Team meeting coming up

Have you heard of Nonverbal Learning Disorders? Your daughter has several of the red flags in her visual processing issues, higher VIQ and an early dx of ADHD/Inattentive. You might want to read some of the articles on NLD on this web site and see if it sounds like it might fit your daughter.

NLD kids need a lot of support, and the earlier the intervention starts, the better. NLD kids typically don’t get identified until the are in the upper elementary - middle school ages, because they are often strongly verbal and good readers.

Karen

Karen, yes, I have read the information on NonVerbal Learning Disorder, and it does sound a bit like my daughter. The bad thing, though, is that I have heard that IDEA does not recognize this LD and does not cover it for special ed. But, in my daughter’s psych evaluation, the psychologist says that Kat DOES qualify for an IEP.

I was just wondering if anyone has had better success homeschooling their LD child verses public school and special ed?
~TLouise

I’m sure many people haven’t, too — it’s definitely not an easy choice, since sometimes you really can’t be mom and teacher both. Some have just taken the student out to recover and gain the skills they’ve missed along the way to go back in a year (sometimes with intensive outside tutoring); there are lots of options. Frankly, having seen what happens to students in some of the more toxic situations I’ve had to try to teach in, it’s well worth considering, especially if you’re going to be able to develop your child’s strengths.
I’ve put some ideas including some of my favorite teaching materials up online at my site - www.resourceroom.net.

It is true that NLD is not yet in the DSM, although it probably will be in the next edition. Responsible school systems ARE putting children with NLD on IEP’s even now though. For those who live in areas that are still hiding behind the letter of the law rather than responding to the spirit in which it was written, there are ways to get around it with many NLD kids, since many also qualify as disabled in specific areas. (such as writing and/or math)

But once a child qualifies for services, identifying the specific cause of the problem can only help, not hurt. In the case of NLD, the deficits are in areas that become more apparent as the child gets further along in their school career. So it is vital to really understand what their weaknesses are in ALL areas as early as possible, and either address them, if that’s possible, or teach good compensating strategies.

In 3rd grade, our neuropsychologist pointed out that our son had developed some compensating strategies in math on his own. (for instance, instead of really learning his addition and multiplication math facts, he had become an incredibly fast counter) So it looked like he could do basic math functions at the lower elementary level, and he was considered “on grade level”. The problem is that those inefficient strategies would not have been adequate to get him through decimals and fractions in 5th grade.

Once a child qualifies for SPED, no matter what the specific qualifying disability is, the school is required to address all areas of weakness. So if your daughter qualifies with a specific learning disability, and you then find that she has NLD, they are still required to address all of her issues. This is SO important with NLD, where early intervention can make a huge difference, but problems tend not to show up until later. (when it’s too late to do the early intervention stuff)

I can’t urge you strongly enough to have a full neuropsychological evaluation done on your daughter, regardless of whether she remains in the public school, or you decide to home school. Only a neuropsych gives you the very detailed information you need about both your daughters weaknesses AND strengths to be able to make good educated decisions about what programs and methods will work best for you. You can spend a lot of time, money, and emotional energy spinning your wheels if you don’t understand WHY a specific task is hard for a child.

As far as whether homeschooling is the right answer, it depends on SO many variables. If you and your daughter can work well together, and you have the expertise to know (or can learn) how to teach to her strengths and improve her weaknesses, it can be a wonderful alternative. And there are more and more resources available for home schoolers every day.

OTOH, don’t undervalue the importance of being able to “just be Mom”. It’s hard work teaching an LD child, and it’s even HARDER work BEING an LD child. Sometimes an LD child needs someone to really keep after them to make them do the hard work that needs to be done to learn to work through, or at least around their problems. Can you be that kind of task master and at the same time be there for her as her emotional support person? Some people can make it work, but it’s a tough balancing act.

In our own case, (even though this is no walk in the park either) we’ve decided to spend our time and emotional energy in advocating as strongly as we can for our child in the public school system. And our money on helping fill in the gaps where we don’t think the school is doing enough. We are lucky to be in a school system that takes its responsibilities seriously, and meets us half-way. That means that in terms of school work, my relationship with my son is “just” as his emotional support and “cheer leading” section. I don’t have to be the bad guy. The school supports me in this position too.

I would certainly consider home schooling if we couldn’t work things out with the school, and I think for people whose kids have major social problems this can happen sooner rather than later. But at the moment, I’m still holding the home school option as my “ace in the hole” option. I hope I won’t need it.

Karen

You don’t mention your daughter’s age/grade, but I agree that there are a lot of factors to consider in this decision. The very first, though, is to see what the school is offering, and then you’ll at least have an idea of whether this is going to address her areas of deficit and greatest need. It often happens that NLD is not addressed very effectively at the school, and if you even mention the label, you may find they stare at you blankly as if they’d never heard of it. You don’t need to do that, though, simply see what they suggest as far as meeting her needs. You say the psych report does say she meets the qualifications for an LD, which is the good news, but since her grades are so good, my guess is they will want to do most things in the regular ed. classroom, with consultation perhaps. This can work well or poorly, depending a lot on the personalities involved, including your daughter’s! Anyway, it is worth a try, at least until the end of the year, and then if you don’t think she is making any headway, you could start a trial homeschooling experiment over the summer to see how it works, and if it’s going well, continue next year.

You should also look into other options that might boost her skills, both now and during your homeschooling experiment. I would recommend looking into PACE, which works on both visual and attention processing skills, as well as auditory processing, which can be surprisingly weak in some NLD kids, despite their high verbal skills. There are many independent providers around the country now, so you can look for one at their website www.learningrx.com and there is also a home version, called “Brain Skills” if it turns out you are too far from a provider. I agree with all the earlier comments that early intervention is always preferable, makes a bigger long-term impact, and often turns out to mean “more bang for the buck”. Good luck!

Sharon

Dear TLouise,
I share your plight, I too brought my son home this yr to homeschool. He is ADHD, with LD. His learning disability was in reading and math, but now is above grade level in reading and way above in his word comprehention but is still only on a 3rd grade level in math. He had to go to regular classes for all his other subjects which posed a prob even with an aid in the class room. One class had six special ed kids in it and only one aid and most of the other kids were mentally challenged and worse off than my son so that really never helped. Even on meds he is still disorganised and distractable, but just not as much as without it. They took him out of his reading and language special ed class as he didn’t qualify anymore because of his test results, which should have only took two days but because of his distracability it took them five. Our counties school system doesn’t look a t Adhd as a handicap, and it is very much one. Before you make your decision talk to your school about what prevision could be made. Good Luck!