Magic Ingredient in Parenting?

I am always impressed by the parents I meet…they have to deal with so many kinds of problems-from family members, social strictures, religious and cultural barriers, not to mention poverty. Their positive attitude always rubs off on me. At the end of every interaction or session I feel productive. Strange isn’t it, considering that they come to me looking for strategies and support?
 

After a little bit of soul searching, I discussed this with my husband. Confidentiality being what it is, I couldn’t say much about the whom, what and when. But a further discussion with a different parent helped me find the answers.

 

This parent was of the opinion that being economically stable made for better parenting. I thought about this in relation to the different groups I’ve worked with. I couldn’t accept that blanket statement. Poverty is a very big factor in developing good parenting skills, yes. But how do we account for all the poor kids who grow up to be happy and balanced? What of all the kids from the middle class and upper class who struggle through out their lives to find emotional fulfillment?

 Isn’t their something more in the personality of the parent which is important too? A confident parent is able to prioritize and make the right choices for her children. (I’ll use she/her for convenience sake. Fathers are not being discriminated againstJ) She will teach her child to take risks at the right time and to opt for safety at others. Safety or risk will vary for people living in different conditions. How the parent defines herself matters as much or more than economic viability…

I realize the parents I meet have that ability to work through the obstacles and carry on. They don’t differentiate between their child’s need and that of their neighbor’s child. They carry themselves with self respect. Their children grow up with a good sense of self worth—no matter how little they have in the eyes of others. One of the poorest parents I know helps collect the paperwork for other children at her daughter’s school. She can’t afford monetary contributions but she is not ashamed of it. She carries herself with so much self respect that the others respond in kind. Needless to say, her daughter is well liked and respected—as she projects the same self assurance.

Now, if only I could bottle this...what a treat for the new year!

Ms. S

Living with Mental Illness

How many of you wonder what it is like to live with a mental health disorder? How many others wonder what it is like to live with someone who has one?

In one of my earlier posts I added the link to the New York Times article on the Marsha Linehan. A few days back I was writing to a young person whose parent has a mental illness. While looking up articles for him, I thought why not post a link to the entire series? Readng about how others cope gives us strength in our times of need.

You've already had the first of the series...
Click here for the next in the Lives Restored series.

Ms. S

Student Observation—Managing Transitions continued

If the teacher is disorganized then transitions are not smooth for a majority of the students. But some students find transitioning to the next activity difficult, no matter how well established the classroom routine is, or how good the teacher is in classroom management.

Gather information about your students:

• Does your student have difficulty ending an activity? Does she need a lot of support to clean up?
• Does your student need a lot of support to start a new task? Do you give several verbal reminders, or even physically assist by opening the book, waiting right next to her until the student starts to work on the task?
• Is your student rigid and inflexible? This is the 'stubborn' student and wants everything her way. Because of this rigidity, she does not like to correct mistakes. She has trouble making friends.
• If your student doesn’t get her way, how does she react? Is she able to get over her disappointment within a reasonable timeframe or does she perseverate with temper tantrums and such?
• Does she dislike change? This interferes with learning new skills or engaging in new activities.
• Does she dislike surprises, often overreacting?This stops the student from taking risks and challenging herself.
• Is the student’s work very repetitive? Does she have trouble with spontaneous thought and action?

Quite often, the outward display of difficulty in transitioning is oppositional and defiant behavior. But if you understand that this difficulty to shift is due to valid reasons, you’ll be able to help your student follow directions and be more productive.

Reasons behind difficulty in transitioning:

In some children it could be anxiety due to the fear of the unknown. Separation anxiety in primary school is a classic example, where the child has a difficult time adapting to a new situation. In older children it could be due to fear of failure. When anxiety persists, it interferes with learning. If anxiety is the underlying cause, give the child some responsibility. Having some control over the choices goes a long way in reducing the student’s anxiety. Prepare the child for changes. If it is an unexpected change to the day’s routine, be sure to support the child through that period.

