1sr Grade Thinking Skills Difficulty

[psreit]

My dd is working in the 1st grade Thinking Skills book with LHFHG. She has done well in the first part of the book, but now she is having some difficulties. I have been told that there are weaknesses in her visual spatial reasoning, not only by her O.T., but by a psychologist at our ps who tested her to see if there was a learning disability. I was concerned because of her struggles in reading. However, she tested average in reading skills, but her math skills were not good. The psychologist said that the math skills could be because of exposure or because of the brain trauma (CP). We will determine that as time goes on. But, there has always been a problem in the visual spatial realm. That is where the Thinking Skills book comes into play. One area that Angie is struggling with is copying shapes and patterns. I noticed that there are quite a few pages coming up that deal with this. I just wasn't sure how concerned I should be if she can't do these things. How much help should I give her? What could I do to give her extra help in these areas? Any thoughts are appreciated.

[FiveLittlePeaches]

Since she's clearly having some problems, I would help her out as much as necessary. If I remember correctly, you have to copy shapes within shapes. Help her break it down, step by step. I would demonstrate on a separate piece of paper and see if that helps. Or you could draw it for her lightly, and have her trace it. I don't know, just an idea. Can she even draw on a large scale like the book is asking -- maybe have her do it smaller? Since there are several assignments, I would expect nothing and hope for progress.

No matter what, she will benefit from your patience and special attentio n!

[psreit]

She does not do much drawing. Especially when she has to look at something and copy it. Drawing shapes within shapes are hard for her because she doesn't know where to begin. I'm sure it is a visual thing. Just drawing a line from the peek of a triangle straight down to divide it in half was difficult for her. She does well coloring in the part that needs to be colored, but when she has to draw the lines within the shape herself, it is very frustrating to her. I will try having a model that she can follow along with me. If that doesn't seem to work, I will just talk her through the one she is doing. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Tracee]

I'm not sure if this would work, but what about making shapes with playdough. Maybe, feeling it would help her.


HTH,
Tracy

[LynnH]

Ok keep in mind I haven't seen these books, but I am a pediatric physical therapist by training so I had a few thoughts from your description. I like the playdough idea of a previous poster. Another idea I had is if it is visual perceptual can she do something like if you have the shaped cut out can she put them in the right position? If she can do that then another thought was to take elmers glue and you make the shape with it so it has a raised border then let her trace that with her finger and then try and draw it. Another idea would be tracing paper and see if she can trace over it, but tracing can be a tough skill for someone with visual perceptual issues. If her fine motor skills are poor and holding the pencil takes a lot of effort so that then her visual spatial issues are compounded then you could have her draw them in a tray of rice. Don't know if any of these will work, but thought I would throw them out there. I also have a ds with CP and I know it can be tricky knowing how much help to give them and figuring out ways to adapt things.

[Tansy]

My dd1 has no math reasoning and her therapist told me to do at least 50% of her work. I do one She does one. Her philosophy is these kids with brain trauma are still learning when you show them. Since they may need to see it 100, 200, 300.. times before they get it. So when you do it, they are watching, filling in the number of times they need to see it before they can do it.

I love the play dough idea and raised edges.

[FiveLittlePeaches]

The other thing I was thinking, is that maybe you could cut out shapes in construction paper so your daugher can hold and see the physical shape. Then you could fold the shape in half (or whatever) and have her trace the folded line with a marker or with glue like someone previously suggested. Maybe you could glue stick some of the shapes together, like an oval on top of a rectangle. Maybe the act of putting something together would be helpful.

Just another thought!

[psreit]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will try them and see if anything clicks. DD goes to the eye specialist on Wednesday. We'll see how she's doing with her vision, as I know that plays a part in some of her difficulties,. But I do think the CP has caused some processing issues, so it's hard to determine what is the cause of her struggles sometimes. Thanks again for the help.

[Carrie]

Pam,

Such wonderful suggestions have already been shared in this thread, so I'll just chime in with one more suggestion. With exercises such as this, I have found that making a colored dotted line for the kiddos to trace works well for my little ones who have trouble drawing lines. It is good practice for the eyes to track the dotted line and good practice for the hand to trace the line. I typically use a different colored marker for the kiddos to use to trace the dotted line (from the color I used to draw the lines). Anyway, just another thought.

Blessings,
Carrie