If you think that your child has a learning problem you are probably right. Don’t be put off by teachers telling you not to worry, get your child the help he needs before it is too late. Trust your instincts, your child needs your help.
Recently a mother told me that she was worried because her ten year-old son still couldn’t read well. She told me that she had been worried about his lack of reading ability for some time. She had done the right thing, she had told her son’s teachers about her concerns and had even asked for her son’s reading skills to be assessed by a specialist.
The teachers had told her not to worry, that her son did not need an assessment and that many children do not start to read until they are ten or even older. This information did not make her feel any better!
Let’s look at what the teachers were saying.
Yes, many children who become excellent readers do not start reading as soon as everyone would like. Some children who end up being very good readers do not start to read until they are seven or eight years old. But these are the exception rather than the rule.
If a child who is ten years old has reading problems it is time to find out why.
I don’t know the whole story, maybe this boy is doing well in school and is just having problems reading. It is difficult to imagine as so much of schoolwork depends on a child’s ability to read.
Maybe this boy is having difficulty learning anything and his reading problems are only one of many learning issues that he has. I hope not, but this can often be the case.
Maybe this mother is overanxious, overprotective and overbearing. But I don’t think so. Any mother would be worried about a ten year old who was not reading, and from what she told me she seems more scared of the teachers than they are of her.
So what can this mother do?
Should she believe what the teachers tell her and wait for her son to ‘blossom’? Or should she fight as hard as she can to get her son the help that he needs?
I have worked with many children whose parents told me that they knew something was wrong with their child’s learning years before their child got any extra learning support. I trust parents’ instincts.
You know if your child is struggling to learn, your instincts tell you that something is not right. Don’t wait until it is too late to get the help your child needs.
Start fighting for your child, he needs your support now.
