HOD for special needs, praise.

[Heidi in AK]

I wonder how to communicate this to a friend whose daughter has sensory processing disorder? I'l send her to the boards, to this thread. Great news, water2wine!!! Praise God, indeed!

[deltagal]

W2W -

What a great report! You are right on about HOD, but you left out one other very important reason for her success....YOU!

God bless and keep on doing what YOU are doing.

[water2wine]

Thanks Florence. I needed that lift today.

[water2wine]

That is a praise! I think that you are so right water2wine - these areas are taught so well in HOD, and your dd is doing awesome with them! PTL! I also know you do a wonderful job of balancing encouraging your dd with expecting enough from her. I think she is doing so well, and I'm glad you had the testing done as it just helps give good information. I think you really hit the nail on the head that these 2 skills are life skills that are excellent to have. They affect so many, many areas of life. Oral narration is helping my dc be able to express themselves well orally, relay messages accurately, delve into books deeply, and discuss what they have read well. It also helps them make connections galore. I would even go so far as to say it is helping them be comfortable in social situations, as if a book or movie they have read or seen comes up, they almost naturally go into oral narration mode, and that just makes the conversation flow easily. Following step-by-step directions is helping my dc put together toys, follow the steps to cook or bake from a recipe, do chores properly from a chore chart, build things for the house (i.e. shelves), use manuals to troubleshoot things like properly hooking up a DVD/VCR player to a TV, complete handicraft projects like building wooden structures, even following directions I've given on a markerboard (something I commonly do when entertaining for their b-day parties, as we blessedly have a lot of family that attends and much needs to be done). Thanks for sharing this, as it is such an encouragement!

In Christ,
Julie

Julie I absolutely agree all those things are wonderful and for a special needs child social skills are huge. What hit me though is that these are really skills that could help with being able to work later in life. I mean when you have a boss you have to be able to hear what they say, often narrate what they say to others and definitely follow directions. And given her intellect, jobs become more limited. On the other hand these are skills even people with high IQ's often lack. So in all honesty with the news that her IQ was much lower than we had been told, the areas that she excelled in really gave me hope that we can find an area where perhaps she can be somewhat self sufficient at least in having employment.

All of that really is what I love about HOD. You can hit them at their level whatever that is and bring out their strengths while you help them in their weak areas. It's true even for a very bright child. Since I have quite a mix in my kids it is wonderful that they can all experience the same things but still actually get their needs met.