The Audiblox Diary of Kori Mitchell

February 2003

Posted by Michelle on February 3, 2003, 3:26 am

Hello again!

Sequencing - 45
Pattern - 35
Reading - I recounted these and there are 202 cards she's working on.
Logical thinking 1 - worked on the m's and n's.
Counting - doing good. Getting better at the 3's
Comprehension - this is going fine. Did you want me to leave the comprehension words from the stories in there or should I take them out once she has done the comprehension sheet?
Adding - no change in this.
Subtraction - better slightly
Arrows - she's catching on but struggles on the spelling of the words.
Auditory pattern - she's working on 8.

Logical thinking 5a and 5b - this is the same. She hasn't been improving on this at all. The first couple on each exercise she can manage as long as I don't complicate it by making them longer but still has not been able to do the others.

Tables - I don't know about this one! I don't want to add new cards until she's doing it quickly which seems like it's never going to happen. She is not getting the answers in a second and certainly has to think about it for a while first. She know them just can quite say 2 in a row fast enough.

Reading Comprehension #11 70% in 12 minutes. This is better.

God Bless,
Michelle

Posted by Benetta on February 4, 2003, 3:34 pm, in reply to "Kori's Diary"

Dear Michelle and Kori

Hi! Thanks for the next update! Michelle, time for a change to Kori's program again. I am omitting all the Auditory exercises from her program - I do not really think she needs them anymore. She has really been doing very well on an auditory level. She will now have a program for Week 1 and a program for Week 2. Please follow the program I've sent in my personal e-mail to you.

Michelle, the words from the stories must be left in the pile, to be drilled again as part of the words for the Comprehension exercise. This week's score definitely looked much better!

Concerning the Sequencing exercise, please keep the practice target as is. Do this exercise now only as part of the lessons for Week 1. Continue to work on the same sequence for the whole week.

Concerning the Pattern exercise 2, I want you to continue with the SAME pattern for a whole week, instead of starting with a new pattern every day. If, for instance, she manages to get up to 15 blocks on the first day, on the second day you will continue with the same 15 blocks. Show these blocks to her, and whenever she manages to arrange them correctly, keep on adding new blocks to the same pattern. I am re-adjusting the practice target, as this is quite a drastic change. Do this exercise now only as part of the lessons for Week 2.

Michelle and Kori, this is it from my side for this week. Thanks for all the hard work, and good luck for the evaluation, I am holding my thumbs!

Benetta.

Hi!

Here's our latest update:
Sequencing: 50
Arrows: slowly improving but depends on the words I give her.
Reading: Working on doing it even faster. I haven't added any new words yet. She is doing good though.

Dictation: She can only write one sentence in 5 minutes. Very slow but I think she's recognizing her own spelling errors now. Before she used to be shocked when she was told she misspelled a word because she tried so hard and thought it sounded right but now she asks which ones she did wrong and says she knew it wasn't quite right. I'm very happy about that.

Logical thinking 1 - working on the "m's"
Counting - much better, she almost has the 3's down
comprehension - this is going good. She is starting to forget some of the first words from the beginning but for the most part she's doing better and better every time.
Adding - No real progress this week.
Subraction - same
Tables- we added a few
Reading ex - paragraph 26 with 26 errors
Comprehension - 70% in 13 minutes

Well, that's all! Except her visagraph results! Which have been sent to Benetta, Susan and Dr. Jan! I'm sure they will give that update soon!

Michelle

"Kori's assessment and recommendations," Posted by Dr Jan Strydom on February 10, 2003, 2:11 pm, in reply to "Kori's Diary"

Dear Michelle

Thank you for e-mailing Kori's test results.

I am very pleased that you had Kori assessed. First, I am pleased to hear that she is now "very advanced in auditory processing." This confirms that "Audiblox" was definitely not a bad choice as a name for the program.

