NAPLAN results have found their way into school bags across the country in Australia leaving parents wondering “What comes next?”
The NAPLAN results can help inform whether your child needs additional assistance, further extension and engagement or some relaxation techniques.
Most importantly the NAPLAN results shouldn’t be a surprise. If they are, it is very likely they are not indicative of your child’s abilities or general performance. Begin by asking your child how the test days felt for them, whether they tried their best and how they feel about school and learning in general. Feeling stressed by the time and exam conditions provides a focus for the next formal tests, not trying at all is an entirely different beast requiring work in motivating your child for success. Readers of my blog know my focus will always be on the students for whom NAPLAN was hard because learning is hard.
If you already have your tutor in place check in with them to view the results and confirm you are headed in the right direction and keep going. If you don’t have a tutor this really won’t improve on its own and some decisions need to be made about whether you start with an assessment or tutor or even therapist.
To keep this blog post nice and succinct this morning here is the cheats guide to knowing where to start.
- If your child struggles to hold a pencil, form letters and manage other tasks with their fingers (buttons, zips) then begin with an Occupational Therapist.
- If your child struggles to follow your instructions at home, understand TV shows or have trouble speaking clearly for others to understand then begin with a Speech Pathologist.
- If there are persistent concerns about your child’s ability to attend to one task at a time, finish work and managing behaviour then begin with a Paediatrician appointment.
These are the key precursors before or alongside working with your child’s tutor. You need a trained teacher with experience in learning support or special needs who has the right manner for your child. It is just important to consider whether anything else is going to get in the way of the tutors support before beginning.
NAPLAN tests the higher order and applications skills in school, these are absolutely the outcomes you will want from education – comprehension, writing and mathematics problem solving. However if your child is still working on the basics NAPLAN can’t show you that progression and didn’t provide an opportunity for your child to shine. As long as you act and make sure support is there you’ve done the best you can for your child.
