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Expert Q&A

Struggling 10-year Old

My son will be 10 in two months and can’t read and can barely do simple addition and subtraction. What can I do?

It sounds as though this would be a terrific time to schedule a conference with your son’s classroom teacher and the school’s special education teacher. The purpose of the meeting should be to review your son’s present level of performance and what can be done to support his needs. It may be time to see whether his needs are being met by the level of support he’s receiving. It would also be appropriate for you to find out whether your son should participate in testing for special education.

As you navigate through the special education process, there may be several times where you’ll need to act as an advocate for your son. This article can give you some ideas about ways to help make your voice heard when working with your son’s school and with the public school system throughout this process:

How Parents Can be Advocates for Their Children

As you progress through this process, continue to serve as a reading role model for your son. This article has some helpful suggestions:

Be a Reading Role Model