Back-story:
When my son was about one and a half he suddenly stopped talking and no longer looked at people in the face. Soon after that he began exhibiting odd behaviors. He would walk in a circle around the playground for an hour rather than actually play with any of the people or equipment and would stop and start screaming if anything blocked his track even for a moment. He would turn a toy upside down and spin a single wheel for hours. He would hit his head repeatedly on the ground or a wall in a daze unless someone intervened. When we went for help we were told that he had autism and that, while therapy could be extremely effective in very young children, it was very possible he would never regain his speech or even be capable of meaningful social interaction in general.
We were blessed with wonderful social workers and slowly over the next two years our son did respond and begin to re-engage with the rest of the world. We now have a wonderful, loving, empathetic, somewhat OCD seven year old boy who loves the Lord and helps bring a very original perspective to our lives. And we are thankful to God who gives all these good things!
This last year:
Last year my son finished kindergarten and we were told he was dyslexic and disgraphic would not be able to read or write with a any real utility, but that's ok because the school system would let him do his course work and test orally from here on out.
After praying about the situation my wife and I decided to home-school our son for first grade. The offer for such huge modification by the school system was kind, but we felt strongly that life after school would probably not be so kind and we ought to do our best to help him cope with it and learn to get along in a reading world.
To catch up from being completely illiterate and unable to even identify all the letters of the alphabet we really hyper focused on reading to the exclusion of almost every other subject. It's been a tough year with a lot of tears but the Lord gave hope enough for each quarter to get us through. Finally, early this semester, something clicked and he surged ahead. We were able to belatedly introduce some mathematics while still maintaining a focus on catching up in reading.
Yesterday:
As per the law in our state, my son took his end of year placement test yesterday.....we were all a little nervous and emotional about it. The proctoring teacher called us in to give the results annnnnnnd he passed the exit reading and comprehension exam for 2nd grade easily and scored a 93% on the math section! She also said that he exhibited extraordinary reasoning and problems-solving for his age
Not only did he score well, but God used the test results to give him back the academic confidence that was shattered during the last year!
God has brought our boy a long way and days like this make me feel so blessed I could burst.
Thanks for sharing the joy.
When my son was about one and a half he suddenly stopped talking and no longer looked at people in the face. Soon after that he began exhibiting odd behaviors. He would walk in a circle around the playground for an hour rather than actually play with any of the people or equipment and would stop and start screaming if anything blocked his track even for a moment. He would turn a toy upside down and spin a single wheel for hours. He would hit his head repeatedly on the ground or a wall in a daze unless someone intervened. When we went for help we were told that he had autism and that, while therapy could be extremely effective in very young children, it was very possible he would never regain his speech or even be capable of meaningful social interaction in general.
We were blessed with wonderful social workers and slowly over the next two years our son did respond and begin to re-engage with the rest of the world. We now have a wonderful, loving, empathetic, somewhat OCD seven year old boy who loves the Lord and helps bring a very original perspective to our lives. And we are thankful to God who gives all these good things!
This last year:
Last year my son finished kindergarten and we were told he was dyslexic and disgraphic would not be able to read or write with a any real utility, but that's ok because the school system would let him do his course work and test orally from here on out.
After praying about the situation my wife and I decided to home-school our son for first grade. The offer for such huge modification by the school system was kind, but we felt strongly that life after school would probably not be so kind and we ought to do our best to help him cope with it and learn to get along in a reading world.
To catch up from being completely illiterate and unable to even identify all the letters of the alphabet we really hyper focused on reading to the exclusion of almost every other subject. It's been a tough year with a lot of tears but the Lord gave hope enough for each quarter to get us through. Finally, early this semester, something clicked and he surged ahead. We were able to belatedly introduce some mathematics while still maintaining a focus on catching up in reading.
Yesterday:
As per the law in our state, my son took his end of year placement test yesterday.....we were all a little nervous and emotional about it. The proctoring teacher called us in to give the results annnnnnnd he passed the exit reading and comprehension exam for 2nd grade easily and scored a 93% on the math section! She also said that he exhibited extraordinary reasoning and problems-solving for his age
Not only did he score well, but God used the test results to give him back the academic confidence that was shattered during the last year!
God has brought our boy a long way and days like this make me feel so blessed I could burst.
Thanks for sharing the joy.
