I need input from a teacher.

Michele,

I am a special ed teacher who has a child with reading problems, also. I had her repeat first grade last year because she was not reading at grade level. She improved a lot during that year and she is no longer at the bottom of her class. Now you may have to set up remediation outside the school, but buying him another year in first would give you a whole year to get him hopefully caught up. I’ll just tell you honestly, most resource teachers are simply not trained to remediate learning disorders. Tutoring the grade level material instead of remediating is very typical. And the child gets further behind because he cannot possibly keep up with the regular class.

Janis

[quote=”michele”]Hi
Or should we play the game again and see if they can get there act together?

They won’t get their act together on their own. It needs to be gently called to the attention of the SPED teacher that instruction is not at his level. Softly ask her “As the school testing shows, he is reading at a 1st grade level - help us to better understand why you chose to instruct him a full grade level above his level?”

Even with some nudging from you, it sounds though as if the situation is spiraling downward. I’d talk with his classroom teacher alone if I could. Point out that despite the help given him, he’s falling behind and it’s the beginning of the year! Tell her you’re thinking of putting him back in 1st and see what her reaction is. If she protests, ask her what else can be done to keep him up with his class then as the SPED teacher’s work isn’t stopping the gap from growing wider.

Put your ear to the ground if you can and find out some other families whose children have learning differences. Perhaps you could gain some insight from them as to what services are provided to their children and how they have managed to deal with the school.

Good luck.

Dear Michele,

Research has shown that retaining kids isn’t usually effective. Since he has already started school, you need to consider the social and emotional implications of putting him back now.

I find it horrifying that the SPED teacher hadn’t read the IEP before the meeting. Perhaps you could contact the person who wrote the IEP (Who seemed to get your son’s needs) and get his or her input as to what needs to be done to meet your son’s needs. Make a list of what you think should be done and highlight the portions of the IEP that you feel are relevant and significant. Then request to meet again with the SPED teacher with the IEP and list in hand. Don’t let her leave until she has a specific plan in place and insist on seeing the materials.

You can also see if your school district has a reading specialist, perhaps he or she can give you some help or may take your son into a special program for reading, rather than general resource. Look into private schools for kids with LD, too. Even if you don’t want to enroll him, they can make suggestions for materials that you can make to the SPED teacher.

You could look into Orton Gillingham tutors or LindamoodBell. They are expensive, but the results are worth it. I’m partial to OG for the long term, but LMB works very well at the level your son is to open the door to phonemic awareness. I haven’t been overly impressed with LMB over time, but as I said, initial progress is great with young kids and can jump start him.

Finally, read with your son every night, particularly rhyming books and the same ones over and over again. Let him read a sentence, then you read several and keep increasing the amount he reads every week or so. If he can’t read a whole sentence, let him read a repeating word or phrase every time he sees it, then let him read two and so on. It’s great practice of skills he needs to reinforce and good time to spend together.

He’s too young for my program, but maybe when he’s older he can use it. Visit my website www.gwhizresources.com in a year or two if he needs help is spelling!

Good luck.
Fern

Retaining a child with no intervention is not effective. Retaining a child early on and giving therapy to remediate the deficit gives the child an opportunity to function at grade level.

Janis

I just have to restate what the others have said.

Holding your child back without remedation will not help. It does not sound like your school is doing remedation. You may need to go outside the school.

Good luck,
Barb

(opps! I just reread your title line. I’m not a teacher, just a concerned parent.)

That is ok that your not a teacher. I need all the help I can get.
Michele

I just met someone the other day who has a daughter going to college. She retained her dyslexic highly gifted daughter in second grade. She says it has been the bain of her existance ever since. He daughter verbally tortures over the decision.

The research does not support retention. I was almost retained in second because of health issues. I remember the emotional angst of that decision. I think it would have been the death knell of my already fragile self esteem. I was retained in my dance class and that alone was pure torture. I quit dancing after that.
I took up dancing again in high school and college because it was something I truely loved to do.
I have stong feelings about this issue because of my personal experience and because I have studied the research. I would encourage you to look into the research on this subject before you make your decision.

I don’t think anyone mentioned repeating second. There is benefit to repeating K or first IF the parents have the right attitude and present it correctly to the child and IF that year will be use to administer quality remediation to the child. A child who goes on to third grade reading on first grade level is going to have a lot more humiliation than he would if he simply spent two years in a grade and caught up. He and everyone else will KNOW he is behind in that case (of moving up too soon). So I say, the research is slanted and doesn’t look at the other side.

Linda, I would say that the highly gifted daughter may have been resentful because she was highly gifted and perceived that she could have compensated. An average child does not have this luxury. I see the kids drop out in high school all the time. They were pushed on up so their self esteem wouldn’t be damaged. But without those precious basic skills, they fail.

Janis

Janis,

what is the difference between remediating and tutoring the grade level. Our school uses quite a bit of “tutoring”, which I find more or less useless, but I’d like to have it explained to me, if you will.

Thanks.

Janis,

I very much respect your opinion on this. I just think many don’t take the research into consideration when making this decsion. Retention is extremely common in most school districts. I think those who read the research will look at this issue with eyes wide open and make an informed decision. My personal experience matches the research which is why I always bring this up.
This girl was musically gifted although she could not play an instrument. She has a specific gift that would not allow her to compensate because her dyslexia was rather severe. I personally beleive most children with LD have hidden and sometimes rather specific gifts. I don’t mean to imply they can compensate and just get over their LD because of them but they can experience success later in life if the gift is understood and developed by knowledgable parents.
The bottom line for me is always self esteem. I think in order to keep self esteem intact you have to understand what can happen if you leave a child back without taking all the issues into consideration. I am not saying it wil always cause self esteem issues. I just think parents need to be informed on this issue and as we know the schools are not interested in the research.

