My little chess champion

 

Watch this space for the photo I will upload as soon as I get my rubbish, slightly lazy and none technological butt in gear. - here it is

We have always wanted Aidan to be good at something, anything, we are not fussy we would accept pretty much anything. In fact I don't actually care a huge amount if he is good at it, I think that's the wrong word.

Maybe it would be better to say that we have always wanted him to have some passion, enthusiasm and motivation with something. Don't get me wrong we are blessed, he is compassionate, great with his siblings, clever, and certainly popular. He just has never had any real passion behind anything he has ever done. Over the years he has enjoyed things, in fact a lot of things, but he has never got that idea of wanting to work hard to get better at something.

Anyway last week end off he trotted to the Cubs district chess tournament, we dropped the girls at a party, and Ali suggested that we should at least go back for the prize giving. We almost didn't bother just assuming that Aidan would not stand a chance.

He is good at chess, but he is not a natural like some kids, it does not help that he insists on talking constantly, and that talking usually consists of him telling his opponent what his next moves will be and why. I know nothing about chess, but I am sure this is not a great tactic to take.

We were stood there listening to the speech, and what a surprise to find that Aidan had won the over 9 year olds section. I don't think Ali or I have won a trophy in our lives, and we have certainly never had one in our house, so I have to say that the trophy is a welcome guest.

Aidan next has a tournament at County level, I know he will try hard, and we are so proud of him. Above all its exciting that he is enjoying chess, wanting to try hard, and actually seeing that its possible for himself to improve through hard work.

Been a bit rubbish at the updating my blog, so bear with me

Aidan had his Ed Psych appointment on Monday, and when I have a little time I will come on to talk about all that was said during the session.

For now I will just talk about a little success. One of the ideas discussed was using newspapers more with him, so he can see as many words as possible, on as regular a basis as possible.

We don't generally have newspapers in the house, mainly because I find the news just too depressing. I get my news fix now a days from a combination of the internet and teletext. Somehow the news seems easier to cope with when its presented in short stories with few pictures.

Taking the advice about newspapers I decided to opt for the more gentle local paper. Asking Aidan to try and read an article is likely to be a big step too far. So his first challenge was to find and highlight 20 "and"s. Now this is a boy that whinges as the mere hint, glimmer or mention of reading or homework. He sat at the table and willingly found the words, even going beyond and finding nearly 40. Now this is unheard of, willing work!

His next challenge was to find all the words with 4 letters or less in one article, again he attacked the challenge with enthusiasm, dare I say it he actually almost seemed to enjoy it.

I am no fool I know this is just small progress, but I always welcome any positive steps, no matter how teeny tiny.

excellent idea for homework

So Aidan normally has relatively boring homework, but for a change I loved this one, any thing ( even if its daft) that gets them thinking about reading is good in my book!

 

So the brief was to read a book in the oddest place you could think of ( with the caution that it must be safe). Aidan wanted to do it up a tree, but the heavy snow put a stop to that idea, so instead he came up with the idea to read in the rabbit run.

I am looking forward to getting into the school some time soon and seeing the other kids photos. Love it!

Heading into school, the possible start of yet another fight

Aidan can not read very well, he struggles to concentrate, and he knows how far he is behind his peers, he is very intelligent and must spend large parts of each day bored silly in class.

However he has always willingly headed out the door to school every day, not a whinge, moan or question. We have never been through any kind of issue where he tries to skive or get out of school. His attitude has always been exceptional, he tries hard at school and tries to follow instructions.

Despite his problems I think all of his previous teachers loved having him, and would fight to teach him again. This may all sound like "proud mother syndrome", but he really is beyond great.

I could actually count the number of times he has been told off by a teacher over the last 6 years on one hand. I get regular stories of his friends losing their golden time or getting multiple detentions, but never from him.

Sadly this has all started to change, over the last couple of months he regularly moans about being bored in class. He will do anything to get time out of school, he just seems to no longer get any joy out of even the subjects he once loved. In fact over the last few weeks he has come home with more and more stories of the teacher telling him off, or telling him he is not trying hard enough.

I am not a mum that goes rushing into the school over every little issue, but sadly after talking to him I think its time to go in for a little chat. I don't have a problem with his teacher I am sure she is great, but she does not seem to understand him or "get" the extra input that he needs.

So watch this space to see what happens next.....

So hard to hear, that word severe

At the DRT today I was talking to Dr Sue about my impression that the school don't seem to think that Aidan has too much of a problem. In particular I mentioned that recently they were explaining that his reading level was roughly age appropriate.

I don't really understand dyslexia and I kind of always thought that Aidan had a very mild dose of it. I know he finds the reading, writing, spelling, coordination, concentration and organisation things all a struggle, but he seems to get on so well.

The lovely Dr Sue gave me a little shock by saying that he has very severe dyslexia, I am not sure why this is such a shock to hear. I am not stupid, and I know his dyslexia will never just go away, as much as I would love for it to bugger off. However hearing it classified as severe is still something to take in.

We have some movement......

Its the first day back and I have the SENCO on the phone before lunch time calling me, how exciting. Firstly the usual stupid special needs thing that all the paperwork we filled out ( which she double checked was the right thing to do with the Ed Psych helpline) was sent back, as they want to assess if he needs to see them directly. Its great to cut out the middle man, but actually telling people you are doing this is a good idea.

So it turns out that she has spoken to the Ed Psych team and already booked the assessment in for him. Now get this, due to a catchment area issue they should not see him till the end of Feb, she persuaded them to let him go to another catchment areas session and has got him an appointment on the 4th Feb.

Its time to gather up all the info and evidence of how he is doing into one place, and to try and make it clear to the Ed Psych that he needs more support.

I am still none the wiser what an Ed Psych actually really does, but the SENCO asked a special needs inspector and they also couldn't define the role, so go figure.

I have not yet heard from lovely new OT, but she obviously spoke to the SENCO when she assessed Aidan a few days before Christmas. It sounds like she thinks Aidan still needs a lot of support and is setting up a new program for the school and has some suggestions for special pens and cutlery to help him.

It feels like we are making progress, but I am terrified that its too little to actually make a real difference. He still struggles so much :-(

Mr Branson you have a point.

http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog/dyslexics-get-it-right

I have often thought that Aidan's way of reading and spelling makes so much more sense. Why can't the English language be more sensible and logical.

Maybe we could go back to step one and rewrite everything using Dyslexic common sense, in a way that is what a lot of text talk is, just writing things down how they sound.