The Audiblox Diary of Kori Mitchell

January 2003

Posted by Michelle on January 13, 2003, 6:39 pm

Hi everyone! Vacation is up! We had a great Christmas. Kori is very thankful for the lighter Audiblox program during this time.

Here's her update:
Sequencing - 40 most of the time with an occasional 33.
Pattern - 35, she has struggled trying to get 45 but I believe that she will soon.
Auditory Pattern - She completed 16 at the start of vacation. Now she is working on 18. We were so excited because we have been at the 16 for so long.
Arrows - all these exercises are going very well. She has them down and only makes an occasional error.
Reading - I'm not sure we progressed much here. I think the smaller amount of time has only kepted her from going backward.
Counting - I think she has done great in this. She appears to have mastered counting by ones and two's even the odd ones.
Comprehension - She is drilling 48 cards now.
Adding - this is going so well, she has at times finished adding the 2's.
Tables - These are still to slow. She knows the answers but can't seem to speed up much. I think there has been some improvement though.

Here's the scores for her Reading Comprehension Sheets. The last one she did was #3 so I'll just number them and the score.

4. 60% 33 min.
5. 60% 21 min.
6. 80% 14 min.
7. 70% 19 min.
8. 50% 15 min.

The last one was kind of depressing. But she has done well on the others.

I can finally say I've noticed her spelling doing a little better. We are trying to get her writing more to monitor that.

I think thats all for now. I hope you all had a wonderful vacation.

Blessings,
Michelle

"I know I'm impressed (m)," Posted by Cindy on January 13, 2003, 10:48 pm, in reply to "Kori's Diary"

I was just thinking that Kori has come at least 4 or 5 grade levels in one year. That is really amazing.

I also know the Abeka comprehension sheets are on the advanced side for their grade levels. So she is doing really well.

Cindy.

Posted by Benetta on January 14, 2003, 2:12 pm, in reply to "Kori's Diary"

Dear Michelle and Kori

Welcome back! I sure missed the weekly ritual of chatting to you two on the message board! I can imagine Kori was impressed with less Audiblox, but unfortunately, today it is back to the treadmill… A few changes should do the trick this week, I am sure she will quickly settle into her old routine again.

Michelle, Kori did a great job with the comprehension tests, apart from the last one, that is. The Abeka books are of a very high standard. What is more important, is that for most of the tests, the time she spends to complete it, is gradually decreasing.

Concerning Kori's program, please note that you should disregard the program from the e-mail dated 2002-12-04, and follow the program given in my personal e-mail to you. It is back to the previous workload, i.e. 5 sessions per week.

Concerning the Sequencing exercise, biggest change this time around will be to this exercise. I want you to continue with the SAME sequence for a whole week, instead of starting with a new sequence every day. If, for instance, she manages to get up to 25 blocks on the first day, on the second day you will continue with the same 25 blocks. Show these blocks to her, and whenever she manages to arrange them correctly, keep on adding new blocks to the same sequence. I am re-adjusting the practice target, as this is quite a drastic change. Please change the target to: Start with 5 blocks/add 5 when correct within the allotted time/add none when incorrect. Michelle, I hope you will have enough blocks for such a clever little girl!

Concerning the Counting exercise, continue as is, i.e. review some of the older steps on Day 1. The older steps will be counting in ones, counting in 2s (2-100 and back), as well as counting in 2s from 1-99 and back. Now for a new step!! Drill the current new step on Day 2, which must now be counting in 3s from 3-60 and back.

Michelle and Kori, these are all the changes for now. Have a super week, speak to you soon again!
Best, Benetta.

Kori just finished another one and scored %50 in 19 min. Benetta, I sent you an email, I accidentally sent it from my husbands email. It has her reading in it. Thought maybe you should see it.

Thanks,
Michelle

Thanks for sending me the copy of the comprehension test. Unfortunately, I was unable to open the attachment, but at least I could read the message you sent by e-mail, saying that the word program you used to type the test for me, placed the comprehension test on a grade level of 9.5. I knew the Abeka books were of a high standard, but I did not expect it to be that high! If this is the case, then I feel like jumping non-stop from sheer joy.

Michelle, I think you must continue with the comprehension tests once a week, but let us make a small change:

Every Saturday, please go through the test for the next week, and find words that you think Kori might struggle with. In the week to come, teach her these words with the comprehension exercise. Then, do the test on Friday. I think it will help a great deal if she has a better vocabulary. At this stage, it is more a lack of understanding, due to poor vocabulary, than a lack of understanding, due to poor reading skills, that is causing her to score 50% for the comprehension test.

Also, we want to ask you a favour. Would you be willing to take Kori for a "Visagraph Test" in April? I think this will be a true reflection of the progress she has made, and will help us to make the necessary adjustments for the final stretch!

I shall speak to you soon again,
Benetta

Benetta,

I think Kori has had this test last January. She was part of a research project. They had done several tests and an IQ/knowledge test. She scored like a 13 yo in the IQ/knowledge test. They were very impressed but said that due to her visual skills she was in the lowest 1% of dyslexics and may never read properly and if she did they said it would take years! I will try and see if this same doctor would do the test again and maybe he has a record of her results 1 year ago. That might be fun! I'll let you know what happens.

Hi! Well it's great to be back. I think that not being in contact for that month made me feel insecure! Now we are back full swing and excited to see new results.