Second, I am pleased since this evaluation has identified what is still a weakness for Kori. We have been concerned for some time already that, although Kori can now master reading material of a very high standard -- with comprehension -- the improvement in reading speed has been painfully slow. Benetta and I have been in consultation about this on several occasions. We have through a process of elimination been trying to determine the reason for this. We feel sure that the Visagraph test has now provided us with the information we required.

The Visagraph test measures a person's reading efficiency level, which is not the same as reading level. In terms of reading level Kori has made astounding progress. Last year she read her first book, which was 13 chapters long, and she is doing quite well on the Abeka readers, which if your computer's judgement is correct, is on a 9.5 level. However, the Visagraph has shown that Kori's reading efficiency level is still poor. She still has a very narrow eye-span. Although the eye-span has improved (it has nearly doubled, in fact), it is still very narrow. To explain this to you in a very practical way, it is as if Kori is reading 9.5 level material though a straw -- although the straw is now nearly twice as big as it was at the beginning. It is therefore clear that, in Kori's case, the program we have followed so far has not addressed the matter of eye-span strongly enough. We shall therefore have to work harder on this aspect.

We sometimes have to deal with stubborn cases. For example, we now and then have to deal with cases of reversals that are inordinately hard to overcome. The spatial exercises in the Audiblox program are generally sufficient to overcome reversals, but some children have to do much more spatial exercises to overcome a reversal problem. Clearly, Kori needs more intensive work on eye-span than most other children.

One of the intentions of the Reading exercise is to widen the eye-span, but in Kori's case we'll have to do more. We have already couriered a video to you. This video contains a demonstration of the Flashing exercise. This exercise does not form part of our standard programs, for the simple reason that it is seldom necessary. Moreover, it is very difficult to do. However, it is absolutely essential in Kori's case, since the sole purpose of the Flashing exercise is to increase eye-span. You will have to watch the video several times, and practice it until you can do it correctly.

Benetta will e-mail you a description of the Flashing exercise, and will adjust Kori's program, so that it will appear several times in each session. If possible, also do this exercise several times during the day, as often as you can. The exercise only requires a few seconds at a time.

Sincerely,
Dr Jan

"New program on the way..." Posted by Benetta on February 12, 2003, 2:25 pm, in reply to "Kori's Diary"

Dear Michelle and Kori

Hi! Michelle, the video we have sent by courier, should arrive at your doorstep by tomorrow, or at the latest, by Friday. I am sending the new program by e-mail, which includes the Flashing exercise, as well as notes on this exercise. Please study the notes carefully, and watch the video a few times, as this is quite a difficult exercise for you as the tutor to master. Please note, due to time limits, some exercises were temporarily omitted from her program.

Michelle and Kori, this is it from my side for this week. Please inform me once you have received the video!

All the best, Benetta.

I have watched it and hope to start it soon. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I'm sure with practice we can do it.

Thanks,
Michelle

"Great! Please keep us posted, and shout if you need help! ... nt" - Benetta February 13, 2003, 1:34 pm

Here's this weeks update:

Flashing exercise - I had my husband watch the video with us and watch me to see if I was going as fast as I'm supposed to. He said most of the time I'm doing good but once in a while I mess it up. I imagine I'll get this one down soon. Kori is getting the 3 blocks almost always and the 4 she gets about half the time. I don't know if it's because maybe I'm going to slow sometimes. I will keep trying to get faster and faster. Is it okay for us to do this exercise over and over again? When we finish our 1 hour of Audiblox we do the flashing ex again and sometimes she wants to keep trying. The first day she did it about 15 times. We have also tried do it throughout the day as Dr. Jan recommended.

Thanks,
Michelle

Posted by Benetta on February 18, 2003, 2:40 pm, in reply to "Kori's Diary"

Dear Michelle and Kori

Hi! Thanks for the feedback on Kori. Glad to hear that you both are doing so well with the Flashing exercise! Michelle, isn't it just great that Kori is so motivated and that she wants to do a few extra flashes? This is really a difficult exercise.