In other children, it could be due to sensory integration needs. Too many transitions in a day can be overwhelming and over stimulating to the student. As a result she over reacts—really a means of letting you know that she can’t handle the routine. Try to limit the number of transitions. You can have the student sit next to you or hold a ‘special’ object required for the class. Physical proximity to the teacher is a wonderful tool to help calm students.

In some students it can be due to executive functioning difficulties. Students need well developed executive function skills to shift attention from one activity to another. If this is an area of difficulty, then the student is not able to stop the first task, clean up and attend to the next task in a smooth manner.

It is crucial that as a teacher you must be organized, especially for this student. Use picture charts (visual cues) for classroom routines, and timers (or stop watches—to indicate start and stop points).

Ms. S

Student Observation—ManagingTransitions

I decided to write about ‘transitioning' as a separate post ...difficulty in transitioning is  not a disability but it can signal an underlying reason like anxiety. It can interfere with the student's ability to learn and in the smooth progression of your lesson.  In many of my student observations, I’ve noticed that this is one area which gets the least attention from teachers. As for parents, they often wonder what I mean by transition and why it is important.  

Take a typical day at school—there are a set number of periods with a specific routine for each day of the week (timetable). Some of these are very structured lessons (academic) and others allow for some free time and free choice. Transition is the act of changing from one state to another. In the context of a school day, think of all the changes students have to go through.

• Students arrive in class from home. The drive/walk/ride to school is part of this transition.
• Students have to end one activity (complete the task and put the material away), and then prepare for the next (get the new set materials on their desk and be ready mentally for a switch in subject). 
• For certain periods they have to move to a different physical area (classroom to playground or music room).
• In most cases there is also a change in teaching staff, as the period changes the next subject teacher enters the class. The student has to adjust to the change in teaching style and personality.
• On some days the students have to deal with the changes when a substitute teacher takes over the class.
• Within the same period, the students have to move from one activity to the next.

Children have to learn to manage these changes from pre-K. Those early years are learning periods and many students may have difficulty when they first start school.

For the most part, how a student transitions is dependent on the teacher’s classroom management skills.

• Does the teacher go over the routine for the day or for the period? Supposing the lesson is two fold—observation of the seedlings in the classroom garden and drawing a picture of the plant. Does the teacher inform the class that they are going to do these two activities?
• When there are such transitions from one physical area of the school to another, does the teacher divide the class into manageable groups? Crowd control is an important part of successful transitions. Group dynamics (understanding who gets along with whom) plays a big role in a well run classroom. 
• Does the teacher give advance warning to the students before an activity ends? “You have two more minutes to finish coloring…”
• Is there a long waiting period between the end of one activity and the beginning of the next? Children left hanging around for a long period will start talking, acting goofy, teasing…
• If some children have to wait while the others catch up, are they engaged in a suitable activity—like a language game?
• Does the teacher follow up with a signal or a cue for when the actual change occurs? Some teachers like to flash the light on and off, others have songs and in one school, the entire primary grade followed a clapping pattern…from Pre K. These kids learned the signal from age 4. By the time they left primary school, they had very little difficulty shifting their attention to the next activity.
• Most important, does the teacher have a list of ‘things to do’ in case of emergencies, especially if the class gets too boisterous or wound up?

To be continued...
Ms. S

Student Observation—Sensory Integration

When another professional walks into your class and looks at your kids you get a bit defensive and apprehensive…as I was when the OT walked in. What am I doing wrong? What have I missed?  A few minutes later, he suggested I provide a hard backed chair for one of my kids…and move another student from the taller table to the shorter…and organize the room a little differently so there was a quiet space for a third student…

None of these students had significant difficulties but there were gaps in how they adapted in class. My co-teacher and I were trying to figure out how much of this was due to their independence and how much of it was because we needed to streamline our classroom management skills.

There was one common factor to these three kids…they had low muscle tone. They were a little slower to warm up to a new task…and occasionally got so wound up that it was hard to get them back on track. They needed more time with their writing as they took more breaks. The students were quite young, so their differences didn’t stand out—yet.

