Thursday, November 24, 2011

So what do you get when...

so what do you get when you cross a TBI survivor student, his high school teachers and the orginal psych evaluation from 2009?!

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

yep, seriously. nothing except an extremely frustrated and pissed off mama! 

Sam is falling in the 'normal/average' range for most of his evaluation, but in one area he is actually below average AND that is BELOW where he was 2 years ago! It is in the math skills -- which is his organization and problem solving skills. hmmmmm kind of what we have been telling the school since .... 

ummmm.... 

I dont know DAY FREAKIN ONE!

 We have been telling them that AND giving THEM the information to help him with this. We have emphasized (or I thot we had) that Sam needs to learn this NOW or he never will. Sam has an iPod and an organizer to use and we just asked that the teachers help with reminding him to use them. Once it gets into his long term memory it will STAY THERE!  sigh I am so frustrated!   So basically if Sam had been helped with these skills up until April 2011, they would have been in his long term memory and he would not be where he is now!

We knew what they were telling us (meaning it was not a surprise since Dennis and I see it here at home) but we were hoping for at least an IMPROVEMENT not a backward step! Whatever happened to the saying of 'no child left behind'? I am not naive to think either that my son is the centre of the teacher world, but when a parent GIVES you information and is working WITH you to help THEIR child... wouldnt you at least TRY to work with them!? Then teachers paint your kid with the "they just dont seem to care" brush! No kidding-- cuz at this point he is starting to not care after 3 years of this from teachers! He started out with a "lets get movin and work" attitude and he does every year when he starts school, then he starts to pick up on the feelings and ACTIONS of teachers. SO he starts to quit and give up! This is TYPICAL teen behaviour BUT is enhanced or aggravated by the fact that there is:
1.) 3 fragments of  bullet in his head
2.) seizures
3.) seizure medications

Initially, when E(psych student) and Dr. D(psych) told us the results my first reaction was "So I basically have wasted the last 3 years of my time looking for the info to help the teachers with their freakin' job!" I know it is a totally selfish thing to think but there you have it!  Why did I bother spending all that time looking for, printing, getting to the teachers if they were not going to use any of it anyway!? 

Like I said to my gf Marianne -- it was yet another 2x4 to the head in the dark...


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sending a huge hug to you both. Frustration runs amok! How hard it is to just keep moving forward, isn't it. Schools can be so frustrating. I don't know how to reach these people. We have a person at the Brain Injury Association and the Epilepsy Foundation who works with the school staff to be an advocate and educate them. Do you have such a thing or person you can turn to? After you shred all of the work of the past three years, of course in madness. Glad you can write and get all of this out. Put some ice on that hit on your head, and hang in here, Mama. P.S. I would be pissed to.