Gd morning! Hope your days have been better
In K1 i noticed our son to be quite hyper. We asked our Gp for his thoughts/adv and he said our boy is ok, mild hyper and nothing to be concerned with.
I did ask his teachers who didn't think anything, yet advd I should send the boy for assessment if I were worried.
In early K2, I noticed a decline in his interest for English Spelling.. He would somehow find a way and means not to learn spelling eventho' there were just 5 words and they looked so simple.
That year was the start of our boy showing signs of disinterest in reading, spelling and writing. He also voiced not wanted to attend primary school. I thought if I psycho him, he might just change his mind, but....
Then came the start of 2010 when our boy started primary 1. I said I would give him 2weeks b4 I find out how things are. People said he would get adjusted into the system and I thought he did, yet it was obvious he wasn't at all interested in school,l except for Arts and PE lessons.
In March of 2010, I had approached his form teacher who advd me to speak with the counsellor.
I voiced my concerns to the counsellor that our boy seemed to be dyslexic and she said she will look into it, but that I would have to wait, becos "there are other more urgent cases to attend to". She emphasized that this is on a 1st come 1st served basis..in other words, I had to Q my turn
It took 2mths b4 I saw the cousellor again and only then she told me she found nothing wrong with our son.. I then asked why he behaves as if he has so much difficulty in the language whereas back in school he seems fine?
Counsellor then referred me to the Special Needs Co-ordinator in school who also took about 2months b4 they assessed our child. All this time, his form teacher kept emphasizing the need to read more books, so he could write better.
By time our son was referred to the Learning Support teacher, 6 months had already gone n this teacher had this to say, "I wished M had come in earlier". Her 1st thought was the boy being dyslexic but after having worked with our boy for 2 weeks, she concluded that it could just be an issue of not having strong foundation in phonics.
I mmust thank the Learning Support teacher for her greatest effort and help to teach our child to read and as a result, he is able to write and spell better.
While all this was going on, I had already made an appointment with the CGc for our child in January of 2011 and that was to find out if our child had dyslexia problems.
On the day of visit, our child was rather much hyper and impulsive. As i was talking to the psychiatrist, our boy constantly pushed a drawed paper to my face calling out, "mummy!, mummy mummy".
I do supposed it is obviously a bad sign of ADHD, but could the psychiatrist be wrong? That's a huge questionmark?
Anyway, the boy has started in Ritalin, a drug to help one to focus and concentrate. There are some good days and some very bad days, even with using this drug. But different kids react differently to the drug.
Next week, we shall have the results of our child's academic assessment which can also pick up indications of dyslexia if any.
Our boy has improved alot in his reading, writing and spelling and at least this time round, there are some improvements in his studies.
Wow, this has been a very long sharing. I do hope I did not bore you to sleep