What do you think?

I think it is great that you go to such lengths to help your son. You are a good parent. However, don’t you think that you should get the school to remediate your son? There are many good programs out there that can help dyslexics. Has your son have an IEP? In the long run, don’t you want your son to be able to function on his own just like any other child? If your son qualifies, the school can get him the help he needs to take some of the stress off you. I think all the ideas you have would be great accomodations for your son, but it would be even better to get him remediated. My son is also dyslexic and that is what I am trying to do.

A second set of student books for you to have at home is pretty reasonable. The teacher’s guide and advance lesson plans may be a bit trickier- Teachers’ guides because they are in short supply and fairly expensive (though if you are buying you could probably get them from a second hand dealer) - and lesson plans because even with the best intentions there are always days each week that don’t go according to plan so teachers need to be able to flex with that. It would be difficult for even the most experienced and reliable teacher to say with certainty that they will be covering xyz on any goven day- and if they could I would wonder who is in charge- the teacher or the text. Somethings require more time- or are more interesting- than you expect and others that you thought you would need to take forever on fly by… Those are the things that make teaching interesting:) but also could put schools in an awkward position if a parent made an issue about what was supposed to happen on Wednesday… I would be reluctant to hold myself to that kind of schedule.

I would always respond to parent questions of this kind (how to do the work) because I always knew that what we were teaching was substantially different looking from what parents recall being taught- and if kids could explain it they wouldn’t need help:) Would his teacher mind supporting you this way? You might think about talking with his team about some limitations on homework also- so that it is the quality of his responses that counts as a opposed to the quantity.

Robin

Getting lesson plans ahead of time might not help you as much as you think. We tried this for awhile 2 years ago. But his teacher did not use a very detailed plan that I could use successfully. She had been teaching the same grade for years, so her plans where a short-hand that made sense to her, but not me. Plus, she didn’t always follow the plan for good reasons. When I tried to follow her plan, I would end up confusing my son more or getting him to work on the wrong things. It also created some tension, because I was always requesting clarication from her or trying to guess how to teach a certain concept.

Instead… I’ve found that one of the best ways to help my son was for me to volunteer to help in his classroom. Even, if I was just stapling worksheets in the back, I got to observe and experience his day. I could see assignments on the chalkboard that my son failed to mention at home, or get a sense of the work his peers were able to perform. Once a week I would help him clean out his desk. He loved to crumple and stuff papers at the back. We would usually do this on Friday or Monday. Informally, I could ask his teacher what was going on for the next week and how I could help HER by coaching my son at home.

I agree that it would be very helpful for schools to have parent training classes at the beginning of school on how to help your child with reading and math. It certainly helps the child if the parents are reinforcing the approaches used at school. Perhaps, you could just do this informally with your own child’s teacher. Ask the teacher to have an after-school conference one day to explain the curriculum materials in more detail. All interested parents can be invited. Keep the focus on the meeting very narrow, so that the teacher isn’t bombarded with other random questions.

(From my personal experience) I have a strong personality with a lot of opinions about what I consider to be effective teaching and leanring materials. I also am an expert on my child’s unique combination of disabilities and gifts. So, I have to be careful. I can unintentionally intimidate my child’s teacher if I am not careful. My enthusiasm for helping my child can work against me. I am NOT implying that you are doing this at all. Your lesson plan request just reminded me that I did this 2 years ago. As for this year, we just started and my LD son was just assigned to a first year teacher. The teacher we hand-picked last Spring quit over the summer. I feel I need to be extra gentle and calm in my requests and communication here at the beginning of the year. It doesn’t help my child for his teacher to feel like I believe I have to reteach him everything at home. (Even though I do for the most part.) I want his teacher to feel like she is the LEADER of the team in charge of my son’s learning. I am her HELPER. Last year, when I used this more passive approach, it worked beautifully. His teacher and I really worked hand in hand to help him. I helped her in the classroom once or twice a week doing odd jobs. I got the inside scoop on upcoming events. She would occassionally give me copies of up-coming quizzes or packets, so that I could help my son ahead of time. We trusted each other. I trusted her to let me know when my son was starting to fall behind. She trusted me to not do my son’s homework for him. She knew I wanted my son to work hard and solve his own problems. I pray I can establish the same relationship with our new teacher.

