Today I had a brilliant meeting at school. I spent one hour with Joel's classroom teacher, deputy principle, guidance officer, gifted and talented specialist teacher, and special needs co-ordinator. We all got together just to work out how best to educate my boy. How special is that! I am very thankful. Joel is a complicated kid. He doesn't have behaviour issues and he's managing to pass most subjects (so the school wasn't really obliged to go to such effort), but he has had more trouble than expected learning to read and write. His psych tests have shown that he is highly intelligent (well into the gifted range) but has a very slow processing speed (16th%) and low working memory. We have worked out a few strategies to try in the classroom and at home to get him reading and writing better, but their main concern is that he is stretched with creative tasks and encouraged to engage in school. I was given details for all sorts of gifted groups to get into contact with - which I won't at this stage. Might teach him to read first.
It would be wonderful if all kids who were having troubles at school were given such thorough attention. But I think they probably aren't. Joel has the advantage of having an interesting intellectual profile and an assertive mum. If your child is struggling and you suspect that something is wrong, can I suggest you visit the school's guidance officer? They are your best friend in such a situation. Many very good teachers have no training in learning difficulties. I had to push last year to have Joel's assessment happen. His teacher didn't recognise that anything was unusual ('Some kids are brighter than others.... We all learn at our own pace...' etc) and didn't consider calling in the G.O.. This is normal.
That's wonderful Simone! If I ever actually work as a GC, I hope I can be one like that :)
ReplyDeleteThat's an encouragement to read that, Simone.
ReplyDeleteI have a 2-year-old (on the under 2.5 side of 2) who recognises half the alphabet, can recite 1 corinthians 13:4-8 (with prompts), can count four objects with reasonable consistency and a has working vocabulary in excess of 1000 words. While not trying to make too many assumptions about his intelligence, it's good to know that the school system may not necessarily fail him if he does arrive well ahead of his peers academically.