Have any of you been through this? What did you do? I wondered about the phonics game, but is it worth the huge cost? I don't have a problem with my son being in special education if that's what he needs, but I also want to help him at home. Learning can never be completely up to the schools. Thanks for any insight you may be able to give.

Some little boys are simply not ready for school. Is she one of the younger ones in the class? Is spelling his only problem? If he is up to par with the rest of his class in reading, I would hesitate to allow him to be placed in special ed just because of spelling.

There are a good many workbooks that you could use at home to help him figure out spelling.

Have him also evaluated for dyslexia.

All of his disabilities are very mild. He functions fine, loves school, plays with other kids - you'd never know he has disabilities. It could be the same with your son. Do some reasearh on the Web, talk to the pediatriation, and follow your instincts. You know him best.

I also question SPELLING TESTS in first grade - good lord, what is this teacher thinking? My DS' teacher is ENCOURAGING phonetic spelling (spell it like it sounds) because it facilitates learnig to read. Our school doesn't have spelling tests until 3rd grade - spelling tests measure a kid's ability to memorize and spit back out a sequence of letters, which is NOT a measure of their ability to read!!!!

The first thing to know is that _if_ there is a possibility or probability of a problem, the way for your child to get fast access to needed resources is to get them the assessments and/or diagnoses to which they are entitled so that they get those (they have rights to education, but that won't help them if they also require supports to get that). Early is better than later for this kind of thing because it's easier to start off stronger than to play catch-up later.

Second, read up on all the relevant information. Your son has a right to an education, and to assessments and supports which may be needed by him in order to experience more successful learning.

Third, one thing you can do initially pretty much is check out different learning styles and see which ways seem to work best for your son. That can help in the interim to find an effective method of studying for tests or quizes, or just to retain information he wants to retain. Experiment, and have fun with this. Everyone sort of eventually finds a method they can use well, especially people who've done well in school. Rote memorizing works for some, re-reading, saying out loud and repeating, writing and re-writing, flashcards, making up rhymes and things, studying while also dancing or moving or listening to music, and all other kinds of things. A tactile spelling trick can be to have a sand box to spell in. Using hearing, and helping with dyslexia can and should involve phonics. Visually of course the text appears. Try out different things as they come to you, and you work with your son.

It's probably rough to work hard and to _try_ and to want to succeed and only get a couple words correct on a spelling test. You can ask the teacher what the class average was, and high scores and things like that; but it still is probably hard for your son to feel like he tried as hard as he could and could only get a couple words correct. (Look at the tests to see if you can assess his errors. Were they 'little' or minor spelling errors but the reader could tell he was close? Were there errors that seemed to defy all logic applied? How is the writing? (Is it consistent in style and letter formation, even if there are errors; or, do the letters seem to have different sizes and shapes and perspectives relative to each other?) These kinds of things can give you clues about what, if anything may be a contributing problem area for him. You can also ask the teacher outright, why, exactly do they feel your son may have a learning disability. And, given that they already shared that particular feeling, is there any particular disability they feel he may have (and if so, why). Take notes, so you can have a record. If taking notes is not going to work for you, you can also ask if the teacher would mind being recorded or if they could provide you written information so that you can have a record of this information.

This page address is from the ldonline site and has their assessment-related links. (The link 'understanding tests and measurements for parents and advocates' is the one which goes into detail about how the different tests work and what the score numbers mean.)
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/assessment/assessment.html

This page address has a lot of information about learning styles and differences. They have interactive ways to find out which strengths a person has and tips on how to work with those strengths.
http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm

get his hearing checked... people can have conventional hearing problems, they can also have auditory processing problems which affect how their brain processes what is technically heard by the hearing system (he can have 'normal' hearing, but still have problems as though he could not hear); also, with dyslexia people can have problems that look like hearing problems (they don't 'hear' or register phonemes, 'phonics' as a method of learning can sometimes help draw their attention to the smaller bits of words and sounds that make up words.... most people just have a brain-space that takes up that info as if on autopilot)

P.S. It can be helpful when you look into getting assessments to make up a big notebook of his medical history (from your pregnancy experiences, his birth, and beyond... plus family history including any known or suspected learning disabilities); and of his schooling history, strengths and weaknesses and representative work. You are your son's personal 'expert' and 'advocate' so it can help to have a nice notebook and to look at appointments as 'meetings' or business conferences.

P.P.S. The hello friend site is also very good. They have links on the left with good visual icons, and text. It's a very user-friendly site with good information.
http://www.hellofriend.org/

I read in this months issue of Parents magazine how all the new standardize testing is forcing teachers to step up the curriculum. So what used to be first grade material is now taught in Kindergarten. This is causing a lot of problems with kids today. They really aren't physically ready for what they are being forced to learn. So I would say that your son is probably being made to learn what used to be 2nd grade curriculum and he just needs a little more work.

~Leslie~

Added note: He didn't really read until 5th grade because he couldn't "remember" what word the combination of letters made. Another thing that helped him with reading was to use a strip of colored transparacy film to read thru. He told me that the white of the page stood out too much for him to see the black letters.

My son is 20 years old now. He graduated from high school 1/2 year early and is now attending college. There is hope.

Thank you all, so very much.