Good Luck. I can relate to all the first of the year school stress. Even with a rookie teacher, I think we are going to survive O.K. this year. I’m sure I will get overly hyper at times for her. But, I learned many of the things NOT to do with my son’s teacher 2 years ago, and many of the things that WERE HELPFUL last year. Take Care.

Rosie

First of all, I would like to thank all of yall, (I’m Southern) to the responses that I got. There were some very good ideas that I intend on using.
As for the question I would like to responded to each of yall individual in the same letter so everyone can review the answers.
Response to 007: My son has been diagnosed for 5 years and has had an IEP since then. He gets remediation in Reading, English and Spelling. This leaves the subjects Math, History and Science that he takes in regular ed class.
It has been in my experience that his teachers does not always noticed that he isn’t getting what their trying to teach him. He will not tell his teachers that he don’t understand because he afraid of being picked at by the other students. Believe me I’ve tried for 5 years to get him to do this. So this leaves it up to me to teach him at home.
Response to Robin G.: I really don’t want a copy of their lesson plans that are wrote up. But, I would like to know what Chapters the will be going over for that particular week. If I new this I could go over it ahead of time and trying to think up some way that I could teach it to him. If he needed me to. He does get some things down pat that are taught at school. My problem right now his that by the time he comes home from school with his homework. I find I don’t have time to figure out how to teach it to him so that he can get his homework done. Homework, I thought was a review and practice of what you learn in school that day. If he isn’t getting it in school he can’t possible do his homework.

Response to rosie: I loved your ideas. I hope I get a chance to use them. As for limitation on homework. He does usually gets to do every other question. But as I responded in the above letter. You can’t do homework if you don’t understand how to. It’s like giving someone something to do, not explaining to them how to do it and expecting them to get it done. He can’t figure it out on his own.
Volunteering at school - I volunteer at my daughters school almost every day. They go to different schools because her school only goes to 2nd grade, he is in 5th. Her school is a Title 1 school which strives on parental envolvement. His is not. To even get to his room you have to have a darn good reason. Like he’s sick and needs your help to the car or you have a prearranged appointment at the school. Maybe I can talk them in to letting me volunteer in the class room sometimes. I’m also a volunteer bus driver so maybe this will help.

wgd- just one piece of advice because i know how it feels to have to have an appt. to go to your classroom. our first grade teacher was like that, knowing that last year in 2nd grade i approached her teacher and cleared it with her made sure i could come in whenever i felt the need or would like to help. we still have a great relationship. she was willing to cover for me maybe if you ask it couldn’t hurt i asked right away. she was thrilled to have a volunteer. just because school policy is one thing your teacher may work with you on that i don’t know many that won’t doesn’t hurt to ask. well just wanted to tell you that hope it helps
alicef

One thing no one seemed to mention here is the IEP. Does your son have one? If not I would request one,and get all these things written into his IEP. I had everything you asked about written into the plan,for different reasons. I requested extra books as part of his organization issue goals. It was one more thing he didn’t have to remember at the end of the day. He recieved assitive technology ,via an alphasmart,I requested parent training as well as teacher training and support. if your son doesn’t have a IEP is 504 plan could include of these things.

Thanks for the response! Sorry for my bad typing and spelling.

I will try to talk to the teacher about voluteering in her classroom. She is a new teacher just graduating college so maybe she will be more responsive to new ideas and not feel to dominated by me presence.

Socks: I did mention above if you didn’t catch it, he does have a IEP. I will try to get the things implemented into his IEP. In this district they don’t like to get themselves to tied down to anything. By this I mean they have accomadation and modifications checked off on the list. They don’t put specifically what accomadations and modification he will get. So when I have a problem, they can say it is not specifically wrote in his IEP.