No major changes this week, since we have made quite drastic changes to her program since the beginning of this month. Please do not do a comprehension test this week. I think we must give her some time to get to know the current words that you are using in the Comprehension exercise really well - not only to read them, but also to be able to understand the meaning of these words.

Concerning the Flashing exercise, now do flashes with four and five blocks.

Michelle and Kori, I hope you are going to have a great week! Kori, keep working on those flashes, girl! One of these days, you'll be doing flashes with six and seven blocks!

Warm wishes, Benetta.

"flashing ex...," Posted by Michelle on February 19, 2003, 1:22 am, in reply to "Re: Kori's Diary"

Benetta,

Kori is doing this very well even with the 4 & 5. How do you determine if it is time to go up one more? I don't think she finds it very difficult as you say it is. She misses the 5 about 50% of the time and only misses the 4 about 10% of the time. Could I still be slow? I think I'm fast enough but maybe not! I think the reason she likes it is because it isn't time consuming.

Thanks,
Michelle

Posted by Benetta on February 19, 2003, 10:45 am, in reply to "flashing ex..."

Dear Michelle,

If she manages to do them correctly at least 80% of the time, you will know that it is time to increase the degree of difficulty. You can now do flashes with 5 and 6 blocks. It is a good idea to constantly try and increase the speed at which you flash them - the faster, the more effective the exercise will be.

Warm wishes,
Benetta.

Hi everyone.
Here's our latest update.

Flashing EX - Kori is very challenged by using the 5 and 6 blocks now. She is still very happy with this ex! She loves doing it.
Sequencing - 55

Arrows - She is doing fairly well but hasn't come close to mastering this altough we are now using some more difficult words. We started using words like and, if, the, had and it. Now she is using words like night, might, light, good-bye, and without. So, she's getting better.

Reading - We still haven't added any new words. She still skips a words in the stack now and then preventing her from getting them all right. Usually it is the 5th word I throw down. She just says the 1st 4 and then the 6th one. It's a strange pattern that I sort of picked up on and have been watching.

Dictation - This is getting a bit better. I think this is good because she is now forced to write words that she doesn't choose. Most of her writing before has been her own ideas. After Audiblox we correct the dictation passage together. She likes to see her errors. I've noticed that she is beginning to remember the words she missed from the day before and she'll take a second to think about it and write it correctly remembering the correction we did the day before. I'm very excited about this because she never used to remember the spelling of a word even if we drilled it all week.

Logical thinking 1 - Kori was reviewing the old ones and getting stuck on the m,n,o and p. This week she jammed right through all of them. Getting them all right with a good explanation.

Counting - Kori is doing great on her review and the 3-90 has been a challenge this week.

Comprehension ex - This has been getting backed up lately but delaying the comprehension sheet allowed us to get some extra needed practice and finish adding words from her comp sheet.

Reading comp. - Well, we did this last night and the comp. ex paid off. She scored 90% in 13minutes. She was very excited. I sent her to her room and she came out with a huge smile telling me that she know she did very good.

I haven't done the reading test yet. I will post as soon as we do that.

Well, that's it!
Michelle

Posted by Benetta on February 26, 2003, 2:43 pm, in reply to "Kori's Diary"

Dear Michelle and Kori

Hi! Thanks for the feedback on Kori. My apologies for the belated reply, but it was a bit hectic at the office again.

Michelle, I wish I could have bottled Kori's enthusiasm and motivation, and distribute it as part of the training material! She just never gives up! Thank you also for your commitment, it is always so pleasing to go to the diary and read your update.

One small change this week - I am a bit worried about the Reading exercise myself - Michelle, maybe you are becoming an expert and are throwing the cards down too quickly - so I am going to change this, but the rest will pretty much stay the same. Divide the words into 5 different piles and use one of the 5 piles per session. Throw down the words 5-5 at a time at maximum possible speed, instead of 6-6.

Michelle and Kori, that is it from my side for this week.
Keep up the good work!
Benetta.

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