You never fully understand “no two kids are alike” until you have more than one!
My husband and I are the parents to 2 daughters (13 & 6) that are like night and day. When my oldest was born she was the calmest baby ever. She slept through the night by the time she was 10 weeks old and has been pretty independent all her life.
My youngest daughter was a preemie, in the NICU for a week, had bleeding on her brain (possibly caused by birth trauma) and pretty much cried for the first 10 weeks.
Everyone always says to not compare your kids but sometimes it’s hard. My oldest was reading on a 3rd grade level when she was in Kindergarten and my youngest is struggling and still behind with her reading in 1st grade. The other night she started crying while we were doing homework and it literally broke my heart!
Another factor that I have to keep in mind is that she is also the youngest in her class. I’ve noticed since she started school 2 years ago (Pre-K) that things would always seem to “click” a little later and to not stress her or myself out while reviewing things at home.
There have been a few red flags along the way that I’ve noticed and after speaking with her teacher, we’ve decided to meet up again after she’s had her testing again in December. Remember that children who don’t have learning disabilities may still experience some of these difficulties at various times. The time for concern is when there is a consistent unevenness in your child’s ability to master certain skills.
Because of her age, I’m strictly focusing on this range so keep that in mind. Ages 5-9 signs and symptoms of learning disabilities:
- Trouble learning the connection between letters and sounds
- Unable to blend sounds to make words
- Confuses basic words when reading
- Consistently misspells words and makes frequent reading errors
- Trouble learning basic math concepts
- Difficulty telling time and remembering sequences
- Slow to learn new skills
And because she’s so shy I also try to give her pep talks at home about how smart she is and that we all learn at different levels. This doesn’t mean that she has a learning disability, but I also don’t want to have the mindset of “this could never happen to my child” and ignore all the signs and don’t get her the help she needs now.
Do you teach or have a child that has difficulty learning and grasping certain educational skills? Please share how you dealt with them.
My son, as you know, has autism and that can affect his learning ability and definitely affects his learning style. When he was in public school, they told me that he couldn’t read or write higher than a kindergarten level. I later found out that he could read and write, he just did not want to read or write what they told him to!
My only advice would be, tailor things to her interests. If she has a personal interest in the story or the math, she may be able to focus on it a little easier.
Thanks Echo! We are def trying to tailor things that interest her and she LOVES art so I try to make that a part of what we do at home too.
Well you know I often talk about Emma and her development…well we are in the same boat we have one therapist that she sees after school that’s telling us one thing then another in school saying something totally different when it comes to her speech…it’s stressful to say the least but we are dealing! And I won’t stop until I get to the bottom of this and we get the proper care for her. I say take it one day at a time and be her advocate!! Emma is also VERY stubborn so what she will do for one therapist she won’t do for the other so basically just work with her a lot at home and like echo said tailor it to her interests!
I wonder where Emma gets being stubborn from…LOL! Thanks Carissa and I’m trying not to let her know how stressed out I am because of it. I know that will just make her more anxious and that won’t help either of us.
I have nothing to contribute to this conversation but a (HUG)
Thank you Lashawn!!! <3