Heart of Wisdom

Peyton: End of Year Update (long)

By Heart of Wisdom Academy - Saturday, June 29, 2013

This is my beautiful, sweet, daughter Peyton (aka "Baby Baller Cakes") at 2 months shy of 8 years old. I tell her all the time how glad I am that God gave her to me. I absolutely love her to pieces. She is caring, attentive, protective, creative, inquisitive, athletic, joyful, and helpful.
 I have shared in the past her learning difficulties:
  • expressive/reflexive language disorder
  • reading/writing disorder
  • extremely low IQ -borderline range
  • extremely poor working memory
  • extremely poor short-term memory
  • extreme difficulty with memory retrieval
She has received speech therapy twice a week for a complete year now. She recently completed her end of the year assessment in which she made no significant gains in reading or language skills. 

 She progresses slowly, but this is the first year where she has had virtually no academic progress. Her and her twin Kaden have similar learning struggles: they both receive the same therapy twice a week, his IQ is equally low (in fact lower), and their initial academic assessments were very similar; however, there is one major difference. He does not have the memory problems that she has. And for that reason alone he is has been able to progress academically where she hasn't.
For the last several years we've acknowledged that there is a learning disability, but it has become very clear this year that the real problem is memory. No matter who teachers her, what curriculum is used, or what building she's in; her brain goes with her everywhere. Her brain literally does a factory reset every couple of months, and start all over again reteaching everything. Unfortunately her therapists haven't worked with a child with these types of memory problems so we're all trying to learn together.
She seems to have a cycle: she accumulates information for 1 or 2 months, then she slowly starts to lose information, then all the information is totally gone and you can't input anything else in her brain. Give her brain a little break and then start all over again. She can't hold on to the information long enough to use. She doesn't consistently remember the days of week, months of year, address, phone number, numbers past 11, 911, alphabet,etc.  
I'll try to explain what is going on. She knows the alphabet, but she has memory lapses. So even though she knows the alphabet she can wake up and forget what sound "a" makes and that may continue for a few weeks and then get resolved. Then she will mistake "t" for "f" for several more weeks" and then it get resolved. And then 4 months later she has the same reversals and so we go back and reteach. And then it gets fixed and then she mistakes "l" for "f" and so on and so on....... It goes on like this forever, it's like plugging a leak and then another leak springs....and it goes on and on. So 3 full academic years later she's still at a pre-k/ beg. Kindergarten level. The memory lapses have worsened in the fact that she is forgetting common everyday things, not just the names of things, but forgetting what they are completely. ex. sink, living room, Christmas, washcloths, etc. etc. For example: I asked her to clean the living room and she asked me what's the living room. (she is scheduled to see a neurologist) 

Believe it or not, this is one of the hardest things I've ever dealt with in my life. And I've dealt with plenty of sick kids, and life-threatening diseases. At times I feel like this is the hardest one, I am grateful for the trial because God is humbling me and I needed it. This experience has humbled me and challenged me to the core. I have to face the idols in my heart and my convictions and faith have deepened. 

What God whispers to my heart:


  • If Jesus is all my little girl will ever know, is that enough for you? 
  • You value knowledge more than wisdom
  • The Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed-or indeed only one. Luke 10:41
  • Do you want Peyton to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death? Is that your goal for your little girl? Phil. 3:10
  • How willing are you to stand alone like Noah in obedience to Me in the face of mockery, ridicule, sneers, gossip, judgement, misunderstandings? (see I can get concerned, b/c my daughter stands alone in class as the only child that can't read. I stand alone in my homeschool community as the mom who's kid "still" can't read) 
  • Spend your time grieving over what God grieves over. And God isn't in heaven grieving over my kids' academic scores or my daughters memory. He's grieves over sin and the lost.
  • When we measure ourselves by ourselves and compare ourselves with ourselves, we are not wise. 2Cor 10:12  That is what an IQ test does after-all. Comparing my child with other children and creating a norm, when the only norm is that we're all unique. 
  • "We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8  
  • In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. 2 Timothy 2:20  Every child is unique, some he created to
  • God has challenged my view of success
  • Success in homeschool doesn't mean having the smartest kids, the highest test scores, and dual-enrollment to prove it all.

What's the plan for next year:

  • Teach the child, not the curriculum. It is very hard to plan a school year for her because her memory lapses are frequent and unpredictable; nevertheless, I have to focus on what is important for her to know, not all Kindergartners or all 8 year old's just her. 
  • Plan small, only a couple of weeks at a time
  • The basic of basics: really getting to what she needs to know right now. Ex. grammar is great, but pointless for a child that can't read or write so I'm tossing it.  Telling time, also a great Kindergarten skill, but a waste of time and energy for a child who struggles with numbers past 11. She doesn't have a job and has no "need" to know how to tell time right now, not not ever, just not right now. I know that sounds strange and I never would have said it myself had the situation never necessitated it. But it is what is...really getting down to what she needs to know now regardless of what that  "sacred" scope and sequence says. 
  • Continue teaching reading, letter recognition, sound recognition, sight words, writing letters
  • Basic basic math: counting, number recognition (#'s 12 and above), writing digits correctly ( 0-9 about 50% of those are reversals), possibly concept of addition. 
We sincerely appreciate your prayers as we have a lot of medical testing going on this summer for her related to the inconsistent but frequent; memory lapses, confusion, and delayed processing speed. Thanks

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