Aidan has been a star this weekend doing his toe by toe and typing with his nanna while I have been away.
Its amazing how much he fights me when he needs to do a task, and yet he just gets on with it for other people. I know we have been tackling the reading thing for many years now, so he is bound to have negative associations with me and reading, but its soooo frustrating.
Anyway he is off to the DRT tomorrow, so fingers crossed for some progress.
Sunday 21 October 2012
Tuesday 16 October 2012
Its a crime how hard it can be to get that diagnosis!
I agree with those that dislike labels, and I certainly hate the idea of using a label to tell a child who they are and what they are or are not capable of.
I am a great believer in the idea that kids become what you tell them they are, if you tell them they are naughty then they behave like a naughty child to live up to that label.
However in the arena of special needs I think a diagnosis can bring with it so many positive points. How can you begin to help someone if you have no idea what their issue is. So many mums and dads that have gone before us have struggled hugely, and the improving understanding and all of that knowledge and experience should be harnessed and used to the advantage of our children.
Aidan was diagnosed at 7, before that we were stumbling in the dark,was he lazy, was he just not concentrating, was he being naughty? Should we force him to read? Why was he so angry and frustrated as soon as he saw his reading book and words.
Once he was offically dyslexic we could start on our journey to understand how he saw the world of words and how we could help him to reach his potential.
We were lucky and got the diagnosis through the school SENCO, but I have heard stories of people waiting years ( even into adulthood) to get a diagnosis, and stories of schools and professionals saying that a families only option was to pay hundreds of pounds to go private for their child's diagnosis.
Dyslexic children in general are amazing and so full of potential so why are we not making the path to diagnosis as easy as possible, and then quickly supporting these kids to have the chance to reach their full potential!
I am a great believer in the idea that kids become what you tell them they are, if you tell them they are naughty then they behave like a naughty child to live up to that label.
However in the arena of special needs I think a diagnosis can bring with it so many positive points. How can you begin to help someone if you have no idea what their issue is. So many mums and dads that have gone before us have struggled hugely, and the improving understanding and all of that knowledge and experience should be harnessed and used to the advantage of our children.
Aidan was diagnosed at 7, before that we were stumbling in the dark,was he lazy, was he just not concentrating, was he being naughty? Should we force him to read? Why was he so angry and frustrated as soon as he saw his reading book and words.
Once he was offically dyslexic we could start on our journey to understand how he saw the world of words and how we could help him to reach his potential.
We were lucky and got the diagnosis through the school SENCO, but I have heard stories of people waiting years ( even into adulthood) to get a diagnosis, and stories of schools and professionals saying that a families only option was to pay hundreds of pounds to go private for their child's diagnosis.
Dyslexic children in general are amazing and so full of potential so why are we not making the path to diagnosis as easy as possible, and then quickly supporting these kids to have the chance to reach their full potential!
Friday 12 October 2012
Those evil little numbers, letters and words
There are certain words, letters and numbers that I will hate till my dying day.
These poor letters and so on can't help it, and I am sure they don't do it deliberatley, however the person who created them should have a red hot poker bashed around their heads.
Over the years many of these have challenged us, in particular the classic b and d, who on earth thought that was a good idea!
Then we had the god awful number 5, argggghhhhhhh! That one took so many years of practice that I don't even want to think about it.
Those ones are generally now sorted, although occassionally they still rear their ugly backwards heads. Our current challenges are:
for some reason he reads wh words with a th and the other way around.
then we have the number 9 ( and occassionally his mate the number 7).
We have tried so many things to get these set in his head, so if you have any magic solutions do let me know!
These poor letters and so on can't help it, and I am sure they don't do it deliberatley, however the person who created them should have a red hot poker bashed around their heads.
Over the years many of these have challenged us, in particular the classic b and d, who on earth thought that was a good idea!
Then we had the god awful number 5, argggghhhhhhh! That one took so many years of practice that I don't even want to think about it.
Those ones are generally now sorted, although occassionally they still rear their ugly backwards heads. Our current challenges are:
for some reason he reads wh words with a th and the other way around.
then we have the number 9 ( and occassionally his mate the number 7).
We have tried so many things to get these set in his head, so if you have any magic solutions do let me know!
Thursday 11 October 2012
A big fat arrrggghhhhhhh!
So we had parents evening tonight. Aidan's teacher seems lovely, and is trying her best for him, so don't worry I am not about to enter into a session of teacher bashing.
My issue tonight exists in the system:
- The assessment of his reading mainly looks at comprehension, as a bright boys he understands most things, so surprise surprise his reading is showing up as being pretty much where it should be for a kid of his age. How comes he is coping with reading books at the same level as his 5 year old sister, and the independant age assessments are showing him to be years behind.
- Add to that the fact that there seems to now be very little interest in his spelling, even though he can't spell several of the Year R key words.
- Add to that the fact that you can't read his handwriting ( he is 9), and yet because he is making the minimum required improvement, apparently its ok, as long as he is making some progress. Surely he needs to be helped to make even more progress than your average child, how can he go to secondary school with writing like this!
- Add to that the fact that his extra help is now pretty much fully focused on phonics assessments and support. However the experts have suggested that he needs to learn whole words as he struggles with the phonic things. I know there is a big focus on phonics now, but surely there are other ways to learn to read.
Currently hanging all my hopes on the lovely Toe by Toe.
My issue tonight exists in the system:
- The assessment of his reading mainly looks at comprehension, as a bright boys he understands most things, so surprise surprise his reading is showing up as being pretty much where it should be for a kid of his age. How comes he is coping with reading books at the same level as his 5 year old sister, and the independant age assessments are showing him to be years behind.
- Add to that the fact that there seems to now be very little interest in his spelling, even though he can't spell several of the Year R key words.
- Add to that the fact that you can't read his handwriting ( he is 9), and yet because he is making the minimum required improvement, apparently its ok, as long as he is making some progress. Surely he needs to be helped to make even more progress than your average child, how can he go to secondary school with writing like this!
- Add to that the fact that his extra help is now pretty much fully focused on phonics assessments and support. However the experts have suggested that he needs to learn whole words as he struggles with the phonic things. I know there is a big focus on phonics now, but surely there are other ways to learn to read.
Currently hanging all my hopes on the lovely Toe by Toe.
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