Insight on My Kg's Progress in School

This is actually extremely common, and it's great that your school has the resources to offer this. My SIL is an SLP (Speech-Language Pathologist) at a nearby district. She is the only one at her school. She works with many kids who have been tested and now have an IEP (Individualized Education Program). She does have time to work with some kindergartners who just need to work on a few sounds, but not much. She has many kids she is required to work with because of their IEP and doesn't have much time left over.

My oldest is in 4th grade and doing great. When he was in kindergarten, he was pulled out to work on some sounds. Can't remember which ones, but I do believe he worked on the "th" sound, as he often pronounced it as an "f." I don't remember him being pulled out beyond kindergarten, but I know he hasn't had speech for at least 3 years.

My youngest has been in speech through the school since he was 3. I requested that he be tested, and he has had an IEP from the start. His IEP requires that he receive a certain number of minutes each week, and outlines very specifically the areas where he struggles and what he will be working on in the short-term. We have an IEP meeting at least once a year to discuss his progress. When he was in kindergarten he had further testing and now has an IEP for other reasons as well, but even when it was just speech we had a meeting once a year.

Feel free to simply contact your son's teacher and whether or not he is still being pulled out for speech. If you feel he is making improvements, great. If you don't of if the teacher doesn't, feel free to ask for further testing. Nothing wrong with him having a speech evaluation. If it is determined he should be receiving speech services, he will receive an IEP. No reason to be alarmed. It's just a way to put in writing what it is that he needs, and it protects you. If your son has an IEP, the school is required by law to follow it. So you know he will receive the services he needs. An IEP does not have to be there forever. If he improves and no longer receives services, then he will no longer need the IEP. But this would be addressed at the IEP Meeting.

Don't be afraid to contact your son's teacher and ask these questions. If your teacher cannot give you answers about speech (and keep in mind, many cannot. It's not their area of expertise), feel free to make an appointment to meet with the speech teacher (SLP). There's no reason you shouldn't be able to meet with someone so that you can learn more about how your son is doing.

ETA - I'm not sure what an intervention team is, but when we have an IEP Meeting, it includes a team - classroom teacher, speech teacher, principal, social worker, resource teacher, I'm drawing a blank on who else has been there :-). I'm guessing that the intervention team are the individuals who specialize in various areas of special ed, would do any requested evaluation, etc. The individuals out our meetings also meet to discuss students who are having trouble to help teachers, suggest strategies for teacher who have a child who is struggling (with academics or behavior) and possibly suggest to parents that testing be done.

Edited to add: My youngest also had some speech issues. He never qualified for services in this area as they were seen has age-appropriate. One was with the "r" sound which in Massachusetts, people just drop anyway so it wasn't noticed until I pointed out that we don't speak with a MA accent at home. Anyway...he grew out of it by 3rd grade. I kind of miss his cute, sloppy pronunciation!

Original: Your school system is doing a great job - this is EXACTLY what you want to see! This model, in my district, is called Response to Intervention or RTI. Students are assessed periodically throughout the year and if a student is falling behind his or her peers in a certain area, they introduce additional support immediately rather than wait for expensive and time-consuming testing, meetings to put together a plan, etc. After a period of weeks (usually 6 to 8) they reassess and see if the student needs to continue receiving intervention or if she or he has caught up. If intervention needs to continue, it will. If the student is doing fine, it will stop. It can re-start again if needed. Intervention services don't indicate that a student has a learning disability or reflect on intelligence. Kids in grades K-3 develop at very different paces - some might be strong on number skills but behind in language. A student might be ahead in reading at the beginning of the year but fall behind in the middle and surge ahead again a few months later. The RTI model seeks to offer quick support to get kids over a specific hump so that they don't fall really far behind. It can be very successful for students and can cut down on the need to provide more intensive disability services (but is not a substitute for those services when they are needed).

My oldest son could have benefited from this but the model wasn't in place when he was in elementary school. Back then, they could really only offer extra help if a child was on an IEP. My son was tested in first grade and didn't qualify, then re-tested in 4th grade and qualified for an IEP. In the meantime, any extra help that he got was done sort of "on the side" in that if there was a helper in the room doing small group work with kids on IEPs, they would have him join.

My youngest son, however, has been a part of this model and it's great. He has always struggled a bit in reading but not to the extent that would qualify him as learning disabled and in need of services. Every year though, there will be one or two parts of the year where he'll get extra help for 6-8 weeks and then he'll be caught back up with the rest of the class. He just needs a bit more time and attention to move from one set of expectations to the next in reading and writing.

An educational evaluation could be appropriate later if he is really struggling in school but for now, it sounds like he's doing well and that his teacher and the intervention team are doing what's best for him and meeting his needs.

