Hello,
My son (age 7, year 2) has a slight lisp and his school teacher has helped me to get some support for him with this by filling out a form for the local NHS Speech Therapy department. On the form it asks how he is developing educationally and she has responded that he is doing quite well and is 'just above average' in English and Maths. She has also noted that he is an anxious child and that he feels that he needs to be perfect in all things.
I am surprised by my own reaction to these statements. I agree that he is an anxious child in some ways, he does cry easily and can be very negative and despondent when things don't go his way. He is very emotional and frequently gets stressed by things like spelling tests at school, despite reassurances from us that it's okay if you get things wrong as long as you try hard. Conversely he is also capable of amazing happiness over the tiniest things and is generally a confident, happy and contented boy, delightfully grateful for kindnesses shown to him, empathetic to others and with many friends.
However if I am honest I am disappointed that he is only 'just above average' within his class! He is a very bright boy, although his interests are very specific and it can be hard to engage him on topics out of his field of enthusiasm. We encourage and praise him but don't push or pressurise him academically at home because he does try quite hard and is very self critical and can react badly to suggestions that he needs to improve aspects of his work (we tried to get him to practice handwriting for example after the last parents evening). But if I feel that he could be doing better should I try to push him harder? Or would that just make things more stressful for him? Do you have experience of making learning more fun for your child? Any tips? We do take him on educational trips, theatre, National Trust houses and on woodland walks which he loves and we talk to him all the time.
All ideas and opinions welcomed. Thank you.