WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: fi

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This is Daniel, my grandson. He is now 22 years

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old and finalizing his studies in vocational education.

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He is going to be a technician a specialized 'plumber'.

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Daniel had remarkable difficulties in learning, more specifically in reading and writing.

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As a small boy he was not interested in words or letters, but he loved listen

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stories, especially if there was an interesting story line.

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Sometimes he told me that he´s a little shame because he does not know letters.

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You know I identified pretty much with Daniel,

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and I remember similar feelings from my own early childhood.

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Luckily they had a specialized kindergarten teacher who

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paid attention on Daniel. And she was actually the first one to notice

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that Daniel might need more support and attention. She introduced

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to Daniel the world of words and letters.

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Daniel started the school when he was seven, as usually in Finland.

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There were 25 kids in his class and the teacher was quite

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experienced and well trained. Daniel was quite excited,

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and he liked the school. Sometimes, he was also a little worried

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- What if I don't learn like my friends?

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However, Daniel seemed to fell in love with the teacher. There was also

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a special education teacher visiting the classroom and, of course, she found out that

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Daniel had difficulties in reading and writing. She took Daniel and three

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other similar small boys and girls in her resource room. Daniel loved

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these classes in the small group, and he was also so motivated to

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go there. They had the flexible support system to tackle the many

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kinds of individual needs starting from universal support

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by regular teachers, then intensified support as part-time special

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education service and finally special support with individualized curriculum.

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So our Daniel was served by intensified support.

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In the lower secondary grades 7 to 9, the academic expectations

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grew enormously. New subjects, longer school days, more

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demanding study tasks and much more reading.

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When he started eighth grade he had motivational difficulties. From his perspective the school

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set too high and stressing demands. Daniel loved playing

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ice hockey at that time. Many times he said to me that he doesn't like school

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and he has no time enough. Luckily there was again a nice

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special education teacher to support him and her main merit was to keep up

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Daniel's motivation in school. On ninth grade it was time to make

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the first important decision of schooling either to choose vocational education

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or upper secondary school with academic emphasis.

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He had many fruitful discussions with the counsellor and without her support the decision-making

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process would have been impossible. He said that he knows his

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difficulties, he's slow in reading and writing, but he liked doing things with hands.

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Vocational school does not mean any more dead-end for higher education.

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In the vocational school they also had a wonderful support system organized

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by specialized teachers who played important role in Daniel's education.

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According to my knowledge they had developed support mechanism even in the university

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called as "Student Life". So Daniel went to vocational school

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and graduated as plumber. I'm so proud of him

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and satisfied with the flexible support mechanism, they had in the schools.

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He was never negatively labeled, but treated as an individual

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and with full cooperation with parents. Special education

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teachers were involved always in full cooperation with the regular teachers.

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The academic expectations of the school were set as a bit lower

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and teachers took care of keeping his motivation high.

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