Hi IM mums.
My 10 year old son struggles at school with maths and english especially but school in general is a struggle for him. Year after year I have been told by his teachers that it will click. He is now nearly finished grade 5 and it hasn't clicked. They now want me to take him to see a paediatrician. I'm fine with that but am wanting to know the process of what happens after I take him to a peadiatrician if they decide more needs to be investgated? I also have a friend who has told me about a cognitive assessment that bypasses the paedatrician. I really don't know which way to go? Unfortunately I don't have a budget to be getting test after test done but just want the best option to be able to help my son. I would love to know what other mums have done is a similar situation and what outcome you had. Thank you❤
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10 Replies
The school should be doing all of this. I can't believe he's at the end of year 5 and only now they're saying it to you ?
Tomorrow call the school and tell them you need the Head of special ed (HOSES) to call you and talk you through the process and you need them to get onto it asap because for years he's been telling you, and you've been telling them that he's struggling with it all.
Maybe don't go too aggressively as I really can't tell what the situation is, but everybody now needs to be flagged that this is something that is well overdue.
Thanks for your reply. It's a small rural school in qld and as far as I know, we don't have a head of special ed at our school.
In that case ask for the principal, or go to the department. You want to know 1. Why is this only happening now? And 2. what exactly needs to happen now. Meanwhile get a referral to a paed. Public has a waitlist but private is very expensive. Just get on the waitlist for public though because youll need to get in eventually anyway.
Secondly you would be asking the principal what supports they are now (finally) putting in place to support your son's learning while you wait for diagnosis.
Do you suspect there are other signs of behavioural problems?
Have they considered that he is dyslexic?
Have you considered getting him a tutor? One who specialises in children with learning difficulties?
Has he had his eyes checked? A behavioural optometrist maybe beneficial too
He has had his eyes checked and they are fine. His reading is at benchmark so I don't think he's dyslexic. They haven't mentioned anything about any behavioural problems. I live in a rural area so we are very very limited to tutors. I didn't even know behavioural optometrist existed. As I said, I have no idea about learning difficulties as my other older son has had no problems at all with his schooling. This is all new territory to me.
Child psychologist are great and you can get a care plan for 10 visits. They will help get to the bottom of it. He may have anxiety or anything. I took my son to child psych. Did him wonders!
Thank you for your suggestion. I will ask my doctor about this.
He possibly might have a learning disorder like dyslexia or maybe finds it hard to learn in a group setting. Have u tried private tudoring?
He definently doesn't have dyslexia but I do wonder about a learning disorder. That's why I asked the question about what is the best option to find out if he actually does.
Dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalcula. The fact that his reading isn’t ‘behind’ doesn’t really matter. He needs a cognitive assessment. We sourced this privately as the wait for a paediatrician was too long.
My son’s reading was deemed ‘at standard’ but he can’t write or spell, struggles with numbers and he doesn’t absorb the information he reads. He really does nothing more than read out the memorised sounds.
His verbal comprehension and memory on the other hand, was way above standard, 7+years ahead.
His results were actually so distorted, it was deemed ‘impossible’ to give him an IQ score.