Understanding Your Child’s Education Needs
As parent we want the brightest future for our children. Sometimes that desire leads us to put our heads in the sand when our children are increasingly falling behind the curve and expectations at school. This guide is designed to help parents who have started questioning whether their child is thriving in school. It is an interesting phenomenon that both parents and educators choose not to further explore the potential that a child might have need for more educational support. The reason for this is multi-factorial and different for educators and parents. I am amazed sometimes when I speak to parents and they inform me that their school discouraged them from getting a diagnosis for dyslexia, ADHD or Autism. Interestingly the parents undeterred went on to confirm their suspicions and 100% of the time were validated in their suspicions.
The truth of the matter is early detection promotes early intervention and can decrease the learning gap between a child and their peers. Waiting around and not putting any support in place leads to a widening gap and a harder to obtain bridge between children and their peers. In a revolutionary step by a local primary they actually presume all their children have dyslexia and teach literacy in nursery and reception with that in mind.
Looking at the composition of a mainstream classroom and neurodiversity as a collective whole 30% of the classroom is neurodiverse. The statistics show 1 in 5 of us are dyslexic and that by 2050: 1 out of 2 children will be on the autistic spectrum.
So really spotting the signs of neurodiversity and implementing support for both parents and educators is not something for the minority anymore, it is going to become more and more part of the makeup of mainstream.
We need to educate to children’s strengths and encourage them but also be alerted to their challenges and where some support and intervention could go a long way towards them reaching their full potential with their self esteem intact.
This guide is to inspire you to look beyond your pre-conceptions and stereotypes of neurodiversity to really look at the child in front of you so that they can get the most out of their time at school.
Are you concerned that:
Your child is not making progress at school
Your child is not reaching their full potential
Your child is not making progress at school
Your child is not meeting their developmental milestones
Your child is struggling with aspects of learning such as reading, writing, math
Working in collaboration with a teacher, SENCO and independent Neurodiverse consultant we have put together some signs to spot and support you in identifying if your child is struggling.
Observation is Key
o Listen to their communication or note their lack of communication
o How do they speak, way they speak, when they speak or when they don’t interact
o Do they get distracted easily and distract others
o Are they withdrawn
o Do they become angry and talk back when it is time to do homework
o Do they destroy any work they have attempted
o Do the teacher’s complain they put their head on their desk and went to sleep
o Do they play on their phone
o Do they struggle to go to school or enter the classroom
Communication difficulties can often look like behavioural issues
· Behavioural issues can be a sign that your child is struggling with the curriculum
o The behaviour is the surface symptom not the issue
Spotting the signs- What should you look out for?
All pupils will react in different ways, so keeping observing, not assuming anything, questioning and a bit of trial-and-error-magic-guess-work will help no end, but here are some general signs that will be useful to consider.
A child struggling academically
o Distraction, anything to avoid doing the work – even if this is engaging you in topics they know you love talking about! It’s sneaky but it’s often a very successful strategy to avoid work.
o Frustration and anger-at themselves, the situation
o Spending a very long time on one task, exceeding expectations in that area (usually as they feel comfortable here and it avoids facing the tasks they find challenging).
o Chatting to friends for help or, again, as a distraction, the class clown causing disruption
o Not opening their book – they feel like they will fail, so why bother starting?
o Refusal to engage in group work or class discussions as others would be aware of their difficulties e.g. cannot read the text
o Pens inexplicably breaking – especially ones that require a 20 minute toilet visit to clean up the ink.
A child struggling emotionally or with mental health
o A change in their usual behaviour, e.g. a sudden withdrawal, increased aggression, increased tiredness, increased apathy
o Anxiety-nail biting, self-harming
o Symptoms of depression-low mood
o Erratic behaviour
o Seemingly inexplicable outbursts
o Increased difficulties in friendship groups-too hard on themselves or too critical of everyone else and it is everyone else’s fault
o Changes in eating or sleeping patterns
A child being triggered by past or current trauma
o Challenges forming positive relationships
o Difficulties around eating and their relationship with food
o Overly clingy-attachment issues
o Irritable, aggressive, difficult to soothe or engage
o Anxiety, nail biting, self-harming
o Passive
o Sexualised behaviour
o Sadness and depression
A child struggling emotionally or with mental health
o A change in their usual behaviour, e.g. a sudden withdrawal, increased aggression, increased tiredness, increased apathy
o Anxiety
o Symptoms of depression
o Erratic behaviour
o Seemingly inexplicable outbursts
o Changes in eating habits
o Changes in sleeping patterns
o Increased difficulties in friendship groups