ed psyc report and 11 plus

[smartie]

My daughter is now in year 5, in year 3 she was having problems of anxiety and general poor performance and I asked the school if she could be assessed by the education psychologist. She was assessed and found to have difficulties with short and longer term memory. However when she was assessed for non-verbal reasoning (block design she was found to be 3 years ahead of herself. I have never considered her to be of a low intelligence that is why I was concerned about her poor performance. She also said that there was a significant difference between her verbal and performance scores. Now in year 5 she is less anxious but does tend to daydream and be distracted a lot. The school is good with her but do not seem to know how to go forward with this. At end of year 4 she was 3c writing, 1 mark off 3b maths and 3a reading. My question is whether I should consider the 11 plus for her and would she be entitled to any extra time. Also can anyone shed any light on her problems. Thank you in anticipation.

[mum23*]

Has your DD been assessed for dyslexia? If your concern is related to spelling or reading or only one of these even, it would be worth investigating. Daydreaming or getting distracted easily can be associated with dyslexia and anxiety too if she is worried that she is not making the same progress as peers in these areas or if teachers/other children are saying anything. My DD2 was found to have dyslexia which affects spelling mainly and was given some extra time for 11+. She did finish within the normal time but knowing there was less time pressure certainly might have helped. You would need to support any request for extra time. Being dyslexic does not mean you are less intelligent and a grammar school could still be the right school. Look at all your options and prepare for the test in good time if that is what you think would suit your DD.

Sometimes anxiety and poor performance can be related to the "social" aspect of school eg friends being unkind, bullying etc so might be worth seeing if anything like that has been going on. Sometimes DCs don't always tell us. DD1 went through this and her anxiety disappeared when we finally changed schools.

[yoyo123]

are the school doing anything to help her improve? is she on the SEN register?

the best thing to do would be to have a word with the school sence, there are plenty opf strategies to help with short and long term memory difficulties. Did the ed psych follow up the report with suggestions for you and the school?

it is not easy to get extra time in tests, but it is worth trying to find out what your options are as soon as possible.

[smartie]

The Ed Psych did not think she was dyslexic and recommended that she should be hepled with mind maps and cards etc to help her with remembering things that she needed on a daily basis. The school has not been that helpful as they have 5 statemented children already in that year, so my daughter does not stand out as having real difficulties.Her main areas of difficulties are mental maths and writing,though not spelling. She tends to write in the way that she speaks which due to a early speach impediment is a bit muddled up times. She gets her tenses mixed up quite a bit and says things like 'me' instead of 'I'. The Ed Psych although helpful could not really put her finger on what the problem was.

[yoyo123]

any chance of a referral to speech and language therapy?

[smartie]

She was referred when she was in nursery, diagnosed as having a moderate speach impediment then put on waiting list. However by the time she would have seen someone her speach was seen as fine by the school. I think though maybe this delay has caused the problemd with her literacy among other things.

[yoyo123]

possibly as she may have sounded out the words incorrectly.

i was thinking more of the language side and memory difficulties when i suggested speech and language therapist,
they can help with strategies to improve long and short term memory.

[smartie]

I didn't realise they could help with memory as well. We have a shortgage of therapists in this area so does anyone have any tips to help improve memory. Thanks

[Tolstoy]

they can help with strategies to improve long and short term memory.

Yoyo I didn't realise this. So can you use them to assess a child even though they don't have a speech problem then?

[yoyo123]

it does not just have to be a physical speech problem.

Language and communication delays difficulties are a huge bit of their remit. Children with ASD and other communication disorders often have a SALT (speech and language therapy) input. Also children with receptive and expressive language problems..eg you know what a thing is but the wiring path is a bit muddled and you can;t get the right name..(NB this is quite normal in women of a certain age ) SALT provision does vary from county to county , but ask the school SENCO or your Gp what is available.

there are some games which can be useful for short term memory,things like pairs and Kim;s game.The sort of family games where you say 'I went to the market and bought..a chicken', next person says 'I went to the market and bought a chicken and some potatoes' and so on ...
using another sense to ground that memory, eg in that last game attach a picture of it in your head,or as I do look at the person saying it and picture them repeating the word. visual timetables help and things like colour coding books and timetables for one child we coloured in her Y7 timetable so that each subject was the colour of the exercise book. Mind maps are very useful, try googling and you will find lots of examples ..