Ask Dr. Silver
The following are past questions and answers from Dr. Larry Silver on this topic.
Will having a student repeat a grade in school help them?
When is it appropriate to retain a student in the eighth grade? My daughter goes to a private Catholic school. She was previously diagnosed with ADHD Combined Type, Visual-Motor Processing Deficit and also appears to have difficulty with expressive writing.
Many interventions have taken place since Kindergarten. She has had years of private academic therapy, vision therapy, occupational therapy, and goes to a psychiatrist for medication management. In addition, she has accommodations as well as some modifications. She sees an Occupational therapist one day per week for two hours and an academic therapist twice a week.
I am also in the field with a (LMHC) & ESE background. In the past two years she has had many external stressors. She was taken off medication for ADHD due to "crashing" in sixth grade. She has also missed school due to a family crisis.
She is in the process of getting an IEP in public school. I know it will be a disaster if she moves on to a public high school and I am at a real loss as to what to do. If I retain her she will graduate with her class and then go to a public middle school for one year and move on to high school.
Should I retain her given the amount of previous and current interventions? I don't want to break her heart but I also want to do what's right for her. With the amount of school she has lost and the achievement level she is at, she might benefit with an additional year in eighth grade. (fourth grade math and beginning sixth grade reading skills according to the WJIIIR.) This is a terrible decision and she may loose what confidence she does have. Please give me your opinion if you can. I would sincerely appreciate it as a feel that I am all alone in the process.
Sincerely,
Janine
The question is not whether you want to retain your child in her grade or not. The question is what are the many problems your daughter faces and how best to address each. First, may I urge you to clarify exactly where your daughter's current learning disabilities are as well as her learning strengths. She may have had excellent services over the years; however, where is she now. Does she have the skills to handle her current academic needs? Is she provided the necessary services and accommodations to be successful?
Once these issues are clarified, you option would be to keep her in the private school, being sure that she receive all of the accommodations she will need. And, it will be critical that you provide all of the special education services she now needs privately. (You could try to get services from her public school. But, be sure that they are adequate and remember that she must travel to her nearest public school to receive these services.
Or, your option would be to transfer her to the public school. Even here, it will be essential that her IEP reflect all of her needs and services needed.
You also add other factors: She was taken off medication for ADHD due to crashing. No, you do not take students off medication for this side effect. You address this side effect. Second, you note serious family crises that cannot be minimized.
Maybe you need the advise of a good special education consultant regarding her school needs. And, you need to see a mental health professional who is knowledgeable about treating ADHD as well as LD as well as the emotional issues. Probably best to address each of these needs would be a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist.
(January 2007)
How do you distinguish between learning disabilities and brain damage?
My daughter, who is now eight, was born at 24 weeks gestation. As a result, she suffered from lack of oxygen and developed a grade 2 bleed. She does not need a shunt and functions fairly well, ambulatory, good verbal skills and such. She does have mild to moderate CP. The best diagnosis we have been given is global brain damage, which means the damage affects every part of her life.
She is in third grade at her neighborhood school. I believe she has been socially promoted). She was in a self-contained school for three years. Her label on her IEP is LD. Since Emily does have brain damage, should she or any child with this type of damage be considered LD?
I have a son who is LD in reading and writing. And they seem different. He learns differently. She, on the other hand, seems slower. There just seems to be missing pieces. She is roughly two years behind in reading and three years behind in math.
Would a change in labeling help with the way she is being served on her IEP? I don't think they take in mind that she does have this damage. The traditional special education instruction for LD may not be what she needs to progress. I am just finding it hard to believe that brain damage and LD are the same.
Thank you in advance,
Crystal
There is a category within IDEA for Traumatic Brain Injury; however, students with your daughter's history are usually identified based on how the prenatal trauma impacts on their ability to learn. In general, children with her history have a more global pattern of disabilities than the child usually seen as having a learning disability.
The key to your question is that your daughter is not making progress in her current placement and with her current services. What is critical is that the most current psychological and educational evaluations be used to assess her placement, types of interventions, and intensity of interventions. She was in a self-contained program for preschool. You feel that the program she has been in since Kindergarten has not been adequate.
I would advise you to see a private special education consultant who could review your daughter's current educational disabilities and status, review her current placement, and help you decide if you should appeal her IEP placement, asking for a more intensive program.
(December 2006)
Why is my daughter's school hesitant to label her learning disability with the term "dyslexia"?
My daughter is a sixth grade student and has always had problems with reading and writing. She has an IEP, but the school doesn't seem to be helping with the obvious.
Since being diagnosed with ADD, I have been doing research on dyslexia and she seems to fit all the symptoms surrounding this learning problem. But whenever I bring this up to the school they don't want to hear it or act like I know nothing. They deny that there is a test for this specific disability. They say that all the people with learning disabilities are taught the same way and that is just the way it is.
My biggest concern here is she is not getting the help that she needs and still has the hardest time with the simplest of words. What should I do or better yet how do I go about getting her tested for something the school doesn't acknowledge?
Thanks,
Allison
Some professionals prefer to use terms that have been used for the past 50 years and that describe the primary problem.
Thus, if the difficulty is with using phonological skills to read, the child has dyslexia. If the problem is with writing, the term Dysgraphia is used. If math is the problem, Dyscalculia is used.
In the mid-1970s a law was passed requiring that all public schools address the needs of children with disabilities. This landmark law created the whole special education system. The term Learning Disability was used. Whether these disabilities impacted on reading, writing, math, or other areas, the umbrella term used is Learning Disability.
So, try not to focus so much on terms as on what your daughter needs. If she is not getting the help you believe she needs, you might seek a private educational consultant to advise you on how to approach your school system. If the school is limited in what it can offer, you might have to supplement what she gets in school with private help.
(December 2006)
How do I get my son changed from a 504 to an IEP?
How do I get my son changed from a 504 to an IEP?
Thanks,
Maureen
An IEP is based on your son meeting the requirements of your school system to be identified as having a specific disability.
Under the school law, IDEA, services and accommodations must be provided once a disability is identified. This IEP spells out what services and accommodations will be provided.
Section 504 is based on another law, now called the Americans with Disabilities Act. Under this law, if someone has a disability, he or she must be provided accommodations (services are not mentioned).
So, go back to your school professionals and clarify for yourself why they do not believe that he meets the criteria to be identified as having a disability. Without meeting these criteria, an IEP will not be considered.
(November 2006)
For more information on this topic, please visit the IEPs section in LD InDepth.
