Part 1 of this story is here. Just a quick note….. when Natasha’s first kindergarten teacher told me that my daughter had ADHD, I discussed it with her pediatrician. An ADHD diagnosis (DSM-IV diagnostic criteria) wasn’t quite met. And she had SID which sometimes looks like ADHD.
So my daughter spent her kindergarten year under stress and not learning very much….. other then she did not understand things that other children did. She was often confused in class. Her self esteem was low.
And the school system wasn’t helping her at all. I couldn’t articulate exactly what my daughter’s issue were, other then her SID and she wasn’t learning to recognize her letters. So I decided to start shopping around for another school. I looked at the public school and private school options.
Home schooling wasn’t a possibility because I am a single mom. I needed to work.
I finally found a private school for her first grade year. I decided not to hold her back and repeat kindergarten. Her kindergarten in public school was 30 children to 1 teacher. The private school was 10 children to 1 teacher. And the private school did multi-age learning; kindergarten and first graders in one class.
……. an awareness of the limitations of graded education. The realization that children’s’ uneven developmental patterns and differing rates of progress are ill-matched to the rigid grade-level system has left teachers searching for a better way to meet the needs of all students (Miller, 1996). More and more schools are implementing multiage programs because of the current educational practices embedded in the multiage model that address these issues (Cohen, 1990).
From Critical Issue: Enhancing Learning Through Multiage Grouping
There was one huge sign of dyslexia which I did noticed during this time. But I didn’t know it was important. My daughter didn’t laugh at “The Cat in the Hat” book. She couldn’t hear rhymes or say them. She was rhyme blind which is a classic dyslexia sign.
I placed my daughter into an environment where no one was labeled and everyone was encouraged. Group or team learning was used (which my daughter loved).
The day started with circle time which included
. weather report (child puts their head outside and then reported back)
. counting number of days of school
. calendar
Then they moved onto some dancing and stretching. My daughter can still sing some of the songs they used for this. The teachers called it getting the wiggles out.
My daughter loved all the kinetic learning. The first 3.5 years of her life she was crossed eyed and learned not to trust her eyes. This plus her SID made her into a strong kinetic learner. She was a do’er.
She greatly enjoyed her new school…. until the kindergarden kids in her class started passing her by in reading. She could only spell/read 3 words.
C-A-T
R-E-D
N-O
And she still couldn’t identify her letters. I would hold a flash card in front of her.
“Natasha what letter is this?”
No answer……..
So I would try asking her to find the letter A in a stack of 3 cards. She couldn’t do it.
But I would show her a picture of a goat, then show her the letter G, then she could tell me what the letter was.
Natasha started stressing again. She called herself stupid and hit herself in the head. My poor baby was 6.5 years old.
Medication, ADHD and Dyslexia
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Lessons Learned