Special Needs: How Leora Wrote Her Letter with me

I have been tutoring a special-needs child for six years, who has grown into a lovely young lady. Leora has Down Syndrome and when I first met her, age 16, she was unable to answer a yes or no question, or understand the concept of 1+1.

I had never met a child as mentally challenged as Leora was, and frankly, I have to admit that I had questions along the lines of, what IS inside her? How limited is this person? How much can be elicited? Does she think like us? Is she capable of the same depth of ideas? The same depth of understanding of life? The same complexity of emotions?

I have to admit that when I first began working with Leora I was doubtful as to how much was possible. That was at 16. But Leora was going to a special-needs school. They have methods of training the brain, building step upon step, with special exercises and activities to build skills for each brain activity, such as for example right and left frontal lobe thinking such as lateral thinking, inference, and reasoning, categorization; expressive, receptive and pragmatic language and so on- tools to build the brain. By the time Leora was 21, it seems that she was ready to show what she could do.

credit: scrapbooker-writingupastorm

My role in Leora's life is to tutor her in writing letters. She can't always express herself clearly and I elicit what's inside. I began the letter not expecting much- and I was to have a very humbling experience. The finest work Leora did was a letter she wrote with me, which took a few months to write.

THE LETTER ITSELF IS IN THE PREVIOUS POST,

and you will see what I mean. Not only did it turn out that Leora is capable of sophisticated emotion, but she excels in it. It took us a lot of effort, "pulling it out of her." But what a joyous surprised for us when it did emerge.

MY METHODS: 

Leroa's parents wanted her to write a letter to the people in her community who sponsor her, who help cover the expenses for the special schooling and residence, and even my tutoring! Leora was to tell them what she is accomplishing, and to thank them for making it possible.

Where my work comes in, was, first, I shape the letter by saying, for example, "These people have made your school possible. What do you want to say to them?" In other words I sort of suggest what she could say.

As far as the parts about her tutors, and money and baking- Leora was the one who decided that's what she wanted to talk about for her accomplishments.

As far as the organization of the letter, I give her the choice. I'll ask, does she want this part to come first or second or last etc. I follow her decision. If she disagrees, we discuss it.

Sometimes I'll take the initiative to cut and paste a sentence from one place to another where it would make more sense. I'd prefer to ask her opinion, but it's usually something very subtle and we just don't have time to go over it right now.

credit: zazzle

Where my hardest work comes in is in eliciting her sentences. I ask a series of questions to get her to think of what to say. I usually have in mind some vague idea of what she could say, and ask questions that could lead up to something like it. It's leading her, but she surprises me all the time. Other times I ask questions with no clue of what her answer might be.

An example: she talked about baking for Shabbos, so I asked her if there was anything special about the food she makes for shabbos. I did have something in mind, of course. She agreed- but I never expected the part about feeling the "air of Shabbos" blowing on the cupcakes!

Another very important thing I do is ask her to explain, develop, expand, and I elicit more details. One sentence can turn into a whole paragraph.

When Leora is on a roll, she hardly needs me at all. Sometimes it's easy and her words just spill out. (I don't think this would be possible unless we've been working steadily, and fluency is the payoff.) Often she herself knows what to say- and says it better than I could. Then other times a short paragraph can take us at least two sessions.

Every sentence is in her exact own words. She dictates to me and I write it down. I use every word exactly the way she says it.

Once in awhile it is necessary to tell her a better sentence construction, but I don't do that too often. I do it if it would make her language sound too unsophisticated. --Because I know it misrepresents what she is capable of!

Once in awhile I have refused to put something down, when it shows a deep misunderstanding of things. I explain to her why, until she agrees with me. For example, the part about Shabbos coming into her Home. She wanted to use the word Residence instead of Home. I convinced her that Home sounded better in that particular sentence because it was about Shabbos.

If she doesn't like my suggestion, and I cannot convince her, I do what she wants. I think I only forced her hand once or twice.

Leora is learning to type and send emails

I no longer accept anything but the very best from her. I reject many things by saying "you can do better than that." And then she does.

It's so amazing what an excellent ear she has for language. When she gives a bad sentence, I repeat to her the two choices- her way, and my way, and ask her which one she prefers. She ALWAYS prefers the correct one! She actually does a better job of it than many of my Adult Ed students!

As you can see, she has a way with words. And she seems to like language- such as her love of learning new phrases and idioms. In my opinion, Leora is a writer. it's true that I pulled most of it out of her-- but the important thing to keep in mind is-- IT'S THERE TO BE PULLED. And until it was pulled, we didn't know it was there. Even her parents were surprised.

For example: paragraph #one was not too difficult, I only needed to ask a couple of questions.

Paragraph #two took lots of time and trouble and eliciting and questions. The ideas are all hers, but she expressed her ideas in a confused way, and it took a very long time for us to develop it and figure out how to put it. At least two sessions, maybe more.

Paragraph #three - most of that came right out of her easily

Paragraph #four- she said "life isn't fair" and then the rest was confused. We had to figure out how to put it.

#Five: she said the first half but I had to elicit the rest.

That beautiful sixth paragraph just spilled out of her! Sometimes a lot of hard work suddenly pays off, like a motor that just keeps running.

Afterwards, Leora's parents wrote me a recommendation in which they said:

". . . Her latest project, however, was to help facilitate the writing of a special letter by our daughter – which expressed our daughter’s inner feelings and future goals.
Eve spent many hours asking questions of our daughter to “draw out” the sentiments of a normally quiet girl – not an easy task.
In addition, Ms. Scherr is a loving and loyal individual."


THE LETTER ITSELF IS IN THE PREVIOUS POST.