Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!think!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!300!3!Pat.Goltz
From: Pat.Goltz@f3.n300.z1.fidonet.org (Pat Goltz)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Mentally Handicapped
Message-ID: <10358@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 23 Feb 90 18:05:33 GMT
Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP
Reply-To: Pat.Goltz@f3.n300.z1.fidonet.org
Distribution: misc
Organization: FidoNet node 1:300/3 - UA Today, Tucson AZ
Lines: 40
Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP

Index Number: 6925

Hi. I am going to make a more detailed reply to you later, after I think 
about it some more, but here are some suggestions for now. You say your 
daughter is having difficulty with speech. Is her UNDERSTANDING also not 
average? Regardless of the answer to this question, I think that probably 
the most educationally advantagious thing you can do is to give your 
daughter education through the Montessori method. If you have access to a 
local Montessori school, look for European trained teachers and European 
philosophy; the American is not very true to form. Regardless, read up on 
Montessori (the books are readily available, if not through the original 
publisher of them, Schocken, through a used bookstore). Read the books 
she "wrote" (most of them were taken down from lectures) and apply the 
same methodology at home. Much of Montessori skirts the need for language 
development, because it is a highly sensorial approach. I will give you a 
bibliography next time, because some of her books are of marginal 
usefulness. (In particular the ones published in India)
  I would also recommend that you try to teach your daughter to read 
yourself. Try phonics, and if that seems to be of limited usefulness, 
then a combination of that and look-say; she may be very good at 
memorizing things. The fact that her language development is that of a 4 
year old does not make her insufficiently developed for this, and it may 
take awhile and a lot of effort, and the sooner you do it, the better. 
The best approach to phonics for my money for such a situation is the 
Writing Road to Reading by Romalda Spaulding. I don't know offhand how to 
tell you to get this book, but there is a book out by Mary Pride which is 
kinda like a whole earth catalog for homeschoolers that will contain the 
information. (It is undoubtedly in the first volume of two) Come to think 
of it, the two volumes would be an excellent resource for you. They are 
called "The Big Book of Home Learning" or some such. I will see if I can 
come up with a source for that book if you cannot find it.
  In my next message, which I will prepare offline, I will describe the 
method I used for teaching my LD child to read. It is different in 
approach to Spaulding, and it may be necessary to use both in order to 
achieve some other results I would be after.
  Pat

--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!300!3!Pat.Goltz
Internet: Pat.Goltz@f3.n300.z1.fidonet.org