OK, since I have had one child already with dyslexia and ADHD (but also gifted), you would think I would know this one, but I need help. Here’s the scoop:
My youngest daughter is 6. She has ADHD. She is on medication which helps her concentrate. HOWEVER, she is also demonstrating the same problems my oldest with dyslexia had, and the same problems I myself had as a child with a non-language disability (forget the name of the math based disability). She almost got held back in Kgd, and is BARELY passing in first grade now. I had no problems getting my oldest tested in first grade and we got a prompt IEP etc. BUT, this time I am getting all sorts of flack because I have asked that my youngest now be tested (in first grade)
The special ed director for our school says that they have decided that it is best to wait until the child is in second grade because they get more accurate results and less “immaturity” reflected on the tests. I stated that my child needs help now, NOT next year. She asked what goal testing her now could accomplish over testing her next year, when the teacher can just make modifications on her own until next year. I said that ideally all teachers would do that, but I have yet to see the ideal school, and then pretty much demanded they test her, to which they have agreed to “review the possibility.”
The School district SPED director said she supports the “Wait until second grade” arguement, that 6 is just too young to get good testing. Can someone give me a much more intelligent, less emotional argument to get my kid tested so at least modifications can be directed toward the appropriate problem?
I have applied to Scottish Rite but it will be months before our appointment. My insurance considers this as Mental Health for which they do not pay, so I can’t afford independent testing. My pediatrition and child psycologist all recommend testing, but the SPED director and coordinator have only agreed to “review the possibility of testing her.”
I am so furious I could choke someone. I don’t understand why in just four years they have gone from a willing to test and help first graders, to a lets wait and see what happens to the first graders place. I need fuel here folks!!!
WIR
Re: Getting flack for asking for testing
The school can not refuse to test your daughter. Send them, certified mail, a request to evaluate her! Here are two websites with sample letters:
http://www.studentadvocacycenter.org/sampleletters/
http://comnet.org/local/orgs/sac/request.htm
If they still refuse after that you will have to file a complaint. Also, check your parents rights brochure, if you already have a daughter on an IEP the school should have given you one. I am pretty sure that it says in there how long they have to test, I know it varies state, in my state, they have five days to get you a consent to sign, then 30 school days to complete the testing, and then 15 days after the completion of testing to have an IEP meeting. I imagine if you have been this route before you know all this, sorry if I am repeating what you already know!
Good Luck!
K.
Re: Getting flack for asking for testing
The goal of testing her now is to get her appropriate instruction now so she won’t be two grades behind by the time testing is done. Dr. G. Reid Lyon from the National Institues of Child Health and Human Development specifically states that it is imparative that learning disabiled children get intervention as early as possible if instruction is going to be successful.
They want to wait because most schools have a “discrepancy formula” they use for placement purposes. They usually only do an IQ test and an academic achievement test to see what the child has learned compared to what the IQ says they are capable of learning. Many schools require that a student be 2 grades behind in the achievement test results i.e reading at 1st grade level as a 3rd grade student. With a lst grader, they can’t show that she’s two grades behind. This is very stupid placement criteria because a lot of valuable instruction time with appropriate programs is lost, and it is difficult to make up two years fo learning in one year’s time while trying to keep up with current grade level work.
Get the book “The Dyslexic Scholar” by Katheleen Nosek. It has a lot of good information.
Re: Getting flack for asking for testing
K is absolutley right. They can not refuse to test your daughter. IDEA states that they must evaluate if the parent request and when the parent signs consent. This is generally the little game the school plays. As long as they can delay your consent to evaluate they won’t have to evaluate. Once the consent for evaluation is signed the timeline in which they have to evalute starts,so if they again can delay your consent to evalute then they can delay things even longer.
What you need to do is get rid of all the rhetoric. Write a letter directed to the director of sped and the school principal,send the letter registered so they must sign that they are in reciept of this letter. Tell them that although you understand what the schools feelings are in regards to waiting to evaluate,but you are demanding the school evaluate your child for educational needs,and possible learning disabilities. Tell them that your signature is to also be used as formal consent for evaluation,that from the date of this letter you are requesting evaluation and giving your consent for evaluation. Now according to federal law the principal has thirty days to arrange for the evaluation. Accoridng to what state your in they might also have a specific timeline once parental consent is given. I have a template for a request for evaluation letter on my webpage. Check the links on the IEP tips page
http://expage.com/socksandfriends
good luck.
Re: Getting flack for asking for testing
For what it’s worth, I would also state in the letter that since I already have 1 LD daughter, and LD is very hereditary, that that is even more reason to test early. Also, if your 2nd daughter is also gifted, you might have the discrepancy early on. Also, advise them what the statististics say about early intervention. Be factual and unemotional in your letter but make them do it.
Re: Getting flack for asking for testing
WIR,
The main reason schools don’t like to test in first grade is that very few children will have the neded discrepancy to qualify as LD at that point. If she knows a few letters of the alphabet, she’ll score at 1.0 grade for reading and if she is in mid-first grade at the time, she clearly will not have the discrepancy needed to qualify unless she has a very, very high IQ. Yes, this is warped since we all know that early intervention is important…but it is the way the law is written currently. I have great hope that will be changing.