Over the next months (with additional inputs from the OT) we noticed that these students were more alert in class. They were able to stay with the group and start their work on time. They needed some more intervention to help their fine motor skills but on the whole they showed better control.

When we think of low muscle tone, our thoughts turn immediately to children with Down’s syndrome or floppy children with Cerebral Palsy. But there are lots of children in our schools flopped over those uniformly made desks. Why? Their body is not stable enough. Their trunk muscles can’t keep up them for the required time, their wrist muscles can’t flex and stretch with ease. Why is this a teacher’s concern? Well, the student has to be available for learning before he can actually learn! 

We can pick out those kids screaming for help with their sensory integration—these are the highly labile kids who react in extremes to sensory stimuli. But a lot of children fall through the cracks because they are quieter, slower, passive…do these adjectives bring up the image of a child in your class? These children too need help with their sensory integration. Just because they seem to be ‘low maintenance,’ or ‘developing at their own pace’ ignoring their needs prevents them from reaching their full potential.  

Observe your student to look for answers to the following: 

• Does my student get easily fatigued by sitting? This student keeps adjusting his body, slouches on the desk or table, his head sinks into his shoulders.
• Does my student become distracted quickly in comparison to his peers? This can be because he is more sensitive to the stimuli.
• Does my student become over stimulated (too excited, scared, cries exceesively) and unable to calm himself? Sometimes it can be so extreme that he or she can be a danger to others and themselves. I remember one of my students becoming excited the day her baby brother was born…at lunch time (unstructured, less supervision) she jmped from table to table. I brought her back to the classroom and played board games. Before you ask, this child had some sensory needs but no, she did not have any disability and this was a regular ed classroom. So not all kids with sensory needs look different and they do not always act differently either. 
•  Does your student get easily tired by writing activities? Can this student cross his midline—can his arms move across the middle of his body and work on the other side of his body? Oh, do check if hand dominance (hand preference) has been established.
• Does your student react excessively to touch, smell, light, sounds, or taste? The picky eater, the extra clean child, he who doesn’t like to touch sticky, gooey stuff…belong here.
• Does your student bump into things, appearing clumsy? This has to do with coordination and managing where your body is in relation to other objects.
• Does your student have difficulty making friends? Suppose your student reacts excessively to sensory stimuli, what does he do? He wants things exactly as he likes it, no more, no less—all the time! How many children can accept and tolerate this?

What do you do now? Armed with this information and the magic words “Reach His Full Potential” ask the parents to see a Deveopmental Occupational Therapist. The keyword is Developmental. This person is trained to work with children and to help them achieve their milestones. He or she will observe/assess the child, pass on a ‘sensory profile’ (a questionnaire) for you and the parents. They should look at your inputs (because you indicate how the student functions in the classroom) along with the observation/assessment and come up with a child specific plan.

And yes, this makes a big difference in the child’s development, emotional wellbeing and academic progress.

Ms. S

Student Observation—Auditory Processing

“That student of mine who is off topic—I have more questions about him,” the teacher called back. “I am trying to focus more on what and how I give directions in class. But I still feel there is something I’m missing here. What do I do?” I could have hugged herJ 

So you are concerned about how your student listens for information, follows multiple step directions, etc. You’ve tried to teach him how to listen actively but there is something more to the picture. And of course, the way he is off topic makes you think he doesn’t listen or attend. Check to see if the student shows signs of Auditory Processing Difficulties.

Aah..auditory what? No it's not about hearing:)

We hear through our ears but the sounds have no meaning without the brain’s ability to analyze and interpret them. In some children they can hear the sounds but this ability to analyse and interpret is affected. This condition is called auditory processing disorder. A child with auditory processing disorder does not have cognitive impairment or language disorders. Auditory processing difficulty is more common in school age children than we realize. It is very common for these kids to be misdiagnosed...the behaviors suggest ADHD, and their troubles with reading and math make us think of learning disability. But their poor attention is not due to an inability to attend and their poor academic skills is not due to a language based learning disability

As children progress from class to class, more and more information is presented in complex oral language. Keep in mind how the demands are raised as children grow older. That is one of the reasons to address this as soon as you suspect a processing disorder.

