children with LD

Hi Taryn,

I always enjoy being asked to help future teachers understand the process from the other side (parents). Thank you for asking.

1. My son is 9 years old
2. 4th grade
3. No official diagnosis yet (we are in the final stages of an independent eval. by a neuropsychologist)
4. Mother
5. Parents
6. We asked for the evaluation at the end of 1st grade because he had done so poorly in Kindergarten and 1st grade and the school’s answer was to retain him another year. In first grade he did get pulled out by a reading specialist (Title I they called it). We also worked on extra stuff sent home by teacher, had a tutor 2x’s a week and summer school. This year when I requested my son’s complete educational file, I read a team report and the principal’s recommendation within the team meeting was “stress parental responsibility.” WHAT?????????
7. Sign the papers, show up to the final meeting with no preparation. I had no idea what I was walking into. Believed that the school knew what was best for him and would guide me through this, WRONG.
8. His official diagnosis from the school is specific learning disabilities in the areas of reading comprehension, listening comprehension, visual perception, memory and organization. The same goals have been on the IEP for three years now. Their summation is mild learning deficits which require accomodations of the curriculum within the general education classroom. Occassional pullout sessions when needed. For district-wide assessment: small group setting, lift time restrictions.
9. Unfortunately, we are seeking the independent eval. because we are on two different pages with the school. I think the bottom line is that we disagree on the basis of the severity of the disabilities. My son is not succeeding in 4th grade. He continually struggles, has noticable anxiety and had threatened to kill himself in October because of continued sense of failure. I asked the school for help since I had been warning them it would come to this since 1st grade. They said that they could not help us. He is now in private therapy in order to cope with school on a daily basis. I would say our overall reflection on the entire process includes words that are not appropriate on a website. We are extremely disappointed with what we have had to go through to get what my son needs to function, yet obviously he hasn’t gotten what he needs yet.

Sorry for the sour grapes, but it is the truth.
Best of luck to you in your career. Hope you are one who can make a difference. You are on the right track since you care to hear the parents input. Thanks again.

Unfortunately Lisa’s experience is the same for us, too. It is difficult to get a diagnosis and even when you feel like you have something clear the school has no clue about what to do. Parents have so little guidence about where to turn. We went to two university specialists and knew they had no clue about the real world. An advocate and independent testing did give us some answers, but the school had no programs to meet our child’s needs. Teachers need to be trained and supported to implement specialized programs to meet the needs of LD children. A one week training and a few materials heaped on everything else a teacher needs to do are not adequate for really addressing a child’s needs. My son, though gifted and very verbal, barely reads or writes. The school wanted to blame him or us for his lack of progress and the truth is they only knew one way to teach. When I did get them to fund outside programs it was six weeks here or three months there and “See, it didn’t work”, they would say. I am a special ed teacher and now have a job in very effective program. Teachers are trained, we have materials for our programs, we have consultants that see us weekly to help us plan and implement lessons. Students are seen individually for two hours a day, five days a week and stay in our program for two years if they need it.
And yes, this IS a public school district. For my own son who is now in high school, we sold our house, moved 100 miles away to be near a private college prep high school for LD children. His public school was not going to educate him and my husband and I are determined that he will have a chance in life. It has been a long lonely road, supported by determination and prayer and the knowledge through this site that we are among friends.

.Age of child with disability I have two children with a disabiltiy. One however is more severe than the other. 17 and 11
2 grade in school 12th and 6th
3. diagnosis The 17 year old had a l.D. in the area of writing, poor fine motor skills, and ADD. The 11 year old has ADHD
4. your relationship to the child Both of them are my children
5. who referred the child for special education evaluation My 17 year old was reffered in 9th grade to be tested for a L.D. due to problems in getting her thoughts down on paper. She and her brother was just diagnosed to have ADD and ADHD this year when I notice both of them were dazing out alot and both had problems paying attention
7. what parent did the parent play in the evaluation process? I basically gave them a written documantion of how my children act at home.
8. the results of the evaluation and TEAM meeting(included diagnosis of special educational need, program implementation) The decided to put my 17 year old in a resource room 1 hour every other day. And for my 11 year old they put him on a behavioral mangement program at school
9. parents’ reflection on entire process(pleased with result, feel comfortable and confident throughout the process/) I wish I could done more for my daughter earlier on in her life. She has some of the same problems which I had when I was a child. But they think her’s might be a little more worst due to spinial mennijutus she had when she 8th months old.

