Ask Hard Questions & You Get Hard Answers

To say Little Man has been struggling at school is an understatement. :( While his behavior has been up and down, his academics are still waiting for an upswing. F after F after F keep coming home. No matter how hard he tries, the result is the same. I've spent a lot of time working with him at home and he's just not grasping things. But then he's missing out on the fun things at school because he's not able to get his work done. Something has to change.

Today I spent an hour on the phone with the education advocate discussing just what that change needs to be. I've given her copies of his IEP from last year, from the year before, copies of his psychoacademic testing (cognitive and academic), samples of his work and reports from the school. It was time to ask the hard question - will he ever catch up? Are we doing the best thing for him by pushing so hard?

I knew in my heart what the answer would be. If from the age of 3 1/2 to the age of 9 1/2 he only gained 18 months of receptive language (from 18 months to 3 years), if he still struggles writing a decent sentence at 11, if he can't sit and read a picture book to himself without lots of help, I suppose the answer is there. But he does have some amazing skills. Put him in front of a computer and he can make it do things you never dreamed it could do.

Don't get me wrong, we're in no way giving up on him. Just trying to put him in an environment where he can turn those amazing splinter skills into skills that will help him (hopefully) be able to live independently one day. Find something he can succeed at and feel some sense of accomplishment instead of constantly being shot down. No final decisions will be made until the end of the month, if then. Obviously this is a big decision and one that won't be made for sure until everything has been taken into consideration.

He's an amazing kid. He is so smart in his own way. He's just wired for a different world. I am so fortunate to be his mom. By having that privilege, it's my duty to help him find his way - wherever that may lead us.