How did you/your child with learning difficulties succeed?

amother

Burlywood

Tue, Nov 17 2020, 9:34 pm

I always struggled in school as early as I can remember . It did not get easier over the years . I had tutors for every subject , especially math . I still don't know math . Maybe if my parents put me into a less academically pressured school it would if helped. If your child is struggling academically but is normal socially and in all other areas , maybe switch her to a lower academic school. I don't know what school your in but I know some in brooklyn that work with the girls without them feeling slow or dumb .
Get her p3 so you can get free tutors from board of ed .
That being said, I thrived in summer camp. Dreamed about it all year . And thank god I did well in life, in the working world, married with a large family bh and I'm very social . So just know , school will be a challenge , but your child will be a successful human being . Just be supportive and don't let her grades bring her down !!
Sign her up to lots of extra curriculum programs where she can shine and feel good about herself .

amother

Scarlet

Tue, Nov 17 2020, 10:54 pm

amother [ Babyblue ] wrote:

Actually not. It is very helpful. It takes the burden that they are to blame off their shoulders. Its like matir assurim. It is especially true, the smarter the child. They see how the other kids excel and beat themselves up inside because they are smart. A dyslexia dx to them is like you need glasses instead of feeling like they are inherently bad as a person.

Many evaluators try to save the parents $ and not do specific test for dyslexia ( CTOPP) on top of the cost of the rest of it if they dont see signs. Then kids miss getting the dx if they compensate so well.

I can see how this can work in some situations, but maybe not for everyone. We very strongly suspected dyslexia by third grade and ds qualified for BOE services like SETSS and speech from age 5, but we never did an official neuopsych eval and never got an official dyslexia diagnosis.

Instead, like amother Tan said, we researched the best type of reading tutoring for dyslexia.

Because ds never had an official diagnosis, we never used the word dyslexia with him. It was never a thing. I don't think ds felt any burden on his shoulders or beat himself up. We always talked about how Hashem made everyone different, and there are many different ways to be smart and talented. Told stories of famous people who had struggled in school when they were younger and teachers did not realize how smart they were.

Talked a LOT about how everyone learns differently, and just because most kids learn a certain way, teachers teach that way but that happens not to be the way HE learns best. Very matter of fact. At the same time, we also focused on better methods for him. For example, rote memorization will absolutely not work, so we needed other methods.

Not saying this is the best approach for everyone, but it might be for some.

amother

Scarlet

Tue, Nov 17 2020, 11:06 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

My first grader is having an extremely rough time with school this year. She never sailed smoothly but this year its just really bad. Reading, writing, math, kriyah - she is behind with everything. We got her a learning disabled diagnosis and are working with her and the school.

I would really like to know, if you or your child had learning difficulties, did school ever get easier or more manageable? Was there a different area in life that you shined to compensate? What field did you/your child go into?

I want to offer hugs, 1st grade can be very overwhelming. Even though I just posted that a diagnosis of dyslexia isn't always necessary in my opinion, I think it is important to be aware of the red flags. I strongly recommend the book Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz. In our experience, yes things do get better, and iy"h it will for your dd too.

amother

Pink

Wed, May 19 2021, 4:18 am

I just wanted to chime in, I was a kid who did terrible in school academically I failed most subjects most years. But I had gr8 social skills that got me by. I absolutely hated the tutors and my parents really took my que they didn't send me when I didn't want to go, but did send me and got me tutors when I asked for help.

I am bh very successful in life in career as I had good street smarts also.

I would encourage you to support your child and hold out the school years with them, keep their self asteem up.
Remember ur goal is to raise successful adults not children or student.

OneSource

Wed, May 19 2021, 8:25 am

So I'm in this exact type of situation now. My Pre-1A boy, who is so special and amazing, has a learning disability that took the Board of Ed since September to get around to evaluating and diagnosing. We are moving and the schools we have interviewed with either don't have a resource room or won't take any child that isn't perfect. We've got no school for him for next year. It's been a true problem. He's finally learning to put english letters together to blend sounds into two part words but for hebrew, he isn't there yet. Every school wants to keep him back, if they were to let him in. I've decided that its better to put him in the local public school (where the frum schools with no resource room bus their special ed kids to during the day) and have him do first grade (not leaving him back a year) and get him a 1 on 1 hebrew tutor to supplement. If he does well this year, he'll iyh have so much more confidence because of the stronger english side and the private tutor for hebrew that he should transition into a frum school for 2nd grade. He's such a sociable, happy kid and he's starting to notice that he struggles in school compared to everyon else and it's breaking my heart. I'm hoping this blended approach will be better for him and we'll take it step by step. The local public school has a top notch special ed program and between all of my son's services, he'll iyh get the help he needs.

amother

Linen

Wed, May 19 2021, 8:32 am

I was the child with learning disabilities. Tests, homework were is a disaster. I barely past school altog. I tried tutoring and such but nothing helped.
Then one year I had a tutor that took me out of class and taught me the material BEFORE the teacher taught it. It was the most helpful thing in the world. So when I was in class it wasn't new material and it didn't take so long to process the information; it made it possible for me to actually process it.
Slowly my grades up.
Hatzlacha