It doesn’t matter if the school doesn’t want to do certain things, your son has rights by law. You should look into them. Reed Martin & Wrightslaw will enlighten you. Look them up on the web. All the stuff you want can be included in his IEP. If your son is struggling in certain areas & he has made grade level progress over 5 yrs then you can ask your school to pay for private programs to catch him up. There are many good programs and methods for dyslexics. One good one is Linda-Mood Bell. You really need to look into all your options so you don’t drive yourself crazy trying to do the school’s job.

Thanks for the web site info!

and shouldn’t be too much of a problem for anyone:)
Robin

I must have known you had an IEP,don’t also decode what I read very well. I usually get the “picture” instead,part of being dyslexic.

007 is right,1.ReedMartin is a great website to educate yourself on your child’s rights.2. That it doesn’t matter whether they want to or not,it’s your child’s right.

The thing you got to do is back them up against a wall,being the squeaky wheel,whatever. You request these specificly written in the IEP,they say no. You write another letter,incidently the request should be in written form also,you ask for their policy on not including needed accomodations specificly into the IEP,you quote the section of IDEA that covers this subject,they get miffed,or they don’t respond,then you write a letter to the Director asking for the district’s position on this situation. Generally once you get here,they want to just give in.BURY them in paper,works wonders. Be nice,respectful,and factual.

Thanks for letting me know the legal steps.

You are being completely reasonable in many of your requests. This should not be difficult to accomplish. Essentially you want to know what the science/social studies teachers are covering in a given unit. You want to know when the test will be and you want a “study guide” for each test, in advance. The teachers in the school where I work (K-6) generally can provide these things.

Each teacher can get this information home to you, up front, as each new unit begins. What kind of parent communicators do they have in place?

An extra set of books at home may be warranted, this can be an IEP team decision. I personally would prefer, as a parent and a teacher, to have the student LEARN to take things to and from school as this is “teaching the child to fish” rather than providing a single meal (to use an overworked analogy).

Keep in mind, just for your peace of mind, that many students have difficulty with science, social studies. The texts, when they are present, are often difficult and dense in concepts. Your child can have tests read aloud (most of my resource students don’t need this if a study guide has been used for the duration, for they KNOW the vocabulary and can read it).

I applaud your willingness to go over school work at home. Get some of these good ideas into the IEP and then don’t let the teachers slip. We teachers are human and we can become overwhelmed with all the detail and paper work, so just call and bug us when things slide (they may at times). I respond very quickly to squeaky wheels.

I have a question. When does all this “giving ” of information before actually being learned stop? In high school, there are long times of homework every night. How could a student review what he learned that day, do the homework assignments that show if he understand what was taught, and then also “pre-learn” the assignment for the next day? This in addition to trying to let the student have some type of a “normal” life without spending every single waking moment studying. There are high achieving students that I think over do it. They study and do school work every free minute from the time they get up, during lunchtimes, on the bus, and also try to participate in multiple school activities! The parents are proud as peacocks, but how long can the student keep doing it before they suffer burn out. The same can apply to the LD students. How much pushing can we do before they burn out? I also pushed and pushed my grade school son to learn the same amounts of information that the other students did. I also used every technique I heard about. He tried his best with hours of studying after school every night, because yes, he didn’t learn it at school. The school didn’t care. They just lied about his abilities…saying he was at one level in reading at the end of 7th grade, but then said he was 2 years before that one at the end of 8th grade. Now that my son is in high school, he is suffering from burnout. The little he can do, the happier he is, so when the school put him in sped classes with lowered expectations, he was satisfied. He now has more time for “fun” than he did in grade school. He is a good kid who gives me very little trouble, but I worry about his future. I worry about what type of job he will get with the type of education that his school is giving him. The last state school report card stated that the sped students in my son’s school was 66% in academic warning for reading, 87 % in academic warning for math, and 68 % in academic warning
for writing. This is a school of 1900 students, not a small rural high school without the resources. Where do parents turn? Is one way better than the other? I truthfully don’t know.

I’ve done my share of helping kids learn material when they didn’t get it at school. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to pick between doing the assigned work, and learning something. Usually there are just too many terms and too much language to spend the time to do it all.

