Help, I think I'm ready to cave in!

the one thing I would make sure I did,was to have the scores in front of me,that show,A. His reading level,and B. what the program they have tried, has done for him,ie: lack of progress. In other words a graph showing the comparable scores would do a lot to show them,here is his level,he reads at whatever grade level,he is in whatever grade level classess,could you keep up?
Even if he is lazy,could you with this against you,keep up?

I believe I would go in with the attitude,okay,ya’ll think he’s lazy,ya’ll have tried this and that,and it hasn’t worked,now I get a chance to try my ideas…KNow what I mean?

None sound unreasonable to me. Here are some more suggestions. Ask for extended time for tests and assignments, a notebook or folder for home/school communication/homework assignments that has to be signed everyday by the teachers and yourself so everyone knows it was seen. Make this a responsibility of the teachers to check it, not all child’s responsibility to ask for signatures (although we give our son points for signatures which he can redeem for rewards). How about a spell check device/word processor along with the instructions on how to use it? Alphasmart or something like it. A study buddy if an aide can’t be found. The study buddy could help with the note taking(gives copy of notes, whatever) Don’t know if it would help your son, but my son has the opportunity to take his tests in the resource room, both reg. tests and standardized. He also can retake tests for grade improvement. Oh, also all correspondence by mail so your son doesn’t have the responsibility of giving you something that important in a timely manner. My son brought home the copy of his iep, he took that opportunity during school to write on it, NO, NOT after his accommodations (in pencil thank goodness). I’d much rather it had been mailed or I would have gone up to get myself. Hope this helped. Best wishes.

Please do not give up. I can promise you that is exactly what they are counting on. If he is still having difficulty it probably isn’t because he is “lazy”. Who would keep a positive attitude if they were constantly being given work that they were unable to do? The modifications that they have given him aren’t working so try something else. They won’t like it, but tough that is their job. And don’t let them tell you they don’t have the funds for this or that. The law says that they will do it and if they don’t want a lawsuit to take up all of their freetime in the next few years they will find a way to make it work. If they don’t like it they need to try another profession. Go in with your head held high and be ready to answer with all of your “ducks in a row”. And of course he wants to play sports- this is probably the only positive release in school that he has to make himself feel good about himself. Find out if there are any advocacy groups in your area. I know that in our state there are groups of other parents who will go with you to the IEP and help you overcome the “imtimidation” factor. If you aren’t prepared by the date of the IEP— reschedule. Taking someone with you who is known by the school system for their role in helping parents with the process works everytime. They know that they have to measure up and they get real nervous during the IEP review. It really is funny to watch them squirm for a change. I don’t know where you live but I am going to work this morning and I will give you the 800 number to the group Families Helping Families. They might not have a group in your area but they can give you some good ideas. I wish you the best.

and appologize for not recalling enough of the overall background…

You son is dyslexic and is falling further and further behind in his ability to read effectively…

Remind what the schools have done to specifically address this? I do not mean endless modifications that will coast him thru school (and be viewed alternately as a colossal pain in the fanny and an unfair advantage by various teachers). We know the schools are perfectly willing to promote and even graduate with out mastery in basic levels of reading, writing and ‘rithmatic (why else the sudden push for SAT?).

But what will happen when he coasts thru school and still has not had his dyslexia addressed? Most employers are under no mandate to accomodate for dyslexia, so I reckon he’ll have to flip burgers or pick up the garbage, yes?

So what have the schools done to address the dyslexia itself? Anything? There are methods which have helped literally hundreds o dyslexics improve in their abilities, and truly the schools need to begin using effective methods, not just the least thing they can do to squeak by a DP hearing.

Does anyone here thing I am too out of freakin line thinking that we need a complete pardigm shift from FAPE to FEPE?

Cancel the meeting and find someone to go with you. It sounds like having someone there with you will help allot.

As far as accomodations/modifications here is a list from a 13 yr old, 8th grader. I hope they help!

1. Assistance with and/or adapted content reading material accross the curriculm. Lengthy assignments that involve many pages of reading or difficult wording cause problems for student. For example, student has indicated that Social Studies class contains a fair amount of reading. He says he has difficulty keeping up with reading assignments, in class and at home. You will need to modify or adapt any reading assigments, in class or out, for student.

