A WORK
IN-PROGRESS
3rd-Grade & 4th-Grade
Haylee
The summer after 2nd-grade, Braden returned to Dr. Johnson for a follow-up visit to see if the Vayarin was helping. After being on Vayarin for four months, his auditory attention increased 50 percentage points. His complex auditory task performance increased 85 percentage points! 👀 Distractability improved 63 percentage points. His ability to inhibit responses to distracting auditory stimuli increased 59 percentage points, and to visual stimuli increased 57 percentage points. His error rate also improved 50 percentage points - which means he is functioning at a "normal" pace. 😍
Even with all of this amazing news, Dr. Johnson did mention that low-dose stimulants may still be needed as he grows and cognitive demands increase.
3rd-Grade
Text fluency and word decoding are still problematic. It may take a while to learn them, but once he knows the words he's good to go! Mrs. Taglieri is his teacher this year. He seems to be doing better with reading and spelling, but he does have accommodations in place to help with that. (Yay!) This year, the struggle seems to be with math. I'm helping him with math at home and he is going to tutoring sessions after school each week. Partly because of this, we did decide to change from Vayarin to Adderall this fall. Braden is starting with 5 mg each morning.
Mrs. Taglieri mentioned some concerns about his writing and reading when we returned from winter break. She would like to have him tested for dyslexia. Around this time, we increased the Adderall dosage to 7.5 mg per day.
All the testing results came in a month later and all testing showed he is at or above average on all tested areas. He did not qualify for dyslexia services.
STAAR testing this year scored his math at meets grade level and his reading at approaches grade level.
4th-Grade
Right at the start of this year, Mrs. Bickford asked for dyslexia assessment again due to speech, handwriting, and academic concerns. After over two months of testing, we received the report from the diagnostician. The main findings were that Braden's writing skills need to be improved. His spelling, grammar, and length of sentences were primary concerns. His slow reading was attributed to decoding and text fluency issues. The diagnostician also noted he still reverses letters and his cursive handwriting is better than print. All testing showed average or above-average results.
Braden still struggles with reading this year, but he has found several topics and series that interest him. He is reading more than he ever has before!
STAAR testing this year scored his math at exceeds grade level, his reading at meets grade level, and his writing at meets grade level.
BRADEN
3rd-Grade
Mrs. Taglieri likes Harry Potter and Ravenclaw. I gave her a Ravenclaw scarf for Christmas.
I was so excited to have Mia and Kaden both in my class again. Mia was also on my DI (Destination Imagination) team. We wrote our own music, made costumes, made underwater and alien scenes, and wrote and performed a play for DI. It was so much fun.
I still take medicine with applesauce every morning, but it doesn't taste as bad anymore. It feels weird though. It's a bunch of little pellets. I can't swallow pills without chewing them up, so mom puts my medicine in applesauce still. It's gross.
4th-Grade
Mrs. Bickford has a son my age. He has trouble reading too. She wants me to read more, so I found some books I like. I like Dog Man books, books about cats, and anything about cool science stuff.
I was having trouble focusing at the start of school this year, so mom is giving me a little more medicine now. It helps again. I don't like taking it all the time, so I don't always take it on weekends - just when we meet for DI. Mia is on my team again. Mom isn't doing the meetings now though - another mom and dad are. It's fun to go to other houses for meetings.