What does 'emerging' actually mean?

[Dreaddy]

Got my son's end of year report today. He's working to 'expected' in most areas, 'exceeding' in maths, but 'emerging' in listening/attention/understanding, fine motor skills, self regulation, and writing. Had no idea he was struggling with writing or fine motor skills but fully aware of the attention issues. Wondering if I should be doing anything about it? He's suspected to have ADHD, but still very young. He's oldest in his class. Should I be doing more writing with him? I'm working on the focus/self regulation but think this will take lots of time/perseverance.

10 second google. Here you go. (Source https://www.explorelearning.co.uk/free-resources/how-to-read-school-reports-a-parent-survival-guide/#:~:text=Emerging–%20working%20below%20the%20expected,and%20going%20into%20greater%20depth.)

Yes I know what the word means. I don't know what the wider implications mean. Should I be doing more work with him? Do kids just catch up? Is it significant? Tick box exercise? Etc.

That tells you what it means in terms of school reports. Below expectations without meeting ‘some’ of the learner statements. So quite a way below expected.
It suggests intervention might be needed. Speak to the teacher.

You can certainly practice writing and fine motor skills with him and support him in self regulation.

It means he's below the expected level. Personally I would do fine motor and gross motor fun stuff: painting the fence with water, chalk drawing, making necklaces or bracelets with beads on strings etc. I'm not sure what you can do about the attention stuff specifically, but the more free play the better I would say.

If he is the eldest in the class and not attaining at the moment, particularly in fine motor skills, I would do more at home. Strengthen his grip with play doh, dough disco online, writing in sand, foam etc. build the muscles up in his shoulders and arms will help with pencil grip. Is he end of nursery or reception?
For writing, use a yellow highlighter, you draw lines and patterns and then letters/words, he writes over the top.

We already do lots of this kind of thing but I'll look to incorporate more.

Reception. He's very strong, very good at sports, does lots of clubs but nothing specifically fine motor. He really struggles with writing. I think it's linked to his very poor attention span. He won't sit for more than 5 mins and always wants to be running.

Plasticine is better than play dough. Playdough is too soft and easy.

Could he be dyspraxic too? DS has ASD and is dyspraxic and had poor fine motor skills. If he could be then I'd recommend learning the piano for fine motor skills and swimming lessons for both fine and gross motor skills, both were a huge help to ds although he uses a laptop at secondary school as his writing is quite poor.

He already does swimming and I can't afford piano lessons but I'll definitely be googling hobbies that help with fine motor skills.

Oh also is he sat right at the front of the class in front of the teacher? DS couldn't filter out distractions (common with ADHD too) and sitting in front of the teacher made a huge difference to him.

And definitely not dyspraxic. He really excels at parkour and football.

Rather than working on writing work on his fine motor skills. More fun, doesn't feel like schoolwork, and will improve his writing. Will help with concentration as well. Not sure how old he is but e.g. jigsaws, playing with lego, colouring in books, playmobil, model making kits, doing drawing and painting will all help develop the skills that will improve his writing. Depending how good his reading is one of those 'summer activity books' might be good.

Also, read lots together and get him reading (fun) books himself. So comics/graphic novels, fun fact books, joke books, etc. If he reads lots the quality of his writing will improve because he'll be learning about the structure of writing subconciously.

I have no idea!

For more specific advice, can you ask his teacher? Whilst there is a great deal of similarity between schools, they do all have ther own terms, so checking with the school is your best bet. Where I teach, the assessments are below, just below, on track or greater depth, for example.

Fine motor skills are needed before writing and there are plenty of things you can do at home to develop them. Play doh is great for strengthening little hands and anything that involves picking up small objects will develop co-ordination. Threading things like beads or buttons, posting uncooked spaghetti into a colander, weaving ribbon or shoelaces, pegboards or making collages with craft bits are fun activities he might enjoy.

It sounds like your DS is in reception, so may well catch up quite soon.

Thank you. I'm not worried about him being behind per say as he'd very young. I just remember feeling really dumb at school and falling behind. It wasn't until I went to uni that I realised I had ADHD and excelled with support.

Which should be zero surprise, he is a small boy.

Trampolines are good for development of many areas and releasing energy!

My son has ADHD (possibly undiagnosed ASD) and dyspraxia and was very similar in Reception. To be honest, school dented his confidence massively. I would work on writing or joining dots, those wipe clean books, colouring in pictures he likes eg. Paw patrol, spiderman etc (it's very easy to print anything he likes from Google). 10 mins in the morning and 10 mins in the afternoon. I was worried with my DS about 'putting him off' but I really wish I'd done more because he was very sensitive about not doing well in school. And in the end, that put him off more. Also chase a diagnosis as you can get extra time in exams which has helped my DS. He's just finished A levels, which definitely didn't come easy to him. He also learned the guitar which took him a lot longer than most but he loves it.

It's actually an issue, he won't walk anywhere. Always flipping, cartwheeling. When he was in hospital with an injury the doctor (family friend) commented that he'd never seen a 5yo with such a defined 6 pack ha! I love this about him and have no doubt he'll be good at sports but his focus issues are exhausting me (and probably his teachers!)

It's pretty common for boys to take longer than girls to develop fine motor skills. DD1 was writing age 3, DS did no markmaking until he was 4, luckily he was a September baby.

Is he left handed? It's not always linked but for boys the combination of late fine motor skills plus having to push a pencil is really hard. If he is always have the paper at an angle to he can write downhill which helps.

It's actually an issue, he won't walk anywhere. Always flipping, cartwheeling.

DS was like that at that age but was very well behaved in the classroom. Full of energy outside and at home.

That tells you what it means in terms of school reports. Below expectations without meeting ‘some’ of the learner statements. So quite a way below expected.
It suggests intervention might be needed. Speak to the teacher.

I actually think that depends on the school. We've just had DD's report and they only use "emerging" or "expected". So the developing category in the screenshot "working below expected level but has met some of the learner statements" isn't there. (It's a tick box, so you can see the other option, it's not just that those are the only two that DD received).
It's a bit annoying really - she's on expected for everything except writing, which is emerging. But because it's only a choice between the two, there's no more info about how far off the expected level she is.

My son is well behaved in that he's very polite/kind/helpful. Just doesn't sit still. Teacher's always mention that they have to ask him to slow down pretty much every day. He's fidgety. Has to be coaxed inside after break. Etc.

It just means that he’s not meeting the specific criteria to be at the expected standard . I used to teach year 1 and quite a few of them weren’t . They do a lot more writing after reception, so I wouldn’t worry too much at this point but maybe ask the teacher if there is anything you can do and what they will be putting in place. I have taught y2 too and there were a few there who weren’t at expected and with pencil grips , highlighted lines etc they soon caught up .