Lindamood Bell

Friday, September 30, 2006

I just realized today that it's been a few days since I posted. We've had a busy week.

I talked to the publisher about my children's book, and once I get in the illustrations from my friend's daughter in Russia, we can really talk turkey. Zoya e-mailed the other day and said she's almost done with them.

I don't really have much time to write, but here's an e-mail I sent to a friend this morning, that catches up a little bit:

Once I get my 171H form in, and the dossier goes off, it will be 3-5 months before I actually travel to Kazkhstan. Looks like probably February or March. I hate waiting. I am glad I can come here and stay busy, and we have various projects at home.

I have a friend who works for a foundation called the Antares foundation, and she is in touch with folks at the orphanage where my son is, and sends me photos.  She adopted an 8 year old boy from the same orphanage a couple of years ago, so she is a fount of information. Here’s some photos from an outing they took the kids on a few months ago. You can see my boy in the shots near the lower right - there are a couple where you can see him clearly, just look for the missing right hand –

http://antares-orphans.org/a_rbs616.asp

Alesia has been diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder. I am glad I had her tested. I thought she had ADD – it’s often mis-diagnosed as ADD or ADHD. There’s a great private remedial program called Lindamood Bell, and they work with kids with all kinds of learning disabilities. Their success rate is phenomenal. I met yesterday with the director of the Lindamood Bell program and we reviewed Alesia’s test scores. On a couple of things Alesia was in the middle percentiles [spelling and one other]. On a couple of the tests she was in the 1^st percentile – comprehension related stuff. They did say she reads on 6^th grade level and spells on 9^th grade level, which is encouraging. They also said that one of their programs may help reduce her accent.

So, Alesia is going to start this Monday, going 4 hours a day, from 8 – 12. I will drop her off before work [it’s on Cobb Pkwy, nearby], and go get her on my lunch hour and take her home.

The program itself means there are 4 therapists a day who will work with her one on one. I am so hopeful that this program will make a big difference to Alesia. You can view the website at www.lindamoodbell.com.