Followup on the meeting -- we were partially successful. He scored 61 on the IAS and they agreed to accelerate him in Reading, but not Math. The timed math tests got in his way....he can do the calculations, he knows his math facts, but because he can't regurgitate the facts when a timer is involved, they will not accelerate. They are supposed to work with him to get him fluent, but they are still going to use timed tests to gauge fluency. What would you do in this case? Do you keep drilling and drilling on the facts at home until he CAN regurgitate them quickly enough for them, or do you fight them on their measure of fluency? Or do we possibly have further testing done to isolate exactly what the problem is with the timed math tests?
Second item - the teachers were saying that he gets in his own way by playing with supplies at his desk and clowning around instead of doing classwork. He apparently has missed a lot of recess this year because he had to stay behind to do the classwork. I tend to think he is doing this because the curriculum is not challenging him, how can you tell if misbehavior is due to lack of challenge or something else?
We have a followup meeting in 6 weeks, at which time I want to be able to refute their claims that DS is immature, I just need the ammunition to do that. I am also contacting DS psychologist to see what he would recommend.
Thanks for the input.
