"Limited Progress" in all subject areas. Where do we go from here?

[unlimiteddilutingjuice]

Just got back from DS's parents evening. He's 6 years old and in primary 2 in Gaelic medium education.
The news is not good.
He is at "Early Level" or "First Level" in everything and has made "Limited Progress" in everything except Health and Wellbeing and PE.
He is "Not yet on track" against national expectations.
In terms of academics I am most worried about his "Gaelic Listening and Talking" and his "Gaelic Reading and Writing" as these will obviously prevent him form accessing the rest of the curriculum if we don't get it sorted quickly. I'm considering a tutor to bring him along in these areas.
More worryingly his teacher reports difficulty in getting him to maintain attention and organise himself and she seems to feel that this might be at the heart of his problems.
He doesn't stay on task and frequently fails to finish his work in class. He also has trouble responding to simple instructions like "put on you coat and shoes" "get dressed for PE" etc. The whole class will be getting themselves changed and DS will have wandered off to the play corner and be messing around with toys.
It seems to be this wandering attention that is preventing him from learning.
I raised the possibility that he might have some kind of learning disabilty and, while she was proffessional enough to stress that she can't diagnose, she did also say that I might want to get it checked out with a GP.
I guess I'm looking for advice about how to handle this. Does anyone know how long it will take to get an assessment through CAMH? Would I be better seeking an assessment from a private Ed Psych and how would I go about this?

[SnailorSwift]

@unlimiteddilutingjuice when you say he was the same learning English do you mean slow to pick up on certain words, following longer instructions or something else?

Do you know what his phonemic awareness is like within English?

[unlimiteddilutingjuice]

SnailorSwift He seemed to understand what was said to him and could follow instructions. His problem was with talking.
For quite a long time he was speaking in two word sentances but singing whole songs. Then as he started talking in longer sentances he had a stutter. So I felt like that partially explained the delay.

[unlimiteddilutingjuice]

I don't think his phonemic awareness is great tbh. He had a rhyming assignments from school and wasn't good at it in English.

[LanaorAna2]

Long term, learning another language should speed up his skills, not slow them down. But give him time, it's a lot to take on single-handedly when there's no other input in his life except the classroom in which to try and get both Gaelic and what's being taught.

He might be overwhelmed and bored.

[Alfie190]

It is really really obvious what you need to do. Change schools and put him in one where he knows the language. Ffs. Why are you doing this to your child?

[BertrandRussell]

So if he has slight issues with language why on earth put him in an environement that practically sets him up to fail? In a class with no TAs to help him? Please move him.

[unlimiteddilutingjuice]

Because it seemed like he was over the difficulties by the time i was making the decision. The nursery actually had him in extension activities for kids who were good at talking.

[Holidayshopping]

So if he has slight issues with language why on earth put him in an environement that practically sets him up to fail? In a class with no TAs to help him? Please move him.

I agree. The early years should be enjoyable-learning through play. He is having to fight and struggle every step of the way. I would move him!

[unlimiteddilutingjuice]

OK so update:

I have set up a sticker chart and let DS pick out some special stickers. He gets a stcker for every night he concentrates on his homework properly with no complaining. And a small treat for every five stickers.
I have promised him free choice from the toy section of the big Tesco when he can recognise all the phonemes.

Yesterday was the first homework under the new bribery regime. It was some work he hadn't finished in class and a bit of phoneme practise. (theres more than that but i figured keep it small and manageable)

He still needed gently bringing back on task multiple times but there was none of the usual silliness (answering "poo-poo" to every question, refusing to even look at the sheet, flopping about in his chair, protracted crying when called on it etc)

I talked to him about the work in Gaelic and i discovered that he has quite a bit of vocabulary around shapes, colours, instructions like "how many" "coulour in" "draw a circle" etc. This seems a bit better than the school assessment which has him at "Early Level" which i understood to mean no language at all.

We did the Mh, Dh and Dh phonemes. He didn't seem to recognise the Mh one even though we've done it for the past few nights. But he was cooperative anyway which is something.

[Biologifemini]

It sounds pretty normal that he is struggling if it is his second language and you don’t speak this language at home.
I know people who sent their kids to a French school and the children struggled as it wasn’t spoken at home.

[NearWildHeaven]

I am not in Glasgow but where I live there is a Gaelic campus. I know of two people who transferred out of that school several years ago, partly I believe, because extra support was required.

I think you need to work out if this a Gaelic / 2nd language "give it time" thing or "my son needs extra support" where the school are suggesting that environment may not be best.

Good luck OP

[unlimiteddilutingjuice]

I think you need to work out if this a Gaelic / 2nd language "give it time" thing or "my son needs extra support" where the school are suggesting that environment may not be best.

Thanks NearWildHeaven. Thats it exactly.

Obviously I am considering that I might have to move him. But no, I'm not going to jump up and do it now, during the Christmas holidays, on the strength of a 10 minute conversation with his teacher.

I think its fair to spend some time working out how much Gaelic he actually knows and what might be causing the attention difficulties before making big decisions.

[whatswithtodaytoday]

Do you know anyone who speaks a reasonable amount of Gaelic and could chat with your child? You could get an idea of how much he knows and improve his language skills at the same time.

[grasspigeons]

I am not in anyway expert but we have a lot of children come to the school I do admin at, who have no English and don't speak English at home. They seem to be able to follow instructions quite well very early one even when they have really limited language just by following what others are doing and picking up essential key words.

[vinoandbrie]

You need to consider with utmost seriousness what you are hoping to achieve by educating him in this way.

I feel very sorry for him.

[pineapple95]

Oh my word. The story came out over time, didn't it?! Your son sounds like he's having difficulty because he can't understand the language.

He will pick it up, given time - all children who have to learn a second language do. It may be that he has difficulties as well as this, but it's hard to tell until he's older and has learned the language.

Get him a tutor / young chat and play person, and hope he'll catch up.

[Knitwit101]

My ds has adhd. Much more of the attention deficit than the hyperness. Yours sounds similar.

Gaelic medium education is not uncommon in Scotland. I would have sent my kids if it was a realistic option. Learning a second language is a great thing for a growing brain.

But I would consider whether problems with attention combined with immersion in a second language is maybe a bit too much. Or maybe he would have struggled anyway, my ds struggles in a similar way and he's only got one language.