Advice on son's schooling

mallet head

Apologies if posted in the wrong forum but my 8 year old son has fallen way behind on his reading and we dont know where to turn. He attends a Gaelscoil and has been in remedial reading class for 2 years to no avail. Is he too young for grinds or is there another way of bringing him on? If grinds are suitable could anyone point us in the right direction.



Just to add he is average or above average in all other subjects.

Tom Dunne

I split this off from the grinds thread in the hope you would get a better response and to facilitate discussion.

There are plenty of experienced teachers here that may be able to point you in the right direction.

spurious

Has his teacher given any suggestions as to why he has made no progress with the remedial group?
Has he been tested to see is there some specific difficulty?

mallet head

spurious wrote:

Has his teacher given any suggestions as to why he has made no progress with the remedial group?
Has he been tested to see is there some specific difficulty?

Thanks for the reply


The teacher in the remedial seems to think he has made some progress in the group but we as parents feel he has not. He has improved to a degree but for every step forward he makes the general class are making two. Sadly lots of parents in the class are having problems of this nature steming back 3 years. alarm bell first rang when an eye test on the class revealed most of the class had poor eye sight when at closer inspection it turned out most of the kids did not know the alphabet. It took some of the parents to bring this to the attention of the school principal. After this all the kids where tested for learning difficulties and our son was learning letters by sight not sound so he had to learn from scratch. I may go further by saying some parents have removed their kids from the school because of this problem but we would rather get it right privately if we have to because our son is very happy in the school.

spurious

It's easy enough assess whether his reading has improved or not. I don't know why the remedial teacher would just 'think' he's made progress, she/he should be able to show he has.

I'm not involved in early education, but I would have quite a bit of experience teaching kids who arrive to us as non-readers at 12 - we have regular testing to check how they are getting on.

Do the school encourage parents to do paired reading and similar home activities? Is his reading poor in both languages?

mallet head

spurious wrote:

It's easy enough assess whether his reading has improved or not. I don't know why the remedial teacher would just 'think' he's made progress, she/he should be able to show he has.

As i said he is making progress but at a slower rate that the main class which in turn is leaving him further behind

I'm not involved in early education, but I would have quite a bit of experience teaching kids who arrive to us as non-readers at 12

Thats very interesting are we worrying about something that will correct itself with time?

Do the school encourage parents to do paired reading and similar home activities? Is his reading poor in both languages?

Yes to both questions. we have been doing home activities for the last year but in our opinion his progress is slow. I dont want to name the school in question because that would be unfair but should we keep faith with the remedial system in the school or get him independently assessed? As I said a few parents are unhappy which is probably making us suspicious of the process.




Thanks for the replies btw. The time you are taking is really helping our understanding of the problem

spurious

I'm intrigued by the fact that he's doing OK in his other subjects.
Other than Maths and Art, all the others would require a certain amount of reading and yet it isn't having a negative effect.

In our school, we've had children with a reading age of 8 (at age 16) who passed their Junior Cert., so there is always hope, should it turn out that he does have a problem (and I'm not sure he has from what you're saying).

Any trained remedial teacher should be able to run a series of diagnostic reading tests - you shouldn't have to go outside the school, though of course if it would put your mind at ease, do. There will probably be a long waiting list for an assessment by an educational psychologist, unless you pay privately.

mallet head

spurious wrote:

I'm intrigued by the fact that he's doing OK in his other subjects.


Any trained remedial teacher should be able to run a series of diagnostic reading tests - you shouldn't have to go outside the school, though of course if it would put your mind at ease, do. There will probably be a long waiting list for an assessment by an educational psychologist, unless you pay privately.

Thats great thanks. I think we will go down the paying road just to see exactly where we stand. At least then we will be confident in what ever course of action we take to correct the problem.

kittex

I'm not as experienced as spurious, but in my own experiences with remedial/Learning support teaching, most pupils do not tick the boxes as regards prescribed progress targets.

