Re: Rittgassers Reply!

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Our school here has a wonderful integrated Kindegarten program which

benefited from. This year, with the new funding model, has entered

grade 1, and the school is a bit behind in this area. It's been more of a

struggle to get them to change than I first anticipated. Thanks to our new

teacher (and yes she better not leave!) she's helped to get 's

placement changed to the integrated class and we're working towards full

inclusion. They are in the process with the board at getting the proper

use from the assistant they applied for on her level 3 funding (they tried

to pull a fast one and use the assistant for other areas and missed

some classes, like computer because the assistant was not available). They

now realize that that assistant was given FOR NICOLE and she will now have

an assistant for her day. She has a teacher of the deaf for 1 hour each

day and an assistant for the rest to continue working on independent

skills, (and we are planning to include Social skills,) auditory skills,

and note taking and planning for home teaching. We're just working the

details out and her IEP. The full effect remains to be seen!

was originally nasal tube fed in the hospital for 3 months at birth.

After her first heart surgery, she came home and they decided to do a

GJ(into the Jejunum, bypass the stomach) tube because of all of her

refluxing. She also had swallowing difficulties and constant gagging.

This tube worked out wonderfully as we were allowed to do small oral

feedings and work on oral skills VERY slowly. was fed this way for

about 3 years. So we did both but the bulk came from the tube, we only

gave enough by mouth to keep up the skills. After her heart surgery at age

3 we worked a lot more on oral/swallowing skills and the tube feedings

decreased immensely and we switched from a GJ tube to a G tube now that her

refluxing had stopped. We now worked at stomach volume and oral skills.

still had to have more oral surgery as she had reflux from her

throat back up into her nose and from the hole left for growth in the front

of the palate. Food would get stuck in her nose. This made oral eating

slow, so we kept the tube for boost in calories. They did several soft

tissue repairs, but we're now looking at a palatal extension and bone

grafting to fix it permanently, who knows when. At about age 4-5

was eating primarily by mouth. Then at about age 6 she became totally

oral, with only G-tube for med's and fluid (water) intake. only has

one kidney and we've really had to work with her fluid intake, so the tube

helped for fluids. Now her kidney is (so far) working much better and she

drinks more now. At 7 she is totally oral feeding and eats just about

everything, sometimes slower than others. We're just working on digestion

and assimilation, do we still need the tube? or will all her oral eating

suffice? We go for another Clinical Nutrition clinic in a couple of weeks,

and for growth hormone testing, so we'll have to decide from there.

Re signing. We only used this in the beginning until about age 2.

's teacher from the school of the deaf, combined it with oral. She

also did a lot of auditory training too. Then after s other open

heart surgery, age 3 1/2, we switched to total auditory verbal therapy, for

the auditory training skills. Prior, was very ill most of the time

and had a lot of migraines, sickness, surgeries, heart problems, kidney

problems, infections, etc.... and it made the total auditory verbal

technique (for us) very difficult. The auditory verbal approach was very

fascinating and taught us a lot and taught a lot of listening

skills. We are still immersed in it, but because we do see that has

some auditory processing difficulties I ONLY use a sign or gesture to help

with the meaning, eg. Today, tomorrow, yesterday, dreaming. We also use a

lot of visual tools. She can auditorily hear me just fine, and repeats

what has been said and uses it in her vocabularly but when it is a new

concept and said she repeats it and repeats it to herself and you can see

this look as she tries to process it. I ONLY use sign/gesture for

clarification of meaning when we're stuck. I dont have all the answers

just know it works for . I would never leave doing the auditory

approach though as she learns so much from keeping up these listening games

and lessons. When we were totally immersed in auditory verbal as weekly

regular sessions, NO they don't like sign etc. used and we did this and try

to do this all the time. Her Teacher of the Deaf does all work

auditory/oral, as does speech, and responds very well. But there

are these instances that I can see the look on her face and she repeats and

repeats things over and over to herself (speech sounds good, auditorily

heard me well, but what do you do with the information?) and you don't see

the light go on. We're still learning!

has learned that there are many languages. Because my inlaws are

German " some people speak German " , some people speak French (she's learned

to count in French), some people speak using their hands " . She remembers

her signs and uses them as such, just another language and we do the

alphabet regularily, just as you would take french classes. But the bulk

of everything we do is auditory verbal.

Don't worry about being nosey, what I share, you might have insights and I

might learn something from your experiences.

Our best to you.

Pat and The Rittgassers

Ontario,

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>

> To: CHARGEonelist

> Subject: Rittgassers Reply!

> Date: Friday, October 23, 1998 10:37 PM

>

>

>

> Pat & Family (especially ):

>

> Thank you so much for the reply and nice words. The reply was

> lengthy and I appreciate the time you took. I often travel down to " the

> south " for work or family visits, and would love to come visit and meet

> and see her program at some point in time. It sounds as though

you

> have things set up very well for her and I'm certain that was no easy

task

> and the future will hold more hurdles. Your new teacher sounds like a

> godsend, don't let her leave! How have you found the new Ontario funding

> formula, has it changed things for you at all, or does that remain to be

> seen? Does have a teacher/interpreter throughout her day?

>

> If you don't mind me asking a few more questions. Does

have

> any type of cranial nerve palsy? Did she eat orally early on (tube for

any

> length of time, if so how long?). I know this is terribly nosey, but I

> really have very specific reasons for asking.

>

> You mention that sign language was also used as part of 's

> program. Can I ask exactly how that worked? My understanding is its

> Auditory-Verbal or Total Communication (sign/speech/gestures etc. etc.)

and

> that the two cannot be mixed.

>

> I sure do ask a lot of questions, sorry about that. But the more

> information I can get, the more I feel I can help in one particular

situation.

>

> Thanks for the time

>

> Deafblind Consultant

> Ontario, Canada

>

>

>

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