My almost 10 year old son has trouble reading he mainly reads by sight and confuses a lot of words.He is in resource room for phonics ,spelling( his is real bad) he does reading in reg. room since they say he comphrens so well.Well tonight doing his phonics homework he was reading a small passge so he could answer a few questions he got so upset because what he was reading did not make sense to him from confusing words.These words he confused were small simple words such as sale,three,sold,summer,horse.
My question is what should I ask the school to do to help him with this he does have a IEP for his spelling ,writing and gets resource phonics.I want him able to read but they have told me he reads yes he can read but with many mistakes and next year he will be in 4the grade where there is more reading by himself.he is very bright and I was told by the school last year heis IQ is over 140 but he struggles with reading and writing.They have placed him in a class for 90 mins a day with DH students.Yes my son has motor skill problems as well and gets OT and speech therapy (has since he was 4 ).he is still having troubles and hates school and says it is worthless and stupidIts a fight everyday to get him to school.
Re: reading troubles
Hi Allie!
I reccomend that you sit down with your case manager and share your concerns. It doesn’t sound like he has an appropriate placement. There still is time to help him this year. Once an IEP is written, it is only a very small matter of paper work to add or change it. It is a working, legal document. If you are not happy, you have to put your foot down and insist that they explain to you why they have come up with their decision yet he struggles with the reg ed reading. You have a right to know!
You should be having an annual review coming soon to discuss next year’s placement. If they suggest something that you do not think is helpful, again, put your foot down, do not sign it, and call for another meeting to discuss it further once they have had a chance to get together and discuss it, test him, whatever. “Due process” is a right that many parents are still nervous about using, but I think you have a really good point to make and they need to listen (sometimes just saying those words jolts the CST back to reality)! There are some times when the parents are fighting for things that are way out of a districts ability to fix, but I don’t hink this is one. Talk to your case manager first before deciding anything
As far as your son’s IQ, the majority of kids with LD have high IQs. They have a huge discrepency between what they should be able to do and what they can do. That is why there is an LD - and whatever the cause is varies of course. I think that is why I gt a bit upset when a reg ed teacher calls any of my kids slow because they are not! THey are among the brightest in the classroom, but thier performance during certain lessons doesn’t show this! Those teachers that provide a variety of lessons taught using a the many intellegences and learning styles are surprised to find out just how bright these kids are, and see how they can become so easily frustrated becasue they have such difficulty (and they are totally aware).
Ok. Book is finished. Good luck with your son. Let us know what happens!
Cat
Re: reading troubles
We have our IEP in 3 weeks for next year.However his resource room teacher wants him in the reg. class since he is cognitivley above the rest .She feels with the right modifications and accomidations he would only be pulled out for phonics.he will use acomputer or Alpha Smart for most writing assighments.Spelling will be modified and done on computer.What he will go for in resource is to have things read to him.He will still have pull out for OT and Speech.
We have done Vision therapy for 2 years and no help yet really and he loves doing the exercises.His dr. says he just dont think we can help him much but he has determination and wont stop (meaning my son).I bought the Reading Reflex book but dont want to start it till summer.
Re: reading troubles
THis is a very typical profile of a kiddo that some teachers just don’t see as having a problem. Gosh, he’s bright. He’s doing okay in my class so he doesn’t need help.
Later on when kids are being separated into the “bright-college bound” and “vocational or whatever” tracks, they’ll just see him as a kid who doesn’t read well enough to succeed in those classes. THose teachers never see the smart successful kid who’s been compensating so they wonder where in the world you ever got the idea he was so smart.
Unfortunately your best bet is to teach him to read yourself (or get a reading tutor) — which even less fortunately means the school teachers & admins can smugly say to themselves “see, we told her everything was okay!” and you have to try to hold back your wrath. There are several good options for teaching him to read depending on just how severe his problems are — and you can ask questions along the way, too.
Re: reading troubles
Yes I have come to that conclusion.However his teachers he has this year see him as bright have recogized he needs help to but have flat out told me they dont really know how to help him.His resource room teacher said she is used to teaching kids that cant do or really dont have his level of ability.He really dont feel comfortable in her class eiether.But knows he does need some of the help she gives him.Today was report card day he received in his reg ed classes Reading = D,Math = A ,Resource room Spelling = D, Engilsh = A Writing =D
engilsh is mainly based on his thoughts and being able to express them he does this now on Computer.He knows all the rules of Grammer better than me but cant apply them when he writes but can when he types.My son also has some other problems with his Tourettes and ODD,and other types of behavior the doctors are still trying to figure out what is going on they say maybe a PDD or BiPolar.He is on medicine for his TS and he is the one that wants to take it he feels better in public since t helps control his tics.
What you may want to consider
is combining Reading Reflex with cognitive training this summer. For my own daughter, vision therapy was not enough. We needed to follow it up with cognitive training in order to develop her visual processing skills to the point where she could finally process text fast enough for fluent reading.
We did PACE (http://www.learninginfo.com), but it’s expensive.
A good alternative is Audiblox (http://www.audiblox2000.com) which has an excellent vision component to its exercises. It would require a minimum of 1/2-hour per day spent one-on-one with him doing the exercises (one hour a day would be better). Audiblox and Reading Reflex would make quite a powerful combination for the summer.
Vision therapy is good for bringing functional vision skills (on the sensory/motor level of development) up to age-appropriate levels. However, it’s not very efficient at developing the next layer of skills — visual processing skills such as visual sequencing, visual short-term memory, pattern recognition, speed, etc. Cognitive training is much more efficient for this once basic vision problems have been corrected.
Mary
The first is to buy the book “Reading Reflex” by McGuiness. This book is $16 in most bookstores, and contains a complete tutoring method you can use yourself with your son. This would likely be much more helpful than trying to get the school to do something more. When my daughter was 8 years old and still reading on a preschool level (in 2nd grade), this book was a lifesaver. The book has good assessment tests in it, to give you an idea of your son’s specific areas of difficulty.
The second recommendation I have is to take your son to a developmental optometrist for evaluation. The problems you describe are typical of a child with developmental vision delays, which my daughter also had. You can find out more about functional vision problems (these are not tested for in a regular eye exam) at http://www.childrensvision.com. You can locate developmental optometrists in your area at http://www.covd.org.
Mary