Previously in a post I wrote about going to my daughter’s school to have a meeting in regards to her IEP and the amount of homework that they are sending home for her. That meeting took place last week with her teacher and the special education teacher. My concerns were that my daughter who has ADHD, along with Borderline Intellectual Functioning was expected to do 2 ½ hours of homework each night. While the ADHD plays some factor in completing her homework, it is pretty much the Borderline Intellectual Functioning that is the biggest concern. Even if she has grasped the concept of her work because she processes things slowly, it will still take her twice the time as a kid without any issues.
My daughter is also lacking some skills due to her time in foster care and her disabilities. She is behind in school, but we are very proud of her as she is trying to keep up. The thing that my daughter struggles with the most is her comprehension of reading assignment and of course that is directly tied to the borderline intellectual functioning. She frequently misunderstands what she is being asked to do without direction due to her poor comprehension of materials. This affects her in all areas that involve reading. She struggles with problem-solving in math because she does not understand the directions but on the opposite side if there are steps to follow like in math that directly tells her what to do, she can accomplish the task. We have a tutor that is helping her with her comprehension skills and her dad and I help out as much as possible.
I met with my daughter’s teachers after school in the teacher’s classroom and sat around the teacher’s desk. I voiced my concerns that I didn’t want my daughter to have to do homework all night. I explained to them that my child works really hard to complete her work and she does not complain, but when she is done all she has time to do is to eat dinner, take a shower, then go to bed. The year before her teachers would give her half of the assignment, so if the class had to do questions one through forty she may only have to do all evens. In her IEP it states that she should get extra time and help if needed with her work. The teacher is not supposed to give her the answers rather; she is supposed to help her understand what is being asked so she can find the right answer on her own.
When I asked my daughter was she getting any assistance from her special education teacher, she told me that the teacher is not really in the class that much. This year they are sharing a special education teacher between two classes instead of having one class with the special education kids in them like last year. Her teacher stated that she was doing great in class and she showed a lot of motivation to complete her work. She said that she does struggle with sometimes daydreaming, but quickly gets back on task. We came up with a solution that since her teacher stays after school on every day except Monday and my daughter is there every day in the afterschool program that she can come back to her teacher’s class to complete her homework in the evening. The teacher stated that would give her a chance to work one-on-one with her and also decrease the homework she will have to complete at home.
I am very happy with that solution and feel as though the teacher is attempting to rectify the problem. I know that in all cases, it will not be this easy and I am dreading middle school, but I will continue to advocate for her.
