Anonymous wrote:Is this is a private school? My son is in a mainstream private with mandatory Spanish. He started in middle school and it didn’t go well. His teacher was very patient and did her best to modify but it eventually became clear that it wasn’t going to work. The school agreed to exempt my son.

Public.

Is this is a private school? My son is in a mainstream private with mandatory Spanish. He started in middle school and it didn’t go well. His teacher was very patient and did her best to modify but it eventually became clear that it wasn’t going to work. The school agreed to exempt my son.

ASL is a real language, so it has grammar rules just like spoken languages but they are designed for a visual language.
They SHOW through placement, movement, and other subtle (to us) systems in front of the signer's body. Hard to visualize, but it's really different than a spoken language. Maybe because it's physical/movement it makes more sense to (some) dyslexics' brains?

There is a way to indicate past tense, future tense, movement (car vs. driving the car), ownership (Larla's car). And many words change from a nown (store) to a title (storekeeper) with an additional movement. Teach/teacher - store/storekeeper, etc. And then you can take a noun and make it a verb by putting movement in.... so chair becomes sit when you add movement. car becomes drive when you add movement.

There is also a way to show a story through placement in space around the signer - it's a beautiful language! There is so much to learn!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD took three years of ASL (sign language) in her MCPS HS. It worked out fine for her and she got into a lot of very good colleges. There are some colleges that will not accept the sign language and absolutely want to see the foreign language so check before applying or call the admissions office and see if they consider the ASL if your students is an otherwise excellent candidate for the school.

Can you expand at all on the experience taking sign language? Did you find that the dyslexia issues disappeared? Or were there different "language" issues? Did your DD have trouble memorizing vocabulary or understanding any grammar structures (if there are in ASL). If your DD has slow processing speed issues, did she have difficulty following rapidly paced sign language?

DD's issues were mild expressive/receptive issues along with inattentive ADHD. Yes, DD had slower processing which I'm sure compounded things and made learning a foreign language very difficult for her. She did try French in middle school, but it was hard for her to keep up and as things began to move faster in the class she just could not process what was going on as quickly as she needed. It was very frustrating and ASL was wonderful for her. She had no trouble keeping up with the ASL at all and has continued with it in college because she liked it to much. ASL is not the same as having to memorize vocabulary and needing to process lots of verbal information in a different language.

Anonymous wrote:We are doing this on the recommendation of our neuro-psychologist in MS. They will get a learning center/executive functioning type class instead. We are going to start over in HS. We think this is a better solution for now than a special needs school, which is probably more intensive accommodation than our child needs right now.

We are in same boat - will exempt from foreign language through MS and use the foreign language slot for tutoring. The alternative is probably a special needs school for us, too, which would also have implications for college. So this seems to be the best option in terms of learning as well as decreasing stress and anxiety.

Anonymous wrote:Op here - I'm talking about third grade. My dd has mandatory Spanish twice a week.

How is it graded?
Can you describe your school system's Spanish trajectory through elementary, middle and high - what are the different tracks and options?
If your school has mandatory foreign language, why can't it provide special ed support for it at that level? Why do you want an exemption?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here - I'm talking about third grade. My dd has mandatory Spanish twice a week.

Why is it mandatory?

Op here - It's just part of the curriculum. They do Spanish the same as gym/art/music.

Anonymous wrote:Op here - I'm talking about third grade. My dd has mandatory Spanish twice a week.

Why is it mandatory?