Reply to PALS and failing to meet 2nd grade benchmarks

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Reply to "PALS and failing to meet 2nd grade benchmarks"

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[quote=girljoe]I am both an educator and a parent, so here is my take on your situation from both those perspectives.

First as an educator.  Children naturally develop at different rates.  Our school systems do not take this into account; they lump everyone into one category and there you have benchmarks. I have seen may completely normally developing children fail to meet standards at lower grades only to catch up and go beyond their peers in the coming years.  I have seen parents patiently wait for their children to master skills and I have seen parents panic and pursue testing, tutoring, etc. to the extent it became unhealthy for the child.  There is a balance between these two extremes.  As an educator I would encourage you to discuss your child's situation with her teacher.  Her teacher is your best source of information.  Testing is great, but the everyday behaviors your child exhibits are more informative than tests and it is the teacher (if this is indeed a quality teacher) that will observe these behaviors.  I also caution you about googling symptoms of learning disabilities.  It is oh so easy to misdiagnose.  That is why professionals study, intern and earn degrees to be able to diagnose learning disabilities.

Now as a parent. My daughter struggled with reading.  Struggled!!! She is exceptionally smart, high IQ scores, performed well in all other subjects, had no behavior problems .... she was a model student but was so, so, so slow to read.  By 2nd grade I thought I would pull my hair out when it was time to read with her.  It was so painful.  Her teacher kept telling me it is all a matter of practice.  For the love of learning! I'm an educator! I know that!  But this is MY kid!  Turns out her teacher was right.  It was a matter of practice.  By 3rd grade she was reading at grade level and by the time she entered middle school she was far, far above grade level and had became a voracious reader.  I just couldn't buy enough books for her.  What made the difference for her was motivation.  We got her a small pocket pet and she started reading to her pocket pet.  That poor little animal heard every story in the library.  Twice.  I also read to both of them sometimes and she would follow along.  So the combination of practice and observing my reading did the trick.  So my advice as a parent is to see if there is something you can do to increase your child's reading practice, to model reading behaviors, to try to stay calm (which is so hard when other parents are telling you to do something and do it now) and continually consult with your child's teacher.

I hope this helps.  I will pray for guidance for you because I know from experience this is a difficult parenting task you are facing.[/quote]

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