Ironically, Matthew's reading is getting better all the time, he now goes to bed on his own and reads a chapter independently from myself. When he's finished he shouts downstairs for me to go up and chat and tuck him in, last night he commented as he put his book proudly on the bedside table that he understood it all. He also commented how he must work on his welsh reading now to get it as good.
The reading was at the start the 1 benchmark that would prove to me that we had success, but all his other improvements are really reamarkable as well.
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Sunday, 25 May 2008
Wii and Cricket
Following another Dore mum's experiences with the Wii/ Wii fit balance board we got one for Matthew for his birthday, I was thinking that post Dore he could use that just to keep him "tuned", via the balance /yoga games. In the body test (you do at the start-up) are -standing still eyes open, and also standing still eyes closed, it then measures your COG and how balanced you remain for somehting like 20s - really useful. Not quite Dore posteography but not bad. Also the Wii sport games are great too, we have discovered that Matthew's batting skills are fantastic in the baseball game and his timeing is great in the tennis, consequently I spotted a rounders game (rather like baseball) at Tesco's, he has been over on our "green" opposite our house, batting away with Dad/ friends/anyone and is brilliant, consequently he started cricket practice last week and loves it.
Friday, 23 May 2008
Dore Collapse
Following the Dore collapse in Australia, Dore UK have announced that Dore UK are also in adminsatration. These are truly sad events in the world of SEN, now once again motion based therapy is to be put on the back burner, hopefully not for another 30yrs . It was 30yrs ago that the initial pioneer Jean Ayres came out with these sort of exercises and Dore made these quantifiable and user friendly.
Luckily for us Matthew has possibly progressed as much as he is likely to, although I would have like to have seen him signed off properly, but it makes me extremely sad that all our Dore friends at different stages of the programme are left hanging. The future of our special children are once again left in the hands of the educationalist, pushing them to do things that they are not yet capable of doing, seeing them as naughty, lazy or stupid when in fact all they need is a few simple exercises twice a day that can bring them on.
Luckily for us Matthew has possibly progressed as much as he is likely to, although I would have like to have seen him signed off properly, but it makes me extremely sad that all our Dore friends at different stages of the programme are left hanging. The future of our special children are once again left in the hands of the educationalist, pushing them to do things that they are not yet capable of doing, seeing them as naughty, lazy or stupid when in fact all they need is a few simple exercises twice a day that can bring them on.
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Test score 2008
Our new SENCo freely offered us Matthew's end of year test scores this year, prevously I have had to ask for them and have been begridgingly given them.
English.........................Maths......................... Welsh Reading Test
(Average 88-111) ...............(Avg 88-111) ...........................No Avg given
(Class Range 82-127)........ (class Range 74-137) ...............(Range 72-130)
2008...... 97............................. 103......................... 89(8yrs 2months) 2007 .......91............................. 104........................................... 80
2006....... 95.............................. 88........................................... 91
The SENCo showed us an example of the welsh reading test it was filling the gaps in a reading passage, so more a test of vocabulary gained by the amount of reading experience. The 1st language children are inevitably going to outscore the 2nd language pupils, which is probaly why there is no average given. She also told us that most children do get considerably lower scores in this, she showed the test to my husband to illustrate the difficulty of the test.
I am in fact pleased that the score has increased since last time, and he has not declined any further.
The English test was a booklet where spelling, listening and comprehension was tested, so unless she went really slowly through the tests to allow for Matthew's (and the other SEN children's)difficulties, they are going to appear to perform at a lower level. She said that Matthew was given extra time at the end of the tests but only needed 5 mins., he needed the thinking time more withn the test than at the end! Much of the English test was read out by the teacher, so the pace she went at would be a limiting factor for children with processing deficeits. Good result I think.
But I'm pleased on the whole, things are moving in the right direction.
The only thing that is really concerning is welsh spelling, which is 7 yrs and 6months. I have read on several sites that the welsh reading and spelling should be easier as it's phonetic, we are not seeing this. Spelling tests have been stopped in school as some "expert advisor" came in and said that they were old fashioned and out dated. This is the 1 and only way that Matthew learns to spell, he learns words quiclky that way but must make a mental note of them. We will be asking his tutor to look into a spelling list to learn.
English.........................Maths......................... Welsh Reading Test
(Average 88-111) ...............(Avg 88-111) ...........................No Avg given
(Class Range 82-127)........ (class Range 74-137) ...............(Range 72-130)
2008...... 97............................. 103......................... 89(8yrs 2months) 2007 .......91............................. 104........................................... 80
2006....... 95.............................. 88........................................... 91
The SENCo showed us an example of the welsh reading test it was filling the gaps in a reading passage, so more a test of vocabulary gained by the amount of reading experience. The 1st language children are inevitably going to outscore the 2nd language pupils, which is probaly why there is no average given. She also told us that most children do get considerably lower scores in this, she showed the test to my husband to illustrate the difficulty of the test.
I am in fact pleased that the score has increased since last time, and he has not declined any further.
The English test was a booklet where spelling, listening and comprehension was tested, so unless she went really slowly through the tests to allow for Matthew's (and the other SEN children's)difficulties, they are going to appear to perform at a lower level. She said that Matthew was given extra time at the end of the tests but only needed 5 mins., he needed the thinking time more withn the test than at the end! Much of the English test was read out by the teacher, so the pace she went at would be a limiting factor for children with processing deficeits. Good result I think.
But I'm pleased on the whole, things are moving in the right direction.
The only thing that is really concerning is welsh spelling, which is 7 yrs and 6months. I have read on several sites that the welsh reading and spelling should be easier as it's phonetic, we are not seeing this. Spelling tests have been stopped in school as some "expert advisor" came in and said that they were old fashioned and out dated. This is the 1 and only way that Matthew learns to spell, he learns words quiclky that way but must make a mental note of them. We will be asking his tutor to look into a spelling list to learn.
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