Observe your students to find answers to these questions:

• Is my student bothered by loud or sudden noises? Some kids show even an emotional overreaction, crying, extreme irritability.
• Does my student have difficulty in noisy environments? How many of your students have a rough time during lunch hour and recess? Do they function better in quieter environments (behavior and attention)?
• Does my student have difficulty following simple or complex directions? (Simple direction: Bring your bookbag. 2 step direction: Put your bookbag away and line up for science. Children's language development shows a sequentaial and gradual increase in being able to follow multiple directions and complexity of directions).
• Does your student need extra 'wait time' before answering or responding in class?
• Does my child have difficulty with word problems? In word prblems the mathematical operation (addition, subtraction...) is presented in an indirect way. The student has to read and process a lot of words, identify the significant information and make inferences on what has to be done. Daunting for a young child who is grappling with trying to make sense of what he reads!
• Does my student have difficulty remembering sequence of letters in words, words in lists, missing words in sentences, etc? This is because the student can remember what comes next...and he misses his place while writing or copying?
• Does my student have difficulty blending sounds? (when given m/a/t, he must blend the three sounds to read the word mat...but he continues to repeat the letter sounds--m/a/t but can't say the word 'mat'.
•  Does the student subsititute similar sounding words? This is because he has trouble identifying the difference between similar 'speech sounds.' I have to share a personal anecdote here. A friend (with moderate APD) moved to Wimbledon in England but for the life of her couldn't say it. She continues to live in Wilmington, according to her:)

Who can diagnose if the child has auditory processing disorder? You can collect and collate all the anecdotal information but the diagnosis has to be done by an audiologist. The audiologist will test the student's hearing for true tone sounds and for speech sounds to see where exactly the difficulty lies. Who works with a child with auidtory processing disorder? A speech therapist will work on some areas but you, as the child's teacher will have to do your share as well.

Ms. S

Student Observation—Listening

“One of my students puzzles me. When I ask questions, his answers about something completely different. I don’t know if it is because he isn’t paying attention to the lesson or because of he doesn’t understand the lesson. At the same time I don’t get the feeling that he has difficulty with comprehension.”

A common observation in the classroom, this student was lucky that his teacher didn’t jump the ‘attention’ bandwagon. She had doubts and rightfully so. When a child enters school, she goes from being the center of attention in her home to being one among the twenty, thirty or even forty students. The student has to learn to follow directions given to the whole classroom and stay on pace. She has to stay on topic and wait for opportunities to take the lead. This is a big jump in listening skills—some children make the transition with ease and others need some support and direct instruction.

 What do you look for in your student observation? 

• Does your student know you are talking to her or the group? This is a function of how you prepare your students to listen for directions. For example in primary classrooms, the teacher will often cue the students to “Stop, Look and Listen,” to get their attention before giving a direction. An ill prepared teacher will start talking without getting the students’ attention first. As a result, the student doesn’t heard the direction for no fault of her’s.
• Does the student  listen for information? Listening is not a passive state where the student sits and takes in your words. She has to hear the words, process the information by connecting it to her prior knowledge (what she already knows), and make inferences or predictions. Finally, the student must identify the relevant information and retain it for future use.
• Does the student listen to the entire direction before responding? “My student is so quick—she starts working on the project before I finish the directions. She is really smart!” Oh-oh, you student is going to make mistakes on the project because she has not heard the entire instruction.  That is not 'smarts' but actually a poor skill.
•  Does the student  remember the steps in your direction and follow those in sequence? (First I must put the pencil away, next I must open the book to page...Listening and following directions in sequence is very important for critical thinking. Following sequences is essential in math, science, hstory.
• Does the student listen in individual and group situations? Most students are able to listen and participate in individual sessions. In large group activities students have to wait longer for their turn, are exposed to more distactions and are not always near the teacher.
• Does the student stay on topic? When a student if off topic (answering something completely irrelevant to the topic at hand) our first thought is “Aah, did she not listen to what I said?”This can be due to a couple of reasons—processing difficulty, where she didn’t finish processing all the information given, or because she has difficulty with social language skills (pragmatics).