Now, if you taught him the basic ideas in fifth grade so he understood it, he’d remember it, and when it came up again later he’d be able to add to those ideas… or he can spend gobs of time trying to field all that stuff flying at him too fast so all he can do is keep himself from being knocked over by it.

It can be very tricky to do this and not threaten the teacher… but sometimes you can work with the teacherto figure out an alternative assignment that is different enough (so instead of “Read the book and asnwer the questions” he would demonstrate actual understanding of the main concept with something visual, for example) so it’s not watering down (but nobody else would have to know that he wasn’t also doing the entire other stuff that isn’t teaching him). He’d end up being more likely to pass the tests because he would *know* what he knew , which is often enough to pass… I’ve watched lots of kids try to cram all the stuff in and end up guessing at everything.

Hi! Teaching him the basics - I try to go over the hold homework subject then go back and see just what he picks up on. If the subject is way to big for him to understand I try to pick out what I think is the most important.

The concept of doing something visual in just what I had in mind. Lots of the things that I explain to him is in a visual way. I just need time to prepare them. Someday when he gets older he will understand is own style of learning and can do it for himself.

I have a 7th grade dyslexic child who also does science and social studies with regular classes. To help her, we use books on tape from RFBD to help get through the reading of the chapters. We also have a second set of books at home. I use those to go through the chapter and make notecards for her on the important information and definitions. We review groups of these every night for about 15 minutes. I have written in her IEP that she needs at least 3 days notification before a test and an outline reveiw sheet so I can make sure we have covered all the info. She has done very well with the notecards. It is not too much into at one time and we can weed out the cards that she knows and keep working on the ones she doesn’t.

First of all I would like to thank you. I know alot of the time, on this board, teachers get a bad rap. I do welcome teachers views and have a deep appreciation for teachers. Teachers are individuals like everyone else in this world and as individuals we all are different. Jennifer you sound like a very good teacher.
As for the school itself, I don’t believe they have a parent communicator. They have one in the district but, he is usually busy, because it is a big district.
I would like an extra set of books so I could go over the lesson ahead of time. I don’t have a full time job, as to say. My husband and I own our business and I only help when I’m needed during school months. This is so I’ll be there for our children. The extra books will help me prepare during the day while he’s at school.
Study guides- Last years teacher quit giving study guides out. The student had to take notes. He inturn can’t take notes very well. He may start with the beginning of one sentence and end up with the end of a total different sentence.
When he comes to study his notes, I nor he can make sense of them. I hope this years teacher will make sure he comes home with notes that I can understand. I asked last years teacher several times; sometimes he would, sometimes he wouldn’t. His test are supposed to be read aloud. They don’t always do this either.
I know teachers don’t always have the time. This is why I’m trying to find some kind of solution. I believe, ” For every problem their is a solution.”, it’s just up to us to find one.

I know your frustration. I to get frustrated at times. With our mass education system our children seem to be left out. This is my goal, not to let my child get so far behind and still keep his sense of himself.
With so many dissappointments in his day to day life, self-esteem is a big part of his world. He has very low self-esteem now. I hope this year I can pull it up.
He is asking questions like. Mom, what I’m I good at? My answer to this: Give it time you’ll find what your good at. How come I’ll never be as smart as you? My answer: Everybodies good at something and your a very smart kid; one day you are going to be smarter than me. How come I have to be dyslexic?
This is a tough one I could not answer at the time. Now that I think about it, I’m going to tell him dyslexia can have it’s advantages too. He is a very caring and kind hearted person, as most dyslexics are. Sometimes when I weigh the differences between intellegence and a kind hearted soul, I pick the latter. Our intellegence don’t always let us pick the right chooses in life. You know, those that God would prefer us to make. Sorry if I offend anyone with the mention of God. I know we all have our different believes. Another advantage he sees things in a different perspective that sometimes we don’t see.
When it comes to honors day his self-esteem takes a punch. This rolls around here, every six-weeks. Our districts policy is you have to be on grade level in all subjects to get principals list, honor roll or honorable mention. I don’t agree with this in-a-way, because I see it woking on the self-esteem of the kids that are truely trying. Not just my son, I’ve seen other children as well.
My hearts go out to these children. One time I had to leave the awards program I could not take the heart-broken souls of the kids. The next time I sent my mother. She couldn’t take it either. I didn’t mention the fact that some of the children were dissappointed, either. She not a very emotional person. She said she thought the shouldn’t give awards. I don’t think not given awards is the solution. I haven’t come up with a solution to this, yet.
MEK, I hope you don’t give up. I’m not. Live is hard for dyslexic kids and their families. Keep looking for solutions. Don’t let society keep you down.

