And The Abuse Keeps Coming
Let me preface this by saying that the Lee’s Summit R7 District Autism Consultant talked me into putting Jake in this class. The reason was that they had no other classes that he could take during that class period. I was not in support of this, but felt that I should trust the “experts”. That was very unwise of me. Let me also stress that Jake has never had a para and the para that they refer to is in the class to help all students.
Date: 10/4/2006 10:32:19 AM
Subject: Jacob
Hey there. Jacob had a presentation that didn't go very well yesterday. They were supposed to read a poem making changes in his voice. His para worked with him the day before trying to get him to practice with her, and he was not very cooperative. The rest of the kids did this in groups, but he wanted to work on his own. I was also unsuccessful at getting him to rehearse aloud which is the only way you can really prepare for this assignment. As a result, when he read it, he didn't read the title and didn't follow the required guidelines for vocal variety and volume and tempo changes. He only got a 20/45. I'm returning it today and letting him know that he can redo it for me if he wants to raise his grade, and I also wanted to let you know. Today we are starting to work on our monologues. They will choose one, write a character analysis of the character on a provided form, memorize it and present it toward the middle of next week. I just wanted to give you a heads up. Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Cathy Zornes
Speech/ Theatre/ Video Production
Tiger Tracks T.V.
Pleasant Lea Middle School
630 SW Persels
Lee's Summit, Missouri 64081
816-986-1499 ext. 8413
Kim,
I sent Ms. Zornes some information on why Jake doesn't make changes to his voice. I really understand her need to grade him based on his performance, but I am afraid that he brought down his whole group's grade this week. There is a grading sheet in Jake's backpack and it shows that the group got marked off because Jake didn't intonate. I would hate for the whole group to be penalized because of Jake's disability. Also, Jake wants to talk to you about Mrs. Garlic. I told him that he needed to discuss it with you. I'm afraid that he might forget. I will send you the information that I sent Mrs. Zornes.
Thanks again for all of your help.
Sherri
Mrs. Zornes,
I will talk to him tonight. Part of his Aspergers is the montone voice. When they do speak, the speech may be in a sing-song pattern or monotone (no variation in pitch, like playing a single note on an instrument). He missed your class today because he had an appointment with the psychologist.
Autism is characterized by: communication problems, which may include delays in developing speech, repeating words, and speaking in a monotone that lacks pitch, inflection, or rhythm poor social interaction repetitive behavior and interests unusual behaviors, such as spinning or flapping hands
17. Why do many individuals with Autism speak in a monotone?
The most common belief for this behavior is that the sound of their own voice actually hurts their hypersensitive auditory system. Once they find a tone that is not painful, they stick to it, which results in monotone speech. This could also be a cause for no speech, in that an individual may not be able to find a tone that is not painful.
Delay in or lack of expressive language skills
Poor comprehension of spoken and written language
Lack of responsiveness when addressed
Impairments in nonverbal communication, such as use of gestures, facial expression, eye contact and imitation
Differences in pitch, intonation, rate, rhythm, and/or stress.
Some individuals with autism may demonstrate monotone, or distinctly rhythmical speech
Repetitive or idiosyncratic language
Echolalia
Pronoun reversals
Restricted vocabulary, dominated by nouns.
The majority of speech may be to make requests or rejections
Perseveration on a topic, or changes topics frequently
Difficulty interpreting abstract concepts
Difficulty initiating conversation, using rules, maintaining a topic, interrupting and /or rigidity. The student with autism may demonstrate a stereotype routine way of interacting.
Difficulty comprehending verbal information, remembering a sequence, or connecting ideas.
Difficulty attending to relevant cues, sharing attention, or shifting attention from one stimulus to the next.
May demonstrate strength in speech production and vocabulary, but have significant difficulty carrying on a conversation or using speech for social interactive purposes
The follwing happened when Jake was required to attend a muscial. I went with him. It overwhelmed him and he spent most of the time with his ears covered.
Here's what happened after the musical that we went to. It was a three hour musical and he spent most of the time with his ears covered. That's why I went.
His teacher sent this:
I just wanted to let you know that the para has really been trying to work with Jake this hour on his critique over the play. There are specific guidelines that he needs to include. He is being very uncooperative and just keeps eating paper. He keeps repeating that the play was boring, and his mom even thought so. I told the kids that they did not have to write positive things. They can certainly write negative things as long they back it up with specific support. It is frustrating because he is basically refusing to do the work. We are going to work a little more on this on Monday, and then it will be due on Tuesday. I don't think that he made much progress on it. Just wanted to let you know.
I sent this:
I will work with him this weekend. I was trying to explain to Jake that musicals aren't everyone's cup of tea. I told him that I don't really like them either, but his Aunt Lois would have loved it. When Jake is chewing there are more important things going on than refusal to work. That is what he does when he has become overwhelmed. I will have to address this with his doctor on Thursday.