.Age of child with disability I have two children with a disabiltiy. One however is more severe than the other. 17 and 11
2 grade in school 12th and 6th
3. diagnosis The 17 year old had a l.D. in the area of writing, poor fine motor skills, and ADD. The 11 year old has ADHD
4. your relationship to the child Both of them are my children
5. who referred the child for special education evaluation My 17 year old was reffered in 9th grade to be tested for a L.D. due to problems in getting her thoughts down on paper. She and her brother was just diagnosed to have ADD and ADHD this year when I notice both of them were dazing out alot and both had problems paying attention
7. what parent did the parent play in the evaluation process? I basically gave them a written documantion of how my children act at home.
8. the results of the evaluation and TEAM meeting(included diagnosis of special educational need, program implementation) The decided to put my 17 year old in a resource room 1 hour every other day. And for my 11 year old they put him on a behavioral mangement program at school
9. parents’ reflection on entire process(pleased with result, feel comfortable and confident throughout the process/) I wish I could done more for my daughter earlier on in her life. She has some of the same problems which I had when I was a child. But they think her’s might be a little more worst due to spinial mennijutus she had when she 8th months old.

1.Age of child with disability - 12 yrs. old

2 grade in school - 6th grade

3. diagnosis - dyslexia

4. your relationship to the child - mom

5. who referred the child for special education evaluation - his kindergarten teacher started it all by telling my friend that she, the teacher, wanted my child on DRUGS.

6. an explanation of the reason why and when the child was referred and was there any documnetation of pre-referral interventions? ifso, what were they?) Kgarten teacher didn’t like little boys who had any kind of spunk, normal boy behavior or spark. We did keep a chart on him, she reported his good days and noted his extraordinary skills but when asked how he felt about kgarten my child reported
‘that he was bad’ - I pulled him out of school immediately.

7. what parent did the parent play in the evaluation process? - Which time? The first time the doctor didn’t listen to us at all. Listened to the kgarten teacher. Labeled our son ADHD and said he should be on drugs. We said - you are wrong, he is NOT adhd. Second time - next doctor said this child is very bright and a typical little boy, he is NOT adhd. Third time - third doctor said, this child has extraordinary skills and is dylexic. We said that sounds right.

8. the results of the evaluation and TEAM meeting(included diagnosis of special educational need, program implementation) Again, which time?? Mostly okay, sometimes shocking (oh, I guess I should give him some phonics.) Middle school - don’t get me started. Inclusion is a joke in middle school. SE depends on the teacher - goes from the sublime to the totally useless.

9. parents’ reflection on entire process(pleased with result, feel comfortable and confident throughout the process/) — Never, ever let your guard down. Follow up, nag, nag, nag. Never expect them to
solve it all. Do LOTS on the outside. Prepare to spend thousands of dollars in the end.

Anne

thank you so much for your help

Taryn,

Hope this will help you with your paper.

1. My son is now 9 3/4 yrs (Oct birthay).
2. He is completing the third grade.
3. He has a learning disability related to retreival fluency. Despite an IQ in the superior range, he cannot recall stored information speedily with accuracy. He generally does poorly on timed tests that are “cold” recall as opposed to recognition.
4. I am his mother.
5. Second grade teacher.
6. This teacher told us he was a behavior problem and need to be medicated for ADHD. We sought private evaluation with Neuropsych. Teacher was not helpful at all - when we asked for certain accomodations to help improve behavior ( such as moving his seat), she said it was not possible. She also ridiculed him in front of the class and punished him for answering incorrectly.
7. I believe we were the primary players in getting the evaluation completed - we were his advoates with the school (private school).
8. Because this was a private school, they did not have to provide any special sevices or develope an IEP - however, when all was said and done, the pricipal was very helpful. She met with us and the psych and as a result, his third grade experience has been very good. She and his current teacher continue to be very interested in his progress and, I believe, this will continue throughout his time at this school. The school guidance counselor also continues to be involved.
9. This was not an easy process and we had very few struggles compared to some. Our son did very well in school until the second grade so we are somewaht new to this game - and a game it surely is.