letting child know of accomodations

I think that self-advocacy is an extremely important skill for LD children. Your daughter will always have learning disabilities and it is critical that she understand the nature of them and what she needs to be successful, not only as a student, but as an adult. Start now and you will have a child who is comfortable with the fact of her LD and the accomodations she requires to achieve her maximum potential. Also, we all know that some teachers (not the good ones) resist providing the accomodations mandated by a child’s IEP. If the child knows that it is her right to have, for example, a portable keyboard for in class writing assignments, she can ask her teacher to give one to her. If she is refused, she can tell her parents what has happened. If she doesn’t know that she is entitled to it, she will just muddle along and her parents may never know that she is being denied an accomodation expressly mandated by her IEP. JMHO.

Andrea

My son is the same age. Personally, I think it is very young to take an IEP meeting. At the same time, I would voice her concerns at the meeting. As far as letting her know the specific accomodations, I think that would depend what they are. If it is keyboarding, obviously she should know. With my son, I often write for him when he is just too tired to do it himself. He gets the same homework and I only act as a scribe when it is necessary. I have never told him about these accomodations and perhaps he even thinks this is what all kids do!!!

I think writing without lines is plain silly and I would get this as an accomodation and simply tell your daughter that some kids do better with lines.

I would also think about how to keep up the writing without it being so taxing on your daughter. Can she learn to key board for example? Or can you be her scribe?

Beth

My son now in 5th grade wanted (and still does) to do everything the same way as everyone else in class(he didn’t mind my typing for him at home); his downfall came when he just couldn’t learn cursive, despite two years of handwriting class…he and I told the teachers in 3rd, 4th and 5th that he would be printing; he stuck to that despite continued teacher assignments of wrinting things in cursive. Luckily in middle school next year everybody prints and types! I think my son had to be the one who decided what accomodations he could tolerate in class. I have never seen unlined paper in school(except in the printers).

Learning to cope with your learning disability is so important.
It is a life long thing.

My dyslexic husband has a number of tricks he developed
to help him get through a tough college course and in his
work. He knows when to ask for help, to have neuro-typical
people to go over things and not to try certain things when
he is tired.

So it is important along the way to know thyself and to
not let people run over you.

Anne

I have talked to my 9 year old boy about everything!! he knows that he is smart and has the capability of learning but will have to work harder and do some things differently.

I found out about his learning challenges by accident. I was looking for help with behavior problems at home. We opened a huge can of worms and found out that he is having to put forth an incredible amount of energy and effort to keep up in school. Made us think that he must be coming home exhausted and fed up with having to do anything!!and you can guess he he told off!!!

now that we have identified some problem areas, i can make changes and i can let him know that this is something we need to work on. He knows that i am on his team and slowly beginning to see that his teachers are on his team also.

Any teacher who refuses to make little allowances for any child-disability or not, needs to have the problem/situation explained in a sit-down formal meeting.

I would take my child to an iep meeting so that the rest of the team can hear from the child’s mouth what it is like. maybe that will increase compassion and understanding and empathy.

I also vote for telling your child about his/her problems. I have a 9 year old daughter who went, for the lst time, to an IEP meeting this year. I want her to know how to do it and what it’s all about so she can learn one day to advocate for herself and her CHILDREN.

My daughter knows (since she was 7) that her brain works differently and that she has to work harder than everyone else to produce the same. She has a keyboard (school provided) in the classroom, but now prefers to use a computer and cowriter software. Currently (3rd grade) she doesn’t have any problems with others knowing that she shows her knowledge better on the computer. I say, help your kids and teach them to help themselves.

I have no doubt that believe it or not your daughter is acutely aware of what her needs are. What her strengths are and what she needs accomodations for.

She is concerned because the teacher forgot to explain to her that though the writing demands will be more,that they will be helping her strategize on how she can show her knowledge in other ways,or help he to keep up with the higher demands.

It doesn’t have to be at the IEP,she doesn’t have to be there,but she should have every opportunity to tell you what she needs. My youngest in 1st grade could tell me what his goal was on his IEP. He simply said,”I want to write better”.He said it! I mean this was the problem. Now it was up to the grown ups in his life to help him do that. Know what I am saying?

IEPs can be long and boring for a third grader but perhaps some time could be made for her to participate so she knows what’s being done to supoort her and what her responsibilities will be. She might not take advantage of her accomodations and might even take more responsibility if she’s part of the decision making process. Only you know your child well enough to make that judgement call.