Sequencing - 45 was what she managed this week.
Pattern - 35
Reading - she is picking up speed and accuracy again. Doing the 18 min instead of 10 makes a huge difference with her. We haven't added any new cards though.
Comprehension - Speeding up some. She had started making more errors over the break and is now almost ready to start adding new words again.
Auditory pattern - working 18
Counting - She is doing great on this now, the 3's are comming along and the review is still going fine.
Arrows - still doing almost perfect
Logical thinking 1 - Worked I, J & K4 with no problems
Logical thinking 5a - worked ex 1, 2, 3 no problems
Adding - she comes very close to getting to +3
Subtraction - She didn't do so good on this. Maybe she's rusty from not doing it in awhile.
She only got to the 1st row on -2's.

Tables - I don't know what to say about this. She is not picking up speed. However, I gave her a speed drill from math where she has to answer 72 times problems as quickly as she can. It's probably been 6 months since she's done these and she used to always take longer than 10 minutes but this time she finished in 7 minutes. We were so pleased! She couldn't believe it and was so happy!

Well, that's all. Benetta am I supposed to do the reading test?
Thanks,
Michelle

Dear Michelle and Kori

Hi! Yes, I can imagine that you must have missed our weekly chats… Glad to hear that you are both back into the routine again!

I was very impressed with the news you had on the Maths. It is as if Kori is picking speed in all areas now, and this is a great indication of how hard you have been working.

Michelle, yes, you should do the reading test again this week. I just wanted her to get back into the routine, before continuing with it.

Concerning Kori's program, please note that you should continue with the program from the e-mail dated 2003-01-14, but incorporate the changes sent to you in my personal e-mail.

Concerning the Sequencing exercise, this went very well, but no change to the practice target yet. As soon as she manages to reach 50 blocks or more per week, for two weeks in a row, we can change the target.

Concerning the Arrows exercise, time for a change! She must now do marching and spelling as indicated in my personal e-mail to you.

Concerning the Auditory exercise, please go back to examples with 5 blocks, but instead of reading them twice, you must now read it once only and then ask her to build it.

Concerning the Subtraction exercise 1, yes, she should be a bit rusty after not doing it for a few weeks, which explains why she battled with it.

Michelle and Kori, I hope that next week's message will bring even better news. I am getting extremely excited, it feels like hours while waiting for my computer to log onto our message board!

Have a great week, Benetta.

Benetta,

I emailed the Doctor at the college that tested Kori for a research project and explained the situation and he said he'd be very glad to retest her and compare the results from last year! He said I can make an appointment with him anytime. So I'll wait till April unless you want it done sooner.

God Bless,
Michelle

Dear Michelle,

This is great news! I discussed the matter with Dr. Jan and we were wondering, do you think the doctor will be able to test her next month? Kori has been doing Audiblox for a year now - I guess you forgot about that! - and the results of the test will help me to speed up her progress. We can always repeat it again later, if necessary.

Please let me know what you think.
Greetings, Benetta.

"I'll make an appointment A.S.A.P." Posted by Michelle on January 27, 2003, 6:13 pm, in reply to "Re: Kori's Visagraph Test! Good News!"

I'll let you know when it will be.

Hi everyone!

Here's our weekly update.
Sequencing - 40
Pattern - 35
Auditory Pattern She at 7 blocks now.
Reading - We added 6 new cards this week
Arrows - This new one is challenging but I've already seen improvement in all of them with the spelling.
Logical thinking 1 - Working on m
Counting - good! The 3's are comming along great. She's almost ready to move on.
Comprehension - We didn't add any knew words this week.
Adding - About the same. She is getting to the beginning of +3 most the times.
Subraction is doing better. She getting to the same spot she was at before the break.
Logical thinking 5a - She has reviewed 1 - 3 and does okay but still has trouble with 4 and 5.
Logical thinking 5b - we haven't had any progress on this yet. We will keep working on it.
Reading Comprehension - 50% in 14min. I did what you suggested and reviewed the words last Saturday. These are very, very difficult for her now.
Reading Test(Rainbow Dreams) - She finished the 20th paragraph with 30 errors. Not much different than the last time.

Well,
Till next time!
Michelle

Posted by Benetta on January 27, 2003, 2:07 pm, in reply to "Kori's Diary"

Dear Michelle and Kori

Hi! Thanks for the next update, I am glad to hear that Kori is back on the level she was before the X-mas break with all the exercises.

Michelle, I can imagine that the comprehension tests are becoming very difficult. Do not forget to add the words she did not understand, to the Comprehension exercise. You must not only drill them with her on the Saturday, but add them to the Comprehension exercise and drill them with her during the whole week, before doing the test on the following Friday.

Concerning Kori's program, please note that you should continue with the current program. I am only going to make a change to the Arrows exercise this week, as we have introduced quite a number of new things lately. The Arrows exercise is difficult. I wonder if I would be able to do it? Kori, this just shows you how clever you are! For all three steps, you must now replace either left or right with spelling and clapping.

Michelle and Kori, this is it from my side for this week. Have a good one, I shall speak to you soon again!

Benetta.

"I did the comprehension wrong!" Posted by Michelle on January 27, 2003, 6:10 pm, in reply to "Re: Kori's Diary"

Sorry! I only reviewed them one day! I guess I thought that they were to be done separate!

Michelle

To continue to February 2003, click here