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Teachers please help.
I received a phone call from my daugter's teacher yesterday.
She has not been doing well in school, her latest report card she got 3 D's in reading/vocabulary/comprehension. Cassidy is in grade 5, and while her grades have not been all A's and B's, this is the first time she recieved D's.
This teacher asked that we have her assessed which we did, and now we are going to have a meeting regarding steps as her assessment came back very low. She suggested that the results show she may have a learning disabiltiy. Her teacher suggested a possiblitity of bringing her down a grade, and also referring her to an agency (which has a waiting list and can take up to a year).
I asked her teacher what I can do in the meantime, and she wants to wait till the meeting to disccuss all options. She also mentioned that Cassidy is showing signs of frustration and lack of interest in trying, which I have seen also.
Here are my questions:
Does anyone have any sugggestions to help her at home without being pushy and having her regress?
Also, I am really thinking that I will absolutely not allow them to put her back without at least giving her time to try to catch up/do better. I feel at grade 5 this could do more harm than good ecspecially for her self-asteem.
I am a little frustrated with the whole situation, it has taken 7 years in school for a teacher to recognize that she may have a learning disability?
Re: Teachers please help.
I am a reading specialist and involved in the testing of students to see if they qualify for learning support. In my opinion, holding your daughter back a year is not the answer. Keep in mind that qualifying for learning support means that there are is a discrepancy between what your child is capable of doing and what she is producing. The point of LS is to instruct a child in smaller class settings (or provide more support from additional support staff) in which they receive instruction individualized to their specific needs to help children be successful.
Your child's teacher(s) should be working to make accommodations to help your daughter be more successful. This would include providing more time to complete work, giving more individual attention, and differentiating the materials used (such as easier books, shorter assignments, more support in writing). This may be reflected in the grades received because she would not be producing the same work as other students independently.
At home, set time limits for getting the work done. Communicate with the teacher that your daughter worked for a realistic amount of time and this was the work she was able to complete.
Also, ask if she can complete less work at night. For example, if there are 20 math problems assigned one night, ask to only do 10 to cut down on the amount of time it takes.
Also, take scheduled breaks between the work. Work for 20 minutes and take a 5 minute break. This is especially important if she is getting frustrated or upset while working.
Reward your daughter for completing work without an argument (I am not sure if this is an issue) with extra computer time, phone time, or other incentives that are meaningful to her.
Good luck!
Thank you for your advice...If you don't mind I will keep you posted as we go through this. I may come up with more questions once we talk with the teacher.
This is one reason I can't stay away from forums, there is always someone out there that has advice/tips, or even encouraging words when you need it!
Thank you again.
Just from what your post includes, I would absolutely be against holding her back a grade. There is still time for her to catch up to her current grade level or at least not be so far behind that she will really struggle next year. I say this mostly because it doesn't sound like she is getting much if any support from special services.
The trouble is, the teachers and specialists can test a child, but if the child tests at a certain level (higher than the cutoff for whatever tests/measurements were given), she cannot qualify for services. This stinks, and it's such a hard part of teaching because we can see that the kids need help but they do not meet the standard for receiving special services.
When are you meeting with the teacher? If it is not in the next two weeks, I would ask if you could meet/talk on the phone with her sooner just to discuss what can be done in the meantime.
At home, help her out as much as you can without giving the answers. Ask, "ok, what is the question asking?", "what is the first thing you think you should do?" "great, now what is the next step?" and just try to guide her through the work. Also, if it is a writing assignment, help her map out her ideas on paper before actually writing paragraphs, that way she won't have to keep all of her ideas in her head while she tries to write.
This. I am a resource teacher and work with many students with learning disabilities. In order to show that a child has a learning disability, they can't just use testing information and scores, they have to show that the school has made accommodations and interventions with increased intensity and that your daughter has not responded (they haven't worked). Has she been seen in a small reading or math group? What kind of supports has the school put in place to help her succeed? Also, do you know what kind of tests they used to gather their information?
Keeping a student back a grade is a terrible idea...if she isn't showing effort now, the hit to her self-esteem will only make that worse.