I am now waiting to hear from the US Dept. of Education if they think my daughter's Title 6 Rights have been violated. I wait with baited breath.

 I have needed to write a note (sometimes long) every day of my daughter's summer school. They just don't seem to 'get it'. They forget that she is from China and she doesn't English, American Sign and is only on a 1st - 2nd grade level in everything. Yet they still continue to give her 5th grade work, which she doesn't understand. I have yet to hear from them... I had to ask them to give her homework. She doesn't have a work or responsibility ethic and it's very important that she works on these. Well, they sent home Place Value Words for math, in English and in numbers, she did not understand any of it. My dh and I decided to test her. We came up with the conclusion that she doesn't have any abstract thinking. She could add and subtract even numbers, single digits only, but she couldn't do odd numbers. This now makes sense when you add up all the other behaviors that she has shown. Anyone have suggestions on training or exercises to teach abstract thinking? This is a whole area I am not prepared for, I haven't done any any research in this area. I foresee at least 30+ hours I will need to do on the is subject to get her the appropriate training that she will need. Without abstract thinking her choices in life will be slim. I think we need some testing to be done once she knows more sign.

 An example of the '3 year old in a 12 year old body'. A friend's neighbor gave her a Betta fish because they were moving and couldn't take it with them. She called me and asked if one of my girls would like it. I thought it would be a good start for my deaf daughter to learn responsibility and how to follow a routine. So we sat down, and I explained and demonstrated everything about feeding, cleaning, and what a Betta fish was. I had her write notes, in Chinese, but she wasn't able to put the thoughts down, like clean the tank once a week. She could not grasp taking what she hears and writing it in her own words. (Yet another area to look into). I explained the fish is very sensitive and over-feeding, or the wrong temperature of the water, or too much movement could make the fish sick and die. So after some time I had her repeat to me what I had explained. She did seem to understand. We carried the tank up to her room and found a place for it. Speed ahead 3 hours, she's getting ready for bed, I walk in and she is chasing the fish around the tank with the net! I sign, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She signs. "I don't know." Again I ask, and she signs the same. This went on for about 3 minutes. I sign, "Yes you do, now tell me why you had the net in the fish tank?" Well, it turns out she was trying to catch it to play with it! I removed the tank from her room, I can't trust her. I explained that all the years she was in the orphanage she didn't learn about having responsibilities, right from wrong and many life lessons and she has a lot to learn. I said that I'm sorry I did not have patience with her, but it is sometimes hard for me to remember that she was a little girl inside but was a 12 years old on the outside. I told her I would try harder to be more patient, and asked her (for the 100th time) to remember to ask before doing anything so that she could learn to do things correctly. Big sigh...