Thursday, February 16, 2012

Conferences -- No surprises this time but what does the future hold

Spring, 2011

Teacher Sarah hosted conferences this week with the usual overview of how the kids were doing. At four, they had progressed as expected. This time there was little discussion of Leah's tremor.

Both the teacher, Leah and I have all learned so much. Leah seems unphased by tremors now. The teacher tries to remember to not call attention to her tremor and allows Leah to decide when she needs the weighted pencil and gel paper holder or the weighted wrist weight for cutting with scissors.  Leah goes to get her box of tools when she needs it. Leah does not use these tools when she is drawing with a crayon. The drag of the crayon seems to reduce the shake, Teacher Sarah said. Most of her classmates do not pay attention and are more fascinated with the tools she uses than judgmental.

 I thanked her for noticing the shake and for not creating tension with Leah by placing unrealistic expectations on her like coloring inside the lines. Yet, Leah is learning to color inside the lines on good days. I told her stories that I had read where teachers were knocking off points for penmanship. Our doctor indicated a computer may be necessary in the future and to teach her keyboarding as soon as possible.

Amazingly, she can manage a touch screen on a phone and play memory with ease. While I can see a minor shake as she plays, she simply keeps trying and moves through the stages of the game.

I wonder if it will get worse and if it does will teachers in the future be as accommodating, encouraging and helpful as teacher Sarah.

*** Note: This post was written last spring but was not published. As it adds to the journey, it has been belatedly posted.

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