LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!

It’s that time of year again – Spring!  And with it all the joins that Spring brings, mud, bugs and School Conferences.

As you may have noticed from my previous posts, my 7 year old can be a handful.  Not to say that she is a bad kid, she just has her challenges as all kids do.

Some of her challenges have to do with change.  She cannot handle change – it literally makes her physically and emotional crumble.   When it would happen at 2, I was told it’s a phase.  Kids throw tantrums.  At 5 I was told – she is adjusting to a new little sister and starting kindergarten.  But what do you say when she is 7?

Over the past couple months we have been talking to the school about evaluations and all that jazz.  I feel she needs additional help to adjust to the demands required in first grade.  She is seeing a Psychologist to help work through some of the emotional issues, but it is not enough.

               In early February we met with the teachers, principle and special education program to discuss what they have seen vs. what we have seen at home.   

First – the special education director agrees that she is showing symptoms of Asperger’s or somewhere on that spectrum.  The teachers agree that she has a hard time adjusting to change and struggles with transitions from one activity to the next.  

However, the teachers say she is passing all requirements for first grade.  Therefore, there is no reason to test her or do further evaluation.

My daughter report card:  

Applies phonetic skills to write words:  N

Applies phonics and decoding skills to read words:  S-

Reads Fluently:  N

How is that passing?   How is that reading at grade level? 

So, Last night I challenged the teachers.  And they stood by their opinion that she can read by justifying it this way:

               She can read and knows all her sight words. (That is NOT reading.  That is Memorization)

               She can read a book and get the words right, like hospital or doctor.  (Really – the page has a picture of the difficult word – again, how is that READING?)

She cannot sound out words, she does not understand phonetics, but she is catching up in reading.  (Really – how can she read if she can’t sound out words.)

               Other kids are farther behind in reading than she is.  (SO, just because other kids are doing worse than her it is okay? )

               It is March 18^th.   There is less than 3 months left of School and my child can’t read.  My First grade daughter CAN NOT READ. 

And my first grade daughter is giving up.   This far into the year, she isn’t even trying to read any more.   This morning she was refusing to go to school because they are doing reading testing today.  

So to her teachers who refuse to admit they were wrong:

 I say:  LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!