What I mean is, if your son is making progress, that is great in itself. Ensure he is recognised, rewarded and praised for that. You say he is making progress, but not as fast as the others - maybe this is the pace he works at. We are not all the same, and do not always make the same 'benchmarks' at the same time.

I understand your concern at not wanting him left behind and it's excellent that you care so much.
However there are always children who progress more slowly and sometimes parents have difficulties seeing that their child is one of these pupils.
Some people are not good readers, boys can especially find it very hard to learn to read.
You child should not be competing with other pupils and being checked against them, as this could cause very low self-esteem. His targets and progress should be against his own abilities (hard to do I know, with curriculum and tests etc).

Please note, I am in no way making criticisms or assumptions, but with no detailed knowledge of the situation, I just feel it is important to make these comments – I am in no way assuming you do not praise him!

As regards the remedial classes themselves, if you and other parents are concerned and can afford independent assessment then that is up to you.
It may help with any further complaints and may throw up something not known before.

Also remember, it can be unrealistic to expect children who need more time with things to not only catch up on what they have fallen behind with, but also to take on all the new work at the same pace the class is working at in their absence. Effectively, this is expecting the child to work twice as fast when they're in the class in the first place, as they may work more slowly.

So, it may be normal that a remedial class is setting smaller tasks, focussing on skills and will work a step or two behind the main class.

Your son's own talents will come to the fore and when they do, be sure to focus on what he can do, rather than making what he can't do the main focus of his schooling.

mallet head

kittex wrote:

I'm not as experienced as spurious, but in my own experiences with remedial/Learning support teaching, most pupils do not tick the boxes as regards prescribed progress targets.

What I mean is, if your son is making progress, that is great in itself. Ensure he is recognised, rewarded and praised for that. You say he is making progress, but not as fast as the others - maybe this is the pace he works at. We are not all the same, and do not always make the same 'benchmarks' at the same time.

I understand your concern at not wanting him left behind and it's excellent that you care so much.
However there are always children who progress more slowly and sometimes parents have difficulties seeing that their child is one of these pupils.
Some people are not good readers, boys can especially find it very hard to learn to read.
You child should not be competing with other pupils and being checked against them, as this could cause very low self-esteem. His targets and progress should be against his own abilities (hard to do I know, with curriculum and tests etc).

Please note, I am in no way making criticisms or assumptions, but with no detailed knowledge of the situation, I just feel it is important to make these comments – I am in no way assuming you do not praise him!

As regards the remedial classes themselves, if you and other parents are concerned and can afford independent assessment then that is up to you.
It may help with any further complaints and may throw up something not known before.

Also remember, it can be unrealistic to expect children who need more time with things to not only catch up on what they have fallen behind with, but also to take on all the new work at the same pace the class is working at in their absence. Effectively, this is expecting the child to work twice as fast when they're in the class in the first place, as they may work more slowly.

So, it may be normal that a remedial class is setting smaller tasks, focussing on skills and will work a step or two behind the main class.

Your son's own talents will come to the fore and when they do, be sure to focus on what he can do, rather than making what he can't do the main focus of his schooling.

What a helpful post, thank you. You make some points there we all as parents need to be reminded about as we raise our children. Not just in their education but in everyday life.





Thanks again all for taking to time to help with our little problem.

Trotter

I think kittex is spot on. Also, I think because your son is only 8, I would just encourage him to do the best he can, as you are doing, and let him come on at his own pace.

I've seen lots of children progress very slowly and steadily and then shoot through a few months where things just fall into place. Each child will have his or her own pace moving through the developmental stages.

If he has no issues with speech, or other learning areas, I'd just keep doing with you're doing and let it happen.

What would really help things along, and maybe you're doing this already, is to buy some books that he will really enjoy. I know some 8 and 9 year olds who love the 'horrible histories' books. Now.. they are a bit gruesome!... but in a funny interesting way. I'd have a look at one or two of those next time you're shopping on your own and see what you think.

Use this time in his development to continue to read to him too. Sometimes parents think a child is too old to be read to. Not so. It'll stimulate his interest in independent reading.. and if you can spark this off, you are both on the right track.

Dont worry He's just fine.