So Quinn has been in attending a weekly OT (occupational therapy, in case you didn't know) session at school this year since being assessed by an OT at the end of last year, as a sort of unofficial prerequisite for passing Grade 1. His teacher at the time was concerned that he wasn't finishing his work fast enough, and his hand writing technique seemed to be the main culprit.
The school has a resident OT this year, so we enrolled him with her one afternoon a week and he has LOVED it. Quinn thrives on one-on-one attention, in fact he was upset that he didn't get to go to the remedial lessons some of the other kids had last year, because he thought it looked like fun! ;)
This OT is by all accounts really sweet and fun and Quinn has loved seeing her (and talking to her about me - she was convinced I was a midwife by the accounts Quinn told her of me helping babies being born!) Anyway she found that he was writing with his shoulder and not swivelling his wrist as he should and that was making him press very hard and get tired very quickly.
She gave him some 'writing aids'. An inclined board, a special squishy rubber pencil grip and a 'sand bag' or what she prefers to call a 'wrist cuff'. It's a little velcro attached cuff that tapes onto the writs to weight it down so the wrist rests and the HAND does the writing as it should. Not the whole arm...
Well the results have been remarkable. Firstly I started noticing really neat hand writing in his homework diary and assumed the teacher was writing in it, to give him more time to finish his actual work. When Quinn told me it was HIS writing I honestly didn't believe him...shame! ;)Well Quinn finished the term off really well:
He got 3s (3/4, 3= Satisfactory achievement) for everything in his report, except one, and that was a 4 (4/4, 4 = Outstanding/Excellent achievement) for, wait for it... Writing - Formation of letters! WOOT!
For all his life skills he achieved an 'O' for Often, and for few he even got 'A; for Always. These are things like: Co-operates within a group, Interacts with peers, Interacts well with adults, Concentrates etc. And most importantly he got an 'O' for Completes tasks on time. YAY!!! So there's hope ;)
His teacher's comments were: 'Quinn has made good progress this term. His comprehension is good as he is able to retain information. His writing is beautiful and is being carried over into his other books. His writing proficiency has greatly improved. His grasp of mathematical concepts is good. He has a good understanding of addition, subtraction and knows his bonds well. Keep up the good work Quinn!'
In consultation with the OT, she has decided that he is doing wonderfully and doesn't need any further help and so he has just finished off with her! So he is done with OT now. She said she look in on him later in the year just to make sure he has retained all that she taught him.
Then his music report came. He started recorder this year. I must admit that we are pretty bad about practising....
Well he got 89%! The music teacher's comments were "Quinn is a keen and quick learner who loves playing the recorder and doing theoretical work."
I am really proud of him, he has been working hard this year and it has paid off!
He was rewarded with a new cool bicycle (I'll take some pictures soon) which has gears and shocks and a lock, and he has a new helmet for it, and I ordered the aforementioned Captain Underpants books for him. He is reading the second of those now :)
Yeah!!! WTG Quinn!!! That's awesome to hear. I hope that the extra help that Quintus will get will help him that much too
ReplyDelete