My son is almost 9YO. He attended public school through first grade and I removed him when he completed the year without being able to read. I was able to get him reading to a second grade level within months.
He’s been home now for almost two years and there isn’t much improvement in his writing skills. While he can test well orally, putting pen to paper is extraordinarily difficult. His letters are of many sizes and his method of writing is odd. He starts from the bottom line and adds seriphs sloppily. His speech was incoherent in Kindergarten and has slowly, very slowly, progressed.
Physically, his gross motor skills have been quite delayed and he’s clumsy. He just learned to ride his bike and I hope this improves his strength.
He is completing third grade math and there are no difficulties in that area. He has uncanny logic skills and an amazing long term memory. He can remember where we sat in a restaurant a year ago. He enjoys puzzles and doing things with his hands. He always surprises us because his language is very simple but his throughts are complex. He is a very bright, intuitive child who appears much younger than he is because of his small stature, speech and his extremely sunny and pleasant demeanor.
The evaluation from the school gave him a verbal IQ of 78 and a performance IQ of 117. The diagnosis was auditory processing dysfunction but a visit to NAU’s auditory health clinic proved that he does not have this disorder.
I am considering enrolling him in a small rural school. His teacher would be a highly trained reading specialist and his class will have no more than 10 kids across K-3rd grade levels. I am beginning to feel that I cannot meet his needs and it is very stressful to me.
So I guess what I want to know is: is this familiar to anyone? Does it model any learning disabilities that you have seen? Is there something that I can use to help him?
Does making him practice writing do him harm? Can he improve these skills? He forgets what he reads as he struggles through the text but seems to be able to recall it the next day.
Re: Writing, reading comprehension and handwriting issues.
He received speech therapy until last June when we moved from the virtual charter school to complete homeschooling. He could not keep up with the demands of their curriculum (K12).
I do not have the money to acquire tutoring services for him. His insurance does not cover that kind of testing. I paid out of pocket for the NAU evaluation and it was about $170.
He had an OT evaluation in the public school system and while they observed that his muscle weakness would make it difficult to carry his books and participate in PE, and that his handwriting was illegible, they refused him services unless I had him diagnosed by a doctor. I bristled at that because I have a neuromuscular disorder that is essentially uninsurable in my state and if he were formally diagnosed with it, he would be labeled for the rest of his life. I asked why an absolute diagnosis was needed when the symptoms, if he had my disease, were untreatable by medication and she said that it was policy. In other words, the consequences to a positive diagnosis would not change his healthcare, but it could get him refused health insurance as he gets older. So we didn’t desire it, but because we refused to take that chance, he was refused services.
It’s possible that I could volunteer in the classroom so that the teacher could work with him directly and I will think about discussing that with her.
Re: Writing, reading comprehension and handwriting issues.
I work with students on improving handwriting and have seen big improvements in Grade 5 and even adultbood, if the student is motivated.
In general, you want to teach consistent directionality, always top to bottom and left to right, no exceptions. It is much better to use pens and markers, never pencils which require too much pressure and prevent fluent motions. Whiteboards are great tools.
You work a little bit at a time, ten minutes a day. Spaced practice is far more effective than larger blocks of time with too much of a break in between.
First of all you practice on lower-case letter per day individually, working hard on that directionality. After about ten are mastered, you continue working with single letters and add in copying short words. You build up very slowly to sentences and to independent writing, but don’t push it.
You will find that your son tends to do tthree steps forward and two steps back. Don’t panic, just keep working step by step. Keep an eye out for backsliding on directionality for some time (as in up to a year.)
Re: Writing, reading comprehension and handwriting issues.
Yes, it’s familiar. What Victoria’s said is right… I would look into technology for the writing area, so that his motor skills don’t slow down his thinking skills.
Good private specialist schools can be a godsend. (Even fair to middling ones can be a godsend because they don’t tear the child up or wear him down.) If you’ve got access to one, check it out and seriously consider it. I taught at one… it made such a difference in so many kids’ lives. (There was one parent who said, “I used to sit up at night and cry, wondering what the future was for my kid… now I cry when I think about how he has grown.” Now, things weren’t that good for every kid, and every private school isn’t that good, but…)
This is not an unusual profile for a child with broad learning disabilities, although every child is unique, of course. Has he been receiving speech-language therapy? He certainly needs both a speech-language and occupational therapy evaluation if he hasn’t already. A full neuropsychological evaluation would be nice if your insurance would cover it. You might want to ask his doctor if he would make the referral.
I can understand your stress about feeling that you can’t meet his needs. I do think it can be done, but it takes a lot of research on the part of the parent. On the plus side, the child gets one-on-one instruction all the time. I will tell you that a ratio of 10 children with a grade span of k-3 basically means that it is unlikely that he will get much help. That is an almost impossible situation for the teacher to meet everyone’s needs. A possible better alternative would be for you to continue homeschooling with getting some private tutoring and guidance. You need to consult with someone who really specializes in reading disorders and possibly have him tutored. But I’d be interested to know what training the highly trained reading specialist has. Try to find that out. Is there an aide in the class? How much one-on-one reading instruction would he receive? Does the school have a speech-therapist, OT and PT?
His handwriting can possibly be improved, but it is too late really make a huge improvement. You can try some of the Handwriting Without Tears materials, but I think he should have an OT evaluation first.
Bottom line, he seems to have a language based learning disability at the least. And you need to address oral language, then reading, then spelling and writing. He forgets what he reads because he is not reading fluently.
Try to get more details about the special class and teacher training and we can possibly give you a more meaningful opinion. Find out what reading program and other curriculum that she uses.