I loved you ideas I’m going to try them. Thanks for sharing.

I haven’t come across a teacher yet who wasn’t happy for a parent volunteer, my 5th graders’ teacher just beamed this morning when I mentioned I don’t work outside the home and was available to come to his class.

About the extra set of schoolbooks, kids with adhd have organizational issues, actually so do adhd parents :o) it is easier on everyone when you have the books at home, it is one less thing to worry about.Instead of ‘did you bring your book?no or yes,but it is the wrong book.Can’t do science with a math book. I know people think kids need to learn to be responsible but sometimes that has nothing to do with it. For instance, late video rental fees were made for folks like us, sometimes it would just be cheaper to buy the video:o) Sometimes there is just more to it than being responsible for bringing the books home. Ok I forgot what else was on the thread so I have to stop and go look, I think there was something else I wanted to respond to.

I found it. See if the teacher could xerox another students notes that takes good notes, if the teacher can’t or won’t give study guides or… ask about taping the class lecture. I know that can make folks edgy but it would still be helpful if agreed to.Good luck.

You can get the study guide written into the IEP. They cannot force him to take notes if his notes are useless. The teacher can either: a) provide the study guide or b) xerox a copy of the notes made by a top student who has good handwriting.

Sorry, a parent communicator is just some sort of sheet that goes back and forth that notes are written on.

You really shouldn’t have to prepare lesson plans for your child. Reading and discussing the unit should be enough.

I can’t say it won’t help him to have an extra set of school books. He does have a problem remembering to get his books home. A large part of dyslexic kids have a problem with memory. Thus meaning you have to break everything down in steps. At the end of the day when all their thinking about is going home. They forget to stop and think. Okay, I have spelling homework do I need my book or do I already have the words in my notebook. Next, history do I need the text book, study guide or work book. So-on and so-forth with all the other subjects. In the long run in helps me better prepare for his homework. Him by if he does foget a book, he don’t have to skip a subject. Thus getting him in trouble for not getting his all his homework.

I’ll talk to his IEP team about the notes to see if your suggestion can be implemented. This year he is supposed-to-be getting a word prossesor. He doesn’t know how to type proficiently, yet. We’ll have to setup some other kind of note taking system until he learns to keep up with the class. If all else fails, I guess a tape recorder will at least scare them.

Thank you for the definition. He does have a strip about 3” x 1” at the bottom of his test scores each week. I find this is not enough room. But now that you mentioned it. I think I will start putting a note from me in with his test scores. That’s if I need too.

” You really shouldn’t have to prepare lesson plans for your child. Reading and discussing the unit should be enough.”

I have to disagree. This is true for many students, to be sure. For others with language learning difficulties, as long as the ideas are expressed in words and more words, to be received by the student, they don’t stick. There’s a huge difference in understanding when a student has a lesson plan that’s got him seeing visual and/or 3-D, concrete examples of an idea, and having him working with that visual information, and then making the connection between that and words. It’s a lot more work but a kid who struggled with 4 terms can really master and remember and apply 10… if that effort is taken.

Schools have a funny habit of finally getting a kid a word processor and then assuming that keyboarding skills will magically happen. If he’s got a resource class or study hall that’s a great place for him to work on them semi-independently (and I highly recommend Diana King’s _Keyboarding Skills_ book which, not being software, will work with even an old-fashioned typewriter, and is a program designed for kids with dyslexia and is *much* faster and easier than the asdfjklj; stuff I had to go through).