Is it reading or math or both that she is struggling with? If reading, I’d buy Earobics to help with auditory skills ($59) and Phono-Graphix (book title: Reading Reflex, about $13 at Amazon) to teach her to read at home. If she is having difficulty with reading, I’d consider that she may have a language based disability and request speech/language evaluation at school now. Then wait for Scottish Rite to do the full eval with reading testing. If you think this is all visual-motor related, then perhaps your pediatrician could refer you for a developmental vision evaluation. Surely that would be covered on your medical insurance. I wasn’t totally clear on her specifc problems from your post.
Janis
Re: Getting flack for asking for testing
Just wanted to say that when the school does test your daughter, you would be wise to be somewhat skeptical with the results. Sometimes the interpretation of the test scores are “funny”, and given the attitude of the people from the school system you’ve already spoken with, it’s a real possibility.
Sometimes this is a good thing, when they tweak a dx to coincide with a program that is most helpful to your child. Often, however, they manipulate the results to go with what they have the money to provide. A “mild” dx of anything usually results in limited or no interventions in a school system without money . Post the scores here when you get them. The response from people on this board is usually fabulous.
Re: her problems
She is having trouble with reading, she can’t identify most lower case letters, she has a lot of trouble understanding concepts and directions. the concept and direction applies to both reading and math. She doesn’t identify simple hi frequency words like at, is, so, and, the, yes, no, etc. Most kids her age are able to “memory read” a simple small story, (recite it from memory based on triggers obtained from the accompanying pictures) She doesn’t do this. She just makes up something to go with the picture thats not even close to the story she just heard. She can’t answer basic questions about a story just read to her, it is like it never happened. She has a big problem with comprehension. BUT if I drill into her the memory verse (very simple short sentences) for the week while showing her the verse and going over it with fingers etc, she can recite it, but can’t pick out the sentence if I put it next to another sentence. Now, she can’t tell me what it means, but she can recite it, so I know it gets stored in her brain somehow. I’m guessing she is an auditory learner, but she can’t understand directions explained to her on her school work. She just doesn’t understand what to do. It’s almost like she can process the auditory, but can’t put it with the visual part to it.
We go through a whole process to identify the word “it”, tracing it, writing in the sand with our finger, saying it out loud several times, flash card style, and yet if I flash another word immediately after like “so” she thinks it is “it” and then we go back to “it” and she has no idea what the word is, she just guesses what ever word comes to mind first.
Also, I know that kids this age still have letter and number reversals, but my psycologist says that girls this age are most always already outgrown this. The bad part is, along with the frequent reversals (especially numbers) I have caught her writing complete words and sentences from right to left. Just 2 weeks ago, she decided her shoes needed her name on them, so now her shoes sport a nice “H aleahcim” instead of Michaela H (there are two Michaela’s in her class) I also have a nice picture on the fridge that is a beautiful drawing and at the bottom says “H aleahciM .ymmom ym evol I”. She copied the sentence off the board the first day of school. A letter or word wouldn’t bother me, but a whole sentence gets to me, because this type of rare dyslexia runs in my mothers family.
I know she is intelligent because she can hatch out very conplicated schemes to sneak out the cookies. For example, the neighborhood kids were over one day and she hatched a plan to have some of the kids come ask me a question, some kids go out the door, two kids to stay and run by the kitchen with a blanket and pillow to pretend they are making a tent, and she will go get the cookies and run out with the girls with the blanket and pillows. I heard her giving all these directions to the kids. Quite extensive planning ability for a 6 year old! She also has very good deductive reasoning, cause and effect etc. which is fairly unusual for a 6 year old.
My oldest had the same reading problems, not really the reversals though, and now in fifth grade she is only one grade level behind in reading. She had no reading comprehension at all in first grade. But she understood basic math concepts from the start if you explained it, in fact she tested out this year on her testing 4 grade levels ahead on math concepts and calculation. (the diagnostition was amazed).
So, who has the miracle answer for me?
WIR
Re: her problems
WIR,
Her case is quite complex. I know a lot more about the auditory than the visual, but I would say that she probably has some integration problems even on the auditory side. My child also wrote backwards for awhile, but it just went away eventually. Is she right or left handed? My daughter is mixed dominance, which I think must have some relationship to integration problems. We did have her repeat first grade as I was not going to send her to second to fail.
This last post gives a lot of good information…hopefully some of the other teachers will chime in and give some opinions. I will say one more thing…public schools don’t often do the best job with these kinds of profiles, but I am encouraged that your older child has done so well.
Janis
You poor thing! Im sorry that I don’t have the fuel you need, however I too am dealing w/ a school from h-e-double hockey sticks, also about testing that needs to be done. I can lend you a sympathetic ear (okay: eye) I feel for you…it is beyond frustrating. Hang in there…we will be heard!!!