Smarty Sponsor: Triad Academy

By Guest Blogger Pat L. (her son attends Triad Academy)


During my son’s first grade year I found myself constantly frustrated. I was frustrated with my son because he was getting in trouble at school and just didn’t “get reading and writing.” I was frustrated with his teacher, who said “he would get it if he would just try hard enough and pay attention more,” and I was frustrated with my husband and myself because we just couldn’t figure out how to help him.

When we finally had my son tested, I remember a feeling of relief that we had a diagnosis of a learning disability (LD) and ADHD. I finally knew that my son’s difficulties with school were NOT because “he didn’t try hard enough.” His issues stemmed from the fact that his brain was wired in a way that he learned differently than most children.

With the LD diagnosis, we were able to work with his teachers in the public school to make an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). I assumed that once he had an IEP, he would thrive in the public school setting. However, even though he had one half hour a day in a small group setting with an LD teacher, he never seemed to catch up, especially in the areas of reading comprehension, automaticity, and math word problems.

In second grade, learning spelling words was a nightmare for our son. He just couldn’t remember how to spell them – it was like he couldn’t hear the sounds. At an LD conference I attended that year, Sue Stevens, an LD teacher, discussed the fact that children with learning disabilities are often very visual learners. After her lecture, I decided to try visual clues for my son’s spelling words. On Monday when he got his spelling list for the week, I would have him draw a picture that represented the word as well as write out the word. It was amazing the difference this made in his spelling – once he could visualize the word, he could spell it correctly. I also found that it helped his writing if he could draw pictures about what he was supposed to write.

Although he learned certain things and made some strides, my son never thrived in public school. In fact, the frustrations for all of us continued. At the end of fifth grade, my husband and I decided that our son needed a different educational setting. After checking out several options, we decided on Triad Academy, a private school for students with diagnosed learning disabilities. I will never forget the day our son visited there at the end of 5th grade. He came home and asked if he could go back the very next day. He said he loved the school, which was the first time he had EVER said anything like that.

This year, as a 6th grader at Triad Academy, our son has flourished. His math skills and automatic recall of math facts have gotten a lot better. His phonics and decoding ability have improved as well as his reading fluency. I even catch him picking up books and reading! More importantly, he will often share some new piece of information he has learned from reading, especially if it is science related. At Triad Academy, David also is recognized by his peers and teachers as an artist. The recognition and encouragement of his artistic ability, as well as teaching in a way that he learns, has done a lot to help our son become more self-confident and actually to enjoy school for the first time in his life.

I love what our son says about Triad Academy: “They teach without a lot of words in a way I can learn.” Thanks to all the wonderful and dedicated teachers at Triad Academy, I finally feel that my son will develop to his fullest potential. My only regret is that we did not find the school earlier!

Would you like to learn more about Triad Academy? Visit one of upcoming Open House sessions:

Wednesday, May 27
11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Or
Sunday, May 31
3:00 to 4:30 p.m.

For more information:
Triad Academy
905 Friedberg Church Road
Winston-Salem
336-775-4900
www.triadacademy.org.

Posted by Triad Smarty Pants at 5:00 AM