Hi all. I am hoping that someone can shed some light on recent happenings with my six year old, first grader. He is a child that was diagnosed with Verbal Apraxia at 18 months and recieved therapy and special education until he hit Kindergaten when in the district ultimate wisdom they decided he no longer needed services. Kindergarten and the first half of first grade were wrought with reading and attentional issues and he is again being tested. Now for the crazy part. His father returned to truck driving in mid November this year and is gone for two week stretches. We expected some difficulty for our son and got them, literally overnight, in behavioral issues including depression, agression, anger and a need for individual attention both at home and at school. One would expect that learning would be effected in much the same way but the opposite has happened. The child who struggled to read even one word has jumped a reading group and is reading in some instances above grade level! Printing that was illegable is incredibly organzied and neater by the day. These changes happened overnight and coincide with the behavioral issues that he has been dealing with. He got the flu a little over a week ago and seemed to flip back and the behavior that he was struggling with seems to have all but disappeared. The whole process lasted about 6 weeks. So these are my questions. Has anyone else experienced these types of situations with their children? Could his behavior have had less to do with his fathers absense and more to do with some kind of brain or developmental growth? Might it happen again? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!
Re: Behavior and educational growth....
Thanks, I guess my question was more along the lines of wether there may be some link between behavior slides and brain or developmental jumps. Sorry if I wasn’t clear (o:
First, I would question if there were any changes
that occured in his scheduling because dad is gone
I think proper sleep is grossly underestimated when one looks at misbehavior. Is it possible hes gong to bed earlier, resting better because there was no roughhousing before bedtime.
Not trying to blame poor old dad here-but there could be a hidden connection with change in scheduling.thats worth noting
Ive not heard of a behavior/brain growth connection but who knows?
Re: Behavior and educational growth....
I agree with Beth. Just a coincidence that Dad left and behavioral issues began around the time that he was developmentally ready to read.
Janis
Re: Behavior and educational growth....
Gotta agree with the coincidence theory, at least as far as the reading and writing progress. My son’s academic progress has always been this way - he falls way behind and then almost overnight has these dramatic leaps. It always leaves his teachers wondering what they suddenly did right.
Re: Behavior and educational growth....
I would watch and see if the same thing happens again. Once would be coincidence, two or three times a pattern.
The suggestion of changed sleep patterns is very good — is the house quieter and are you going to bed earlier with dad away?
What about food issues— many people eat differently when their spouse is away. There are a lot of undiagnosed allergies. Allergies can affect your entire body and mind functioning.
What you’re describing seems extreme, but changes in behaviour do aften come at the same time as learning spurts — the brain is developing fast and things are changing in the child’s worldview. Again, look for a repeat of the pattern before making judgements.
OK. I am guessing but logically it seems to me that father being gone–> behavior. Brain development–-> jumps in skills. No relationship between father being gone and jump in skills. They just happen to occur at the same time.
Beth