I am wondering if anyone can enlighten me as to What the Deal is with the schools and the word dyslexia? Although my daughter communicates okay (She sometimes cannot get the word for what she is trying to say, and makes many sound substitutions in her speech), she is having significant difficulty learning things like the names of the letters and numbers. Despite a report with testing that states she is dyslexic, the school says she is Communication Impaired. They won’t acknowledge the specific learning disability let alone the dyslexia. I know the important thing is the program they will provide, which remains to be seen. But, my experience has been that under this CI they made inappropriate interventions, I felt they did not understand that her language difficulty is the learning disability. Her biggest issue is that despite a superior intelligence, she struggles greatly to learn the basics. Can anyone throw some light onto this for me?
Re: What's the Deal?
Ouch you hit a nerve. I have a gifted/LD daughter. SHe does attend the gifted classroom, just like other gifted students. It has been a long road and sometimes a very negative one. One school psychologist said “Well, we just don’t know if she can handle missing a whole day a week of class in order to go to gifted resource” (the shrink is no longer at the school :) ). I remind her often that lots of smart people don’t read and spell well. Yes, things are harder for her, yes, it takes her longer than the other kids, yes, it’s noticeable. Often she has to have other children help her with reading. However, if given accommodations, she can produce very exceptional work. I had to explain to the teacher that she MEETS the criteria for gifted and therefore she WILL attend the classroom. She’s happy, confident and is doing well. Actually she wants to continue in gifted in middle school and I’m the one afraid she can’t handle it (oh ye of little faith) . She begins 4th grade this year. I keep waiting for her to hit a brick wall, which she hasn’t. We do provide LMB tutoring for her privately. She reads at/above grade level, but reading comprehension is about 10th grade. When she was evaluated the evaluator told us she was very frustrated because her reading comprehension was “Little Women” and her reading level was BELOW “Pal, the Pony”. She’s coming along and the school personnel are getting an education too! She doesn’t have any behavioral problems, she’s a self starter, and wants to excel so that helps.
Re: What's the Deal?
We also had an experience with our school where they avoided the “d” word for over a year. And it wasn’t because they were afraid of commiting to provide services because its a private school, and they are obligated to provide nothing. No, I think they just were trying to be politically correct - some kids learn to read later than others and let’s not label. Of course as soon as I scheduled a neuropsych eval (privately of course) to better understand the source of my son’s problems they then told me they thought he was dyslexic.
Re: What's the Deal?
Part of the problem is in the way the law is written- relative to eligibility the school has to use language which complies with the law. Dyslexia is not a term in the regs.
Robin
Re: What's the Deal?
And to go a step further, dyslexia is subsumed under “learning disabilities.” As L.D. is defined in IDEA, dyslexia is cited as one of various learning disabilities.
I have said this before and I may be redundant. The label itself is of little consequence. What is needed is a good psychoeducational assessment that identifies strengths and weaknesses, a good academic assessment that identifies what the child CAN do and what the child needs to learn to do. Then an appropriate IEP can be created to address the child’s needs.
Not all dyslexic students are identical, the label itself means very little.
Re: What's the Deal?
This is how it was explained to me by a neuropsych and some special ed professionals. Dylexia is too broad a term that is widely misused and misunderstood including by those in the educational field. It can mean anything from simply trouble learrning to read which may be developmentally OK for some (but not all) 1st and 2nd graders to more specific definitions like no letter/sound connections.
The wild wacky world of LD’s is complicated. Kids with the same classification may be very different in remediation that works for each. The expertise of special ed departments and teachers can vary district to district. I don’t know how any parent can be expected to know this stuff - I was surprised and made an obsessive effort on learning everything I could about it - but remain a layman parent.
To make matters further complicated, while special ed laws are federal, the states are allowed to interpret them as they deem appropriate as long as they are within the federal law. So here are two special ed pitfalls to watch for:
1) Of the 50 states, about 40 look at the gap between academic achievement (standardized grade level testing) and potential (IQ scores). If there is a significant gap, the child qualifies for services. About 10 states (NY and Calif. among them) only take grade levels into account, not potential. So kids who are classified may tend to be less intelligent and/or very severely LD. In these states, “borderline” and bright kids may be left to struggle without help (e.g., a superior or gifted IQ performing at grade level when they could/should be performing well beyond grade level). In these states, schools may tell parents “you may need to wait until 3rd or 4th grade when the proper discrepency appears” to the detriment of the child during that waiting time.
