I intend this as Part I of a three part series, collectively addressing the question of why grammar is something that no comprehensive autism therapy should overlook.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Why grammar matters for autism, part I
Monday, June 30, 2008
Parents and math homework
An MSNBC article about a recent study showing that 50% of U.S. parents rate their schools poorly asks why parents are saying that schools should spend more time teaching math. The answer they propose: parents don't want to teach math at home.
"Math is the subject that parents are often intimidated by. We've allowed a lot of kids to just say, 'I'm not good at math,' .... and those kids become parents."
Friday, June 27, 2008
Minimizing grammar in autism therapy: in whose best interests?
My collaborator just reported to me her experience at this year's IDC (Interaction and Design) Conference at Northwestern University. It seems our paper was controversial. Apparently there were a number of staunch ABA supporters in the audience. And our paper apparently offended them by making favorable mention of Noam Chomsky and his critique of behaviorist approaches to language.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Math problems of the week: Grade 4 Trailblazers vs. Singapore Math
1. From the beginning of the Trailblazers Grade 4 Student Guide (p. 63):
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Any summer projects to share?
Has your school assigned your child an excessively complex, open-ended, off-topic, and/or demanding of time and/or "creativity"? If so, please share it here as a comment. Having excerpted my own children's summer project assignments here and here, I'm hoping to post an anthology of additional summer project assignments in a later entry.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Summer math projects: grade 6
Then there's the 6th grade summer math project that my autistic son will have to do.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Summer math projects: grade 2
Accompanying my daughter's report card yesterday was the following assignment for a "summer math project":