I am at a loss. My oldest son is in the fourth grade and having serious trouble. He is getting pretty much Ds across the board. He does all his homework and works very hard at it, but he is a POOR test taker. I do believe that he is very gifted mechanically, but he is very academically challenged. I am doing some research and have found an article which describs some children as Visual/Spatial learners and I think he fits the profile, but I am looking for help perhaps getting him into a school that will focus on his strengths, build up his weak areas without making him feel like a failure. Can anyone give me any leads? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Have you spoken with the school? Children with specific problems with tests can often be given extra time, or a quiet room, etc to help them succeed.

Is he getting good marks for the homework, but then poor marks for the tests? I'm a bit confused because you describe him as "academically challenged" but also as a "poor test taker" which I think of as two very different things. I think he'll probably need quite different help depending on whether he performs well in everything except tests, or whether he has more general academic problems. Maybe the school would be able to refer him for some detailed testing - hopefully done in a relaxed enough way that the tester would be able to get a full picture - that might show where he has bottlenecks that you might be able to help him get round?

I have the same questions - does he understand what's being taught in class and do well on classwork and homework but then struggle in testing? If it's testing *only* that's the issue, try to figure out what it is about testing, does he become anxious, is he distracted, is it something about the surroundings he's in etc. Schools are often very accommodating with simple testing accommodations such as a quiet room or extended time etc.

If he seems to be struggling with something beyond simply testing - just for example, is he struggling with reading, then you can request that the school evaluate him for specific learning disabilities.

Another thing you might ask the teacher is - how much time does he/she expect the homework to take? If it's taking much longer than the teacher thinks it should, that could be a red flag that he is struggling with some type of learning challenge.

The other thing you can do is look at the different school options that are available in your area - my children attended a very project-oriented elementary school which allowed (in theory) for differentiation within classrooms, had very little conventional testing, and didn't assign grades but instead focused on self-assessments and what was learned during a project or semester. It was a helpful environment for my 2e ds for awhile as it took the focus off of grades and testing when we were working through figuring out just what was up with his inconsistencies in school.

polarbear