Sorry for rather meandering title!
My DS is 5.6 and in Reception. He has fitted in well, lots of friends, popular etc. However, since his second day in this school I have been told he has SEN. It started when they asked me if his hearing was OK on day 2. I was a little surprised and confirmed it was fine and asked why they were concerned. They said he sometimes didn't appear to follow an instruction properly and would I get it checked out. I did - he was fine.
Next they asked me to get his sight checked 'just in case.' I did. He was fine.
And then I had a meeting with the teacher and she said she had 'concerns' as he wasn't too interested in reading and was struggling to 'blend' words and she wanted to place him on the SEN register. I agreed to this as was told he would receive lots of one to one support. Which he did.
Next up - she tells me she is concerned about his speech and comprehension and they wanted to place him on School Action Plus and refer him to a speech therapist. I agreed although I laughed and said the reason he said 'pwease' as opposed to 'please' was because he was 5 and he would grow out of it [ which he certainly did so, just a fortnight later. ] We went to the appointment and as I predicted, he was completely within the normal range with a good vocabulary and good understanding. The teacher was taken aback when I told her he was just fine and there would be no follow up appointment.
So, I have had his sight, hearing and speech checked. Normal. He is on school action plus still and I am told he still struggles to blend words and read. His maths/science/logic etc is very good and he is above average in these 'topics' - he has a wide vocabulary, he speaks perfectly normally, he can tell you all about what he has done/is looking forward to doing and he has lots of interests in general. There are no concerns about his behaviour.
My take is that he is 5, in Reception and yes, of COURSE he will become bored or distracted when being made to read. He doesn't want to read and yes, he struggles with it. He wants to be building a rocket or running outside. Does this automatically mean he has SEN? My gut feeling is NO...and I KNOW instinctively that he doesn't. My view is quite simple... he has to learn to read so he needs encouragement and a boot up the arse more than likely - and, given time, he will get there.
They won't take him off the register and I am getting fed up with being taken to one side around 3 times a week after school for ' a quick word ' in which they tell me he couldn't blend the word 'fizz' or ' are you actually reading with him every night because you haven't completed the book ? ' and so on and so forth. I can feel myself becoming exasperated with the whole thing and sooner or later, DS will notice that he is being treated differently.
I suppose it could sound like I'm in denial but I'm pretty sure I'm not.
So - WWYD? Insist he is taken off the register? Keep going along with these daft requests for hearing tests and speech therapy appointments?
Thank you for reading.