WAIT AND SEE IS AN INVITATION TO INACTION
Who has ever been told “wait and see” regarding their child’s struggles with reading? Too many people. In fact, here is one from 1976 from my district. OVER FORTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. Yet, a small relative handful of years ago, I was told it myself regarding my son. Needless to say, it didn’t go so well.
Wait and see. Wait and see. Wait and see.
Decades later, caregivers still hear it. It’s a tangible suggestion to do nothing. Bonkers. And it’s costing children’s academic success and overall well-being. Reading struggles of the 1 in 5 with dyslexia do not get better with time alone. We have a mental health crisis and wonder why?!
If a child is identified with a broken leg, we support it. Swoop in. Say it’s okay. Write fun things all over the cast. Why do we wait to support a child with a learning difference need?? Not just wait, why do districts overtly encourage it?
Negative consequences can and do happen if you wait. The caregiver perspective is a data point. Teacher feedback, explicit or indirect is a data point. Do not ignore it. Do not let opinions (who may have a different POV) rule the day out of trust.
Photo by Semyon Borisov on Unsplash
As much as it seems ridiculous for me to type, the science of reading is not embedded into American school systems. Touches of it here and there that are the minority, but not even close if we are talking about need vs reality. Quite simply, our children are NOT learning to read. We have a literacy crisis. But worse, a crisis of inaction by those whose roles are to promote the teaching of literacy.
DO NOT WAIT AND SEE FOR ANY REASON
Even if your child is “younger.”
"Has a new teacher.”
“Has a transition for xyz.”
“Is on the cusp testing-wise.”
Has “blah, blah, blah.”
Request testing and document, document, document. If you need resources, this is why we are here. We have had a challenging journey over here 👋. Wait and see can become wait and FAIL. And the path out of failure is not a great journey. We have had a front-row seat to that.
It’s all SO PREVENTABLE. Do not “wait and see” to realize this.
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Thank you for reading.