My dau, age 9, 4th grade, was dx with ‘Developmental Language disorder affecting reading/spelling’ (VIQ 107, PIQ 95, FIQ 101) 2 years ago, she has an IEP classified as POHI (also had petit mal seizures which are now cured and is coming off the med, and ADD-inattentive, on ritalin). She goes to resource room, gets a few classroom accommodations, and I support her much at home; and so has been doing fairly well; mostly B’s and C’s on report cards and is reading at ‘almost grade level’ on a recent informal test by her resource teacher. She did the Lindamood-Bell Seeing Stars program last summer, and made some reading progress later in the school year, not sure if this was due to LMB or not. This summer I am sending her to a local reading clinic who does Orton Gillingham to hopefully continue with her reading improvement and also for some math instruction. Lately she has been struggling in math, for example can’t quickly name her mult/division numbers and doesn’t fully understand fractions (ie convert 5/6 to an equivilent fraction). Is this typical that kids w/ LD in reading to also develop math difficulties as the work gets harder? Any suggestions on how to help her? (I talked w/ a local CAPD evaluator from the area’s major Children’s hospital who reviewed my daughter’s neuropsych report and did not recommend a CAPD evaluation, but thought she may benefit from the O-G reading clinic. I’ve also discounted vision therapy, talked with K. Gibson of PACE who did not recommend vision therapy for her based on her vision eval.)
Now, my son, age 6, kindergarten, his teacher told me that his learning appears ‘inconsistent’, although couldn’t state whether he is LD yet. I know he is also at risk of LD, he has apraxia of speech (difficulty w/ oral-motor movements). We’re working w/ him at home a lot on phonics and sight words, read to him constantly (my dau too) - he enjoys it. He goes to speech therapy and OT for fine motor. I am also sending him to the same local clinic this summer. When should I request an eval of him? What more/else should I do?
I am somewhat disheartened by having two children w/ learning difficulties but will as Churchill said ‘never, never, never give up!’
My husband probably had LD as a child- struggled much in elem school, went thru some type of testing and was retained in grade 1; but back in the ‘60’s they did not diagnose LD. He also has ADD still today, but in spite of all this was able to graduate college, maintain good job..
Thank you for reading this and any input is appreciated,
Marla
Re: 2 children LD
I agree with Sara about children not understanding fractions in 4th and 5th grades-whether they are LD or not. As a mom at home, you could help her by giving her lots of opportunities to cut up things. She could turn a sandwich with two halves into the equivalent fraction of 2/4 or 4/8, or if she has a very sharp knife, it can be cut into 8/16. Imagine what you could do with a sheet cake or a pizza! There are also some good math and fraction programs out there, but the best thing is lots of hands on experience. Food cutting is good, but paper folding and cutting is probably cheaper and tidier. Mainly have fun with it!
P.S. I didn’t really understand division of fractions until a middle school teacher shared with us her way of teaching it. She showed her group how to divide 7/16 by 1/2; she cut a stack of 7 slices of bread in half.
Re: 2 children LD
Money is also a good way to practice fractions (and so is cooking).
Two quarters is half of a dollar (there is a coin for that) and is also five dimes and ten nickles. That may help with the idea of manipulating fractions and with equivalents, plus it’s easy to visualize and the numbers usually work out pretty easily (at least at first).
Who knows, maybe you’ll get a stock broker out of it :)
And please don’t worry about how your life would be if your kids weren’t LD — something else would come to fill its place. I have yet to see someone with children have a totally blissful and stress-free life.
Re: 2 children LD
Yup,
I second that. Besides LD people are honestly the most interesting people to know. They are creative,Intelligent,can be very musically inclined. Okay,so everyone in our household,has LD’s. But we are really cool! My husband has an interesting way of putting things,BTW,he is ADD BIG TIME,but he also leads a blue band,sings and plays a harmonica,cool huh. Well anyway he talks about LD’s like this,their is a block in a certain area of the brain,and this is just like having Jello in your hand . When you close the hand the jello will find a way out. I was diagnosed dyslexic at a very young age,I’m really cool too! I’m nerdier,but still,I am a nurse in the field of pediatric orthopedics,although I currently am working with young adults,I’m good at it. I have two incredibly gifted and Ld kids. NOw wouldn’t you rather come to our house for dinner? I mean come on,we are quite entertaining,their is conflict,love,and emotions just flowing. Now isn’t that at least more interesting then a quiet,unemotional,and boring dinner? Honestly,not knowing really, how the other half must live,I have been subjected to a few. Give me LD anyday. No,I am not on medication,probably should be.
Re: 2 children LD
I have three children currently classified as LD but one will be
declassified (she should be) shortly. Both boys are dyslexic (one severely) and my husband is dyslexic. The boys are now 15 and 15.5 and doing nicely in private school. It has been a fight
every step of the way for us but we have survived. I got my husband involved after a few years of going to IEP meetings myself—it was a good decision. The support is necessary. Yes,
I would request a comprehensive evaluation for LD for your son.
LD run in families—no surprises there for me. And you want him
to receive help as early as possible so the emotional stuff doesn’t enter the picture—it gets messy then and trust me takes
years for some (one of mine) to recover from.
Be your kids best advocate and make sure you prepare before those IEP meetings with concerns, information to provide about things you notice.
Best of luck.
Donna
P.S. With one being declassified I’ll have one less IEP meeting to attend—YES! And when they graduate and go on to college, I
will be celebrating (NO MORE IEP meetings) with them.
apraxia of speech
Are you plugged in to web resources for apraxia? At yahoo.com you can sign up for the speechdiet listserv. Parents are having excellent results using essential fatty acid supplementation. There are probably hundreds if not more children who are speaking better after a few weeks or months of supplements. The best book to read is “The LCP Solution: The Remarkable Nutritional Treatment for ADHD, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia.” It’s written by Dr. Jacqueline Stordy. She has a web site called drstordy.com. The Cherub Foundation also has a web site with a lot of information.
Good luck.
I would only say that your daughter is young and it is not uncommon for any 4th grader, ld or not, to not understand fractions. I teach 5th grade and have students there who do not understand fractions.
With a little more time to grow and develop you may find your daughter’s understanding of fractions much better.
It sounds as if you’re doing a great deal for both your children. As a parent of two ld children of my own, I think the hardest thing is that we’d like to invest our best effort into helping our children and having it work. Like a sore throat or a severe cold, we’d like to devote all our attention to it and then have it get better. With learning differences, things can get better but unlike a cold, they might never go away - at least as long as the child is young and in school. What gets disheartening for me is that every September it begins all over again and while things have gotten somewhat better, we still live with this hanging over us.
I often wonder what it might be like to have a child who didn’t have learning differences. I wonder what it might be like to have my children come home from school and not need to work all night every night at homework.
I like your Winston Churchill quote. Thanks for sharing it.
Good luck to you and your children.