Thursday, March 16, 2005
I met this morning with Alesia’s teachers, the school counselor, and the school psychologist. I liked the psychologist a lot. He is a young man and looks like Tim Robbins [but I didn’t hold that against him]. We got there a few minutes early and I was able to fill him in one Alesia’s background and her poor school history.
The counselor was nice, but very negative about Alesia being held back further than 8th grade.
The teachers were very positive about Alesia as a good student who tries hard, but they agreed with me she isn’t ready for high school next year. I told them the principal was pretty negative to me and just gave me the name of the person at the school board in charge of retaining students.
The most disturbing thing they said to me was to tell me about Alesia’s memory problems. The math teacher said she can explain a math concept to Alesia and she can demonstrate she understands it, but when she’s asked again a few minutes letter she hasn’t retained the information.
I have done some research on FAE [Fetal Alcohol Exposure]. Alesia’s mother was an alcoholic and there’s a good chance she drank while pregnant – it’s quite common in Russia. Although Alesia doesn’t show the physical symptoms of FAS [fetal alcohol syndrome], she does have some problems. Here’s an excerpt from a website:
“Even more troublesome, prenatal alcohol exposure
also affects brain development, and children with a range of FASD symptoms
often have significant trouble with speech and language skills, memory,
attention and behavior and emotion functions, Goldson said.”
It’s very depressing to think about.
I am going to have Alesia tested for learning disabilities. There are a couple of private schools here that specialize in kids with learning disabilities. I have an appointment to tour one of them on the 28th, and I am going to talk to another school tomorrow, that's closer but not as impressive.
I pray I am wrong and she’s not learning disabled, just having problems with language and poor schooling in Russia.
Mother felt very good after the school meeting. I didn’t. I feel like I’m still fighting an uphill battle. It was very hard to concentrate the rest of the day at work.
