Jan 2013.
Time really flies. Did Ian’s skills improve over time? Many times we look at improvement in the area of academic achievements, school children study and learn to pass the school tests.
Ian is obsessed with animals, he is well versed with the names of animals. However the general nouns like stationery, kitchen ultensils, flowers, days of the week or names of the months of the year are far less to his liking. How to bring him to take an interest in these words?
I have made special learning materials for him, based upon animal related words to be used in a table setting learning environment. I noticed that Ian will attentively follow words and pictures related to animals. However words that are not related to animals will not get his attention. Sometimes he noisily shows he does not like it.
I also observed that when he uses his hands he is able to focus more easily. On plain paper I wrote words such as “fox”, “box”, “in”, “the”. To my surprise, as Ian traces the words I wrote he is able to recite the letters. after he completed tracing those words, Then I construct a sentence out of the words. This activity may seem rather meaningless for us adults, but my objective is for Ian to remember the words and letters and to follow instructions. Out of the words I make the sentence “fox in the box”. Ian enjoys tracing the letters and at the same time he recites the letters of the words.
Feedback from his mother: she said at home Ian spells “box” and says the name “box”. Then his mother said “How about ‘fox'”? Ian says the name as “Fox”.
Different children have different learning styles, there is no “one size fits all” method to develop a child. Ian follow this learning method. When I say “fox”, he will trace the word fox. This also shows he can listen to instructions, understands and processes it. Ian has done well in his development already.
