Latest evaluation results, and more thoughts on RAN

Do you think the school is just marketing their product and “claiming” a potential customer? I would think long and hard before taking a child with mild deficts out of the mainstream.

This is what really drives me crazy about the discrepancy in the severity of his disability. There’s a big difference between being in 3rd grade and reading like a mid year 2nd grader, vs a 1st grader. It is a big deal to take him out of the mainstream and away from a school he loves and has friends at.

But, this school is so competitive to get into, and has such a stellar reputation for knowing which children belong there, that I believe we must trust their assessment. (The other schools we’ve seen met with my ds for 30-45 minutes. Basically if he didn’t have 2 heads they liked him.) This school had him attend the school for 8 hours and did academic and emotional testing. Now if something dramatic happens to his reading in the next few months (unlikely but we can always hope!) then it gets interesting. Thanks for your support.

Karen,

The picture is muddy. My son has mixed performance on many tests and I have seen it in his work at home. So much depends on the atmosphere, the tester, the time of day, whether it was a full moon the night before, whatever.
One OT had him in the 98% in gross motor skills the other had him with serious bilateral gross motor deficits. He scored really poorly (in the 50s) on the beginning of the year math assessment in sped. He now gets 70s and 80s on much harder regular ed material in math. (Might be IM) Some nights I will be reading with him and he sails through it, other times he misses alot.

Just so you know I have equated this to his in and out attention. Not that I am saying that is your boy’s issue, but I thought I would share it.

Go with your Mom instincts on what is best for him. You have really good mom instincts.
PS. I believe anxiety could play a role in RAN. Have you ever been in a situation where you were forced to come up with a persons name quick? Then you get anxious because you are blocked and you just know you are going to insult the person. This happens to me and when I get worried about forgetting the name, it really just won’t come to me. This happened recently with someone I knew really well, I got so befuddled I just couldn’t think of the person’s name.

I think you are right, and I think anxiety affects his attention. But its not all one or the other (cause that would be too easy !)
Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Is he reading like a mid-year 2nd grader or a 1st grader?

It seems to me that if he’s reading at mid-year 2nd grade and he’s getting quality remediation, this shouldn’t be a huge issue.
Even with the competitiveness (which unfortunately makes his reading abilities seem much more severe than they are — if he were in our school he’d be average..particularly for a boy and we’re at a very competitive public school!).

I’ll never pull my son out of a school he’s happy it. That was the biggest mistake I ever made. Although your son might have an easier time with transition.

Another question….is your son making progress? Even slow progress?

I hate to beat a dead horse, but this is what keeps me up at night these days. He doesn’t test that poorly for a kid with a reading LD. His reading scores are between 1.9 and 2.6 for rate and accuracy. His comprehension is at grade level or above depending on how its measured. He’s making progress, but it takes a toll - the schedule and the stress of being the worst performer in his class.

So what we’ve decided is that if he gets into this one school (LD) he’s going because what they do is intensively remediate and then mainstream kids like him. Its a proven track record, and the parents I’ve spoken to speak of the place like the holy grail . Fundamentally changing their kids lives by remediating them so well they don’t struggle when they go back. I feel like if we have this chance to change his experience of school at this early age we owe it to him to do it.

If he doesn’t get in there we’ll keep him where he is, opting for the daily struggle in a familiar place vs. changing schools to a place that isn’t as good. At least that’s the current plan.

But we are heartbroken for him , because he won’t understand why this is the right decision. : (

“Fundamentally changing their kids lives by remediating them so well they don’t struggle when they go back. I feel like if we have this chance to change his experience of school at this early age we owe it to him to do it. “

Karen,

My son was lucky enough to receive early, effective remediation through a special ed placement in a class for gt/ld kids. Many people questioned our judgment on placing our son (who was so smart, and so good at compensating, that he didn’t seem that bad) into a special ed environment. I think it is the best decision we could have made. He started in the gt/ld class at age 7. He is now 12 and attending a highly competitive school for gifted boys and loving it. He has a straight A average. The only accomodation he needs now is the use of a laptop. He does take medication for his ADHD and we do have him work with a tutor to improve his written expression and to reinforce concepts one-on-one, but 5 years ago I would never have believed that he would be able to function, let alone be happy, in this kind of school. That’s the difference early, appropriate interventions can make for a child. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that your child gets in.

Andrea

Thank you so much for the vote of confidence. It is a very difficult decision, taking him out of a mainstream school that we love. And that his sister attends. It will disrupt our family in many ways to do this but we feel we have to if we can. Congratulations on what your son has achieved!

But what will you do if he’s still a little behind or different socially? If he is truly a gifted kid who is underachieveing HUGELY then I could see a private LD school as a booster; but otherwise, you may be disappointed if he can’t re-enter the world of highly competitive prep schools as a middle schooler. You need to ask hard questions of the evaluators you’ve used….will he catch up? Yes my son caught up and functions well in reg. ed. but he does not function like a gifted student, and works twice as hard as his fellow students…it’s what he wants and we support him. Good luck with your decision.

I have a 4th grade gifted/LD student who attends gifted resource (only 1 day weekly) and is in general ed classes. She uses a Dana/computer for long written assignments; and gets extended time on SOME assignments. An occasional modification (every other math problem). Otherwise she does all the same work as the general ed kids. Yes, she has to work harder than everyone else to produce the same, but she makes A&B’s and is a happy, well adjusted child.

We head to middle school in 1-1/2 yrs, but we plan to keep the same strategy. With the right intervention, a gited/LD student can thrive in public school general ed and even advanced classes.

I think my son works harder (by far!) than his peers, but he is handling advanced classes extremely well and has no social difficulties and lots of friends. Again, my perception is that early intervention was critical to his success. I think that had we waited, he probably would have fallen so far behind and learned to hate school so much that we would never have gotten him back.

Andrea

Good questions. He will always be a little different socially no matter where he is so that’s an issue we’ll have to stay on top of no matter what.

One of the big attractions of the school we want to send him to is the excellence of the curriculum, over and above the remediation . Their mission is to remediate and then mainstream (as opposed to other schools we’ve seen that keep the kids right now thru HS). . Our concern with most of the other special schools we’ve seen is that he’d be bored.

I think if we can close the gap in his reading/writing skills sooner the boost to his self esteem will actually help in the social arena. And it will close sooner at this school b/c they deliver the remediation with an intensity we could never achieve if he stays at his school. But its still a difficult decision.. . we’ll only know in hindsight.

You’ve put a lot of thought into this decision.

I think all you can do is go with your gut instinct and keep in mind that you are doing your best. I know you are a caring parent who truly wants what is best. Either way, I’m sure everything will work out fine because you are so conscientious.