Worried after parents evening - sorry - longwinded!

[bubble30]

Hi

I went to parent's evening on Thursday evening. My son is in year 2 but he is in a mixed year 1 and year 2 class. Last year he finished year 1 with 1a for literacy and 1b for numeracy. When I went to the November 2011 and March 2012 parents evening when he was year 1, nothing negative was highlighted to me. In fact in the November 2011 parents evening, the teacher told me how pleased she was with my son. She thought initaially he had struggled with the transition from reception to year 1 due to the downgrade of the amount of toys laid out in the classroom. But she went on to say that something had clicked and he was getting on with his work and producing good work.
At his March 2012 parents evening, the teacher said that he was doing really well but was a bit shy and didn't put his hand up to answer questions but everytime she does ask him to answer question, he always knew the answer.
So going for his first year 2 parents evening I was expecting anything bad and I came out feeling shocked and upset and wondering where it's all gone wrong so quickly.........
the teacher asked me how I felt my son had settled in to year 2 and I think he's settled in well - always happy to go in to school and really likes his teacher. The teacher then went on to say that he has very poor concentration, is always switching off, he's constantly having to engage him and he is needing a lot of one to one support. He told me that my son struggles to understand what he needs to do and he is needing one to one to explain what to do. He also told me that of all the children in the class, my son is one of the few that the teaching staff have to keep a very close eye on to ensure he is being kept engaged, that he is listening and receiving explanations one to one to ensure he understands what he has to do. He told me that at the moment, the arrangement is that one of the support staff in the classroom always has an eye on my son to ensure he is paying attention. I know this is a good thing because it means the teacher has picked something up and is doing something about it to support my son.
The teacher went on to tell me that the classroom is laid out with 5 tables for literacy and numeracy. Table 1 has low ability activities on it and table 5 has high ability activities on it. The teacher told me that when my son doesn't understand what to do, he goes to work at table 1 but when he understands he will go to table 4 to work and then produces really good work on his own. But the teacher did say that because my son has problems understanding things he does need support quite a lot to help him complete the work.
Besides that nothing else was really said. I came out feeling heartbroken and to be honest I can't understand why he is suddenly having problems when he didn't have these problems in year 1. The teacher predicts he'll get 2c for literacy and numeracy at the end of the year.
I'm just wondering what other people's opinions would be as to what to do next. The teacher seemed to stress the point that my son has a real problem concentrating and switches off most of the time and he'll be keeping his eye on the situation. He wondered if I had problems with him at home and I said that I don't and he replied that he wasn't surprised at that because when my son has one to one, he works really well.
I'm feeling totally confused, reeling, upset and worried as hell. I can't get my head round how he could do so well in year 1, both parents evenings were good in year 1, a really good end of year 1 report and then suddenly to this?
I would appreciate any advice or anybody who's been in similar situation and what they did. Sorry for such a long post xxx

[IndigoBelle]

My DD had huge problems, a lot of which you've described, and what I've done is heaps and heaps and heaps.

Diet and supplements have had a huge effect on her.

The first things to try are cutting out sugar, artificial sweeteners and E-nums, and adding in Omega Oil.

However that wasn't enough for DD. We also had to cut out dairy and gluten and made sure she had protein every meal (especially breakfast!)

We also had to give her Magnesium and Zinc and mega doses of B12 and Folate.

It's taken me a few years (and a lot of money) to get her diet and supplements right, but it is certainly a good place for you to start.

If you do trial diet and supplements for your DS I recommend creating a simple tick chart for your teacher to fill out, which says how he is each lesson - otherwise it's very hard for you to tell if the changes you are making are helping.

Also, these things can take a while, if you cut out food it doesn't instantly leave the system. In fact it takes months for gluten and dairy peptides to leave. So don't necessarily expect instant results.

[crazygracieuk]

Has he had a hearing or sight test recently?

[IndigoBelle]

Crazy is right that glue ear is something that can come and go and would explain why he was fine last year and not this.

Vision problems don't come and go, and so wouldn't really explain the mismatch in attention between last year and this year - unless his seating position has changed so that last year he could see the whiteboard and this year he can't.

However if his hearing was that bad to cause the problems he is having at school, I think you'd be able to notice it at home as well......

[incywincyspideragain]

you won't necessarily notice hearing difficulty at home - ds1 had glue ear, hearing level of 50db and high frequency loss - not noticed at home but huge huge problems at School with back ground noise.

Worth ruling out physical difficulties as other have said, seating position is also critical for hearing, we find KS1 instructions are predominetly verbal