Do you ever feel like when you say to the school/teacher that there may be a problem with your child (e.g., dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc.) the teacher (and/or others) seem to scramble to prove your child is performing normally/average and/or on grade level thus there is no problem. And when there is evidence that your child is advanced in certain areas, teacher (and others) then scramble to 'prove' that your child 'may have some good days' but isn't advanced or in need of differentiation at all? That's how I feel. I guess that is the world of Twice-Exceptional but I find it highly annoying. With DS's current teacher (whom DS likes and she seems very good with DS - I am grateful for her patience, etc), I feel like no matter whether I am saying DS is struggling or advanced I am always viewed as completely off-base about my child (and perhaps having some secret agenda). I don't push him in math ... I do not even like math. He gets up in the morning and gets on IXL or TimezAttack (or dreambox or whatever website he has found that he thinks will be fun) and does the work on his own. I get the reports in my email... I see his progress on-line. Yet, I get the distinct impression that the teacher is suddenly out to prove DS is not ahead in math, just by the comments she makes to him and suddenly she is sending home a report of every/any stupid comment (I am not kidding - comments he makes) or mistake he makes in class. Yesterday, he said he told the teacher that he got up and practiced his multiplication tables before school (he does this on the computer - I have nothing to do with him doing this!) and she said "could you just please concentrate on getting your addition and subtraction down?" (she said this nicely and it did not upset DS). But I do addition and subtraction drills with him every night - I make him do those before he does his multiplication, if he is begging to do multiplication. He seems fine with them (which is why he is bored with them). Is he the fastest in the games? No. But he seems fine to me (the whole dysgraphia or whatever is going on with him makes hm not the "fastest" kid)... But he comes in 2nd place/3rd place and doesn't struggle with the answer more struggles with getting it out super fast. Why can't he do his multiplication when we get that out of the way if he is so motivated? It's not like he's struggling at all that I have noticed... He completely and totally understands the concept behind multiplication and the grouping (and actually figured it out awhile ago when he was 4 to my astonishment). He now realizes that he has to get them memorized b/c he can't be counting on his fingers( this actually only occurred to him when he realized he doesn't have time for that if he wants to beat the troll in TimezAttack LOL)... So he really is motivated to memorize them. Just annoying. I get the feeling that the teacher is gearing up to "prove" in our IEP meeting next week that DS needs to put the brakes on with math and accept that he is nothing special (She made a comment to me in an email that insinuated that DS just wants to *feel* like he is ahead). Just annoying and makes me feel yucky. And yes his test results do support me to some extent, thank goodness. He scores so high on reasoning and problem solving, etc., on the iq tests - in the 97th and 98th percentiles. Also his math achievement scores come in at a grade level of 2.9 - and he is in first grade... I realize this may be only high average for his age but he is actually only in first so it means *something* to me that he comes in at almost 3rd and he is only in first. I realize that he is not a genius but I can certainly see why he craves a little bit more and maybe a faster pace.
I had the complete opposite reaction from teacher when I expressed concern about his reading and writing backwards,ect. It was all proving how great he is doing.. meanwhile he reads words like "was" as "saw", etc., can't spell and writes every number and letter backwards WAY more than any other 1st grader despite years of OT.
Maybe I am being over-sensitive and reading 'tone' and comments wrongly. It's okay - the school is really great and I know it wil be okay... but I am just tired of feeling like I am being viewed with skepticism all of the time.
Okay thanks for letting me vent.
