Have his eyes checked too.

Some little boys are simply not ready for school. Is she one of the younger ones in the class? Is spelling his only problem? If he is up to par with the rest of his class in reading, I would hesitate to allow him to be placed in special ed just because of spelling.

There are a good many workbooks that you could use at home to help him figure out spelling.

Have him also evaluated for dyslexia.

I also have a first grade son who is "not quite" there. Luckily, our area elementary school is very accepting. He has sensory integration dysfunction, speech problems, and exophoria, which is trouble tracking across a page. Just a regular eye exam won't pick it up - he as 20/20 vision. We took him to a large university's pediatric eye clinic for evaluation & they found the problem.

All of his disabilities are very mild. He functions fine, loves school, plays with other kids - you'd never know he has disabilities. It could be the same with your son. Do some reasearh on the Web, talk to the pediatriation, and follow your instincts. You know him best.

I also question SPELLING TESTS in first grade - good lord, what is this teacher thinking? My DS' teacher is ENCOURAGING phonetic spelling (spell it like it sounds) because it facilitates learnig to read. Our school doesn't have spelling tests until 3rd grade - spelling tests measure a kid's ability to memorize and spit back out a sequence of letters, which is NOT a measure of their ability to read!!!!

The ldonline site has all kinds of information. They have a section on learning issues/disabilities basics that they call 'abc's of'... Their 'ldindepth' section has links to all kinds of more specific information including assessments and how to interpret scores.

The first thing to know is that _if_ there is a possibility or probability of a problem, the way for your child to get fast access to needed resources is to get them the assessments and/or diagnoses to which they are entitled so that they get those (they have rights to education, but that won't help them if they also require supports to get that). Early is better than later for this kind of thing because it's easier to start off stronger than to play catch-up later.

Second, read up on all the relevant information. Your son has a right to an education, and to assessments and supports which may be needed by him in order to experience more successful learning.

Third, one thing you can do initially pretty much is check out different learning styles and see which ways seem to work best for your son. That can help in the interim to find an effective method of studying for tests or quizes, or just to retain information he wants to retain. Experiment, and have fun with this. Everyone sort of eventually finds a method they can use well, especially people who've done well in school. Rote memorizing works for some, re-reading, saying out loud and repeating, writing and re-writing, flashcards, making up rhymes and things, studying while also dancing or moving or listening to music, and all other kinds of things. A tactile spelling trick can be to have a sand box to spell in. Using hearing, and helping with dyslexia can and should involve phonics. Visually of course the text appears. Try out different things as they come to you, and you work with your son.

It's probably rough to work hard and to _try_ and to want to succeed and only get a couple words correct on a spelling test. You can ask the teacher what the class average was, and high scores and things like that; but it still is probably hard for your son to feel like he tried as hard as he could and could only get a couple words correct. (Look at the tests to see if you can assess his errors. Were they 'little' or minor spelling errors but the reader could tell he was close? Were there errors that seemed to defy all logic applied? How is the writing? (Is it consistent in style and letter formation, even if there are errors; or, do the letters seem to have different sizes and shapes and perspectives relative to each other?) These kinds of things can give you clues about what, if anything may be a contributing problem area for him. You can also ask the teacher outright, why, exactly do they feel your son may have a learning disability. And, given that they already shared that particular feeling, is there any particular disability they feel he may have (and if so, why). Take notes, so you can have a record. If taking notes is not going to work for you, you can also ask if the teacher would mind being recorded or if they could provide you written information so that you can have a record of this information.

This page address is from the ldonline site and has their assessment-related links. (The link 'understanding tests and measurements for parents and advocates' is the one which goes into detail about how the different tests work and what the score numbers mean.)
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/assessment/assessment.html

This page address has a lot of information about learning styles and differences. They have interactive ways to find out which strengths a person has and tips on how to work with those strengths.
http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm

get his hearing checked... people can have conventional hearing problems, they can also have auditory processing problems which affect how their brain processes what is technically heard by the hearing system (he can have 'normal' hearing, but still have problems as though he could not hear); also, with dyslexia people can have problems that look like hearing problems (they don't 'hear' or register phonemes, 'phonics' as a method of learning can sometimes help draw their attention to the smaller bits of words and sounds that make up words.... most people just have a brain-space that takes up that info as if on autopilot)

P.S. It can be helpful when you look into getting assessments to make up a big notebook of his medical history (from your pregnancy experiences, his birth, and beyond... plus family history including any known or suspected learning disabilities); and of his schooling history, strengths and weaknesses and representative work. You are your son's personal 'expert' and 'advocate' so it can help to have a nice notebook and to look at appointments as 'meetings' or business conferences.