Do you see how poor listening skills can impact attention and vice versa? That is why teachers must never rush to label a child. One requires modification of the environment and teaching coping skills to the student while the other requires a change in how you present oral information.  

When you meet with the parents, explain that you see behaviors which may be due to attention needs or due to poor listening skills. They need to check with an educational psychologist for educational testing and/or a speech language pathologist (therapist) for a speech/language evaluation to eliminate language based concerns.

Why is it essential to gather this information about the child’s listening skills? Imagine you recommend that the student see a speech therapist. What is the first comment the parent will make? “Oh but my child speaks well. Why does she need the services of a speech therapist?” You've just seen how listening skills are nuanced. They must be reinforced at home and in school. The professional will be able to pin point the student’s need and answer any questions the parents have. You will also get a lot of pointers to use in your classroom.

Ms. S

Student Observation Part 2-Attention

here's a thought...before you rush to the parents with concerns about their child's 'attention' you must make changes to your classroom environment, adapt your lessons and mode of instruction to see if they make a difference to the student's progress. You must also rule out difficulties due to other learning needs.  So observe your student to find answers to these questions. 

• How does your student attend in one on one situations? Is there a difference in the student’s ability to attend in small groups versus large groups? If a student has difficulty following directions—in individual sessions, small and large groups, you know that the difficulty is not just because of attention. You’ll also be able to identify processing difficulties (we’ll talk about that later).
• How long does your student attend in class? The average class period is for 45 minutes. If the student is able to attend to the task for 20 minutes, then he is not available to learn for the remainder of the period. Or do you see him attending for 10 minutes, getting distracted and then you bring him back on track for the next ten minutes and so on…?
• Does he start work on time? If the rest of the class has started the writing assignment but student A is still getting his pencil and books out, he is not going to have the same amount of time to work on his writing assignment. This information will help you break down your lesson plan into two chunks of twenty minutes, with a five minute break activity in between.
• How long does he take to complete tasks? Does he need extra time to finish his classwork on a regular basis? 
• Does time of the day make a difference? Do you see any variation in performance based on the preceding or following period (PE/lunch)? Some children are more alert and attend better in the morning, others after active physical play. A few are sleepy and tired in the morning but as the day progresses they seem to do better. Have you noticed any such pattern?

 If you pass this anecdotal information on to the parents, they will observe their child at home and work on the same behaviors/strategies. For example, say your student attends for twent minutes. You can break your lesson into two chunks of twenty minutes each with a five minute break activity in between. Parents can follow this at home to help with homework.

All your preliminary work will help convince even those parents resistant to the idea of diagnosis by a child psychiatrist. How often have we heard parents say “Oh the teacher doesn’t want to do any work. She is too lazy. That’s why she says my child is not attending!” Once they figure you are on the same side, they will follow up and seek the necessary professional help.

Do we start using the label ADHD or ‘hyperactive’ now? No! The child has to be seen by a psychiatrist who will give the parents and you a rating scale. Your job is to complete the scale and hand it back. Leave the diagnostics to the person who has to write the report. You stay in charge of what happens in your class.

For your information only: Click Here to take a look at the Vanderbilt Teacher Assessment Scale, a screening tool for ADHD.

Ms. S

Student Observation Part 1

You spend more and more energy keeping one student on track. Your class as a whole needs one (or two) reminders but this student needs several reminders. Some days he doesn’t manage to stay on track for the entire period…you know you can’t do this for the whole year. You don’t have the energy for that. It is a disservice to the child if it is not addressed in a timely manner.

Your student may have trouble keeping up with the class for various reasons.

The most common terms which pop up in your mind are ‘attention and learning disability.’ But a student can struggle in class because of poor skills in several domains. It is important to remember that these are not single behaviors or actions in themselves. Listening can be for information, to understand sequences or as a prelude to participation in discussions; attention can be inflenced by content, teaching method, proximity to teacher, language comprehension, impulse control, span of activity, emotional state; listening can be aided or impeded by attention and vice versa.