2. Continue to encourage self advocacy skills. It is important that student understands he can come to you for assistance during or after class and after school.

3. Provide assistance for organization, long term projects, making sure homework can be done independently. student has a hole punch in his bag so that when papers are handed out he can immediately put them in his three ring binder. Please see below regarding long term projects.

4. Long term projects are to be checked every week. (EX. If project is due in 3 weeks, student is to be given tasks that will be checked in one week, until project is complete.) I have also included post cards, already addressed to his house and stamped that you can fill out. This gives his family a chance to help him stay on task and complete assignments.

5. Long term projects will be accepted on a basis of what is truned in at the end of the project date. Grading is to be done by process of what the student understands about the material at hand.

6. Directions given in any format neccesary to accomodate student. This inlcudes type written, long hand, and oral.

7. Additional examples of material are to be provided. This is to help clarify the assignments for student if he should not understand.

8. Practice tests or examples provided before tests is administered. For example,the night before an exam so he can understand what material to study..

9. Spacing increased between test items. student has difficulty when items, numbers, or words are placed to close together.

10. Cues (arrows and stop signs) provided on answer forms.

11. Student is cued to remain on task. It is important to encourage student to stay with the task at hand. When student realizes that a task, word, or project is too difficult he will move on and not complete the assignment.

12. Reminder to maintain effective posture of writing.

13. Stimuli reduced. (ex. number of items on desk limited.)

14. Opportunity to take tests in alernative setting and untimed as needed. student will need to be given the opportunity to take test in the special ed room
and/or after school.

15. Assistive technology (such as alpha smart). student should be encouraged to use his alpha smart to record notes, homework assignments, and long term projects.

16. Modify or reduce written work to accomodate his rate of written output/scribe when neccessary. As with reading student needs assistance when assignments arelengthy or difficult in nature.

17. Oral test options or other medthods of evalutaion to accurately assess what he has learned rather than what he can read or write. Again this option can be for use after school and/or in the special ed room.

18. Opportunities to demonstrate learning through a variety of mediums. It is important to remember that student may be able to adequately express orally what he has learned. It is important to give him the opportunity to choose how he would like to demonstrate what he has learned.

19. Frequent review and clarification.

20. Preferential seating after consulting with teacher and student to reduce distractions. After speaking with student he indicated that in one or more of his classes he sits in the outer seats so the classroom aide can more easily assist him. After consultation with student this should be considered in all classes.

21. Progress reports weekly from teachers and special ed teacher. Included in this packet is a weekly progress reports. They are to be completed on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. They are to be used so that student and his family will now what missing work needs to be completed and what areas need to be worked on. The progress report should be given in an envelope to student.

22. Home to school monitoring notebook for recording daily and long term assignments and comments as needed. This book is very important in helping with communications between student, his family, and his instructors. Although the IEP states “as needed” If used to daily to comment on student’s classwork, homework, and other assignments, we feel it could help increase student‘s output.. It can be used for tests scores, assignments, general concerns and anything you would like to see student work on.

23. Offer alternative assignments.

24. Provide extra set of texts for home use.

25. Graded on conteent, not penalized for errors in mechanics of writing. This is to ensure student is not penalized for grammatical errors. This will help him fell more comfortable writing.

26. Opportunities to correct errors. Returning papers to student and allow him to correct errors he has made will help him in his writing activities.

27. Use of tape recorder when needed.

28. Positive verbal or written feedback.

29. Communicate with parents thorught letters, meeting, phone calls, and progress reports. I have included all phone numbers and address’s, any one of them can be used to contact student‘s family.

30. Specifically designed instruction.

The following are a list of math modifications that apply to all math class:

1. Concrete examples.

2. Drill and practice.

3. Use of fact charts.

4. Use of calculator to check work.

5. Modify or reduce amount of work given. (odd or even problems on papers for example)

6. Step by step guide for remembering computations steps.

7. Use of graph paper or lined paper on its side to help line up problems.

Okay FAPE = free appropriate public education

FEPE…..? Free effective public education?

Am I close?

