Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Progress

After talking to the Special Education teacher who will (and has been) working with Ryan at school, I'm a little less confused. She's actually a good friend of mine that lives down the street and Ryan adores her, so that works in our favor. She explained to me that Ryan's test scores aren't really as low as we were led to believe.

While there may be a learning disability, it's hard to know for sure, since he was already 5 years old when we figured out that he had hearing loss. There are other factors in play here such as 5 years of catching up on hearing that he missed out on before getting his hearing aids. Then there is the delay at the beginning of the school year of getting the proper fitting FM System so that he could hear his teacher talk into a microphone that goes straight to his hearing aids, which may be why he fell behind in the first place.

The problem with all of the testing that they did on him is that they are standard tests that they use on every child that is struggling. They don't take into account that he has hearing loss. The same is true when they do these tests on a child with autism. I have a hard time understanding why they would use the same tests on both kids.

Regardless, I have a lot of faith in Ryan's Special Education teacher. She has goals set for him and high expectations, too. She's said that Ryan has made great progress since she's started working with him and that he should continue to be able to catch up.

Someday, when he's a doctor or a lawyer we're going to look back and shake our heads. We probably still won't fully understand it then. I'm just thankful that we live in such a great school district.

5 comments:

maggie said...

I'm delighted, Lynda, to hear some hopeful news, and I'm glad that progress is being made and some plans and goals laid out for Ryan's success. I agree that the testing doesn't sound very specific to individual kids with different issues, but hopefully progress will continue to be made. If not, I Ryan is luck to have you to go to bat for him again to keep making sure he has what he needs to learn. You are awesome.

Mz Diva said...

Lynda,
I think you are a great advocate for Ryan. I think he will do just fine. I have had a learning disability since I was six and still get special testing accomodations when they are needed. Schools today are way too concerned that everyone be on the same page at the same time and sometimes it just doesn't happen that way. I think now with the right hearing set-up, he is going to do great. keep up posted.
Peace,
Diva

MamaFlo said...

You sound better.
Ryan is going to take his cues from you so stay positive.

How's the calf?

lynda w said...

Hopefully things are starting to look up. It's been rough here the past month or so.

Time to start pulling ourselves out of the funk we've been in over here.

Mamaflo- The calf is doing alright, but it's been a week since the last time I reinjured it, so it may be time to start overdoing it again. LoL. I'm staying away from the gym until I have full use of the muscle again - and then I'll ease back into it.

Jon and Em said...

what you need is a repeat night of our going-away party! perfect weather, good music (even though bret & scott would beg to differ), good friends & lots of laughs! tell me i did NOT do the worm that night next to your husband!?! yea, yea, yea, i know...we have pics to prove it. i'd even bust out the worm again if it meant we could have another fun night like that:-) Em