This is in relation to my dneice, aged 10, in year 6. I am, and have been, very involved with her educational progress for some years at her parents’ request.
For background, she was slow to read and had/has real trouble describing what she has been reading about. This has continue even since she became a more fluent reader. She struggles hugely with staying focussed. Her spelling is very poor. Her maths is below average and she has had a LOT of additional help at school (and with literacy). She talks incessantly, needs to be centre of attention and struggles with friendships a lot. Never gets invited for play dates or parties and hangs around on the edge of groups at school.
In the past she was very prone to impulsive behaviour and did some very naughty things such as throwing someone’s wallet away and hiding car keys for hours. This seems a bit better. She would NEVEr admit to these crimes even when there was direct evidence.
She has recently been assessed again( was borderline dyslexic at age 7) and yesterday I was shown the draft report. I have to say that I felt it was a highly accurate picture of her. Her parents somewhat disagree which is understandable. They essentially wanted a diagnosis to qualify for additional time in her SATs. They honestly struggle to see many of her other issues and, for example, blame the friendship issues on the other girls’ all being mean...
Here are some of the key findings:
A lovely child who speaks all the time and appears very anxious.
Scored well in terms of vocabulary and described as having an adult turn of phrase.
Scored very poorly in non verbal reasoning.
Showed little insight into text she had read, couldn’t describe the book she was reading although she says she loves reading.
Spelling poor. When observed in class doing some unsupervised work she wandered around, chatted, fiddled and wrote three lines in 40 minutes.
Was very confrontational at times, seeming to put other children off.
Was described as falling into the dyslexic category.
Was described as a ‘spikey’ Profile that teachers would need to carefully consider regarding teaching methods.
So, and sorry this is long, what, in reality does all this add up to? She clearly struggles with most aspects of school but tries very hard. She really is a tricky child in some ways...I love her dearly but she can be extremely awkward. Her parents are tending to minimise a lot of this and think she’s misunderstood. They are obviously following it up with meetings and advice on supporting her. I’m keen to work on social skills with her as she goes to secondary school soon and it’s a golden chance to make some friends ( her dm feels it will happen without further support 
) ).
Finally, her mother is from a culture where loud and assertive behaviour is the norm which makes some of her traits slightly more normal to them. She is also quite dyslexic. They are time poor and prefer lots of experiences to doing school type work at home. All fine but one day a week I am tasked with helping with all of this and am a bit overwhelmed. It’s like they pushed for this report and now they don’t want the contents other than the dyslexic label.
Phew. Sorry that’s so long but I don’t want to drip feed. Any thoughts on this complicated little girl whom I love very dearly?