He has one awesome teacher this year. She emailed me earlier today to tell me that she notices he often needs direct instruction because it seems like things just don't register with him. I said, please share with me any advice about what you do, because this is a baffling issue. Here's what she said:
"[DS]sits so that I can easily see what he is doing. I generally give him a minute or so to do what I instructed, then I give him direct instruction. He is always quick to do what I ask. That is how I know he isn't just disobedient. This works great for me. If anything, he seems a bit frustrated that it didn't register the first time. I can tell that he is working on it, and it isn't intentional.
I understand that must be a struggle. He is doing very well academically, at least in Algebra.
I definitely see [DS] as a sweet, caring student and have never seen him be lazy or disobedient. Hang in there. I am definitely rooting for him!"
If *all* the teachers seat him close to them and directly cue him...he wouldn't need much more, really, to be successful. Maybe an IEP is overkill...I don't know. There seems to be a lot of resistance to any sort of informal differentiation, at least in some cases.
I've also made contact with the university SLP program, again. We'll do what we need to do.