P.P.S. The hello friend site is also very good. They have links on the left with good visual icons, and text. It's a very user-friendly site with good information.
http://www.hellofriend.org/

When you say special ed, do you mean that he'll be placed in a whole differnt class or that he'll just take a special class to help him with his spelling? If his only problem is spelling, I wouldn't place him in a class with kids with all types of problems. He could not get the attention he needs. I remember being in school and the teacher would have to work more with certain kids during differnt subjects. Today it seems teachers are quick to get rid of the kids who need just a little more help and encouragement. Things are really going downhill.

I read in this months issue of Parents magazine how all the new standardize testing is forcing teachers to step up the curriculum. So what used to be first grade material is now taught in Kindergarten. This is causing a lot of problems with kids today. They really aren't physically ready for what they are being forced to learn. So I would say that your son is probably being made to learn what used to be 2nd grade curriculum and he just needs a little more work.

~Leslie~

My son had the same problem. It turns out he has learning disabilities related to memory retention. He was failing all spelling tests each Friday even though we were studying every night and every morning. By Fri. morn he'd just about have it, but I found out the test wasn't until after lunch. By that time he'd forgotten. The best thing we did, besides having him tested by the school district and put in special ed, was getting him a tutor from the local high school. We requested a girl thinking he might respond better and he did. I never quite knew how she went about it, but he loved her. We kept Elizabeth for 2 years until we moved to another city.

Added note: He didn't really read until 5th grade because he couldn't "remember" what word the combination of letters made. Another thing that helped him with reading was to use a strip of colored transparacy film to read thru. He told me that the white of the page stood out too much for him to see the black letters.

My son is 20 years old now. He graduated from high school 1/2 year early and is now attending college. There is hope.

We went through this, he had ADHT and since his mild medication he has gotten much better. At the beginning of grade 2 he was just found to have it. He could barely read and letters were backwards. Now he amazes us. Good luck.

Thank you all for your informative responses. Amy, you especially have given me a ton of good stuff to sift through. We just found out today that my son has a complete hearing loss in his left ear. That explains some of the difficulty. His right ear is fine. We have further appointments with an audiologist next week to determine what, if anything, can be done. His teacher is being very kind and helpful, and Joseph would rather go to school than stay home. I am hopeful that we'll figure out exactly the kind of help he needs.

Thank you all, so very much.

I am just curious here. Does your son bring home these 10 words and you go over the words with him perhaps a few at a time during the week? Sometimes this is a required assignment for both the child and his/her parent to review the words before the test. I was just wondering if this were true in your child's class. Or does the teacher perhaps go over the words with the class?
I just know that in first grade when studying spelling many times a parent will have to work with a child to get them to learn the words. Otherwise if the child just writes the words down and brings them home never reviewing them, then the child can not be expected to know how to spell any of the words.
I was just wondering this. My son in first grade did have spelling tests (as his older sister before him had). He did use phonics some . He had an ear infection and when going over the words with him - at one period during the year-and having his spell them aloud, (we would do this before him actually writing them by the end of the week) he would write words like "mad" for "dad" because his hearing was off having the ear infections. His hearing is fine now though.
But I as a parent did work with him and his older sister on spelling words, before their Thursday or Friday test.

since my army days the nickname Doc just hung on as i was a combat medic 91B-42C, for those parents who have children who show skill at writeing backwards and you cant get them to stop the practice; it may be early warning signs of a condition known as strephosymbolia aka Dyslexia.
i know this because i myself read in the true mirror image,
some say it`s a dissability, but to others it`s a gift,
start with that which the child can see. watch for signs of Boustrephedon writing or zig-zag style print. these are letters or fonts that appear to be seen as if in a mirror.
go to www.arkayengravers.com and click on link words Dyslexic keyboard the picture tells it all, parents should think about a good computer with photo shop & other graphics software trust me it will help to teach the correct way to spell words in time swaner1@cox.net

My son had special ed for a few years. All three DD's had Title I/Chapter I federally funded assistance in math and reading. It helped immensely. Youngest DD and DS had summer school for math one summer and that was a great help also.