Perhaps your child is struggling at school – and you’re tearing your hair out about how you can best support them to achieve as much as they possibly can. Or maybe they’ve already been diagnosed with a specific learning difficulty and you need help untangling a knotty issue. Talk ÍÑ¿ã°É’s SEND expert, Silja Turville, has all the answers and she’s here to help: email your SEND-related questions to talk@talkeducation.com and we’ll publish Silja’s response here.
As an educational consultant and neurodiversity coach focused on supporting families with children with additional needs, Silja is director of Acorn to Oak ÍÑ¿ã°É – and passionate about sharing her knowledge to help parents. This week, Silja has advice for parents of a child who seems to have got unlucky with his teachers...
My child is in a mainstream secondary school and when he was in Year 7 last year, he was doing really well. This year, he seems to be unlucky with his teachers and all of the support he had before in class appears to have gone. He now has loads of copying from the board and gets the same homework as everyone else, whereas last year a number of the teachers knew writing would take longer and gave him less homework, so he could focus on the important elements. My son is dyslexic and may also have autistic traits, but this has not been assessed. I do not want to damage the relationship with the school, although right now things are intolerable for us. What should I do?
Sadly, this is a common challenge and by this time in the school year we are seeing difficulties start to emerge where the right support has not been available. We know that this can be stressful and frustrating especially when support has previously been good and the change in personnel has made the situation harder.
You mentioned that last year key teachers understood what your son needed. It sounds like you have an idea of what has helped him in the past? I would suggest first writing down for yourself, if you have not already, what your child needs and what helps him. In doing this, through talking with your son, you could identify what is needed and, from his perspective, what would be the order of priorities so that you know what to concentrate on first.
Ideally, the school will be accommodating if you ask to speak (again?) to the SENDCo about what your son is experiencing. It would be good practice for them to help with coordinating support needs with the individual teachers. It would be useful if the school produced a document that they shared with you that indicates what assistance your child needs. You could then compare this with your list and any advice you have had from the person that identified your son as dyslexic. If you had a copy of this, you could discuss this with the individual teachers if the SENDCo is not able to resolve things. I would suggest focusing on the subject(s) that are the most challenging first and, within that, on the top one to three things that you are asking the teacher to adapt for your son.
Sometimes able learners with autistic traits can have their support needs missed if they are experienced as able and articulate. If you feel the assistance after these discussions is not helpful, it could be worth seeking further advice about support in class to back up what you have been asking for. Where there are difficulties in social communication, for example, it is easy for these to be missed.
If you are still having difficulties or need further support, please do contact our
SEND advisory team and we can help further.