AIBU or should people who "brag" about not being able to spell should...

[blueemerald]

not write all over students' work being sent home??

I work in a special needs school. We have 8 students in our class aged 11-15 and the ability level ranges from 6-20 months (non-verbal, not toilet trained etc.).

There is another TA who "brags" about her dyslexia almost every day. Now of course I realise this is a tactic to cover an insecurity and I have every sympathy for her (I'm dyspraxic myself and have to think for a second to sort out my left from my right and so on).

Valentine's Day cards were made on Thursday (I use that unusual turn of phrase to highlight the fact that in most cases the students did not even see, let alone touch, the work produced).

My issue is that the TA with dyslexia took it upon herself (she was not asked to by anyone) to write 'Happy Valintines Day' or 'Happy Valntines Day' on the front of every card in big letters. My belief (when is comes to art/craft) is that if the child can't do then it doesn't get done (giving a margin for hand-over-hand work) but also what will the parents think?? (This is what I am hoping you will be able to tell me!) She also wrote the wrong combinations of Dear Mum/Dad/Mum and Dad etc... in most cards which will be awkward as two of our students' families have just gone through divorces.

I wouldn't volunteer to... lead a class in left and right (ok, stupid example but something where my dyspraxia would be a hindrance) so maybe she should stay away from writing on school work going home (Now I know I sound like a massive bitch but it's also from my stance on independent work!)

Sorry for such a long post on what probably seems really trivial to everyone else but, in conclusion, how would you feel if work come home that you knew your child was not capable of having done with mistakes or misspellings in?

YABU If the ability level of the children in your class is 6 - 20 months then I would think that most parents wouldn't give a flying fuck about a spelling mistake. I dont have a child with sn but would I be right in guessing that with the abilities you are dealing with, spelling is not on the curriculum. If she is good at her job wrt the children then I dont even see how her spelling is an issue tbh. And tbf, she is dyslexic. I think misspelling is a common symptom of her disability. So therefore it is to be expected and accepted. Plus it was a valentines card.

manicinsomniac You're right, I don't particularly care about the cards themselves but the attitudes I feel they displayed. I'm glad you see what I mean about the laziness and disrespect though.

ilovebabytv By that logic we should not bother these students anything that they might not understand fully?

I don't think any Disability/Equality Act says it has to be "expected and accepted" but that reasonable measures/adaptions have to be put in place. Like having 5 other adults in the room, a dictionary and a computer with internet access.

I work wonder why she is wasting her time doing something that doesn't engage the students more than anything else. And apart from that I think the biggest issue is that she is being disrespectful. If children are going to give cards that they haven't made then they should at least be decent ones with the right bloody spelling!

There is no excuse for her doing that.mim crap at Maths so I ask for help or use a calculator. I have a good friend who is a lawyer in the City and she is severely dyslexic, so she checks and double checks everything she writes. It is so easy to do with today's technology, there really is no reason for her to have done this.

Maybe she thought she could spell it right!!!
IF your dyslexic, its not always easy to proof read your work or see your spelling mistakes.
Do you have any clue at all how stupid people think you are when you cant spell, as a proffessional? Its horrible and very hard to handle.
Its easy to pre empt a problem, and be honest.
I am very honest about my dyslexia, when i am running a course, i always explain that I will write on the flip chart but will ask someone to spell certain words OR ask my other worker to do it.

However, I would rather send home a piece of work with little on, knowing the kids did it than a lovely piece completed by staff

Yes, lisad123 (I was hoping someone I recognised from the SEN board would drop in!) I do realise how horrendously people can judge you when your spelling is off. My hand writing was so poor (due to dyspraxia) that my teachers didn't even realise I was spelling some words wrong until I got a laptop for school/exams at 15 (not allowed spell check during assessments). I thought visit was vist until I was 15.

That's part of the reason why my heart dropped because she is intelligent and very good at her job and I know that people (both in terms of colleagues and parents) will judge her on this work.

I guess I naively assumed that, as she was aware of the difficulty and had made sure we were all aware too, she would ask for assistance? Almost like she was preparing us in case she ever did need to ask?

I hate asking for help with spelling, I often much prefer to swap words with the same meaning, which for me is easy as i love to read.

I would personally have more of an issue with the fact that the student who wrote on all these cards had so much time to do so without anyone noticing, if it was a case of her having "taken it upon herself" to do so..I would probably feel more alarmed at the possibility that the child could just as easily have taken it upon themselves to do goodness knows what with a pair of scissors..but thats just my way of thinking, my mind tends to wander further and deeper into the initial issue raised..I realise this isn't your point but my concerns would go alot further should I be presented with such a situation as you describe..am open to the possibility that I've missed the point in all this and promise not to be offended if u correct me..:o

it wasnt a student, it was a TA!

My DD2 is in yr 4 and as I has said in another post tonight has SEN. I would not be happy with any work sent home solely completely by TA with or without spelling errors. Its pointless. There is no learning objective.

I teach kindergarten in an international school and have a TA and a matron ( her job is do my photocopying and stuff) in my class. I am constantly telling both of them to not do the students work for them. Both of the are a different nationality than me, one is local, the other is also foreign. Neither have particularly good English and it drives me insane when they spell the children's name wrong even. I believe work should be the students. Once an adult starts making changes to the work, it is not the child's anymore.

I would be pissed if my dd came home from this expensive private school, with errors on her work that were obviously not done by her. Hypothetic of course, I would never pay this kind if tuition for my child - I don't earn that much!

PS; This is not a rant about non English speaking / writing TA's / support staff, this is a rant about people doing things that are not their job, despite being asked not to, and getting it wrong, therefore making me look stupid!

So I think you ANBU. But obviously diplomacy and tact and needed when dealing with this situation.

Why do some people think it's ok just because it's a special school and the children are non-verbal. None verbal does NOT mean none-thinking.

There's a YouTube video out there of an autistic girl who cannot speak, cannot control her noises or body movements at all so if you saw her you'd think she wasn't aware. Well she is, and can type to communicate and is actually very clever.

TA by the way made a mistake, easy done and it's for the teacher to spot and correct. Or suggest that she checks with someone else the spellings of words before she writes on work in future.

my children both have autism. They have full time 1:1. If their list of spellings had an error on it and they were being taught the wrong spelling of a word, I would care.

If a card that they were gluing and glittering and painting all over and would present to me and promptly forget all about, had a spelling mistake on it - I would not care.

imo, there's a difference between being taught something that is wrong and colouring something in that has a spelling mistake on it.

That's got bog all to do with the fact that these particular children function at age 6-20 months.