My daughter is allowed to use a calculator during her math tests, because of her learning disability.
She has a test in a couple of days and we were just practising and reviewing the concepts. I reminded her to use her calcualator and she broke out in tears and said the other students accuse her of cheating when she does this.
My heart just broke when I heard this and I am trying to think of a good response for her to use when the other students criticize her for using a calculator.
Re: Good responses to teasing
My daughter is 12 in grade 6. You are right, I should bring this to the teachers attention. But it is also the comments made out in the playground that concerns me too.Angela wrote:
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Re: Good responses to teasing
I think you should ask the teacher for a different location to take her tests. Having an LD son myself, who is 13, I know he would never announce to other students that he has a learning disability. To him, that would be like saying, hey look I’m stupid I get to use a caculuator. Of course at my son’s school he probably wouldn’t be permitted to use a caculator anyway, “that wouldn’t be fair to the other students”. Children can be cruel, but honestly it’s the trained professional’s that are cruel I have a problem with.
Re: Good responses to teasing
6th grade was the worst for my son and teasing about his “LD” label. It got bad. He took his tests in a different room, which made it better.
When in 7th grade his LD teacher told him he couldn’t use his calculator because it was “just being lazy”, I descended on the principal like a bat outta hell. He didn’t even know what hit him.
In all fairness to that teacher who I just assumed was an incompetent like all the others, she successfully taught him math…he was the best in the class. She used drill and multiplication grids and utimately never really did encourage the use of calculators. (He did use it at home for all his homework.)
I certainly can think of some responses to teasing. They’re not printable. My son has discovered to just give it right back. He says all kids do it to all kids, not just him, not just cause he’s LD. He lets it roll off his back. Took him quite a while to learn this.
What age is your daughter? I usually feel it is up to the teacher to explain learning differences and accomodations. Depending on the student the teacher could explain with the child present or not. Then if children are still critical the teacher could talk with individuals or give your daughter a more private place to take her test. I see it as am opportunity to educate people and a chance to teach your daughter to advocate for herself. “I have a learning disability and the use of a calculator is an accomodation written into my Individual Education Plan.”