And — when you get to a concept you have trouble with, feel free to pop me an email or post a question here, I may have been there & done that & have some ideas for getting t he idea across, especially that Science & Social Studies stuff.

YOu might also tell him that schools are really set up so that people who are naturally good with WORDS look great… but that in a different culture he’d be the shining star. Right now, his gifts have not been discovered… just like the ugly duckling’s. He *is* learning to work hard and lots of my students found college easier than high school because the furhter they went, the more they could choose what they did and suit it to their strengths. They did *have* to learn enough of the skills to get through all those prerequisites though. HOw is the kiddo with abstract thinking?

Your plans sound wonderful and very ambitious.

Truly, I doubt that you could get the parent courses set up quickly enough to be of help to you. School systems move very slowly; it takes years to get something like that started, and the time you spend might better be spent working with your son and his teacher. I think it would be very hard to do both during the same time frame.

It may help you to get a vocabulary list in advance of each new topic, i.e., right before it will be introduced in class. I mean — if the class is about to study China, you receive a list of the main, new, unfamiliar words that will be used during the study of China. You and your child study them at home.

Do you think it would help your son to be able to take tests orally, i.e., either by having tests read to him or having him answer orally, either directly to a person or into a tape recorder?

Good luck. Carol

I tend to think about the other parents and kids in the district, as well. Though I ‘m beginning the see I won’t have enough time to worry about them too. I need to second my goals on him first then maybe through my experience can help someone else.

I’ll try your ideal with the vocabulary. I really don’t think, though his reading is behind grade level that is the problem here. I know reading is apart of it. I hope some day he is proficient enough to study by himself.

His IEP does state that all test be read aloud. This does not always happen. His answers are taking orally sometimes, again the key word here is sometimes.
I think that if the test were giving consistently the same way. Maybe varying a little depending on the type of test. Not just cold turkey, I don’t have time you have to take it like everyone else. And that getting the lessons to him in away that he understands to begin with. That you can study with him and he get fairly descent grades. I count descent as C average. B if everything works smoothly.

Trying to find what his learning style is for that particular problem is the clue. It’s very hard as a parent that is not trained for it. Regular ed teachers in this district is not trained for it and don’t have the time. Some of them don’t want to either. I’ve had all types of teachers. Those that don’t try, those that don’t know and those that don’t have the time to teach everything.

I’m not giving up. I’m the type of person that likes a challenge. Between the education system, his dyslexia and me not being trained for this I have my work cut out for me.

I’ve got to confess. I don’t really know what abstract thinking is. I’m just starting out learning as much as I can about dyslexia. Until recently I just sort of left-it-up to the teachers for specific things. But I know now, I’m the one that will always be in his life. Teachers change year after year. The most constent teacher in his life is me. I’m the one to tell new teachers his strengths and weaknesses.

I do appreciate the guidance with his self-esteem. I will tell him these things.

As to- I Disagree-: You can see in my note to Carol. I can’t say that he’s ready to do all of work on his own. I would like for him to do most of it one day. I don’t think he is ready right now.

Diana King’s _Keyboarding Skills_ - I’m going to try this. Believe me if I have any question I’ll ask you or this board. I don’t think the people around here can answer me.

One of the accommodations my son has is that he has the opportunity to take the tests with the class, if he bombs, he can retake it in the resource room, administered by the resource teacher for grade improvement.We gave him this option because he doesn’t really like being treated different. He also gets extra time and directions clarified if needed. Standardized tests are not taken with the class though. He still does poorly on those, don’t know what to do about them.

THink of it this way — if you were going to learn all about the science involved in a combustion engine in your car. Some people could read about it and learn a lot. Other people would really need to see the engine and watch it happening and have it explained while they’re watching so that the words had sometihng to connect it to.

If you’re a concrete thinker, you’ll learn how cars work from that; the more abstractly you can think, the more you’ll take what you saw and learn about chemical reactions and physics and things, so that you’d learn how *lots* of things worked.

Lots of teaching is done with words… and lots of kdis with dyslexia need to see it and do it for those words to make sense. When they’ve seen it and done it, often they can just go with the words afterwards.

