Homework

Curran is having problems in school, it actually started before he began going to school. 

I realized very early on that learning in an academic setting was going to be difficult. He had no interest in learning colours, letters, writing his name and if he did show interest, he didn't retain the information for very long. 

Kindergarten was a major frustration for me, the teacher was less than helpful.  To be brutally honest, she was and is still utterly useless as a teacher in my view point.  Having had her "teach", I use that word mildly, both my children, I am very sympathetic to the other parents who have had similar experiences with her.  This teacher requested extra work at home but had no suggestions on what approach we should be taking, luckily we were already working at home with flashcards and activities and such.  She shoved as side my request for resource room help for Curran, stating "He's just a boy. Boys are slower." From the assignments that came home from school, it appeared that she had not even looked at them.  Most of them were not completed, let alone corrected.  She didn't even realize Curran was left-handed until six-months into school. 

Grade One has been a year of many ups and downs.  The first week of school, I contacted the teacher to make her aware of his "problems", she was very receptive to my concerns and within the first month he was seeing the resource room teacher on a regular basis.  Curran overcame many of the hurdles that he was struggling with in Kindergarten very quickly. We were starting to see progress and then at Christmas time he hit a brick wall, he started to regress in certain areas and stopped progressing altogether in others. By the end of February he was seeing the resource room teacher, four days a week, a half hour at a time and working with Sean and I at home every day for an hour every evening.

The school did some testing and discovered that Curran is only functioning at a 3/4 Kindergarten year level in most subjects.  He cannot read most words, he cannot write most words, he needs instructions repeated numerous times, he has low oratory and retainable memory.  What the tests didn't show, was that he retains everything except that which requires reading and writing.  He can do math, in his head.  If you give him objects to add, he can do it no problem; however, show him the written equation and he is lost.  He has adapted to process most things orally. When I received the results of these tests, I asked whether or not he should be further tested for learning disabilities.  They figured that it was unnecessary at that time, but that he should repeat grade one.  He should progress just fine, just at a slower pace. 

It has been two months since my last "meeting" with the school.  In that time, he has not progressed any further; in fact he has regressed in certain areas.  I asked my sister-in-law, who happens to be an elementary school teacher, to go over Curran's test results and give me her opinion.  She told me, get him further tested, something is not right.  I contacted the Learning Disability Association in Saskatoon, and have him booked in to have a Psycho Educational Assessment.  They will test his cognitive skills, his reading, math, hand-eye co-ordination; they will check if he has ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia; you name it they will test for it and determine what his "challenges" are and even set up a program to help him overcome them.  They will also help me to determine, whether or not Curran repeating Grade One will be a benefit or not.  Already, we have established that he likely has ADD.

I have a meeting with the school next week, to let them know what we are doing.  I am not willing to let my child struggle any longer.