Structured govt. recommended reading intervention. v. reading with TA. opinions?

[supermum98]

I'm really disappointed because the school have said they won't be doing an intervention with my ds. for his reading. eg. Hi 5, 'catch-up reading' based on reading recovery. His reading age is 3 years or more behind his chronological age. He has time on his timetable for literacy intervention and it seems that all he will be doing is reading with his TA. It's never clear how much better the TA will be at doing this over and above a mum off the street. He is in year 8 by the way. Most interventions are structured in a way, as I see it such that after training the TA, the structure negates the need to have a qualified teacher to do the job, but I think will get better results than someone just sitting down and reading with him. They use research based strategies and have a system for monitoring outcomes. The Senco says they are happy with what they are doing and he is doing well (no recent assessment of his reading age). IEP was a tick box exercise, which I wasn't involved with. Can anyone help me with making a case? Do you agree that a researched and recognised scheme backed by the government will get better results that simply sitting down and reading with the TA?

My DD has had far better results reading to a TA 1:1 each day than doing a structured program for 3 years - so it can work.

Whether or not it will is of course impossible to predict.

What was the structured program he was meant to be doing?
What other reading interventions has he been on over the last 8 years?
What training has his TA had?

What year is he in?
Can he read?

It depends on the TA, when I worked in schools I was trained in ALS and ELS and worked with small groups or individuals daily to improve their reading. It did work.

I also experienced working with children who did reading recovery and that worked too.

I couldn't possibly say which was most effective but if the TA is well trained and well motivated and understands your DS he or she could help to improve his reading/other literacy skills.

Why don't you ask them to set a time limit and if no progress has been made then try something else, that way you will know that they won't just carry on regardless of whether it is working or not.

Good luck.