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I'm a special ed high school teacher now, but I used to teach elementary school. I agree with all the previous posts about testing. I teach several students who are 19-20 years old and still in high school. I see students every year who drop out because they are 2-3 years older than other students in their class. Retaining is not the answer. If he has a learning problem, he will struggle next year. Hearing the same material twice will not help your son learn.
Emmablue, I'd worry if your 4th grade boy wasn't active/social/easily distracted. That is normal.
Try not to fret, Mom. You are taking the very steps you need to in order to get to the root of the problem. Ggluvbug made a good point -- keep in mind 4th grade is such a transitional year, the move from reading to learn as opposed to learning to read.
I would also suggest if your son prefers not to read, subscribe to a few high-interest magazines in areas he seems to enjoy. Disney has one that's not too bad, and some good publications are geared towards children by National Geographic. Even a publication that appears a little too old for the boy, like Sports Illustrated -- if he really is into sports -- may get him reading more.
If you do get such publications, don't let him just 'look at the pictures' and go about his business. Set him down at the counter, or kitchen table, while you are preparing dinner, and get him to read articles to you. You can help him with his reading, share the info together, make comments, and it won't seem as much like 'tutoring' or doing HW. From the publications, you may be able to move him into short books on the same, or similar, subject matter.
It doesn't much matter if he reads cereal boxes, if you can get him to read. I might refrain from comic book formats, only because they may slow his reading pace, but do throw one in, here and there, if he likes them, too.
You'd be surprised by the benefits of getting him to read something, anything. It opened so many lines of communication with my child, on all sorts of topics.
And never let anyone make school, learning, reading a punishment, or be something he feels inept with -- he has strengths at school. Sounds like, if nothing else, maybe as a social creature, and hey! you may have a politician, TV announcer, travel agent, booking agent, etc., in the making. . .
Thank you all so much....I really feel better about the whole thing. I know one thing is for sure and that is I'm not going to let him be kept back for a repeat of the 4th grade.
Special Education classes have such a negative sound to them. I remember the kids in special ed when I was in high school and well....What should I expect from a special ed program at a school. I would like to know as much as I can before I go into this meeting.
Most special ed kids are mainstreamed in regular classes. Inclusion. Sometimes they get pulled out for an hour or two for extra help. Each special ed child has a plan called an IEP that spells out modifications and accommodations - more time to do work, a seat close to the teacher, more white space on the page, fewer math problems, whatever. You meet with school folks in meetings called ARDs (that name is only used in Texas) to go over what goals have been met or anything else. Some special ed kids are in self-contained classes, but most are in regular classes.
There are 13 categories a child has to be in to get an IEP and be in special ed. They are:
autism
deaf-blindness
emotional disturbance
hearing impairment (including deafness)
mental retardation
multiple disabilities
orthopedic impairment
other health impairment
specific learning disability
speech or language impairment
traumatic brain injury
visual impairment (including blindness)
ADHD falls under Other Health Impaired. Notice there is no Dyslexia category. Texas has a separate law for dyslexia called The Dyslexia Law. Some school districts in Texas acknowledge it and others don't. You can tell if your school does or doesn't because the ones that don't won't use the word dyslexia at all. Richardson ISD does not and if you are in Richardson ISD and you have a dyslexic child you want to move or seek a private LD school. I don't know about Plano ISD.
Did your child have trouble in his old school district? If it's just a matter of being behind because the former school wasn't that aggressive, then you don't need to deal with special ed. He just needs to get caught up with supplemental help both from the school and privately on your own dime. If you can get him help without going the special ed route then do that. But you just need to make sure the problem is a bad former school and not something with your child.
Special ed or not your child has to pass TAKS to get a diploma.
We find out his reading TAKs results after spring break. He does not need to pass the taks this year because we came so late in the year. I think that he just needs extra help to get caught up, but I don't know. We do division with him every night and he forgets how to do it every night. I don't get it. The Plano ISD is as I have been told for children who are more advanced.
I'm hoping with extra work and summer school he will be able to get caught up or at least have a better understanding. He has not been officially dx: with ADHD but has a lot of the symptoms. I don't think he is dsylexic (sp) because he has never written anything backwards or flip flopped. I'm not sure what all is involved with that. Can a child just be the kind of kid who just doesn't get it? I mean really nice, well liked, caring, good with children, good at sports really good with phychology things, but just doesn't do well in normal school work?
Well, an eval can tell you why he doesn't do well with normal school work. An eval can tell you exactly where the break down is. My son attends a private school for kids who learn differently in Dallas. The teachers have multiple ways to teach the kids. If one way doesn't work, they will try another way and then another way. The problem may be the method he is being taught. Or it could be a memory issue, a processing issue, he may have different parts of his brain processing information than typical brains have, it could be an output issue. He knows it but can't put it on paper in handwriting (but maybe he can when he types it). You also have to rule out low or low average IQ, hearing and vision issues and ADHD. ADHD can totally inhibit the ability to learn anything. My son isn't teachable at all without his ADHD medications.
Just because kids have learning issues doesn't mean they are bad kids and no one likes them and they are bad at sports or emotionally unstable.
The problem is if your son doesn't get it now it will make future grades very hard. School doesn't get easier. The pace gets faster, the homework requirements get harder and longer. Plano ISD is a very academically competitive school district. It's a great district for the top kids and they also have a pretty good special ed program so it's good for those kids too. But the middle of the road, average kid, PISD can be a tough place to be.
Without a doubt, hold him back. My son repeated kindergarten, and suffered no ill effects from being a year older than most classmates...he had an athletic advantage also.
My grandson had to repeat 4th grade because the family had moved to a school district in which he was not considered old enough for 4th grade, even though this kid is scary smart.. Also, no negative consequences.
I'm sure you can see the advantage to your son of being successful, rather than struggling. It will form his attitude towards school.
Holding a kid back will only ensure his being given the same material twice, the same way. He may very well be a child that needs to be taught differently. Have teachers determined what his learning style is? I would seek out an independent evaluation for dyslexia, sometimes people are moderately dyslexic, if so this will affect how he processes written words, numbers, and even the way his language sounds to him.
Before considering a Special Ed. Placement, I would do much research about how these services are rendered in the district, and his school. Just as someone stated, if the schools do not mention Dyslexia as one possibility to rule out, he can have a ruling in Reading for Special services, but still not have Dyslexia ruled out as root cause. Learn all you can.
Holding back does work for some children. I had several children, throughout the course of many years, tested to see if there was a learning disability. Turns out that some were not qualified for ESE services...but they were a S L O W learner who would not get it the first time around. They needed a second time around to be taught before they would pick up the skills. But this is after we ruled out any other issues.
Without a doubt, hold him back. My son repeated kindergarten, and suffered no ill effects from being a year older than most classmates...he had an athletic advantage also.
My grandson had to repeat 4th grade because the family had moved to a school district in which he was not considered old enough for 4th grade, even though this kid is scary smart.. Also, no negative consequences.
I'm sure you can see the advantage to your son of being successful, rather than struggling. It will form his attitude towards school.
There is a big difference between being held back once or in kindergarten and being held back 2 times. Two retentions can be the death toll on a child's education. Who wants to say they were 20 when they graduated high school--not many---that is why so many drop out.
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