It sounds to me like your son is progressing really well. There aren't any implications from being in the intervention programs at our school - it simply means your child need some extra help. Most kids eventually stop needing it, as the whole purpose of the program is to catch them up to their peers.

Our school does small assessments on all the kids several times throughout the year to test their reading skills. These start with letter recognition, then letter sounds, identifying the first sound in a word, the last sound in a word, sounding out words, and eventually reading. The children in the intervention program go through the same assessment process, and when they are on par with the rest of the class, they usually stop getting extra help.

I think you made the right choice in sending your son to kindergarten. He is physically and socially where he needs to be. Academically, it sounds like he is on a great pace and will be ready for first grade in the fall.

I have a kindergartener, too, so I have seen what they're learning throughout the year. I also see the wide range within the kids - some are still working on letter sounds and sounding out words while others can read quite well (and everything in between).

Completely agree with what J.B. wrote.

Our schools also have RTI for kids that are falling behind or just need that extra boost. Some kids eventually test out of it, and some continue as needed or until it is determined another intervention (services) is needed.

One of my friends had her son remain in the RTI services even when he no longer qualified to need them, but he grew attached to that teacher (we call them resource teacher) and the family was going through a very messy divorce so they kept him in.

If you have not already, request an evaluation from a speech therapist IN WRITING for your son.

It's also a good idea to try to keep any correspondence, especially for special services, with the school in writing.

This school report sounds very encouraging. There is way too much emphasis on academic skills in the early grades. He's improving, he's socially adept, his behavior is fine.

The intervention team is there to ward off problems later on. Be happy that it's happening now. If he goes for a few more months or even all of this year and next, that's a good thing!

If I were you, I would try to relax, and just get updates in the conferences. If you get to the end of the year without another conference, I'd set one up before your son leaves this teacher.

This is a good thing and I encourage you to advocate for him - he should keep going to speech services until he can pronounce all his sounds properly.

I am not trying to worry you - this is really really common and many kids have trouble with certain sounds. And this is absolutely NOT a reflection on his intelligence or academics. One of my son's best friends is in 5th grade and still needs to go to speech intervention for certain sounds BUT he is also in the school gifted program and gets all As!

So yes, get him the help he needs to get his speech on track, but do not confuse the speech issue with his academic progress. They are totally separate.

I'm glad that his academic progress has been great!

If I understand correctly, your son has been taken out with a group of children to master some grade-level pre-reading and reading skills. Now that he has caught up to grade level, the intervention group might not be the best place for him, as he can learn with his peers in the classroom.

Now the articulation of certain speech sounds is a different set of skills. I would request in writing that the speech language pathologist visit the classroom and observe his skills. She might even have a conversation with him to observe more. At this grade level, most SLP services for articulation are given to children whose pronunciation impedes conversation. And some sounds continue to become more precise over the next two years. So while it is entirely possible the SLP will say that his articulation skills are age-appropriate, I still love the idea of having this professional check-in with him. If the SLP has concerns, then formal evaluation is available in the school system.

Our school has all sorts of programs going on that different kids get pulled out of class for...it is to help them in smaller groups and help improve one specific issue at a time.

This year my 4th grade daughter was being pulled out for a math group and she was worried that she was behind. I emailed her teacher to let her know my daughter was worried and to ask if I could help her at home. It turns out that there are three "levels" of students in each class those above expected, expected and below expected (they don't use the word average anymore.) Anyways, my daughter and three other students were almost in the above expected group and they were being helped to move up a level to being in the highest group.

IEPs are only for students who have been diagnosed with a specific learning issue and they make a plan to follow to help them.

Sounds like you have a great school that helps everyone get help where they need it. It doesn't sound like your child needs testing for an issue just a little extra help. If he is way way behind or has discipline issues then he might need some testing. But i all sounds like it is going well.

I agree. Intervention in kindergarten is just to help those kids who need a bit more additional help. Such a wide range in their abilities at that age. It helps them all be somewhere around the same level (although it's typical to still have some gaps) by the time they enter first grade.

I think it's great they have an intervention team. Not all schools do.

When my oldest child was little, parents would volunteer to go in and help kids with their reading. It was just some one on one time. The teacher would prep the volunteer parents, and they knew what to focus on.

Your son sounds like he is progressing well - that's awesome. I have some late birthday kids and they did just fine. You can always help at home too should you need to. I guess that's where I might contact the school, or speak to the intervention team directly, to find out what I as a parent could do to support his school learning.

have you asked the school or his teacher what their purpose of the intervention team is. and what if any testing is done? and ask how it will impact the child later on.

I recommend you buy the book "How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". The book tells you exactly what to say to your child and I bet your child will be a fluent reader in no time at all. It's an amazing book that teaches phonetics. My daughter could read any easy reader book at age 4 thanks to this book.