Samantha's Story

Samantha's Story

By Claudette Anderson

As a student moving into high school, where the curriculum creates demands on all students, Samantha, a freshman, is overwhelmed with an increased volume of homework and textbook reading. As a result, Samantha is becoming overly anxious to a point where her visual system has become affected severely and she has begun exhibiting ADHD symptoms. Samantha’s parents contacted Prescription for Success when they became concerned at the amount of time it took for Samantha to do her homework and had the notion that Samantha had now developed ADHD.

After testing Samantha using the diagnostic SOI CR Cognitive Assessment, the Sensory-Motor Integration Screening, the Visual Screening, and the Qualitative Reading Inventory, we could see that Samantha was experiencing visual fatigue and literally shutting down from the testing. Her eyelids became nearly closed as we finished the testing; she began getting restless and her arms and legs were moving more; she shifted her chair back and forth; she tapped her pencil; she rubbed her eyes quite often; her attention skills were disintegrating; she asked for directions to be repeated on every subtest; she ran out of testing time on many of the last subtests that she took. The total assessment time was 3 ½ hours. As suspected, the assessment showed underlying visual learning abilities. These are the findings from her assessments:

All of her underlying visual learning abilities were low. Samantha had gone through a program of Vision Therapy treatment before coming to Prescription for Success. Otherwise, we first would have referred her for Vision Therapy. Now, Samantha was ready for treatment for the poorly developed underlying visual learning abilities. The problems that can occur if one’s visual learning abilities are low were classic for Samantha:

1. will not see a word completely and say another word in its place

2. omits small words in sentences and misreads endings or beginnings
of words

3. poor at word problems and analogies

4. loses place and skips lines while reading

5. slow reader and poor fluency rate

6. low reading comprehension and difficulty with classification

7. cannot conceptualize similarities and differences in meaning

8. poor speller

Samantha’s memory skills were low in Visual Memory for Details and Visual Memory for Visual Sequencing. It is very difficult for Samantha to hold information in her mind while “processing” it at the same time. She has difficulty recalling long words or sequences of directions. This leads to difficulty in concentrating-thus, the ADHD symptoms.

Samantha’s Memory for Auditory Attending and Concentration is barely developed. Hence, she forgets verbal instructions and forgets numbers in isolation, and she is inattentive in lectures. Once again, ADHD symptoms appear. This affects the Arithmetic/Mathematics curriculum.

Samantha’s Memory for Auditory Sequencing is very low and that affects the Arithmetic/Mathematics area in that it is very difficult for Samantha to work with “thought” problems involving different and more than one numerical concepts. Set concepts are hard for her to understand.

Samantha’s Sensory-Motor Integration screening showed that she needed work in the Body in Space area.

The visual screening test showed a moderate weakness in eye teaming.

We are now ready to start the journey of developing the visual and memory underlying learning abilities. Samantha will be coming to Prescription for Success three times a week for a one hour session. Her prescribed work will consist of:

Twenty minutes of work in the activity IPP room working on body in space and visual skills using the Belgau Balance Board, mini-tramp, and walking rail.

Thirty minutes of work in her personalized workbook consisting of SOI modules for Visual Skills and Memory learning abilities

Ten minutes working on a Memory computer CD and Brain Builder CD.

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Samantha's Story Part II

By Claudette Anderson

We have been so fortunate to share an ongoing case study with our readership about Samantha, one of our clients. Samantha is a freshman in high school and she came to us because it was taking Samantha such a long time to do her homework and her parents were worried that she might have ADHD.

We have now worked with Samantha for one month, 12 one-hour sessions. Samantha is not the same young lady that she was when she first came to us. We saw a very despondent Samantha and she did display ADHD symptoms. Samantha did not converse very much during the first week and she appeared quite nervous. She did not know really what to expect. All that she knew was that her parents had signed her up to work with us in whatever we did. She was not buying into the idea that her life of homework could change for the better.

Samantha now greets us with a big smile and conversation when she comes to our center. If Claudette has fresh chocolate chip cookies out, she always has to have one or two before she starts her session in the Activity Room with Perry.

