In many ways, Christopher has taken his lumps because Kevin was first…..and Kevin is Kevin and his parents never had to really work with Kevin to accomplish anything in elementary school. It’s only now, in 7th and 8th grade, that Kevin’s discovering that he needs to work at it and his parents are keying in to helping him.
Christopher’s reading, for a while, has been trying. It’s doubly trying that it’s wildly inconsistent; some days he does really well, the next day he just doesn’t recognize words that he *knows*…..basic basic words. And, most surprisingly of all for us, for a kid that’s had speech therapy for years and years, he has no concept of relating letters to sounds…..it’s the main reason his spelling is so poor, his teacher last year commented that his guesses weren’t even close, and how ‘different’ that was.
2nd grade marked the start of standardized testing for the big guy, and, as I think I mentioned then, the results were inconclusive. Math is a strength, he does well there. Reading ranged from at grade level to slightly below, but, not far enough below to cause great concern. They did one other test at the end of the year, and that test was way off of the first tests….Christopher’s scores were so low that he qualified for reading assistance. But, it was the end of the year, they weren’t sure that one test was accurate, and we agreed to revisit it in 3rd grade.
The testing this year was better, but, still, worrisome enough to have the school step in and help out. And it’s become clear to us why the reading tests aren’t all saying the same thing. Christopher is good at comprehension, his scores are high there. But, he’s faking it….he really can’t read all the words but has learned by context, and pictures, to figure out the meaning and get the correct answers. Smart for him, but, that makes the scores skew higher and hide the problem. The notes from the reading consultant confirm what we’ve always known but maybe the school hasn’t always noticed; Christopher needs help phonetically….he often breaks down in the middle and end of words (to this moment, we have no confidence that Christopher can see ‘st-‘ and understand that sound or hear that sound and understand it means he should spell ‘st-‘).
So, we’ll be regrouping on this front; we’ve been encouraged to drop back in the level of books we’ve had Christopher read to us (the thought being that success at easier books is better than struggling through harder ones). Christopher will get some extra help at school (and the reading consultant is awesome, so, that’s a good thing)….
To be continued.