Keep asking ;) if I don’t answer on the boards, send an email my way.

First of all, congratulations on posting your question to this board. It is the best!

My daughter was identified with dyslexia at the end of 8th grade. I buried myself in this site and others as well, took notes, accumulated facts and information, then set about working “with” the school district to identify her needs and ensure that they were met. After only one year in LRA, her reading comprehension shot up 3.7 years! However, it took a concerted effort on the part of ALL to make this happen.

Your son’s IEP should reflect all that you are trying to accomplish. If not, then call the school and set up another meeting. Before attending, sit down and map out exactly what it is that you feel he needs … self-advocacy, study and organizational skills. Additional time on tests. Testing in a separate room with a proctor who will read the questions out loud or rephrase them. It is important to have an ally in this process, preferably someone from a local program who can justify your requests, based on their professional opinion.

Watch the math very carefully. Dyslexics are often concrete thinkers; they do well in lower level math since testing is based on lessons taught. However, as the math moves towards higher levels, it is expected that the student can “interpret” the questions. Dyslexics are picture thinkers and cannot match a picture to a formula, without understanding the “big picture”. They need to memorize formulas and begin the downward spiral when they reach fractions, etc.

I have found that, in my school district, they will work with parents who are willing to work with them. Last year, and again this year, I am addressing a personal to each of my daughter’s teachers, apprising them of her dyslexia and providing them with a framework of which learning styles work. The rest is up to them. In that letter, I also give them my home/work and beeper numbers, my home/work emal and insturct them to contact me at any of the above, as soon as they feel she is slipping in the class. It worked in 9th grade and I expect it will work again in 10th.

If you can volunteer time at your son’s school, do it! Get involved but, most importantly, let your teachers, the administrators, school board and everyone else in your son’s school life know that you are willing to assist. As for homework assignments, let them know that he doesn’t understand and provide them with some solutions. Dyslexics need visuals. They are multi sensory learners. My daughter fell asleep 3x in a lecture class last year. Without the proper environment, your son will slip. Only YOU can prevent this from happening.

Good Luck and let us know how things turn out.

In response to WGD…

“Our districts policy is you have to be on grade level in all subjects to get principals list, honor roll or honorable mention. I don’t agree with this in-a-way, because I see it woking on the self-esteem of the kids that are truely trying. Not just my son, I’ve seen other children as well.”

Not everyone is good at everything — as parents of LD students we know this. Our society is in competition in everything. The non-althletic child that is trying so hard at soccer doesn’t make the all-star team. His self-esteem is hurt. The non-artistic child that is not a good artist that spends weeks perfecting an art project to submit to a school competition does not win. His self-esteem is hurt. Everyone cannot be the best at everything.

I believe that children should be on grade level or above should receive honors from the school. It is a wonderful thing to honor those students that perform accademically well. My son will probably never receive one of these honors. That is ok. He has other talents. We build up his self-esteem by helping him understand that his good traits can be just as important as getting good grades and receiving honors at school. We do stress it is not as important to be the best, but to try your best. This attitude keeps my son’s self-esteem high. We have been teaching this to my child since he was very young.

I believe if you build a child’s character, the child will go much further in life that a child with great grades and no character.

Thanks for the response! I needed your letter. Day 2 of school is over and I was getting down. Frustrated with our school system. YOUR letter helped me out. I loved all the hints and specially the one on the math. He was very good at the time and as the math moved toward those higher levels he began to fall behind.

In the past I left it up to the teachers to instantly pickup on this. I know now I’m his best advocate. They don’t give him the one-on-one that I do at home. They haven’t been there through the years that he as been in school. So it’s up to me to bring to their attention his problems and maybe suggections to help him.

Will keep you updated,
Wendy

Thanks for the definition!
He is very visual, but seems to get somethings by words.

Our son’s school has done the following for him about standardized tests:
- Let him take a test one grade level below his grade;
- Read him the test aloud and then let him answer;
- Given him unlimited time to finish.

Would that help your child?

Carol