2) Special ed law says something like “appropriate” remediation…which can be interpreted as ‘chevy not cadillac’ services. Some schools do ‘cadillac’ remediation regardless of special ed classification or not - but they are probably in the minority I would guess. In our district, special ed (resource room) spends the vast majority of time helping kids keep up and better understand their classwork, but little time remediating the kids’ specific problems. For example, the RR teacher takes 4 kids at a time, one may be dysgraphic, one math LD, one ADHD with various learning differences like memory problems and one severe (reading) dyslexic. How can one RR teacher remediate these kids’ specific LD’s in 40 minutes a day? It’s a very hard job. (Those that can are truly talented and should get the gold shuttle to heaven in my book.) It is my belief that if you work on the kid’s specific LD issue as opposed to classwork, that is preventative and more beneficial for the child’s future, but that’s JMO.
Getting back to your question, some schools do use the term dyslexia - but then specifying the remediation method can become an issue which they may be loathe to document…b/c of funding, they don’t have it and would have to get it, a similar but maybe not the best method for your child is available, the the beliefs and philosophy of the educators there don’t believe in that method, etc. can all be factors.
I’m the parent of a remediated third grade dylexic. My dd had significant sound blending, spelling, sound symbol (the letter/sound connection) and reversals plus short term memory problems to compound it (single digit percentile performances in these measures compared to superior IQ percentile). While I managed to get her classified and therefore resource room support, what helped her the most was private one on one Orton Gillingham tutoring. We were very lucky we found the right help and were in the financial position to do something about it. She too is a very bright kid who was struggling to learn the basics and it was killing me to watch what was happening to her. She still has some spelling issues, but has leaped ahead dramatically in the last two years and the sparkle in her eye is back.
My advice is:
-Continue to educate yourself on this stuff. If you feel the school interventions are not working, learn to speak in their language like “sequential phonics-based reading instruction method” (if that is what you believe) avoiding the term dyslexia.
- I found “more of the same” doesn’t work. If a child is making little/no progress with a given reading method or any type of instruction, why torture the child and make him/her spend more time doing it? Try changing the method, what else is available or may work? A lot of kids in my district are privately tutored by our teachers just to keep up - I think the specific problem should be addressed.
-Recognize realistically what the school can/can’t or will/won’t do and make an informed decision accordingly as to what you think should be done for your dd. You may decide that their program/methods are fine and you may or may not want to supplement privately.
- You can find good info. on the International Dyslexia Association (if I remember correctly) web site - including invaluable contacts in your area. We talked with a few contacts who were in the special ed profession and gave us very helpful insight with our daughter.
- Make sure a comprehensive reading profile is done whether by the school or privately. Also, some universities have reading clinics for young kids where these evaluations are done and (less expensive) tutoring is also available. Who did your dd’s report? Do they have suggestions as to what specifically should be done and where you could obtain it?
I rambled quite a bit, but BTDT. Hope this helps. I get empassioned by the topic, if you couldn’t tell already . I just hate seeing any kid struggling or fall through the crack.
d
Re: What's the Deal?
Well said, D! My daughter has severe specific LD in all academic areas and significant processing delays (she’s “dyslexic”). My evaluator, being a former school psychologist knew the lingo and what terms to use and to avoid. We did with same with our very bright daughter except we use Lindamood Bell (a spin off I believe of the Orton Gillingham). She also now has a sparkle in her eye and a bright future. She still struggles with some things, but uses assistive technology in the classroom and makes very good grades. With the right intervention, a lot of times these kinds can soar!
Re: What's the Deal?
Leah, I read your response on spelling to my post on the other board. Our daughters sound somewhat similar. It’s nice to know there are other “lunatic” parents out there whose children have had success too (and I think LMB is a form of OG).
