What do you do after a parent teacher conference?

This is the time of year for parents and teachers to have their first parent teacher conference for the year.  What do you do when it did not turn out the way you thought your child was performing in class?  First thing you do is to stop and think.  You know your child better than any person in the school.  Second you need to review the child’s work that is brought home or now most schools have electronic programs that parents can access to review all the grades for your child.  Third ask the child how he/she likes the subject.  Many times, when the child is frustrated, they will say,” I hate that class.”  Finally, after you have compiled all the information start looking at trends in the data.

Finding trends in data means looking at similar results from tests.  For example, you noticed that your child did not do his/her review guide before a test or did poorly on the review guide and did poorly on the test.  This can help you by talking to the teacher or child to understand why the review was not helpful to prepare for the test.   Did your child need to study more for the test or did your child have many misunderstandings of the concepts in that subject?

Another example could be your child has a hard time with spelling and cannot hear the different short and long vowel sounds. Does your child have a hard time with decoding unknow words they are reading which impacts on their difficulties with vowel sounds?  Could it be that your child may have auditory discrimination problems which means the child has a problem focusing on sounds and the vowels sounds all sound similar to each other.

These are examples of that could help you start to think what ways  I can help my child in school.  The teacher or school could have discussed that they are using MTSS (Multi- Tiered System of Supports) or RTI ( Response to Intervention) .  It is a system or strategies the educators are using to provide different strategies to meet the needs of your child in his/her learning.  The process has  structure to provide more intense instruction when the child is really struggling.  The system is to provide the support the child in his/ her needs so they can provide the  tools they child needs before  they need to be referred to special education services.  But it is not special education services and if you as a parent feel your child needs services you can ask for an evaluation at any time.  The school may say the child has to go through the MTSS or RTI process first that is not correct.  At any time, a parent can ask for your child to be evaluated and the school has 60 days after consent from the federal guidelines for the evaluation to be completed.

After the first parent teacher conference it is a time to weigh all the information that was stated to you about your child’s work and the other most important item is that you know your child the best. Identify what is best for your child and do that for him or her.  Be an advocate for your child.