Saturday 26 January 2008

A very good week

We have had a great week, started off with his first tutor session, where the tutor gave me a small amount of homework saiid that Matthew was having problems with worded problems, and not to push him if he couldn't do them (don't spend too long on 1 if he can't do it). He did the page in 2 mins flat, and said it was easy!?
Tues he came home to tell me that he had finished 2 pieces of work, one of these was independent work, he certainly gets a buzz out of his own efforts. Wednesday the SENCO tells us he is confidently answering a lot of questions in class and the 1:1 help is showing beneifits :). Friday was St Dwyren's Day (Welsh St valentine) the teacher has little chocolate hearts to give to all the children, but larger chocolate hearts to those who answered certain questions correctly. Matthew's question was how many months in 2/3 of a year and yes he got it correct (who said he can't do fractions?) and he had the larger chocolate (enough of an incentive).
Now we come to the major breakthrough, at rugby training they finished up with an obstacle course, stepping through hoops at speed, crawling under a net, darting between vertical posts. There were 2 teams Matthew was last to run, his team was well behind, his coordination and balance were brilliant not to mention his speed. He caught up and just pipped his rival at the post. All his team jumped on him, he had a real buzz, oh and he also scored 2 tries the same night.
Nearly forgot 10/10 on spelling test!

Wednesday 23 January 2008

Quick chat to SENCO

When I picked up Matthew for his assess. I saw the SENCO, she says Matthew is responding well to the 1:1 help, and is confidently answering questions within the class. She also said he was sooooooooo sweet in both talk and actions.

Assessment 10 -Follow up 9

Specialist happy with the results, she said when we get the eye test next time they will look at overall progress. Test 3 has been consistent and looks like it won't increase much more. Test 5 is still improving (with mental distraction 63, 63 and this time 76)so they hope to continue trying to push this until the value is as high as they can get it and the variance is small. She said not to worry about the 1st two tests as it is normal for younger children to fidget these into the red as they as so boring to do! Test 5 he had 2 consistent high scores and 1 lower although all were in the green.

Sunday 20 January 2008

More Spelling Success

Matthew brought his spelling home Monday night, I went over 5 words on Tues evening and then forgot the other 5 until Fri morning- day of test-oops!! We went over them, then did them as mental tasks and he again had 10/10. We really only need to fill in the gaps these days, if only there was more time in the day!!

Friday 18 January 2008

An A in Science.

Matthew tells me he had an A for his last Science classwork, and he tells me he sometimes asks the teacher if he can stay in play times to finish his work.

Yesterday he told me that his TA that helps him for 1hr, took him out of the class to do his work, as the the noise was too distracting. Don't know if this is going to be a regular thing - the OT suggested that he was being distracted by noise and visual distractions.

Wednesday 16 January 2008

Tutor Assessment

Finally bit the bullet and decided to get Matthew tested for a tutoring at a local centre.

Results were he is 18months to 2 years behind in Maths!! He seems to have completeley missed the point of fractions. I am shocked at this as the school report states he is very good at Maths. The tutor says that a lot of children miss the basics of fractions and the lessons move on to another subject. The school teacher did say in her write-up that we should practice fractions and decimals over the summer, but did not explain that there was such a huge problem.

Just found his end of year School tests (which I had to request as they are not given willingly)

May 2007 NFER in Maths 104 - average is 100. He also had a Level 4- , on a maths test on percentages recently. (2006 NFER score was 80)

Again I am confused with our Education system.

I also asked them to look at his welsh. It was very poor, when asked to write about what he had for Xmas he wrote a list, mostly illegible. He was then asked to write about what he did in school, when asked vebally all was fine. When putting it down on paper he wrote a few illegible sentences. They asked about his reading as they didn't have time to assess it and I told them that his Welsh reading was poorer than his English, they were suprised at this as it is usually the other way around. They are going to carry on assessing in his first lesson

On a more positive note after we explained about the "fog" he was in over a year ago, she told us about a similar pupil who was removed form school for a year at age 6 (then returned in a lower year) as he was in a fog who is now attaining A*'s at GCSEs at the moment. She says Matthew is a bright boy, has a great enthusiasm for learning, and he is a lovely child. All is not lost so we plod on.

Phonecall to OT

I spoke to the OT yesterday to inquire about age equivalents for the percentiles quoted on the report for the Beery test of Visual Motor Intergration. The Overall test score put him at 7.6 yrs (2 years behind) and the subcomponents Visual Perceptual - 7.6yrs and the Motor Component 6.6yrs (3 years behind).
She said the wedge should help him alot, and the OT assisstant will be working on his shoulder strength.

Thursday 10 January 2008

Presentation Homework

Matthew had a presentation to do for homework, he had to find information on his favourite author, learn it and present it to the class with only the help notes. I did help him write it, getting the information from the book leaf, but so do did many of the other mums.
He choose Holly Black who wrote the Spiderwick Chronicles.
He came home Tuesday telling me he had the loudest applause (ok not subjective there!) and his presentation was the 2nd longest! He had learnt it well managing to keep his eyes off the prompt cards mostly and using them as they should be used. He didn't take to long to learn then either. He had a great confidence boost and a big hug off me.

Friday 4 January 2008

Sensory Processing/Integration Disorder

After having mild Sensory Processing Disorder diagnosed by the OT I had a quick "Google" on the subject and found this OT site which is rather good. I especially recommend the Newsletter Page and you can see how it all links to what Dore is doing . Covers S&L problems also.
http://www.otawatertown.com/

Here's the newsletter link as their link goes to the wrong page http://www.otawatertown.com/newsletter.html

Wednesday 2 January 2008

"Children's Occupational Therapist" Report

As promised here's the Occupational Therapist report. Lots of work to do, and we have a brochure of exercises to do at home- 20mins a night. I can see why lots of people fail at doing these as they are not structured enough, just sort of choose what you want for loads of suggestions, very intimidating, where to start. Dore is more of do this for this many nights then move on, not so mind boggling! I going to wait for Dore to end and just try a few of the games.