Still Smiling

[BklynMom]

She receives speech services at the school and the meeting was her yearly speech review. The speech teacher was her biggest ally at the meeting and I felt like her assessment of my daughter was right on. The speech teacher knows my daughter and has been working with her for a yr and 1/2.

The speech teachers assessment of my daughter is that she is very bright but has trouble speaking and making certain sounds.

Her regular teacher (again who has only had her since after Thanksgiving cause she was on on maternity leave) is the one that made the assessment about her reading level and I strongly disagree with her assessment. I agree that my daughter is behind but not behind in a way that I should be overly concerned about. Each kid learns at their own pace.

My daughter is way ahead in math and the work that they do in school is way too easy for her but that is the thing with public school ... everyone is expected to learn at the same pace in every subject.

My sister, who is a NYC board of ed elementary teacher does not think my daughter needs services for reading. She does think we should work more at it at home but thinks my daughter in a range of normal for her age.

I do not want to start in the first grade with being overly obsessed with this stuff. And also making my daughter lose confidence in herself.

Furthermore the teacher sent home a book last night at grade level so I could see what kids her age should be reading and my daughter did great. She read over 70% on her own last night and this morning read over 95%.

I am not being closed minded, I know my daughter very well and was very open to getting her speech services which she needs. We need to work more with reading but the worst thing would be for us to over react.

I really need to work on how I react in these meetings where I feel confronted. I tried to be quiet but they asked me twice what do you think and when I open my big mouth I definitely come off as oppositional and defensive. Next time I am just going to say I am here to support my daughter and I will think about your feedback.