Samantha needed a great deal of work in the Sensory-Motor Integration area. In the Activity Room, Samantha worked on learning how to use her power (dominant) foot to get on and off the equipment the first day and to do simple movements on the trampoline, Belgau Balance Board, and her dreaded “walking rail.” Samantha finally mastered walking heel to toe forwards and backwards on the walking rail after 9 sessions. She had to be able to do this three times in a row. Samantha felt very frustrated with the walking rail challenge and she often would be talking to herself. At first, she would chastise herself for falling off the rail, but after a few weeks her conversation to herself became very encouraging, “Only one more time “ or You can do this!” Samantha, her father, and us, celebrated the day that she conquered the walking rail. That day was a major day of change in Samantha’s attitude about herself. Now, Samantha occasionally does the walking rail “just for fun!”

Samantha has become very proficient on the trampoline doing different turns with different arm movements. On the Belgau balance board, Samantha works with a bean bag performing different tosses; she does shape writing with her nose on the balance board. She has to have six practice sessions on each activity and then, to pass a level, she has to pass four replications of each activity in which she has to do each activity for a longer period of time.

All of the work in the Activity Room greatly improves visual skills, eye-hand coordination, balance, centering, and increases memory function. Samantha struggled with crossing the midline activities on the balance board and that struggle has been eliminated, too.

Samantha was experiencing such extreme visual stress when she came to us, even though she had been through a successful program of Vision Therapy. Her underlying visual skills were extremely undeveloped according to the SOI assessment. Her personalized workbook modules started out with visual skills and at first we could only do at most two pages because Samantha had so much visual stress. No wonder she could not handle the hours of school homework. The minute she starting to “shut down” in our visual work, she started to exhibit ADHD symptoms. She started to wiggle in her chair, change her position often, rub her eyes, lean on her arm, etc. We would have to stop and we would work memory skills on the computer.

Samantha’s visual endurance has dramatically changed now. It is seldom that we see visual stress. Samantha has completed 22% of the written modules in her personalized workbook and she has completed 20% of her memory work. Samantha continues to work on a computer visual skills CD and she has more advanced visual skill modules to complete. Samantha had low memory skills so these are addressed in her program, too.

Samantha loves soccer and she shares that she has noticed improved progress with her soccer performance.

Samantha truly has done a remarkable job in only a month’s time. Her stay at Prescription for Success will be shorter than we first anticipated. We are now projecting 4-5 months of work with us, if she continues at this current rate.

I have to share one final story about Samantha that occurred after working with her for seven sessions. When we sat down to start her personalized workbook, I could tell that Samantha had something on her mind, and then, she shared that she did not know if it was just a coincidence, but that on most nights, she was up doing homework until midnight, but lately, she was done with her homework by 9 p.m. I explained to Samantha that it was not coincidence, but the reality that her program at Prescription for Success was actually working:

faster processing time by using the metronome therapy

visual stress was nearly eliminated

visual skills were more efficient

shorter homework time

memory was enhanced

better self-esteem

improved motor skills

better athletic abilities

I commenced to praise Samantha for her diligent work and successes she was experiencing and then, I told her that she would continue to see wonderful changes in her learning abilities as we progressed through her program and then, it slipped out of Samantha, “You mean that I am going to be normal; oh, I didn’t mean that; I know that I am normal, but you know what I mean.”

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Samantha's Story Part III

By Claudette Anderson

Samantha has been with us for two months and has been working with us for a total of 24 hours. Samantha, a freshman in high school, so graciously agreed to let us follow her progress and with doing so is helping to inform others what it is like to have learning difficulties and how symptoms of ADD/ADHD can arise from other causes, such as underdeveloped Visual Skills.

Samantha's amazing story has encouraged many to face adversity and get tested. Samantha's courage has contributed to our goal of helping students ages 6 to adult to achieve their learning potential. You are amazing, Samantha!

