Tying a Bow

Matthew can now tie bows, after only 20 mins of practice, much coaxing, lots of shouting, he got it. I think he could have done it earlier but we just haven't bothered to revisit the lesson since the last try.

Holidays!!

Well we managed to keep the exercises going through holidays, even with distractions he did them. They are alot better now we're home.

Paediatrician appointment

At last, after a 10 month wait we have a Paediatrician Appointment on the 13th Sept. Not sure what he'll see now, he should have seen Matthew pre Dore for a true diagnosis, as he is soooooooo much more in our world this year. Oh well we'll just have to wait and see.

Results 23rd July

Here's today results. His first test 2 slipped back well into the red, but his second was green, but this put his somatisensory Sensory Analysis score into the red :( , also his test 5 had a wide scatter. I had to take his older brother along and I this this put him off, he kept looking around thinking the time was up (actually he was counting the secs down) and it wasn't!

No assessment scores, unreliable-nothing new there, hopefully tonight.

She did also say they are advertising for a proper Learning Support Teacher to teach those children who require 1:1 within the class. The current lady is a Teaching Assistant with no training in Learning support. She told me last November they were advertising for one then, so I won't hold my breath.

Spoke to Head Mistress

I spoke to the headmistress on Friday, she is pleased with Matthew's progress. She is going to send me his assessment scores tonight (fingers crossed), but apparently there are no levels, not really sure what I'm going to get. She has received the new Ed Psych report and he has made several recomendations for Matthew, they are to buy in some aids to help with his writing, AND look into borrowing a Laptop for Matthew to use at school. I have mixed feelings about this, yes if it's necessary lets start using a laptop, but I would prefer him to learn to write with ease. Also I'm the one who will have to help him develop keyboard skills- groan :(.
W e also talked about his activity weekend, and she talked through what they could do to help him, she was sort of convincing herself that it was ok for him to go as I just let her talk, laying a few words in here and there e.g buddy system? Both the Ed Psych and Speech Thereapist have stated that he has mature in the last 6 months, so we will have another 3 months before end of Sept., I know he will be fine.

Speech and Language Review

Matthew had a speech and languge review this pm. His Dad took him as I couldn't get time off.

Matthew went in, she asked what he had been doing, he chatted for a while about Dore- the exercises that help your brain, and get you to read faster. Then talked about his trip to Dan yr Ogaf caves and school.

He did the test a repeat of the inital test he did back last Nov. Then he had 26/50 indicating word finding problems, together with the talks she had with him back then (all ums and oohs and you knows). This time he had 46/50!!!

Matthew has been discharged from Speech and Language therapy. The therapist was so amazed by Matthew's new found ability and concentration that she said "he's on Ritalin, right?"

WRONG!!

She was amazed.

She commented she didn't need to see him again and you would never know he had had a problem!

She could see no obvious explanation for the increased ability at such an accelerated rate, she was really puzzled. She had only ever seen a difference that marked after a child had been on meds. She had never heard of exercise based programmes. She knows now!!

This confirms the leap on Verbal IQ from 83 to 98 seen on the Wisc IV.

I'll post her write up when she sends it.

S&L Summary of progress report

Ed Psych 2nd ASSESMENT WISC IV

The Ed PSych decided we needed the more up to date Assessment to replace the old WISC III, so he retested Matthew last Thursday. He says he will retest again before Secondary School with this newer version and will need this one to compare. It appears a better test than the older 1 as it highlights Working Memory, and Processing speed.

Matthew was marked down in the Coding score (6)and Information (4) in March 2006, they did not do a Digit test last time, Arithmatic was average 9. Some experts like to consider the ACID scores when considering Dyslexia, A-Arithmetic, C-Coding, I-Information, D-Digit, I summise that the Digit score would have been low as it is this time.

As to there being no evidence of weakness in verbal skills, this time the Ed Psych put it down to the Language support lessons but these S&L lessons 2 x 30mins per week are given in Welsh!!
IMO the improvements are due to his Auditory and Verbal processing improvements as promised by Dore would happen first.

End of Year Report

Here's the report through the major subjects (Click in and you'll have it enlarged).
The teacher keeps saying she doesn't think Matthew is Dyslexic as she has other dyslexics in her class and they manage to get more work down even if it is illegible!!
Perhaps she hasn't had a seveley Dyslexic child to cope with before?
If this isn't dyslexia I'll eat my hat!!












Here is Matthew's report conclusion, he has made progress we were however given no levels, so it is impossible to compare progress, I will have to go and see the teacher and ask her for the end of year asessment scores (big sigh), don't know why the school doesn't give us these scores straight up. I'm sure it's just to deter parents from all rushing up the school to discuss their child's progress.