You are right - with the right interventions and some luck too, kids can soar. When I was researching all this stuff, I read case studies about older kids who were still doing poorly in school, frustrated, misunderstood, little/no self esteem left. This stuff is not clear cut, but they were misdiagnosed initially, not properly remediated, not enough remediation, etc. which caused other problems and symptoms to develop. The neurospsych explained in all these case studies, with a comprehensive assessment, he had to peel back all the layers correctly to address the core issues, if that makes sense. These kids had more problems than they would have if they had the right early interventions in the first place.
And now, IDEA is up for renewal with some changes this summer. I haven’t read up on the specific proposed changes recently but read some comments by one politician a few months ago which made me wary. For one, it would be nice if all states had the same qualifications for classification, funding for even more educational programs and teacher support/training. Think about this - we already have weaknesses and inconsistencies across the country in our school systems yet more knowledge than ever about this stuff and now the politicians, also laymen in special ed, are in the position of affecting legal changes in this complicated area? I wonder if I’m being alarmist or don’t have the background to ask these questions, but it makes me very wary.
Re: What's the Deal?
Yes, LMB, I think, is a spinoff of OG. Because my daughter has such severe auditory discrimination problems (yogret - yogurt; psgetti - spaghetti, bathing soup - bathing suit, etc.) they suggested LIPS which gives the oral reinforcement. We, too, did the same on the private intervention - reached deep into our pockets.
By the way, there’s another board on Schwab Learning/Connecting/momstomoms that has a big chat board that I really spend more time on than this. In fact, funny you should mention your concerns about the upcoming changes in the laws regarding LD - They have a post wherein some muckity-mucks from LDA are going to capitol hill with some suggestions and I think your thought on national requirements in lieu of state is i the list. My name is Lindamood on that chat if you’re looking for me. It’s mostly moms who are just beginning this journey. In fact, I have a confession: I found your “why schools don’t use the term dyslexia” so informative that I cut and pasted it for all the other moms to read. Everyone on that board seems to have dyslexic children/want that dyslexic label. My evaluator refused to use the terms dyslexia (maybe because she was a former SCHOOL psychologist?). In fact, she recommended in writing that my daughter be given dual exceptionalities and she ended up in the gifted classroom with accommodations for her LD. Something that’s unheard of in most places. :).
My e-mail is [email protected] if you want to talk further. Let me know if you come over to schwablearning.
Re: What's the Deal?
I thank you all for responding. Of course, my true concern is that my daughter get the appropriate program ( we are fighting for O-G in school, but she started today with a private O-G tutor). She is only 6, and the right interventions now can make a significant difference. The only reason the classification of Communication Impaired with no acknowledgement of the dyslexia is of concern is that in the past when she was under CI, they had NO goals in the IEP to address her learning. Of course, I fought based on the lack of understanding that the language issues where the learning disability, that her biggest issue was that she was not learning. They changed her whole IEP. My case in point, a child I know is graduating this month. She has been in the special education system since the second grade. The “D” word was never mentioned. When I said, “Hey, what are you going to do?” She said, “I don’t know, but I will have to get a job that I won’t have to read or write. The kids I babysit for can read better than me.” She is a very bright girl, and obviously never had an approptiate program, and therefore, never was given the chance. This child was failed. This is what we, all the parents on this site and all over with children that learn differently fight to avoid. If the schools don’t want to use the term dyslexia, they could call it “summer squash” for all I care, as long as they understand “summer squash” and intervene appropriately. But many don’t care to understand “summer squash” and there lies the problem. So, like you all, I think of the graduate mentioned above and say “God, help me, THAT WILL NOT BE MY CHILD.”
It sounds like they have a different definition of LDs, possibly based on the services they provide. I”ve seen this scenario before - see if it matches: the LD services are geared to average and low average intelligence kiddos, so it would be tough to meet your daughter’s needs there, whether it’s inclusion, resource room or a self-contained situation. So, they call it something else.
And a few too many school folks quite honestly *don’t* believe that a student can be gifted and LD. Oh, have a speech issue, maybe. But LD… no, not a bright student. Either they’re really not that bright (in which case they don’t need help ‘cause they’re doing just *Fine* for their abilities), or they’ll get over these minor little bumps in their academic roads. It’s tough to educate these folks.