Something So Simple Made All the Difference
I watched the peace and calm of my concluding tutoring session fly out the door as a new family happily bounced nosily in. They brought smiles to my face. I loved their joyful eagerness to begin tutoring!
After everyone introduced themselves, my departing family beamed saying, “See you next week!”
I welcomed “Amy”, her dad, her mom, and her older sister to have a seat in the office area of my home.
We settled down to get to know each other. I introduced my service dogs Sundance and Kona; they told me about their much-loved dog “Scooter”. We shared our favorite and least favorite colors, food, subjects in school, hobbies, and interests.
As we progressed through my “Get to Know You Session”, Amy and her mom became more and more restless. Amy repeatedly jumped up, ran all around my home, jumped on the couch, rocked powerfully on the rocking chairs, and rolled on the floor. She was obviously feeling tension about beginning tutoring. Her Mom kept jumping up trying to rein Amy in while smiling uncomfortably, giggling nervously, and making excuses for Amy’s behavior.
I knew immediately that Amy and her mom had ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).
I’ve taught many such students during my classroom and tutoring teaching career. I was not concerned. I knew I could help Amy learn to read.
But to begin helping her, I needed to administer phonemic awareness and reading assessments. It definitely was a challenge to gently, positively and lovingly settle Amy in a chair and get her to focus long enough to complete the assessments.
We finished the phonemic awareness assessment during this first tutoring session and completed the other assessments during the second session.
She achieved 30% accuracy in her initial assessment in phonemic awareness and did not know most letter names and letter sounds. She was a nonreader.
No wonder she was feeling so much fear and tension about beginning tutoring--she knew she was a nonreader.
That was four years ago when Amy was in second grade and already 2 years behind in reading.
She had good reason to be frustrated and concerned about learning to read, as she hadn’t been able to so far.
Adding to Amy’s severe ADHD, she is also profoundly dyslexic. She has been on medication for the past 3 years for ADHD but she is still hyperactive during reading as her medication is wearing off by the time we have tutoring late in the evening.
Amy began to feel success almost immediately when we began tutoring together with Silent Elephant “e” thus helping her relax a little. Even with all her learning challenges, she works very hard with a positive attitude. It only took her a year coming to tutoring twice a week to master phonemic awareness. And in 2 years she caught up and surpassed her grade level in word recognition and reading comprehension. She is so proud of herself.
I am still tutoring Amy, as her parents feel I provide her security and stability.
Presently she is 2 years ahead of her grade level in reading. Her word recognition is superb. Her reading expression is outstanding. She does struggle with sequencing and maturity of thought in comprehension. Thus, our tutoring sessions focus on these skills.
Here’s why I’m eager to share Amy with you: suddenly two months ago, her comprehension achieved a 180 degree turn around in an extremely positive direction!
Even though I tutor on Zoom, I could visually see a different young lady on the screen--a relaxed young lady ready to read. I could hear a calm voice (not the nervous, silly giggle I most often hear). As usual, she read the pages in the book beautifully.
Then I began to ask her questions about what she had just read, and this is where I became speechless. She always does beautifully answering simple recall questions: characters, setting, problems, and solutions. However, when we move to higher level questions: sequencing, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating, her weaknesses quickly become apparent. As I mentioned above, she struggles with sequencing and maturity.
But on this particular day two months ago, she sequenced the story she’d just read into thirteen steps using her own words in great detail in complete sentences! No detail was missed or out of order! I was shocked! Nothing even close to this had ever happened before!
When I began asking higher level questions requiring maturity of thought, a calm, confident Amy I’d never seen before self-assuredly answered every question! I couldn’t believe it!
I told her how proud I was of her explaining beautifully in great detail everything she’d just answered for me. Then I asked, “How do you feel? Are you proud of yourself? What’s different about you today?”
She said, “I feel good! The only thing I can think of that is different is that I have this fidget ball in my hand.” She held it up for me to see.
Could this small ball in her hand make such a difference?
“Tell me about it,” I implored.
“My mom got this and 3 other kinds of fidgets (not the spinning kind), stress relievers and neato sensory toys from a teacher supply store. My sister is using them too.
“When I squeeze the neato over and over again, I just feel so relaxed. I’m not so nervous. I can think better. What I’m reading makes sense! I feel happy!” She was beaming from ear to ear!
I could hardly believe this was the same little girl I’ve been teaching for 4 years! I was thrilled, but afraid to get too excited.
And here is why I’m eager to share with you: this wonderful transformation has continued throughout each tutoring session for the last 2 months.
After a month, I called her mom to share our wonderful experiences, Amy’s explanation for the change and to ask mom to share her thoughts.
Mom was thrilled to hear of the transformation. She said that Amy was using the stress relievers while doing her on-line school lessons now and when doing homework. The stress relievers were helping her sister too.
I am so pleased by Amy’s transformation and her newly found way to succeed. I believe Amy won’t need my tutoring services after this school year. She’s unquestionably a successful, advanced reader now. I couldn’t be happier.
I wanted to share Amy’s transformation with you because I want to try these stress relievers with 2 other children I tutor. It might just be what they need to help them relax and understand what they are reading.
As you read this, maybe you are thinking of some kiddos in your life that might benefit from fidgets (not the spinning ones), stress relievers and neato sensory toys.
If you have any questions or experiences you would like to share, contact us.