Finding out I think my child has a LD
Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 8:22 am
We have a daughter, who in so many ways is a great young lady. She loves the Lord. She is co-captain of her high school track team, she is one of the better track athletes in the state. Because of that fact she has many colleges calling to see if she is interested in running for them. She, however stinks at taking tests. She is really bad at math. As long as you are sitting with her she can do the math, she gets it, but she does not retain it. She is a good writer, scored in the 75th %tile in reading on the ACT, but her math was very, very, low. She is also a self taught artist. She wins awards for her drawings. It really upsets me that just because of this one subject it seems as though she will be held back from everything she is good at. The "thing" is too is that she has above average abilities in reading, writing, athletics and art, and none of that seems to matter. She is also personable, you would have to be in order to be voted co-captain of your public high school team. She is a senior, and college is looking to be out of the question. Math seems to be the new "most important subject." The thing that gets me is that it is algebra and higher level math. Although I am not against learning the higher "maths", I still think that maybe business math, and real world math would be a lot more important. Obviously in our country knowing algebra and geometry has not helped us in our staying out of incredible debt. Any suggestions? She has done the required math, and has four sciences, four english, two years Italian. She teaches children with disabilities to ride horses. In short, she has much going for her, just not math. The public school around here is not good, and we could never afford a math tutor, so we just plugged along. Some people are saying that maybe I should have her coded, at the public school, so that she can get a longer time on timed tests etc. It is a little late for that I think. Also we know many of her public schooled friends were pushed along in math, and do not know much but were given the grades anyway. I won't do that with her, she gets c's in math....with a lot of work. Thanks especially to anyone who has been through this and knows what it feels like for your kid to think that they are "dumb" just because of a weakness in one area. It is amazing to me that they do not make the "math whiz" prove how well they can write, or how well they can run a hundred yard dash...or if they can even get along with others. Anyone else encounter this? Thanks so much LL