Year 2 - does my DD sound behind?

[chatty28572]

Since DD has started school I have had concerns yet teachers have always said she is fine just quiet. I have mentioned her speech seems behind but they do not seem to see it. I find she struggles to explain herself and does not say sentences correctly. I do wonder if teachers mistake this as shyness/being quiet. I am going to ask for her to be assessed which I have been told she can from the age of 7.
However she has her SATs this year and I feel she just doesn't seem ready. Her teacher said as long as I keep up with her reading and practicing maths she should be fine. I printed off some practice papers and have spent a lot of time with her doing homework.

Maths - she is fine with overall can do simple adding, taking away, timetables 2,5 and 10. I have also being practising longer addition.
However when it comes to the reasoning she doesn't even seem to understand/read properly the question to answer it correctly.

English - her hand writing has improved however they have to do it in a joined up way so sometimes it is hard to read. I really wish they let them write normally.
Reading - Still reading phonetically she can not free read and seems so focused on reading the words she can not tell you about the story.
Her spelling they do not do spelling test so she spells a lot of words incorrectly. Again I can try practicing with her but can't understand how her teacher isn't seeing this. I do wonder if DD copies other children's work at school.
As with maths I do wonder if she is just going to spend her time reading the questions and not fully understanding them to answer correctly.

I hope I don't sound harsh I am just concerned and don't feel listened to. I do sometimes wonder if she could be on the spectrum and is masking. I have other reasons for this which is a probably a different thread.

Just wondered if this sounds 'normal' or not for year 2?

"I do sometimes wonder if she could be on the spectrum and is masking. I have other reasons for this which is a probably a different thread."

What do you expect us to advise you if you don't want to tell us about all her issues? You can't just look at a child's academic performance in isolation.

Reading: she's spending so long trying to decode she can't think about the rest. Read to her, then discuss the story.

Maths: play games, go shopping, bake. Talk about what's going on rather than the absolute numbers (as you say it's the meaning of the question she struggles with).

Writing: I've seen people suggest things to develop hand and finger strength, like squidging Plasticine and so on.

Don't stress about the SATS. The better she does in these, the more she'll be expected to achieve in Year 6 when it gets really stressful (even the schools that try to downplay it can't totally ignore the importance from their perspective).

For the purpose of this thread I am only really asking about whether she sounds ready for year 2 SATs/academically. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the above it's just coming from my frustration that I don't feel listened to.

It sounds about right. My year two is further ahead on reading, but on maths it sounds similar.

Thank you @merryhouse that's some good advice.

Agree regarding the SATS part of me is thinking it might flag to them if she is struggling.

Her teachers should be differentiating all work, and will continue to do so, so in that respect she doesn’t need to be ready for year 2, it should be adjusted to her level. SATS are not really an issue. In Yr 2 they will be low key and, with any luck, the kids will barely know it’s happened. I’ve known kids have the paper put in front of them and then taken away a few minutes later with a smile and a suggestion that they come do something else as they were completely unable to access it, so even if she can only do some of it it will not be a problem.

She doesn’t sound that far from the norm. Kids develop in fits and starts and at different times, so it may be fine but it sounds as if you feel she is an outlier, at least as far as comprehension goes. She may have a specific learning difficulty in that particular area which is probably more likely if she is autistic. Any gaps between her and her peers, if they do exist, will likely get bigger over time if she does have some sort of neuro diversity.

There have been some good suggestions of things you can do with her upthread. As the parent of a bright autistic child who does have various specific learning difficulties my one bit of advice would be to meet her where she currently is in each particular area rather than where you think she should be. She may well have what is called a spikey profile. Her visual memory may be amazing but her short term memory may be very poor, for example or her processing speed may be slow but actual maths skills may turn out to be good.

If she really is autistic then I'd expect SATS performance to be the least of your worries tbh.

My child is in Y2, autistic, very bright, but the only thing I care about with regards to SATS is that he doesn't feel pressure or anxiety around them. Honestly couldn't care less what results he gets.