5th Grade: Getting things in Place

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I hate that I only write this blog in October for Dyslexia Awareness Month. Dyslexia is a challenge all year round. Sometimes life gets in the way, and you lose track of projects. 

The challenges of 5th grade began before school. Like many kids, Wilson started playing soccer in Kindergarten, and it was the sport that stuck after trying many others. And for the first few years, he played on one of the better teams with his classmates. When they started trying out, Wilson was one of two kids who did not make the team as his classmates. So, once again he was the different one. It was really hard to watch his heartbreak once regular practices started and he wasn’t with his friends. I did ask questions of the people involved, but didn’t demand they move Wilson. I didn’t want to be that parent. 

School started better than most years. The support was finally in a good place; Wilson was still getting tutored by his first grade teacher, and we got into a good rhythm with the medication. But then I would still have my own doubts about what his life would be like. I still consumed everything I could and went to talks, and sometimes came away more depressed. How did we know if Wilson would read well enough to get through High School, to go to college? Maybe he needed to go to a special High School, but would he only succeed in that world? Could we pay for this and college? But when I thought about all of the hard conversations about not being with his regular group at soccer, I knew he really just wanted to be like everyone else. 

Wilson had a reevaluation in the winter that went well. The reading specialist told me that he "came willing to testing and was very conversational," according to the ladies who did the testing. Wilson came a very long way since the chair slamming and pouting that used to happen! I still made myself crazy prepping for the review meeting; comparing the test results and trying to understand what progress looked like on paper. Wilson was making good progress, but still struggled with decoding, fluency, and sight words. 

So, we thought we’d start with a summer program that would help prepare him and set Wilson up for success in Middle School. Although there are many great dyslexia schools in Massachusetts, they are also expensive. So we started looking at one in the Buffalo area. Since 1926, the Gow School has rethought learning to rebuild confidence for children with dyslexia and language-based differences. My parents graciously offered to have Wilson stay with them and take him to school each day. So, we started working on the application. 

When in conversation with the reading specialist, we learned he was “doing fantastic!! His writing (content and penmanship) is blossoming. I hope he shared with you an open response he brought home today. He did such a great job; the class brainstormed an outline together, and then each student was left alone to develop the response.  I was very impressed and let him know that.” It was great to hear. You never really know what’s working when you’re in the middle of the struggle.  

All of the supports stayed in place. We added some reading support for the Science MCAS (the Massachusetts standardized tests). We also tried to figure out the support for math tests since Wilson would do well in tutoring but would break down in the actual testing environment. He seems to run out of stamina/patience during a question, not during the test. It was good that the new IEP would be in place when we started the transition discussions for middle school.

Unfortunately, the course selection conversations started before we had his official transition meeting with the Special Education team. I needed to understand what support looked like in Middle School before we agreed to any classes. I was happy to learn that he would not be pulled out of class like in elementary school. However, support was a class, which meant we had to decide what elective not to take. Well, Wilson started playing piano early because Walpole didn’t have instruments in Elementary school. We told him he could play anything in Middle School, so he would have to pick music as an elective. Since he’s a boy with ADHD, he needed gym, and technology could be in his future, so we wanted the exposure. That left art. His grandparents are artists, so he’s had a lot of exposure to art culturally and did many projects with them. 


With the new IEP in place, classes picked, and the Gow acceptance, we were ready for what’s next. Wilson also learned that sometimes when life doesn’t go your way, you can decide to embrace the change and thrive instead of quitting. His scrappy soccer team won the spring season for their division.



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