Samantha arrives eager and ready for her sessions. Samantha begins by working with Perry with her integrated motor activities. Repetition is crucial for Samantha for her to retain the skills that she has learned. She continues to work on finishing her replications of activities on both the Belgau Balance Board and the Mini-Tramp. Some of these activities include Sky Writing, which involves slowly drawing a big circle in the air and creating shapes such as squares, triangles, and diamonds.

An Additional exercise Samantha practices, involves reading a letter chart on the wall while walking forwards and backwards on the walking railing. Samantha also continues to improve her Visual Skills through balancing exercises on the Belgau Balance Board. Developing Samantha’s auditory processing skills involves performing activities on the mini-tramp while listening to CD instructions.

Working on Samantha’s memory skills and advanced levels of Visual skills has been our focus this past month. She is currently working on Memory for Details (Reading and Language Arts) and Memory for Graphic Relations (map details). Along with a combination of the use of the FSM Memory Kit and a Visual Memory Card game, Samantha has progressed through 77% of her memory work in just two months.

In the SOI or Structure of Intelligence learning abilities modules, we have been working on higher levels of Visual Skills. Samantha had to work at a much slower pace through this work. I continued to reassure Samantha that her processing speed was fine as we worked through this harder material. She was thrilled when we completed a module called NST III, which involves working on the ability to differentiate and recognize printed words. We are now working on reading comprehension.

In the SOI (Structure of Intelligence) learning abilities modules, we have been working on higher levels of Visual Skills. Samantha really had to work hard on these; Samantha had to work at a much slower pace through this work. She became worried at times that her processing speed was slowing down and I had to reassure her that her processing speed was fine and that we just had to work through this harder material. She was thrilled when we completed a module called NST III ( a module working on the ability to differentiate and to recognize printed words) and we are now working on a module for judging similarities and differences and this works on the underlying ability for reading comprehension.

Samantha’s memory skills have excelled this month. Memory is one of the easiest learning abilities to develop. Samantha’s processing speed has improved to the point that she now completes her homework in only 2 hours vs. 4 or 5. (What was this timeline before? We want to show the reduction in time spent doing homework), leaving her more time with friends and family. If Samantha continues to progress at her current pace, we project that her stay at Prescription for Success will be approximately four months, Samantha’s memory skills have excelled this month. Memory is one of the easiest learning abilities to develop. Samantha’s processing speed is very fast. She now completes her homework by 6-7 p.m. and she can actually have some fun with friends and family, instead of being burdened with her homework. We can now project that Samantha’s stay at Prescription for Success will be around four months, if she keeps on progressing at her current pace.

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Samantha's Story Part IV

By Claudette Anderson

Many have enjoyed following Samantha’s progress in the past three months. With great celebration, we are able to say that Samantha will be completing her program with us in a few short weeks. She has met her goals ahead of schedule and we are so proud of Samantha’s hard work and dedication to her prescribed program at our center.

Currently, Samantha is enjoying summer vacation and will be a sophomore in the fall. She looks to the new school year with great anticipation having developed her intellectual learning abilities, memory, sensory-motor, visual, auditory, and processing speed skills to a high level. Learning will come much easier for Samantha and completing her homework will be less of a chore as she completes it in a reasonable amount of time.

As part of the last Structure of Intellect (SOI) learning abilities modules that Samantha has yet to complete is the Reading and Language Arts curricular and the Verbal Relations. Her Structure of Intellect assessment revealed that Samantha needed work in this area. Verbal Relations involves understanding and using analogies and comparisons when communicating to others. Verbal Relations are also necessary for reading comprehension.

Over the course of this program, Samantha’s reading ability has grown remarkably and with great accuracy and speed. In working to expand Samantha’s vocabulary, we use multiple “hands on’ materials to write spelling words and the dictionary. Samantha’s goal is to move her spelling above grade level.

As Samantha’s progress improves and her sessions with us comes to a close, we would like to take this opportunity to let her and her parents know how pleased we are with her progress and for allowing our readers to follow her story. We have received many positive comments from our readers and we all wish Samantha the best in her future educational endeavors and a successful life. Samantha, we’ve enjoyed working with you. You’re a gifted student and now the rest of the world will see and benefit from your many talents!

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