Floating Harbor Syndrome was "discovered", or named in the 1970's, so there is not a lot of long-term information available. They do usually "graduate" with a special diploma and spend much time in special education classes with some mainstreaming in history, science etc., often with a full-time aide.
In terms of educational planning, at the age of 3 most of them are just beginning to speak, using sign language, flash cards with pictures of objects, colors, etc., or a board they can point to with pictures of food, drink, swings, toys, bed, bath, etc. The children are somewhat intelligetn and once the communication barrier has been overcome (usually through the use of sign language) it is amazing to discover what goes on in their little brains.
Speech therapy is somewhat helpful, but they do not usually have the capability to speak until they are around 3-4 years of age. Without intervention this can be much later. The girls tend to do better than the boys in the area of speech. They have a "lazy tongue" and slurred speech, along with a varied assortment of substitutions for the "r", "l" and other letter sounds. Sometimes only the parents can understand them.
They are delayed in their learning and also progress at a slower pace than "normal" students would. They can learn phonics and math at around 4-7 years of age and can learn to read around 6-9 years of age if the proper methods are used. They struggle greatly with anything tedious (which to them is just about anything), especially fine motor skills like writing. Many do worksheets orally. They CAN write large letters and numbers and don't seems to get as discouraged if they have success with just a small number of problems to solve.
They THRIVE on schedule, and function best if they are told repeatedly when something will be different way ahead of time. They also seem to handle things best in small chunks, like 20 min. of reading, then 20 minutes of a different educational activity like naming objects on flash cards, then onto the enxt activity, as long as the schedule is the same day after day. If they child is old enough to read they love charts and schedules posted on walls. Picture charts could be used for younger children.
They also have "obsessions", and again the boys seem to have this more intensely than the girls. They will repeatedly turn their attention back to their obsession once they have l0st interest in whatever you want them to be doing. It is best for them to only be allowed to do their obsession once all their schoolwork is done. Exception: Sometimes it is very helpful to use the obsession to get them to do something they really struggle with. I taught my son to read using his "obsession"--electronics. He would look at the Radio Shack catalog for hours. He was especially interested in the lights. He was doing pretty well with phonics, but the actually reading books were too tedious for him, and he had cataracts that really hindered his ability to see little letters. I got a LARGE dry erase board and every day I would write an entire description of one of his favorite items for the Radio Shack catalog. He loved it. It held his interest and he'd really work at trying to get even the 4 and 5 syllable words. He reads very well now, although he does struggle with pronunciation and spelling.
Big colorful worksheets, flash cards, and anything kinesthetic is helpful.
Here are some examples from my own experiences with my FHS son of how their brains work that I hope will help you understand these special children better.
My son's obsession as I already stated is electronics. When he was 2 he could only say "mama" and "lala" (for light). Wherever we would to he would use sign language to ask permission to take a chair over to the light switch and repeatedly turn it off and on with a huge smile on his face.
When he was 3 he carried around a little tape recording playing and recording (mostly recording) tapes.
When he was 4 he loved the VCR. When we were learning shapes he kept saying "play" for triangle and "stop" for square, and "record" for the circles. I then realized that he was saying the shapes on the buttons of the VCR-- and that he was exactly correct every time.
When he was 5-6 he began recoring his own videos. He also couldn't seem to learn left and right. Then he started saying "fast forward" every time I turned right when I was driving, and "rewind" every time I turned left. At the age of 14 he still referred to left and right this way.
When he was 9 he hooked up a TV antennae to the back of an old computer I had given him and recorded television programs that he'd somehow received into the computer from the antennae onto some other program on the computer that I didn't even know existed-- and he'd play them back for us.
From that time on he just loved computers. He is now making slide shows from pictures he takes with his digital camera and making his own CDs and DVDs.
He also reads quite well and especially enjoys long, boring, detailed electronic manuals. And, he will remember just about anything he reads in them, like if grains get stuck in the grain mill and it is jammed and won't run, then just attach a vacuum hose to the openings and vacuum them out. OR the hour and minutes to set the time on the car are those two minute buttons just beneath the volume knob on the car stereo. And he's almost always correct.
At age 15 he is doing 3rd grade math, 5th grade language arts, and 6th grade history, science etc. (much of the later orally). He really struggles with math although he does enjoy it more using the calculator. He is just now getting the concept of borrowing and multiplying even though we've been going over it for years.
