Dyslexia/Independent Evaluation

What testing did the school actually do? Did your son have a complete speech and language assessment? IQ test? The comment about being able to tell the difference between letters is inane, to say the least!

There’s information on how to request an IIE (Individual Independent Evaluation, I think it is) on this website, under “LD in Depth”. Check the assessment and IEP sections.

Most schools don’t use the word “dyslexia”. You may want to start using terminology such as “specific reading disability” and “specific writing disability” instead. That is more politically correct.

Most dyslexics have either an auditory processing problem or a visual processing problem.

The reversals you mention at age 10 are a red flag for developmental vision problems, which are not covered by most schools (except maybe California). I would advise taking your son to a developmental optometrist for an evaluation. This kind of eval is much more than a regular eye exam. Regular optometrists and opthalmologists have no training in this area. You can find qualified developmental optometrists at http://www.covd.org. Medical insurance will usually cover some or all of this eval.

I would find out what kinds of tests the developmental pediatrician conducts. They may or may not be the ones you need.

Mary

Two years ago the school did the WISC-3. Verbal IQ 100, Performance IQ 98, Full-scale IQ 99. They also did the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement. Scores were: Broad Reading - 6th percentile, Broad Math - 37th percentile, Broad Written Language - 22nd percentile, Basic Writing Skills - 20th percentile. Last fall they gave him the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests. Scores were: Visual - Auditory Learning - 26th percentile, Letter Identification - 1st percentile, Word Identification - .5 percentile, Word Attack - 4th percentile, Word Comprehension - 7th percentile, Passage Comprehension - 1st percentile. Also Test of Written Language (TOWL-2). Scores for each subtest were anywhere from the 1st percentile to the 16th percentile.

After this latest testing, the school gave him an additional 15 minutes/day of resource time for written language. He was previously receiving 25 - 30 minutes/day for reading only. He is also working on phonics for 15 minutes/day two or three times each week. The reading/writing time is small-group. The phonics time is individual.

He has an appointment with a developmental optometrist later this month.

Thanks for your help Mary.

Wow! I definitely would get independent evaluations, and what they are giving him sounds very inadequate to me.

Since I homeschooled rather than fight school bureaucracies, I am not the best person to give you advice on the school end of things. Hopefully someone else here will.

On the home front, though, I would strongly encourage you to buy the book “Reading Reflex” by Carmen & Geoffrey McGuiness and start tutoring him yourself at home. This approach works miracles about 90% of the time, and is well worth a try. The book lays everything out for you, so it is quite easy to do as a parent. Cost is about $16.

Another thing I strongly recommend is starting him on Audiblox (http://www.audiblox2000.com). Cost is about $80 (you need the book and video, and the manipulatives kit saves you some time getting started). You would need to work with him one-on-one for about 1/2 hour a day. It can take 6 weeks to start seeing improvements, but most children respond very well.

I would start the home programs now, as it may take you awhile to get what you need through the school system.

Mary

It touches my heart to read messages like yours because I am reminded again how difficult it is to have your child seen as an individual in a group-oriented setting.

Your son’s age and the symptoms you described are cause for concern. Lack of progress is a valid reason to call a special IEP meeting; request it in writing and send via certified mail with a return receipt. (Special education personnel are charged with the responsibility of calling these meetings if a student on their caseload is making insufficient progress. In CA, for instance, the Education Code states that resource specialists are responsible for “monitoring of pupil progress on a regular basis” and “referral of pupils who do not demonstrate appropriate progress to the IEP team.”) In framing your discussion of progress, don’t rely too heavily on the ITBS scores; instead, look at all possible measures of progress, including work samples and how well your child is attaining his IEP goals. (Hopefully, those goals were well written.) I suggest this so that the district looks at more than the “bad day theory.” (Since he received accommodations for the testing, I doubt that it was an off day for him.) Lack of progress should lead to new goals/objectives/materials/techniques/program placement/whatever it takes.

An independent evaluation appears appropriate, given the lack of progress and the staff’s unfamiliarity with the criteria for diagnosis of dyslexia. (School districts prefer terms like reading disability or written language disability because, until relatively recently, the term ‘dyslexia’ covered a very broad range of symptoms.) Appropriate measures to rule out/in this learning challenge include an individually administered test of phonological awareness, phonological memory and rapid naming. Good advice is available on this website regarding independent evaluations. A thorough, personalized assessment is the basis for effective planning and services.

Be sure that the district includes standard scores (vs. only percentile ranks) in future reports. They should also report the individual subtest scores, not just the broad (composite) scores to which you referred. These scores often reveal discrepancies in performance which the composite scores don’t. (Standard scores are the Holy Grail for people in our field and are a more statistically reliable way of tracking progress.) I was surprised to read that the district was using the TOWL-2 two years ago. The third revision of the Test of Written Language (TOWL-3) has been out since about 1996.

In closing, I would like to apologize for those in the education field who don’t return phone calls. Inexcusable.

I hope this information will help your son. Good luck in your efforts on his behalf.

Rita
ldspecialist.com

Rita -

Can you expand on this: “…until relatively recently, the term ‘dyslexia’ covered a very broad range of symptoms… ?” Has there been an agreement of the definition of the term dyslexia recently? What is the definition? Who has defined it?

I’m curious because it sure is frustrating to have the school district and other professionals not using “dyslexia” in assessments, presumably (as several have told me) because there is no agreed-upon definition.

There really has not been though I think that we are coming closer. Something to think about though- I have always found it to be more useful to focus on the behaviors- be descriptive about what the child can and cannot do and how the varying aspects of an individual’s processing affect their performance, than to spend a lot of time worrying about a particular label. I know there are folks who find comfort in the categorization but as a teacher and parent I never found it particularly useful, and as an evaluator who tries to provide information to parents and schools, I find it somewhat less useful. It is more helpful to gain an understanding of how the various componants of information processing affect learning. That’s my bias anyway…:)

Robin

First, thank you for your support and information. I’ve learned so much from reading the postings on this board. The most important thing being that we have lots of options.

The good news is that I requested n independent educational evaluation for my son and he’s getting one…at the AEA’s expense! Truly I couldn’t have accomplished this without all of the valuable information I’ve received from this board and website. I really believe that it made a lot of difference once the school realized that I knew what rights I had as a parent. It also probably helped that when I made my request, I noted that a carbon copy of the letter was being sent to a group in the state that helps parents when they are having problems getting the services they need for their children! It was a little scary starting all of this, but in the end everyone I had to talk to about this (teacher, principal, AEA contact person) was very pleasant and helpful. I really feel that they want to do whatever they can to help my child. I couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome to all of this. So, that’s my good news! Again, thank you for all of your help and I hope that by telling this story I can help someone else.