The Impact of Gluten Free

Last night I ran into an old high school friend. He and I were tight, I mean we were close. We considered dating but never did. It was good to see him. We were talked for quite awhile. Talked about the spouses, the kids, and then he asked specifically how the twins are. I said they were good, hemmed and hawed, repeated that they're good. Looked at my Mom to save me...instead she said "well you know Lane Michael has diabetes, then he got epilepsy and now he has celiac" my friend was so excited, he had heard of the disease and had a friend who has it. He mentioned how horrible it is and how we must eat cardboard. My mom and I looked at each other and giggled because if I was truly honest...I'd tell you I like it better. Yesterday we had lasagna, with homemade noodles. Last night I made gluten free eggnog cookies and they were amazing! I have some tweaking to do on the noodles but the flavor was great! My point is, gluten free hasn't changed us that much but let me tell you what it has done.

Ethan's parent teacher conference was about the middle of November. At that time his teacher had reduced his spelling test from 12 words (what the class was doing) to about 8, hoping the smaller list would help him. She had also taken steps to helping him be successful, like reading his test to him, because he knew the answers but couldn't read the test. She noticed also that when the students were to read aloud, Ethan was not, he was able to "read" word for word but not because he was reading but because he was memorizing books so that he could appear to know the material. At his parent teacher conference Mrs S (who I love and trust) told me she'd referred Ethan to the intervention specialist for testing and had a form for me to sign so that Ethan can be tested for special needs. I happily signed it, any extra help he can receive is good. But then we started noticing more changes. Great changes! Big things happening with homework. About a week after that, we were headed to Lima (20-25 minute drive) and Ethan read his book to me...he didn't sound out every word, he just read. It was a book about Pearl and Wagner. He didn't make up words when he didn't know the word, he asked for help. Then his spelling words started getting easier for him...and he hasn't missed any of the TWELVE words in about 3 weeks, we got a note the other day saying we'd try all 12 words for the test this week. Also his weekly assessment came back...lowest grade? 87% yep that's right. an 87%! A few of the notes said that she had read the questions to him and some he had read aloud to himself. Either way, he is succeeding! I love it! I'm interested to know what the intervention specialist thinks! I believe that Ethan has some kind of Gluten sensitivity that has been slowing down his academic process! I love this kid and want great things for him! Hopefully we're on the right track now!