Hard evidence...

OK, for all the sceptics out there, Jake brought home his test book for signing yesterday and I took some photos of his work to share with you.  Unfortunately I don't get to see his classwork/story books too often, but they're even worse than the test book and more shocking to see how little work he was managing to complete in class.

I only took pictures from the more recent tests, but you'll get the idea.  His work was untidy, dark and very uneven...    

  Sentences blurred into one word...

 Rubbing out the hard-pressed words was difficult and his work ended up very untidy and full of mistakes...

 

 His teacher has always been encouraging and he gets a sticker and a comment, no matter what he hands in (in his test book, that is).  The ones marked in green are assessment tests, so count towards his quarterly marks...

 The first list of words (1-10) are the words we've practised at home each week.  The second set (11-20) are revision words from previous tests.  Besides struggling with neatness and spelling, he also seemed unable to judge the amount of space available to him at the end of each line and instead of going onto the next line, he was either squashing the word in, or letting the words spill over onto the next page.  This was the last test he did without the Ritalin...

 It also appears that Jake wasn't reading through his work once he was finished, to check his spelling.  Or perhaps he was and just wasn't noticing his mistakes, some of them very silly...

Bring on the Ritalin and this is the test he did on just the second day!  With only 5mg (we moved up to 10mg on Saturday, so will see even more change)! He's managed to get his letter sizing right, his words better formed and properly spaced...

 This is last week's test (brought home yesterday) and it's even better.  He only got 3 mistakes (4 if you count the date)...

 Just look!  It looks like another child's book...

 OK, granted it's still not perfect and there's room for improvement and I'm sure it's not the neatest book in the class, but you have to admit, it's a heck of a lot better than 2 weeks earlier!

So, I rest my case.  My heart is happy and I know that I've made the right decision for Jake.  Ritalin does work!!

Well done Jake, I am so, so, SO proud of you!  You are so smart and I knew you could do it!  I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to make this life-change decision for you, I hope that it's all plain sailing for you from here onwards.  I get goosebumps when I look at your amazing work.  Keep up the amazing work, my sweet child.  I love you with all my heart!

As a parent, especially with your first child (or only child), it's difficult to know what the standard is within the class.  To know what is expected of them.  How much time does one allow for a homework exercise to be completed?  It's not easy to know when your child is not accomplishing what they should be; to know when they're not coping.  OK, it was easy to see that Jake wasn't neat, but as long as we could make out what he was writing, I thought everything was OK.  It's only now that I see these changes in his writing and know that he's managing to finish his work in class in time, that I'm aware of how tough it's been for him. 

I am blessed that Jake's teacher has more experience than I do and that she was able to point out the warning signs for me. I'm so glad that this was picked up and that I've been able to do something about it and help Jake to enjoy school more.  I am so blessed that the school has a remedial programme (with the most wonderful remedial teacher) to help Jake catch up to his friends again.  And I am blessed & most fortunate to have been able to help him.

Sue X

PS.  Can you even begin to imagine how frustrated he was??????