I worked with Jake and he got it done at home. He did bring home his paper and he had written a sentence for each point (there were six). We did six paragraphs, but I let him type them. That's what his IEP calls for. It also has, as a goal that Jake should go to the recovery room when he becomes overwhelmed. He thought that he wasn't allowed to do that anymore. This is a child that scored in the 3 and 4 year old level on parts of his Vineland. He is 13 years old.
On Monday his teacher wrote:
I was not expecting Jake to write 6 well developed paragraphs. We were just hoping to get a few sentences from him. The para worked one on one with them the entire time and was just trying to help him write the sentence that included the name of the play and who wrote it. I would have been thrilled with one sentence from each of the categories which would have been about 6 sentences total. Since we were working on it 3 different times in class that would come out to be about 2 sentences a class period. I'll talk with ___ today to find out if I'm supposed to modify the assignment even further than that.
Her original email said, "There are specific guidelines that he needs to include." That doesn't tell me that six sentences would have been enough. Jake insists that they said he had to write six paragraphs.
I wrote this:
Jake had actually written six sentences before he came home. He became overwhelmed because he thought that he had to write six paragraphs. That is what he perceived. He gets overwhelmed when he has to write that much. He is supposed to be able to type.
I'm sorry if there was some confusion.
She wrote:
I didn't realize he was supposed to type or I would have had him go with the para to the library. I don't know when he wrote the 6 sentences, but that is great because while in class the para was just trying get him to fill in the blanks of one sentence and he was not cooperating.
I wrote this:
I'm sorry that you didn't know about the typing. Jake has Dysgraphia. It makes writing very difficult and when he has to write a lot he becomes overwhelmed and can't even begin. That is why he started chewing the paper. He believed that he had to write six full paragraphs. That is when he shut down. I simply turned on the computer and set up the WordPerfect for him. He then did the work in about 1/2 hour.
One more thing, and it may seem insignificant, but Jake takes everything very literally. When he is asked if he wants to work with a group or work alone, he is assuming that alone means just him. No one else. No teacher or para. So, he might get frustrated when he is offered that option and then he has to work with an adult. I'm not saying that he shouldn't have to work with anyone. I'm just saying that he needs to understand the options. Such as, do you want to work with a group or your para? That seems like a small issue, but it has been causing him great frustration.
Thanks again.
She wrote:
Actually he had been chewing the wad of paper before we ever started the assignment when people were just sharing their reactions to the play. He seemed at ease and even participated positively two different times. I did know about the dysgraphia because I was in on that meeting and read the follow-up e-mails afterward. It was totally my fault that I didn't have him go type and will definitely do that in the future.
As far as the semantics used when talking about groups, I will try to be more careful. You are welcome to let him know that the para will almost always be working with him on everything because that seems to be our best way to keep him on task. However, when they are working with their partners on scenes, she and I will just roam around the room helping all the groups.
I sent her a lot of information on Aspgerger's Syndrome, Inattentive ADHD, and Dysgraphia. I had already done that twice before
Jake’s Critique of the Musical
Jacob Tucker
4th Hour
Wonderful Town
musical with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
music by Leonard Bernstein
It is based on the play My Sister Eileen, which is itself based on the collection of short stories by Ruth McKenney of the same name.
1. Storyline was very weak, most of the audience was unfocused (including me). The conga scenes were the only part anyone was focused on. It didn’t make me care at all. Very weak dialogue.
2. Not very believable or focused. Most of them really didn’t fit the part. Body was okay, but not the voices. Not very emotional and sad control. Hard to tell with relationships.
3. Good stage scenes, sometimes not appropriate for the actual scene though. Lights where good, costumes and makeup where really bad, mechanics where awful, the sound was to high for my sensitive ears.
4. There was a director?
5. My attention wasn’t held. Bad conclusion. Made no sense to me (but then again I watch movies like star wars and Larry the cable guy: health inspector).Liked all the the conga sailers. Why else but........CONGA!!!!!!!!??? conga scene. Funny, only part that didn’t have misery which I still laughed at, (I mean I laughed at the parts with sadness and I’d say “I laugh at others misery” which I’m just kidding about). Make me think what? I’d turn it into a star wars action flick with long jedi battles that involved Larry the cable guy and Jim Carry, with Adam Sandler as Yoda and Eddie Murphy as Chewbacca and Mr. T as Han Solo.
6.I don’t pay attention to the audience, mostly covered my ears do to bad sound effects and loud clapping and screaming. >:-(
"It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home." Carl T. Rowan
Sherri R. Tucker
Cofounder MOAFAA (Missouri Advocates for Families Affected by Autism)
Cofounder and President Lee's Summit Autism Support Group
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