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Tuck had his reading today. We spent all week making a book of pictures of
Tuck and the kids he works with. Making a children's book isn't nearly as easy as writing first grade books would seem. Apparently first grade is too hard for me. It took me all week to make a first grade book of 13 pages. It's being bound now, and I get to pick the books up in the morning for distribution. YAY for STAPLES! The progress in the reading group is speeding along.There are 6 therapy dogs in the school (No this was not my idea... I was dragged into this program kicking and screaming. I did not see any sense in spending $70 to get my dog therapy tested and then entered in the program just so I could drive 30 miles every week (current price of gas is shocking) and spend half a day with first and second graders that I didn't know. I thought those years were well behind me. The kids are LOVING reading, and some asked to read more than one book to him. The kid that was so terrified of dogs that he panics even thinking of having on within 2 rooms of him still needs someone with him when he works with Tuck, but today he petted Tuck, and actually HUGGED him! HUGE progress. One girl who is very distracted just hugged him like she would never let him go, and of course, he loved that. He really thinks he's a teddy bear. He sat on her lap, Tucked his head under her chin, wrapped a paw around her neck and hugged her for all he was worth until her time was up. This girl seems to need a lot of touching. And Tuck is more than willing to be her bear. Tuck went to his mailbox, opened it for every kid, and took out their letters and brought it to them. The teachers were amazed. The first grader is doing much better this week. And he wanted to read to Tuck, and he sat right down and wrote Tuck another letter. He's actually the best reader of them all. He's a better reader than all the second graders that we work with, yet he's the only first grader in our class. Since these kids are the ones having the most difficulty reading in the school, I haven't figured out why he's in the remedial reading class. They just put him on drugs for ADD two weeks ago, and the teachers don't know why (parent request) and the drugs have had a very negative impact on this kid's school work. He had lost all motivation and the doctors took him back off the drugs, and today he was back to being his normal self. I like him so much better off drugs than on. Tuck is receiving many letters from the kids. So his presence has become a writing skills motivation as well. Tuck (me) just finished up writing all the replies to his fan mail, asking questions so each child has a reason to keep writing to him. Another kid from another classroom, that's a behavior problem has been earning stars of good behavior all week, so he could leave his classroom to come pack up Tuck's stuff in his backpack . They (teachers) are finding all kinds of reasons to use Tuck to higher standards. Yet they have not yet even tickled the breadth and scope of Tuck's abilities and skills. There are six dogs in that school program, but they are all asking for Tuck. The teachers have requested that I spend more days volunteering in the school. I told them no. I need some days to actually train Tuck. He is going to be a real tracking dog ...someday. And maybe an obedience dog, and perhaps even a show dog. But most of all, 3 hours is a long time for a dog to maintain a presence and be expected to perform on demand over and over and over. I don't want to burn him out. Tuck is showing some burnout of doing repetitive tricks for so long. An added day a week would be too much for him. He IS a dog afterall. Tuck is in heaven though, he loves being mobbed by hoards of kids. I'm finding this all very rewarding and a valuable experience, for myself, Tuck, AND the kids. |
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On Dec 18, 11:34 pm, diddy none wrote:
3 hours is a long time for a dog to maintain a presence and be expected to perform on demand over and over and over. I don't want to burn him out. Tuck is showing some burnout of doing repetitive tricks for so long. An added day a week would be too much for him. He IS a dog after all. I think that's already a lot for both of you. One thing about being a good volunteer is that more is always asked of you. Tuck is in heaven though, he loves being mobbed by hoards of kids. I'm finding this all very rewarding and a valuable experience, for myself, Tuck, AND the kids. It's great that Tuck can reach the kids. |
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"diddy" none wrote in message . .. snipped Tuck is in heaven though, he loves being mobbed by hoards of kids. I'm finding this all very rewarding and a valuable experience, for myself, Tuck, AND the kids. I love reading about this program diddy! And it appears you and Tuck are enjoying it. This is just so cool. My two favorite things in the whole world, dogs and little kids, and you have managed to make the absolute most of both! Kudos' to Tuck and to you for giving you both the opportunity. I'm glad Tuck is getting so much *kid time*. td |
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"diddy" none wrote in message . .. (snip) I'm finding this all very rewarding and a valuable experience, for myself, Tuck, AND the kids. I'm sure you know what kind of an impact a really good teacher can have on your life. I think you and Tuck are impacting these kids in that way. You're giving them the opportunity to learn about reading and writing and that is more than just learning to read and write. Talk about taking the ball and running with it, you two take the ball and the cake, Karla |
#5
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diddy wrote:
snip Tuck went to his mailbox, opened it for every kid, and took out their letters and brought it to them. The teachers were amazed. The first grader is doing much better this week. And he wanted to read to Tuck, and he sat right down and wrote Tuck another letter. He's actually the best reader of them all. He's a better reader than all the second graders that we work with, yet he's the only first grader in our class. Since these kids are the ones having the most difficulty reading in the school, I haven't figured out why he's in the remedial reading class. They just put him on drugs for ADD two weeks ago, and the teachers don't know why (parent request) and the drugs have had a very negative impact on this kid's school work. He had lost all motivation and the doctors took him back off the drugs, and today he was back to being his normal self. I like him so much better off drugs than on. snip Who knows what's going on in this kid's home after school. Unfortunately there is no definitive test for ADD, no blood test, no x-ray that shows exactly what the problem is. Sometimes it just comes down to a trial by medication. A friend who's a pediatrician told me "If the meds work, we call it ADD, because you can't cure LAS (Little Asshole Syndrome) with Ritalin. And unfortunately, in some cases it's the parent that really needs to go take a pill". |
