Question: How can I get my 7 year old to learn ? She will not speak to anyone in school and? she will almost never evan pick up a pencel to learn how to write . But she talks at home and says some very wise things for her age . But has learned nothing in school and cries hard when I try to teach her . Its breaking my heart she is so beautiful and sweet .I am in a place where there is no special Ed and they are telling me to give up well maybe not that but they say she can't go to their school unless I proof she is able to learn . Please can anyone help ?

Answer: Well, if you are in the United States, if it is determined she need special ed, they are legally obligated to provide it.  In other countries the rules might be different, but I believe that in most developed countries the public schools are required to provide a program to meet your child's needs...\n\nBut she may not need special ed.  First off, if she doesn't talk at all at school she may be selectively mute.  When kids are selectively mute, it's not necessarily that anyone did anything wrong (it can be caused by trauma, but it doesn't have to be), but psycotherapy can help.  Next, for your discription of her behavior, it sounds like she probably has some form of a learning disability.  I don't doubt that she's smart, but for whatever reason she doesn't process things in a 'normal' way.  Get her tested!  Be sure to find someone good to test her, even if it costs you more and/or you have to go farther from home, believe me it's worth it.  A psycological assessment will tell you what's going on, and provide some recommendations about what to do about it (this is why you want a good tester - if the person testing her doesn't know much the report won't tell you much).  In US public school, the results may also provide legal grounds to force the school to provide a suitable program (and I expect this is the case in public schools elsewhere, although I don't know for sure).
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