Anne-marie,

You are asking an excellent question. I started with tutors trying to catch my son up. The result was they were doing the same thing that the school was doing and it just didn’t work. He needed to have his deficits specifically addressed.
For example; he lacked phonemic awareness, he could not segment or blend words. I addressed this through a program called reading reflex and he was able to develop these specific skills and learn to read. I think children with more severe auditory issues may need more intensive auditory intervention through speech therapy, the listening program or fast forward. For my son reading reflex was enough.

He also had a visual motor deficit. He had a problem with attention, sequencing and visual spatial issues. I did the research and found that a program called interactive metronome helped sequencing and motor issues. He improved in these areas without tutoring.

Vision therapy also helped a great deal. We did not do any writing this summer, yet, my son wrote a story as well as anyone in the class the first day of school. His writing was the biggest remaining issue at the end of last year.

I have gone after the deficits one by one and it really has helped him. I don’t have time for tutoring. Academics just come much easier to him now that his deficits are reduced, remediated, whatever you want to call them.

I do teach him the basics like skip counting and times tables but he really doesn’t need to have things re explained by a tutor. I may get a tutor in the future when he is beyond basic skills but not until I feel that every last deficit has been addressed.

I think there are some wonderful tutors (most are here on this board) who address children’s needs at the deficit level. That is where tutoring and remediation meet. This isn’t always easy to find.

Hi, Anne-marie! I found it!!!

What I see often is that a resource teacher will pull the third graders for math, and she will tutor them in third grade math as that is what they will be tested on. But what if one child is really at first grade level? He needs remediation…instruction at his level so he can progress!

Another thing they will do is practice reading comprehension passages for the end of year test. But what if the child really lacks basic decoding skills? Until those are remediated, he will continue to score poorly on comprehension tests.

This kind of tutoring is like putting on a band-aid for cancer. The delays will only get worse when nothing is being done to fix the underlying problems.

Janis

Or a band-aid on a broken leg or a sprained ankle (while you keep making the kiddo walk on it!) … where yes, there *IS* something that can be done and there can be a very high percentage of complete recovery… but NO, you’re going to keep getting the cheap stuff out and documeting that you Are Doing Things and wonder why it costs so darned much (concretely and abstractly) later on… well, except that that’s not your problem… but it’s the parents and the kid’s.

Linda,

I somehow overlooked your last reply to me. You know you have my sincere respect, too! I totally understand where you’re coming from, I really do. I’d be extremely careful in making that kind of decision and only do it when there is a real potential for greater benefit than moving the child up. I’m not going to read back to see what I said earlier, but Anna was the youngest in her class and it was just better for her in every respect to spend two years in first grade. She loved her teachers and they loved her, so there was just nothing negative about it. Very good class she is with now, too. I do think one has to look at every factor, and that will be different for every child.

Sue, yep, that’s the big picture, I’d say!

Janis

While I am familiar with the “research” on retention, I have also been in contact with people who acknowledge it was most appropriate for themselves of their child.

I taught with a first grade teacher who stated, “Had I NOT been retained in first grade, I would not be here today.”

I have spoken to several parents who have declared that K or first grade retention made all the difference for their child. Usually the retention decision must be made very early and when immaturity is indicated. If the child has an LD, then the remediation must also be available. Retaining children who are below grade level primarily due to low average cognitive ability (NOT due to LD) in the long run makes little difference. Cognitively lower functioning children still fall to the bottom of the heap regardless.

All or nothing solutions are generally something to be wary of. Considering each case on its own merits and deciding as a team is generally the best approach. Blanketly citing research and refusing to consider a move that acutally might make a positive difference is probably not the result the researchers had in mind.

I don’t think my post was in any way blanketly citing research. I encourage anyone making this decision to consider the research which can (personal experience here) get swept under the rug. The research should not only be read but brought to the meeting so that everyone fully understands what CAN happen before a decision like this is made.

Without research we are just guessing. I am not completely opposed to guessing, but I like to be well informed on all my guesses that have anything to do with my child.

I can understand the frustration that initial meeting caused but as a special education teacher I can honestly say that she was probably stating what she thought you wanted to hear. I have had parents yell at me because I was teaching at the child’s ability level rather than what the classroom was doing. It is also difficult in this age of No Child Left Behind to get support from administrators in allowing Special Ed teachers to focus on remediation rather than the core curriculum. The government seems to forget that more progress can be achieved when you teach to a student’s needs rather than what everyone else is doing. All students are required to take standardized tests and those tests reflect directly on the school. If an LD child fails a test because more emphasis was placed on basic reading and math rather than social studies or science it comes back on the Special ed teacher. It’s a double edge sword and until parents stand up for their child’s individual rights it won’t change. At this point it’s almost a waste to have an IEP!

Retention usually is useful if it is done very early, in K or 1 and is done primarily for maturational reasons. The resource teacher should be teaching to the child’s needs.

We rarely retained a sped. child, but we did occasionally and I never saw it backfire when it was a carefully considered decision by a team.