As a Special Education teacher starting out teaching in the late seventies, our Resource Room focused on auditory and visual problems that interfered with children’s learning. These were some of the skills we focused on in our Resource Room:
- Auditory Memory
- Auditory Sequencing
- Visual Memory
- Visual Sequencing
But after two or three years, there was an emphasis placed on teaching the core subjects of reading, math, writing, and English. The auditory and visual skills were a small part of those objectives, but not to the extent they once were.
Teachers and parents have utilized activities involving these skills such as listening to a story which requires auditory sequencing (“Brown Bear, Brown Bear”). And there are memory match-up games (Concentration style) that require visual memory. But for the child who is deficit in any of the above areas, that may not be enough. Regular classroom teachers do not have the time to address these deficits in detail, and many home-schooling parents don’t know exactly what to do or what works best.
After teaching in the Resource Room for six years, I became a stay-at-home mom with our first baby, Christi. I went back to teaching school when she was nearly four, but this time in a first grade classroom. Through the years, I had children with learning disabilities and wished I had the time to work with them like I did in the Resource Room. But I didn’t, and so I had to do the best I could. It takes time and concentrated effect to work on auditory and visual skills.
Talking about auditory and visual skills, I have been given the opportunity to review the online Learning Link Educational Therapy Product which deals with brain retraining, and I am excited to be able to do this. They deal with the auditory and visual skills that are so often passed over quickly. I have been so overwhelmed with all the work at school, though, that I have not had the time to review their product extensively, but over time I hope to get back to you with more information. For now, I’ll say that I’m impressed with what I’ve seen so far.
Learning Link Technologies offers a free Dyslexia Test and also free Dyscalculia Testing. You can print these tests and give them to your child if you have concerns about these areas. These tests are absolutely free, there is no commitment, and they can give you insight into your child’s needs. I think that’s too good an offer to pass up!