If the student has poor listening skills, he won’t listen to the whole direction. As a result he won't know what has to be done. If he doesn’t know what the expectations are, his attention will wander...and maybe tickle a friend:)

Observe your student to gather information under each of these areas. It will help the parents seek the right kind of diagnostic and remedial guidance.

• Attention
• Listening
• Auditory processing
• Visual processing
• Sensory processing
• Transitioning
• Language based learning disability
• Nonverbal learning disability

To be continued...

Ms.S

Initial Parent Conference

Kids from our picnic group were running all around the park. “I don’t know why, but the teacher says my child is bright. I asked my daughter what 18+30 was and she couldn’t answer. I don’t think she is slow but I don’t know if I’d call her bright either. She is about average and that is fine by me,” one father commented on the parent teacher conference he had had the day before.

The little girl was four years old. Her dad applied what he understood by the term ‘bright’ and decided she was average after allJ The child wasn't able to do double digit addition. But her language skills were much higher than a typical four year old.

This is true of any of the technical terms we use about our students. Parents derive meaning to these words by reading magazine articles or by listening to fellow parents. They may not understand the range of meaning or the subsets of skills these terms have. They do not know how they manifest as behaviors in the classroom or why it is difficult to manage those behaviors when ‘she does fine at home when I sit with her.’

Be prepared to do the following with your student's parents:

• What does that term mean? Give an example. We professionals tend to use very specific words and parents may not know what we are talking about.
• Give parents an understanding of age appropriate ability in that skill area. The problems students face is because their learning behaviors do not match their classmates' behaviors (their same age peers). Diagnosis, strategies, remediation, etc, are geared to bridge this gap. When parents understand this purpose behind your referral, they are much more amenable to seek professional help.
• How does the learning behavior affect the child’s  performance in the classroom now? Provide observable examples.
• Will it impact the child's performance in future (high school, workplace)? If so, how?
• How did you arrive at this conclusion? Is there a record? If it is a behavioral concern, do you know what happened before the behavior occured? If it is an academic concern, do you have examples of work to show where the difficulty lies?
• How often does this happen? Does it happen at any particular time of the day—a.m., before/after lunch, towards the end of the day?
• Have other teachers expressed the same concerns or is this difficulty subject specific? For example, the student has trouble in reading i.e. English, but does well in social studies. This tells you that something else is going on. Social studies is all sbout reading and comprehension. So you know the problem does not lie wth the student’s ability to read. Maybe the problem lies with how information is presented in English period, or the type of assignment, etc.

To be continued...

Ms. S

Preliminary Information Gathering

Start by gathering information about the student's wellbeing...some aspects have temporary impact on the student’s performance while others may be lifelong.

Physical Wellbeing

General Health

How is the child’s general health? If a child is unwell with even just a cold, it affects how he/she attends and engages in class. Cold, asthma medicines, allergy medicines, seasonal variations do affect how children attend/behave in class. 

Sleep

It takes several months to recover completely from lack of sleep for ONE night. This is one of the most common reasons for children's lack of attention. Talk to parents to see if the child gets sufficient sleep through the night. Tonsils, adenoids, and other causes of sleep apnea reduce the amount of oxygen in the brain. Sleep apnea in young children is often underdiagnosed or ignored.

Click Here fo more information on sleep apnea.

Diet

Does the student have a healthy diet? A child with a restrictive diet will not get all the nutrients—resulting in poor attention skills besides all the other medical conditions. If the child eats mostly soft white foods (starchy foods) what happens? There is a spike in the blood sugar and then a quick drop. Think about how it affects attention in class. Diet is not just about long term health benefits but also day to day functioning.
Mental Wellbeing

Anxiety
Some children look forward to the changes a new academic year brings. Some others take to changes a little slowly. A few others have more than their share of anxiety in the new year (even in older students). Check to see if your student is beset by anxiety.

