Conferences for the “little kids”

Ya know, we are used to called Lauren and Austin the “big kids” and Matty and Rachel the “little kids.”  I wonder if that will still be how we differentiate them when they are in their 30’s.

Anyhow, yesterday was parent-teacher conferences for the “little kids.”  I was hoping to make it but the last 3 days have really been icky for me. So Kevin was dad and Mr. Mom….again.  He seems to really enjoy all aspects of it except the cleaning part of it. 

Rachel was up first.  The biggest thing on the table was cursive writing.  Everyone seems to be pretty aware of how fragile X works.  They need extra time on a skill and it can’t be given up on.  So everyone has agreed that Rachel will still work on her cursive writing BUT the teacher won’t pressure her to do 5 spelling words in cursive or any of the other graded tasks right now because of her struggle with it.  The teacher will also send home an extra copy of their cursive writing workbook for Rachel to work on at home.  Rachel is one of those wierd children who loves educational workbooks.  She got it from me.

One issue we didn’t know about was with her math.  And it is more of a teacher issue than a Rachel issue.  The poor kid is getting so frustrated because she is getting mixed messages.  That is hard for a perfectionist like her.  Rachel is pulled out for math so this is a sp-ed teacher.  At home we are telling her that the simple math, like 2+2=4, doesn’t need to be counted out.  She knows the answer and she can just write it.  We also work with her on memorizing these simple math facts.  Well, the sp-ed teacher is telling her, and the other students, that they have to count out all of the problems, even 2+2=4.  So Rachel is trying to please us and please her teachers and it is driving her mad.  But she can’t articulate that frustration.  She just knows that she is frustrated.  I don’t see a solution really to this issue except moving to 4th grade.

Otherwise, Rachel is doing really good.  The teacher said that her shyness is about gone this year.  She still has moments where she gets her overwhelmed teary-eyed look.  So as not to alert the other kids to Rachel’s problem, she will tell her that she can go to the restroom now and then whisper to her on the way out to wash her hands and face and come back when she is ready.  No one is none the wiser, and it helps Rachel tremendously.  I think I will make sure this method is incorporated in her transitional IEP.  The teacher told Kevin that Rachel has actually become quite the social butterfly which is against all autism/fragile X rules.

Her grades are awesome.  She has straight A’s.  At mid-year they did testing on all the kids to see where they stood.  50% was average for 3rd grade.  Rachel got a 58% in Language Arts and 44% in Math, very typical for fragile x girls. 

The speech therapist said she hasn’t seen a need to work with her all year and we can probably get rid of speech at her next IEP meeting.  But she wants to test her one last time before she does that.  She doesn’t want to send her to a new grade, and a new school, needing speech and not getting it.

I’ll post on how Matty’s went this afternoon.  I didn’t realize this post would be so long.