Jacqueline and Jonathan Burton-Barr
Jonathan is 10 years old.? He was diagnosed with Dyspraxia when he was 7.? Many people I speak to say 'don't label the child' but in Jonathan's case I didn't agree with them.
To explain; Jonathan is the last of my 4 children.? Chris (27) Alexis and Georgina (twins, 25) were 17 and 15 respectively when he was born and the age gap meant I had considerable child rearing experience.? So when he appeared to be developing 'differently' to the others I began to wonder why ? I also began to beat myself up thinking I might be the cause.
You know the sort of thing.? Did I have him too old (I was 40)? Was the fact that his father wasn't around making me more stressed?? Was this all having an effect on him? Short of money, hormone filled teenagers growing up with all their problems to deal with.? Hardly the perfect life I'd planned for my much treasured little boy.
I had to return to work when Jonathan was a few months old.? So he want to a day care nursery close to home.? The carers were brilliant with him but it soon became clear as he social development skills started to form, that he wasn't following the 'norm'.
He didn't get with other children and would be very lively and disruptive at times when other children were being compliant.? He'd be the one searching the ground for worms in a corner on his own, rather than joining in with the games.
We were advised to find a school with small classes because whilst he was acknowledged to be 'very intelligent' we were also told he would unlikely to fit into primary education easily and become marginalised.
Well I live in a rural area.? Village schools are multi-aged per class and town schools have large classes.? The independent sector however had just what, it appeared, Jonathan needed.? So he went to a lovely school, where the teachers 'put up' with him very valiantly for three years, but there were problems.
Whilst other parents on collecting their child from school might occasionally be told of some misdemeanour that had occurred during the day, with me it was all the time.? Every day and these people actually liked Jonathan.? They just found him very hard to handle.? Everyone said he was very intelligent but had no attention span, no wish to join in and exhibited every sign of wanting to be different.
When admonished for his naughtiness he'd chortle with laughter at the scariest head teacher on the planet.? Jonathan simply had no idea of other people's emotions, couldn't read an angry face and as a result landed himself in a bucket of trouble everyday.
Due to family circumstances Jonathan changed to another independent school. (The sigh of gratitude from the first was audible!)? It was more academic but he didn't fit in.? His protests were quite the opposite of violent; he combated his teachers with silence and physical non-compliance.? By the end of the autumn term he had been expelled.? He was only 7.
However the school did advise us to seek professional help and an educational psychologist assessed Jonathan privately (had we waited for a state assessment it would have taken around a year).? We already suspected Dyspraxia but when it was confirmed we actually felt relieved.
Jonathan was not a naughty little boy just one who had some awkward challenges to face.
We looked around at various local, small village schools.? The signs of alarm on some of the teachers faces ('Oh no, not another difficult child') were plain to see, but one school in particular stood out from the rest.? The head teacher actually knew about the subject to the extent where she could see outside of the box.? 'Oh yes' she said 'we have a couple of children with Dyspraxia here.? They go horse riding through and scheme during school hours' Marvellous acknowledgement of the condition but with a fun approach.
Jonathan has been there three years now.? The first year he didn't make any friends at all and parents being keen to explain his presence at a school outside his catchment area were quick to absorb that he'd been expelled.? But all that gradually changed.? I still pick him up to a chorus of 'do you want to know what Jonathan did today and why he got told off?' (No but I'm bound to hear it anyway!)? In general he is improving and is certainly mostly liked.
Then Megan Baker House came along??..?
