Thanks polarbear. I think there is something going on, not sure about fine motor skills (we had an OT eval done a year or so ago for that). But I totally agree and I'm on the school's side on this one. If he can't handle the pace due to organizational challenges by whatever cause, then they need to be cognizant of that. I guess I just wish there was a third way, where he could get the challenge he needs along with accommodations.
But there absolutely is a way to give him the challenge even if he has organizational challenges - he's entitled to his FAPE
(If you haven't heard of FAPE, check out
www.wrightslaw.org). My ds is extremely organizationally challenged, but he is equally organizationally challenged across grade levels - what needs to be accommodated re organization at his age-grade-level also needs to be accommodated at his intellectual-grade-level and vice-versa - and that's all very *doable*. Once you know what your ds is challenged with that's causing the organizational issues and time/speed issues, then you'll know what accommodations he needs, and then he should be able to work at whatever grade level equivalent he needs to be at
I also agree yet don't entirely agree that moving him up into a more challenging set of coursework while you're trying to figure out what's at the root cause of it is the way to go - I think that partly depends on your ds' personality, and your gut feeling re what's really going on. If there's a challenge that's impacting his academics - for instance, my ds couldn't produce handwriting but we didn't realize that when he was struggling - moving him up in curriculum could have had a disastrous impact on his mental health - depending on the teacher he was with. OTOH if his mental health is being impacted severely at this point, any change is probably going to be a good change - but I didn't see that he is complaining of boredom to you in your original post.
FWIW it felt like we were "losing ground" over where our ds "should be" in early-mid elementary school as we went through the journey of trying to understand his challenges and how to accommodate for them - but ds made up most of that ground and then some when he entered middle school, where he could test into the advanced and honors classes etc. Plus we realized by mid-4th grade that "regular" school was never going to completely fulfill our ds' intellectual needs - no matter what level of coursework he was allowed to take. His intellectual cravings are mostly filled in after-schooling following his leads and passions.
It's possible that you can do some things to get through an eval as quickly as possible - and once you're through, again, you'll have data on your side that your school will have to consider, rather than just writing you off as an overly pushy parent. If you're considering a private eval, ask your ped to make the referral for you - that may get you an appointment quicker than going onto the regular waiting list.
Best wishes,
polarbear