Social Skills/Social Problem Solving
Is the student happy, with a  circle of friends? How does he/she spend unstructured periods like lunch time and recess? Are there any changes at home? How do parents/extended family get along? What conflict resolution skills do the parents have (as the child will learn the same from them)? Does the child have age appropriate skills to respond/react? How about self esteem/self confidence?

Work Habits

Is your student able to work independently? Does he take care of his belongings? Doe she like to plan and execute activities with her peers?

This information should give you an idea of whether you need to target the student's environment or if you need to focus on a learning behavior.

Next, we'll look at the learning behaviors:)

Ms. S

Before You Contact the Parents...

Attitude:
The first step is to remember that your student’s parents are on the same team with you—the child’s team. They too are invested in identifying the problem and strategies to work around it. You, and the parents, want the child to succeed.

Once the process of identification is completed, you and a specialist get involved in strategies. But it doesn’t stop with your work at school, does it? In most cases, parents have to follow up with the same strategies at home—for homework, organizational skills in their day to day lives, behavioral problem solving, etc. So you need them on board.

Initial Assessment:

After the first two weeks of school, you will be able to identify the students who need additional support—to follow the routine, to attend and complete tasks, to follow directions…You probably have feedback from the previous year’s teacher about the child at this point.

Try not to rush in to talk to the parents about any concerns (in detail) at this point. Hopefully you talk to all the parents informally about this period of transition and how your students are still adjusting. It takes a while to adapt to new routines and new adults. In the meantime continue to monitor the kids who demand more assistance.

After the first month you can be sure of the students who will need extra support. Watch out for those who seem to need just that little extra push. These are the kids who don’t stand out as being very needy in any one particular area but you believe in your heart they can do more. These kids fall through the cracks because we think they are not putting in enough effort.

Now is a good time to say something to the parents—keep it matter of fact, non judgmental and to the point. Let them know you’ve noticed that certain subjects (or activities) are harder than others. You plan to keep an eye on the student to see if there is a pattern and that you will keep them posted. They are bound to bombard you with questions—everyone is jumping on to the ADHD/Hyperactive bandwagon these days. Try not to use any of the diagnostic words. That isn’t our job anyway. Our responsibility is to identify and describe the behaviors which interfere with learning.

Next I’ll talk more about what to look for in the student’s learning behavior.

Ms. S

Parents and Teachers as a Team

My first year of teaching I worked in a  pre-k class. It was a mixed ability group in a special school and most of the parents were very young. My students (but for one) were first borns and so the experiences that their parents went through were novel to them. I had first hand exposure to the fears and hopes of the parents as they went from therapy to therapy and adaptive furniture to assistive technology aids.

I learned to listen, question, and support them through the years and we maintained our friendships. At times we switched roles and they listened to why I made certain decisions in the classroom and such.  They taught me that my job was more than that and my communication skills were very important...how I said something mattered as much as what I said. 

Twenty five years later I still learn from them—now it is about the challenges they face in trying to integrate their young adults in society and how they negotiate with the general public.  

Since then I’ve worked with older students with severe behavioral challenges, in inclusive programs with ‘regular ed’ students and with young children with emerging emotional needs. Those initial years of close interactions with parents have stood me in good stead.

I doubt if any teacher goes through an entire academic year without concerns about one student or the other…it can be academic, social or behavioral concerns. So what do we do?

When we bring up concerns it scares parents. It puts them on the defensive and sometimes leads to denial. It is very common for parents to attack the teacher’s ability. “She doesn’t know what she is talking about, she doesn’t know how to teach, she doesn’t like my child, she just wants to have an easy job, he (she) does fine at home—it is only at school. So the problem must lie there.” Sound familiar? We’ve all gone through that. But what can we do, ignore the concerns? That doesn’t benefit the child does it? Our main goal is to get the child the necessary help to succeed. Otherwise we will be doing the child a disservice.

In the next few posts I will address this issue:

How should we teachers bring up concerns about our students to parents and administrators?

What kind of information/details teachers should present to explain their concerns?

Ms. S