cooperate' line of thinking. I am hoping that his teacher is planning on sticking around for a while, or at least that if he does decide to leave that they transition the replacement (not possible last time). Any change in the routine is met with challenging behaviour of various levels from my son. (eg. It took us two weeks to get him used to the idea of having his bath before dinner).
One of the challenges he had with the new teacher, was that the new teacher was older and male - My son like to negotiate (he is not good at just following instructions), and can be a real charmer - of course these worked with the original teacher (young, female), but not with the new.
What it all comes down to is that I feel blessed to have been given the honour of having a son with Asperger's.
Regards
Louise Hawkins
Lecturer - School of Management & Information Systems
Faculty Business & Informatics
Building 19/Room 3.38
Rockhampton Campus
CQUniversity
Ph: +617 4923 2768
Fax: +617 4930 9729
-----Original Message-----
From: ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org [mailto:ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org]
Sent: Friday, 17 July 2009 11:32 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: RE: [xmca] Fwd: Notebooks of LSV
Louise:
Your son's progress sounds promising. Anything assisting your son in
volition of vocabulary and the goal oriented activity of mutual
communiciation is huge! Is he going to have the same teacher for a number
of years? It has been my experience that consistancy over a number of
years is the key to development.
Thank you for sharing your son's expereinces on XMCA.
eric
"Louise Hawkins" <l.hawkins@cqu.edu.au>
Sent by: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu
07/16/2009 06:12 PM
Please respond to "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity"
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
cc:
Subject: RE: [xmca] Fwd: Notebooks of LSV
Eric,
Thanks for your reply. I believe that my son is actively seeking to
communicate. He started adding 's' to the end of words verbally after he
had first learnt to do this through writing. I think that the written word
(writing or reading) provides him with information that is not transient.
He can look at it as many times as he needs to to make sense of it (though
he rarely reads work more than once before being able to answer the
comprehension questions correctly).
He is very much a visual learner - he learnt the alphabet phonetically
with the aid of pictures. The first day of success at school, was when his
teacher provided cartoon pictures of each of the activities he had to do
for the day. Up until this point he had been oppositional. As soon as the
pictures were introduced he knew what he was required to do, so he would
go to the activity. He understood that a boy reading a book meant that he
was to get a book (initially the teacher did the reading), a picture of a
boy with colouring pencils meant colouring in a picture, etc. This was an
instantaneous change. When he had finished a particular activity the
picture went away and he selected the next picture/activity.
His hearing if fine, his non-verbal IQ is 103, where as his verbal IQ is
in the bottom 0.1% for his age (though as the doctor said, that just means
that the IQ verbal scale does not show what verbal ability he has). If he
has a picture, then he learns to match the verbal word to the
picture/written word. He can tell me practically everything about Pokemon!
:)
My theory is that talking/comprehending may be natural for the majority of
children, but children like my son learn things in a different order.
Regards
Louise Hawkins
Lecturer - School of Management & Information Systems
Faculty Business & Informatics
Building 19/Room 3.38
Rockhampton Campus
CQUniversity
Ph: +617 4923 2768
Fax: +617 4930 9729
-----Original Message-----
From: ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org [mailto:ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org]
Sent: Thursday, 16 July 2009 10:15 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: RE: [xmca] Fwd: Notebooks of LSV
Hello Louise:
In The History of the Development of Higher Mental Functions (Collected
Works 1997) Vygotsky writes,
"In the experiment (sorry, don't know specifically what experiment), the
child creates tallies, that is, numerical records suchy as are widely used
by people, without knowing how to count. Cards, chips, strings and cubes
lie before him and he discovers the required functional meaning of these
objects. . .Most essential is the fact that the child carries out a series
of operations externally in order to solve the internal problem of
remembering. This result, which seems banal at first glance, which we all
seem to kow, which consists of remembering with the aid of writing, is
disclosed in the experiment as a genetic fact. We are now able for the
first time to pinpoint the moment of transition itself, the moment of
inventing writing, and second, to explain at once the profound change that
takes place in the child in the transition from direct to mediated
remembering. (p.188)
The use of the word 'genetic' is so profound in his descrition of how a
person develops higher psychological functioning. Not in the imbedded in
DNA type genetics but in the essence of there being an actually
documentable (word?) 'AHA!' moment. The goal oriented activity of writing
for your son has mediated this jump in vocabulary. I am curious, do you
perceive this increase in vocabulary to be for your son's entertainment or
is he actively seeking interactive communication?
eric
"Louise Hawkins" <l.hawkins@cqu.edu.au>
Sent by: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu
07/15/2009 06:27 PM
Please respond to "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity"
To: <mcole@weber.ucsd.edu>, "eXtended Mind, Culture,Activity"
<xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
cc:
Subject: RE: [xmca] Fwd: Notebooks of LSV
I found the first section of the Notebook very interesting as it discussed
written language as compared to spoken language. My son has aspergers, and
the his verbal vocabulary has been increasing as he learns to write. He
appears to be learning to talk, by first learning to write and read......
Regards
Louise Hawkins
Lecturer - School of Management & Information Systems
Faculty Business & Informatics
Building 19/Room 3.38
Rockhampton Campus
CQUniversity
Ph: +617 4923 2768
Fax: +617 4930 9729
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Cole [mailto:lchcmike@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 16 July 2009 02:24 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture,Activity
Subject: [xmca] Fwd: Notebooks of LSV
Attached is the PDF file from Soviet Psychology. Achilles thought it might
be of general interest.
mike
PS-- Basov!! There is a double issue of Soviet Psych on his work. Nice
that Valsiner could nail the M.A. Levina ref.
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