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Kathleen wrote:
A friend who's a pediatrician told me "If the meds work, we call it ADD, because you can't cure LAS (Little Asshole Syndrome) with Ritalin. And unfortunately, in some cases it's the parent that really needs to go take a pill". This subject always interests me. Apologies for bringing it up again. Is that true? Is it true that Ritalin doesn't work on all kids? If so, it is unusual in the drug world. We give Oxycodone to people in pain, and for a great many of them, it cures their pain, that is, on a scale where extreme pain is on one end and feeling pretty good is on the other, the Oxycodone moves them several steps towards the feeling better side of the scale. But if you give the drug to someone who isn't in pain, it still moves them closer to feeling better. That's why it's addictive, isn't it? Or imagine there was a psychological disorder called Inhibited, a disorder characterized by extreme shyness and inability to speak freely in a number of situations, a disorder where a person's natural self-censor that prevents him from doing and saying stupid things works overtime. We've got a drug for that. We call it alcohol. But alcohol works on people whose self-censor is working the way it should too and moves them several steps in the direction of being even less inhibited. Prozac can take people who aren't severely depressed or even not severely depressed and make them feel even better. It can get rid of all the little irritations, annoyances, and fears that come with real life. Antibiotics work to kill all bacteria in people who don't have infections. Antihistamines dry me out when I'm not having an allergy attack. So how is Ritalin the one drug where responding to the drug can be used to diagnose a problem? Wouldn't it improve concentration in kids who are concentrating appropriately for their age level anyway? (I agree with you about the parents often being the ones who need improvement. Somehow it's illegal for schools to tell parents how to bring up their children (something I approve of) but legal for schools to insist that children be given drugs.) --Lia |
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Julia Altshuler wrote:
Kathleen wrote: A friend who's a pediatrician told me "If the meds work, we call it ADD, because you can't cure LAS (Little Asshole Syndrome) with Ritalin. And unfortunately, in some cases it's the parent that really needs to go take a pill". This subject always interests me. Apologies for bringing it up again. Is that true? Is it true that Ritalin doesn't work on all kids? If so, it is unusual in the drug world. snipped description of how many other drugs work. So how is Ritalin the one drug where responding to the drug can be used to diagnose a problem? Wouldn't it improve concentration in kids who are concentrating appropriately for their age level anyway? The effect of ritalin (and other stimulant drugs) _is_ unusual on many ADD kids, because it calms them; whereas normals become stimulated. Theories abound, and several of them center around defects in one or another neurotransmitter system. This article presents a bit of an overview and describes evidence that not only dopamine systems but also possibly serotonin systems are involved. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0118075443.htm Drugs that affect dopamine systems (Ritalin, stimulants) as well as drugs that affect serotonin systems (Prozac, MAO inhibitors) are used to treat ADD, with varying effectiveness. But of course ADD is not that simple, and cause, diagnosis and treatment are violently controversial (if you want to see an area of inquiry where observed correlations are frequently taken as evidence of causation, this is a good place to look!). It's not easy to diagnose; it manifests differently in different children. It almost certainly has multiple causes. Some people argue that it's a management problem, not a defect; being ADD has some advantages that those of us with more pedestrian brains lack - think of the energy! Like most psychiatric diagnoses, it's not always clear (to people outside of the pharm. industry) that drugs are the appropriate treatment; they affect people differently, and they have many side effects, and behavioral techniques, while more time consuming, also can be effective in helping the children to calm and focus. (I agree with you about the parents often being the ones who need improvement. Somehow it's illegal for schools to tell parents how to bring up their children (something I approve of) but legal for schools to insist that children be given drugs.) School personnel generally aren't qualified to diagnose ADD or ADHD. I've read that parents have been told to keep their kids out of school unless they are medicated for ADHD, but is that actually legal? Or does it vary by state? FurPaw -- "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." - Dwight D. Eisenhower To reply, unleash the dogs. |
#8
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Julia Altshuler wrote:
Kathleen wrote: A friend who's a pediatrician told me "If the meds work, we call it ADD, because you can't cure LAS (Little Asshole Syndrome) with Ritalin. And unfortunately, in some cases it's the parent that really needs to go take a pill". This subject always interests me. Apologies for bringing it up again. Is that true? Is it true that Ritalin doesn't work on all kids? If so, it is unusual in the drug world. snip The way I understand it, children with ADD and ADHD have some sort of abnormal chemistry going on in their brains. Give them a stimulant drug and it does pretty much the opposite of what you'd expect in someone with "normal" chemistry - it lets them slow down and focus. Give Ritalin to a normal person and it acts like speed, keeping them wide awake. Hence the potential for abuse, especially among folks cramming for exams, for example. There are several different medications for ADD and if one doesn't work, or doesn't last long enough, and you're still seeing typical ADD/ADHD behavioral issues it may be worth trying another. |
#9
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FurPaw wrote:
This article presents a bit of an overview and describes evidence that not only dopamine systems but also possibly serotonin systems are involved. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0118075443.htm Drugs that affect dopamine systems (Ritalin, stimulants) as well as drugs that affect serotonin systems (Prozac, MAO inhibitors) are used to treat ADD, with varying effectiveness. Great article. Thanks. I'm still reading. --Lia |
#10
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In article ,
Kathleen wrote: The way I understand it, children with ADD and ADHD have some sort of abnormal chemistry going on in their brains. It's widely thought to involve a dopamine deficiency. [Been diagnosed, don't give a crap.] -- Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis - Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community |
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