Question About Writing & Composition for Autistic DD

[cagrits]

Hi-

I am thinking about using Preparing next year for my almost 11 year old daughter. She has high functioning autism and has drastically differing abilities in different subject areas. As such I have never been able to use packaged curriculums. There have been years when I have actually written everything from scratch. But this year I feel like she is finally within the range of being able to use something that is prepared. One of our biggest issues previously was her handwriting so subjects like composition, copywork, grammar, etc. were very difficult. I tried to do things that taught concepts orally and minimized how much she used her hands as I slowly built up her handwriting skills through occupational therapy. And now she is at the point where she can write legibly a paragraph legibly and spells at about a 3rd grade level. Whew! It's not beautiful, but it works! She has done some cursive copywork but only copies a sentence or two at a time but she does love to draw. But I'm not sure how much copy work is actually in Draw & Write Through History. Can someone give me an example of how long the sentences are? Also are they intended for a child who is proficient in cursive or one who is still practicing cursive? (Her cursive that she copied today was "His tall helmet glistens in the sun. Her dress is long and fancy.")

Also because of her autism she needs things spelled out concretely. So if you tell her to write a paragraph she doesn't know what a paragraph needs to contain. She would need the ingredients spelled out like a recipe. She would need to understand what a topic sentence is, then understand that topic sentences need supporting details, and then you need to close the paragraph with a concluding sentence. Does R & S or any other piece of the Preparing curriculum teach these elements of composition?

Thanks so much-
Jennifer

[pjdobro]

Jennifer, welcome to HOD! I'll try to help a little. We're currently finishing Bigger and will be starting Preparing in the fall so we haven't actually delved into it yet, but I have all the books and have been able to look them over a little. It sounds like your dd is making great progress! I'm not for sure if she would find the writing in Preparing to be too much or not. I'm sure she would really enjoy the drawing in the Draw and Write Through History. It is great as it takes dc through step by step how to complete a drawing. Check out a sample of one of the drawing projects: http://www.drawandwrite.com/FreeArtLesson.html HOD schedules it such that it is done in little bites too so it is very doable even for beginning artists or writers. I checked out the first week of Preparing (you can too here): http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/PHFHG-sample-week.pdf and it has the dc just write the first paragraph of the page on one day. The other two paragraphs are copied in one day the following week. Here is an image of the page so you can see what it is like:

copyworkDWH.jpg (65.65 KiB) Viewed 1286 times

That should help you a little in figuring out that part of the writing. In Preparing, dc start learning how to do a written narration. It is done step by step. Take a look at the Reading About History box on Day 4 of the sample week. That will give you an idea of how the guide slowly starts to help dc learn how to write a narration.

R&S also helps dc learn how to write. We've been doing R&S3 this year and one of the things we studied is how a paragraph needs a topic sentence and how to include details to support it. We've learned more about describing a place, a person, and a thing and how to write several sentences about each. The lessons are short but very specific about how to go about writing properly. We do the majority of the work orally (2/3) and then finish the lesson with a little writing. Obviously on the writing lessons we've finished usually with a couple of sentences, but it was not overwhelming at all. Both of my dc have been slower on their handwriting skills and it hasn't ever been too much writing doing R&S this way.

I'm not for sure exactly how much writing in cursive a dc should be able to do to start Preparing, but I don't think they are meant to be experts. My dc have just learned cursive this year and the most they have written has been a sentence or two at a time in cursive. With HOD when a dc finishes the previous guide able to do all of the boxes well, they are ready for the next guide so I believe my dc are ready for Preparing. I think the paragraph(s) with the Draw and Write Through History will be the most at one time that they will ever be asked to write in cursive.

One of the wonderful things about HOD is that you can adjust things within the program to work for you. So if you need to do a higher level math, the schedule you need is probably in the appendix. If you need to do a lower level dictation or higher grammar, you'll find several options within the same guide from which to choose. Even though it is a boxed curriculum, it is very flexible. I hope that gives you enough of an example with the writing to get a better feel for how it would work for your dd. You could take a look at the first week of Bigger (http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/BHFHG-first-week.pdf) as well to see if you feel that the writing there might be more suited to your dd's ability. Also here is a link that shares the differences in amount of writing in Bigger and Preparing: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3602 I hope that helps. Please feel free to ask more questions as the ladies around here are glad to try to help.

[LynnH]

My ds has mild CP with dysgraphia. The physical act of writing is tough for him as well as coming up with what to write. We did Preparing last year and it really helped him in those areas. I did make a few adaptations. I would write the cursive copy work up on the board so he could see it written in cursive. I didn't do this with draw and write through history though because it was already written in cursive. On days where there were 2 things to write in cursive I only made him write one and either had him type the other or if it was a bible verse I would print it off the computer. He types his written narrations.

Rod and staff does a great job of breaking things down into very small pieces. It does a lesson or more on what a topic sentence is and does exercises like which one of these 4 sentences makes a good topic sentence. We do most of Rod and Staff orally on the white board.

I have found it is very easy to adapt things in HOD for my ds and his special needs and yet at the same time it challenges him to improve without frustrating him.

[spidermansmum]

Hi I have an 8 yearold who has ASD.I sympathise on the writing battle-I have not yet done preparing ,so I cannot answer how much writing is needed.I can share in HOD the guide works excellently as a visual timetable-he covers each task with a post it note-so he can * see* exactly what he needs to do everyday.

[my3sons]

Hi Jennifer, and welcome to the HOD Board! Aren't these ladies so helpful? I truly love spending time on this board. I think they answered your questions so well already, that I will just agree. I think the example Patty took time to share of Draw and Write's copywork, as well as the link to the first week of PHFHG will really help you see the amount of writing each day. When you print the first week of plans, you will notice that HOD takes care never to have any one day too heavy on writing. Carrie actually counts the times/amount dc are writing each day and rotates writing skills throughout the week, so each day has about the same balanced amount of writing. I have so appreciated this in the day to day of teaching (as have my sons)!

I also wanted to answer this part of your post about R & S English...

... she needs things spelled out concretely. So if you tell her to write a paragraph she doesn't know what a paragraph needs to contain. She would need the ingredients spelled out like a recipe. She would need to understand what a topic sentence is, then understand that topic sentences need supporting details, and then you need to close the paragraph with a concluding sentence.

Your description here of what dd needs could be a catalog description for R & S English! This is exactly how R & S English approaches writing. The instruction of writing is interspersed throughout R & S English's plans, so that type of instruction will not be daily. R & S English does a beautiful job of teaching grammar for the purpose of clear, organized writing. On the days the assignment is not a writing assignment, HOD suggests dc do about 2/3 of the day orally or on markerboard with mom doing the writing. We have found this to work very well with each of our sons. HTH! I think you and your dd would love PHFHG. We sure did when we did it with our oldest ds, and I am getting very excited to do PHFHG again this coming year with my middle ds!

In Christ,
Julie

[cagrits]

I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you all. Thank you so much for your wonderful insight! This has been very helpful. I can tell that having this board is also a huge advantage to this curriculum. I really appreciate you all taking the time to answer my questions.

Jennifer