12 Asesssment -11th follow up

here are our latest assessment and the results are getting consistenly green, for the first time ever we had all greens, Test 1 +2 were only checked once as they were green they were not repeated. Test 4+5 were tested 3 times and the bar shows the range, which I think is really good but they want to see those tighter still!!

Slight regression

Matthew seems to be going through a slight regression in that he hasn't been hearing things correctly again, it fills me with fear when I am repeating words to him, his Dad has noticed too, but I know it will get better. Conversley he went back to school and told me that he had had a brilliant day with his work and his reading was more fluent last night. So perhaps we are moving forward again- I'll keep you informed :)
His tutor has decided to concentrate more on his written work, although he doing maths and Welsh alternative weeks(more to give him an extra feel good/confidence factor in his maths) on his maths week she is slipping in 20 mins of written and all the homework is going to be written.
Gawd he needs it, it is coming across as lazy e.g. she asks him to write about his day and he doesn't use full sentences, more of a list e'g. I got up, got dressed, ate breakfast, made bed etc. I know it's just him getting around the fact that he hates writing, avoidance tactics basically.

Paediatrician Follow-up

We revisited the Paediatrician last week, had a little chat about Matthew's progress and the outcome was "Keep on doing what your doing and things will continue to improve". We agreed that it was all the interventions together that were making the impact. Although if I wasn't subsidising the school with all the extra help, I'm sure he wouldn't be making the progress that he is, but he is able to learn now so must be happy with that.

Stairway to Spelling finished

Well we have finished Stairway to spelling, we didn't even use the technique on the last fifty words. I just quizzed him while doing his exercises, and went over the ones he had wrong about twice and he got them. We have been learning lists from the Education City site we signed up to last year- we have 3 months left of our subcription. He whizzed through English Yr 4 over Easter break and has moved on to Yr 5 English and is now learning Yr 5 spelling words. The first list was learnt in a day i.e. i before e except after c words e.g receipt, conceit, field, brief. He did them on the site as a game and I am retesteing them while he does his exercises.

Reading

Here's an update on Mathew's reading. Still fluency problems (when reading out loud anyway), but the books are age appropriate, he isn't a fast reader and it'll never be his favourite passtime.

Parents Evening

Had Parents evening last nught, all seems to be progressing well. Matthew is learning things on par with his peers! The only poblem is output- back to that writing again! There was lots more in his exercise books this year, including the ones where he has no help. A grades in his Maths and Science books.(in the end of subject tests). We discussed more times in test (as per EPsych first report way back form 2006) as I don't think he had extra time in last May tests, she said she fine with that. Also the laptop that was spoken about in last Ed Psych meeting, apparently, a speed of 30 Words/min is required before they are allowed to use these, we told her Matthew is working on it, but if he can type faster than write that really shoud be the criteria. She is going to test his writing speed. Also we asked for a contact book where we can write in any worries and she can let us know if things need to be worked on.
Oh yes and discovered that since Sept 2007 the head is no longer the SENCO, but Matthew current class teacher is. Nice of them to let us know. We only found this out from the LSA at the end of the evening. During the discussion with the class teacher we complained that we haven't had Feb's IEP, we hadn't been invited to discuss it and we had never once had a IEP review, although she said we should have had a review, not once did she say "well I'm the Senco now". She said was we should have had the IEP reviewed and it will be this year and they are due out this week.Also the regulatons are changing and the child will be consulted on the IEP from Sept.
We felt it quite productive, but hoping they are not just paying us lip service.

OT Technician visits us at Home

The OT Technician, popped a few things into us last Thursday, a nonslip sheet to under paper, and to try him on the caring cutlery (she lives in our village). She had a look at him with knife and fork and says he has no problem just needs to practice.
We chatted about motion based therapy and she says just keep plugging away and things will improve. She has a dyslexic daughter who is currently at university, took a different route to get there but has got there all the same, and is doing well although needs the support that is offered.
She was excited about the new foundation phase that is to be brought in here in Wales, following along the lines of Scandanavian countries, there will be no formal teaching of reading/writing /spelling until junior classes (age 7), but emphasis of learning through play. I think this is very enlightened and a definite way forward, get the basic needs of the children up to scratch first i.e. lots of play, getting the gross motor skills and then fine motor skills tuned up before bringing in the academics. IMO this is brilliant as even my older son has troubles with writing neatly and quickly, and could have done with those years of concentrating on development of these unpining skils.

Dore Assessment 11 -Follow up 10.

Good results again moving in the right direction, the specialist is encouraging us to keep at it, she believes that the balance scores are tightening up now and we may push them up even more.

The Occular motor tests are coming along, smooth persuit are as good as they'll get, and the Saccades just need a little more tightening up, 3 overshoots needing a correction and a few guesses. Matthew's reading does seem more fluent lately so if we can just sort this out- who knows!!

OT Technician

The OT Technician is coming to the school to give Matthew his short block of OT therapy for 6 sessions. I had to phone her to rearrange one, for him to attend his Dore Assess. next week. She tells me Matthew is a very enthusiastic learner, and I said well they all love 1:1 help, but she assures me that they are not all that enthusiastic. He has mastered tying shoe laces, but I have taught him this before (I did post it here) so it really is just a recap.
They are doing handwriting on an upright black board at 90 degrees, so he uses both hands, however 6 days of doing this isn't going to cut any ice I'm afraid, she said herself he has to keep practising it. She also mentioned that he has progressed in some things that she expected him to have trouble with, so then stated that we were doing well with our exercises--YES but which ones!!!!!!!!!! Haven't done any of the OT ones yet, although several are similar to Dore ones so that's probably where the improvements came from. She also mentioned his excessive pressure with a pen and his low muscle tone.

Half Term Week

Not much to report really, a marked improvement in performance of exercises. Also it seems we have a corresponding jump in awareness, watching the news relating it back, asking questions, memory problems sinking away to the dark distance past.
My husband came home again after rugby practice with a smile on his face, relating that Matthew has great awareness of the game, sizes up the field of play before hand, no tunnel vision. It is suprising how many other children just charge and don't pass the ball as they don't have the spacial awareness (Gosh sounds very smug saying that!!) He is very happy, very chatty.