We are finished with Brain Balance, and I am not too impressed. Whit is still staring off into space and proceeding at a snail’s pace
when it comes to writing assignments, causing frustration all around (meaning I
get frustrated). His grades actually
came down marginally at school this go-round.
His teacher explained that he’s unable to finish written expression
during class. (Of course it doesn’t help
that 4 of 12 kids in his class are using laptops with DragonSpeak dictation
software, so that they don’t have to physically write any more. They just talk into their computers. Whit’s neuro-psych testing has actually shown
that noise totally distracts him. So you
can see how that is working out for him, with four kids mumbling around him
while he needs to actually write.)
I think he has made progress when it comes to math
though. He usually gets his homework
done in class and doesn’t have to bring it home. When he does have math homework, it goes relatively
quickly once I can convince him to start on it.
The same goes for any reading assignments, the type where you read a
page and then have to answer multiple-choice questions.
In January, I wrote a list of how I would judge
success. So let’s see how we did:
Easy homework taking 15 minutes? YES, as long as it’s not writing.
Less goofing off at school? NO, he had more U’s for unacceptable
behavior on this report card than ever before.
Able to remember three or more tasks given at once? OCASSIONALLY.
I’ve seen improvement, but I still am having to remind him more than I’d
care to.
Stop saying “no” just to be contrary? OCASSIONALLY. Again, maybe it’s better overall, but if he’s
feeling ass-y, I’m getting no’s.
This week Whit is being retested at Brain Balance so that we
can compare how he did back in January to how he is now. I will have those results next week, and I’ll
let you know how much Brain Balance says he improved. But I would have liked more drastic results.
