Calling all school teachers!

[stevensmummy]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for school teacher advice please.

My 2nd son is struggling at school. He is only in P1. But already he is behind. I has speech difficulites. But in my opinion its really not that big a problem. Yes he has a problem but its not extreme and if you listen carefully you understand the majority of what he is saying.

He cant read. He cant blend. He can do the tricky words. He can memorise the word and recognise it easily enough. But he just cant get the blending.

Ive been fighting for Support For Learning teachers. I was promised 3 days SFL contact and had no sessions in the last 3 wks of term. Thats a 3rd of the term!! I kicked up about this and have now had the SPF teacher on the phone promising that he is in for 4 long sessions weekly. I also have a new speech therapist on board. My first contact session is in 2 weeks (roughly), she is new to the area, the last girl left. I had since seen the SpTh supervisor for our area. She was excellent and I'm hoping I can have her support if I need to tackle the school.

Its majorly stressing me out. I cant sleep for worrying about him. What if he never learns to read? What if he gets kept in P1? Irrational I know but my mind is on overload!

Sarah x

[wanagetoverthis]

Hi hun

My cousin is a head teacher for a primary school (she's honestly amazing and is so passionate about teaching, she's only 30 so to have already made head you can see how good she is) ...so I asked her for you.

Her response:

"Speech is the first area to tackle. He will not be able to blend until he can discriminate between the sounds.

How you can help at home: play robot. Pass me the b-o-x and eventually he will start hearing the sounds and talk like a robot too. This is the first stages of blending. Mouth exercises are really good too. Look in to a mirror with your little boy and look what happens to the mouth when you make sounds together. Shhhhhhh.. What happens with the Tongue, lips? Shape of mouth?

The fact he can memorise sight words is brill. Go with this strategy. Select a few words a week. Put on his bedroom door and press every time he leaves the room. Play snap, bingo etc. Children learn in different ways and this may be his way in.

Make sure he loves the process. Enjoyment for reading is the priority. Make it fun!

He will make progress. I would expect 3 sub levels a year. But with good support I would expect the rate to double. The school are accountable for the progress your child makes. Satisfactory progress would be 3 sublevels. They should be excelling this. Put more pressure on the school. Write to the authority for an enquiry if your not happy with their response.

In defence for the school- local authorities have had major cut backs including learning support. The whole system is all over the place. 1 person is doing 4 people's jobs. The cut backs are effecting the support that children are receiving in my school but that is not good enough excuse x "
N xxxx

[stevensmummy]

Nat ure such a superstar!! Thank you so much for your help.

I Will try everything she's suggested.

My only question being whats a sublevel? How do I identify these within the materials they give me?

They get home what they call word boxes. We have ploughed through 5 boxes yet he still doesn't remember box 1. Its ridiculous! The memory game on the wall is excellent we can use the word box for this. One suggestion was to stop teaching him to read. I can't see how that will help. Is it not better to try the memory way? If he's happily trying then why prevent him?

I really cant thank you enough!! xx