Author Archives: Janis Arnold

9.1.17 Third Grade Begins

  9.1.17          Third Grade Begins Aleczander, age 8,  has dyslexia, dysgraphia, and oral motor disfluency, something speech therapists call apraxia. He’s been struggling to learn to read, write and talk like other boys and girls all … Continue reading

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Aleczander November 2015-May 2017

November 2015: I met Aleczander when he was halfway through first grade and his parents asked me to help them figure out what was going so badly wrong for him at the public school. Aleczander’s articulation skills were less than those … Continue reading

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First of All, Do No Harm

UPDATE to 8.29.17 post Aleczander, age 7,  had been getting speech therapy for his entire first grade school year  when this May 2016 language sample was done pro bono by a wonderful speech therapist who used to, but no longer, … Continue reading

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Multisensory Teaching in Action

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Aleczander’s Communication Skills Midway Through First Grade

MIGDAS Preschool Diagnostic Interview 11/3/15 During the MIGDAS diagnostic interview conducted on 11.3.16, Aleczander played appropriately with sensory toys as well as his own familiar and favored toys. He never lined toys up, refused to share, or insisted on performing … Continue reading

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It’s Been Three Years Since I Quit My Day Job!

It’s been three years since I quit my day job, and it’s time and then some for me to create a new bio. This is an adaptation of one that I wrote for REDNews, the commercial real estate publication that … Continue reading

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Marie Curie, The Theory of Radioactivity and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Over the years, I’ve observed multiple examples of the effects of unintended consequences imposed upon those of us (myself frequently included) striving to improve upon nature for the common good. Some of the unintended consequences that I’ve experienced have caused this thought … Continue reading

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Some Kids Just Break Your Heart

This little guy  enrolled in one of the two bilingual PreK Classrooms on an Early Childhood Campus and was referred for assessment by his teacher and mother. My play-based early childhood assessment team (educational diagnostician, school nurse, school psychologist, bilingual … Continue reading

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Channeling The Richards Sisters

Daughters of Memory, my first book, was acquired by Louis Rubin and was published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in 1991. In D of M, two sisters, Claire Louise and Macy Rose Richards, as young women, come to terms … Continue reading

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Shade Island, a summary

Shade Island opens at a wedding in Cypress Springs, the small Texas town in which my second novel (Excuse Me for Asking) was set. Claire Louise Richards (of Daughters of Memory fame) discovers that Ralph Anderson, the man that the … Continue reading

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Shade Island Book Trailer

Shade Island . . . a literary mystery, the first in my Macy Porter series. I made this book trailer for my pitch at last weekend’s agents and editors conference in Austin. The sound track is Ghost Riders in the Sky, written by … Continue reading

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Why Isn’t My Child Talking, Acting, Playing Like Other Children?

Why isn’t my child talking yet? Why doesn’t my child play with (or like) other children? These are the two questions that I encounter most frequently when I talk with a concerned parent or preschool teacher. Thus, these are the questions that my … Continue reading

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