Anne

>>Continue to encourage self advocacy skills.<<

I think this is so important.
Your child will never *not* be LD.
Advocating and self awareness, together with
majority and coping skills is just as important
as nailing down those decoding and comprehension
skills.

Being married to a dyslexic, who is a successful engineer,
has been helpful in seeing the ‘end game’ in all of this.

My sophomore daughter will inform teachers of her
spelling abilities right up front. She asks the teacher
to hang in there with her. She is a talented writer
and she wants to make sure the teacher sees beyond
the five different ways she can spell a word.

Anne

Hi Kathy,

The above are all great ideas - I want to add one more.

How about textbooks on tape to help him be more independent?

Lil

One more idea would be to have any classroom test that he scores less than 70% to require the missed test questions to be re-taken with assisted verbal interpretation of the question. In other words, make sure he know the question clearly enough to respond with an answer. These re-tests can often move the score up to more of the actual rate of understanding.

Outcome studies have already been done to demonstrate it is cheaper in the long run to do it right the first time. Loic will tell you that honest cooperation will foster much better relationships bewtween schools and parents than the currnt method operandum. Never mind the underlying moral prinicples…

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Just one more little comment. In preparing for the IEP, I got out all the old school stuff. I read over old teachers notes, etc. Well, I’m even more furious now. I found notes from first and second grade, saying what a hard worker he was, how he tries but it just doesn’t come easy. Then by 3rd grade the notes were saying, progress is slow, becomes easily frustrated. I just feel like the school has let him down. They took a kid who started out trying and after years of failing, he probably has given up. But where does the fault lay. I’m glad I ran across all that stuff, because I’m thinking if it ever comes down to a due process hearing, those notes just might help me.
Thanks again!

As the DAD said in previous posts, you don’t have to settle just for accommodations. That will help ease your son’s stress level, but it won’t solve the reading problem. The school must remediate your son immediately. There is no excuse for your son not reading at grade level. There are many research based programs out that (such as LindaMood Bell) that will help your son to read at grade level. This is a fact! Everything in school is based on reading. The school must bring his reading level up. Schools like to put band aids on kids instead of giving them the shot in the arm that they need. Start doing some research on dyslexia and what kind of program is required to remediate your son. Be careful. The school will say, oh yes we have multi-sensory approach to reading…blah, blah, blah. With your son being in 7th grade, your son needs immediate 1:1 INTENSIVE decoding help. I speak from experience, my son is also in 7th grade and he is just now getting the help he needs after an extensive fight with the school. If you can afford it, get a professional private opinion on what your son needs. (even if you only pay for an 1hr of someone’s time). The International Dyslexia Assocation has some names of people that can help. Hopefully, some of them live near you. Don’t give up. You know your son the best. If you haven’t already, go to www.wrightslaw.com for information about your rights.

I agree with the decoding but according to the school it isn’t enough. I was told today that the Wilson program, which my brother has been on forever, is really not sufficient. I was told that even if a child is making progress and getting from book to book that the language and vocab that the Wilson program uses may not be comparable to what is being taught in class.

So my question is and was, aren’t the skills being taught with Wilson supposed to give a child the necessary skills to translate into the regular ed classroom? Now I am not saying it makes them speed readers but shouldn’t it help them decode bigger and more advanced words?

I was pretty disturbed to hear that but I wasn’t surprised since at the last meeting another one of the “specialist”, said that she is sure that if retested my brother will show no significant progress. Very encouraging words to hear from someone who is supposedly helping your child!!

Sorry a little ranting there! It just made me wonder if Wilson is not teaching heavy duty decoding that what will and why isn’t he gettting it??

K.

I don’t know that much about the Wilson program. I know that LindaMood Bell is good. Why in the world would the school put your child on this program if they now say that it really doesn’t help him the way it should be????? I wouldn’t believe a word these “specialist” are saying. Those people really don’t know anything. Start to do some research on your own and get some outside professional help if you can.

Has your child ever been given the GORT? It is a reading test. It measures the flow and ease of his reading. That test should give you a good indication of how well he is decoding, etc. You need a objective measure to determine if he is making any progress. Not some teacher subjectively determining that he is or he isn’t.

Check out this site. Chapter 12 is of special interest.

http://www.edexcellence.net/library/special_ed/