need advice on son's test scorces

Appears to be a classic phonological processing issue. Your child will probably need a program that has a strong phonology strand with multi-sensory component. Programs that may be considered, depending upon his own profile, might be Orton-Gillingham based, Lindamood-Bell programs or even something like Phonographix. He will surely need highly structured and explicit instruction in hearing sounds IN words, segmenting sounds in words, blending sounds into words. Later on, after basic syllable patterns are pretty much mastered, he will probably also need explicit and structured instruction in how to read multi-syllabic words (acutally some of this can be started BEFORE every single syllable pattern is mastered) and probably fluency training. This group of readers usually tends to struggle to achieve automaticity in reading, so even when reading accuracy improves through explicit decoding instruction, the speed is usually lacking, rendering reading a struggle. This type of child usually does NOT experience significant difficulty in reading comprehension. So, remediation is usually straightforward and will achieve a good measure of success.

Stacey,

Anitya is right.

Ask the school for specific programs like the ones she suggested. I would suggest you also take it one step further and find a lindamood bell clinic or get the reading reflex book if you can do it yourself.

If a child is behind in this area it may be that they weren’t using the right methods to begin with. See Helen’s post above about 50% of kids mislabled.

If you can get him remediated without puting him in sped I would do that. I really thought that sped took a toll on my son’s self esteem that was probably unneccessary in hindsight.

PS. My whole family also called my son an old soul when he was little.

I keep seeing the tag “gifted/ld”. exactly what does this mean, and how is it determined? Even though my son is functioning at a Kindergarten level in reading, he is fully capable of 5th grade math and other related subjects. do test scores determine how they are labled?

An IQ of 130 or above is considered gifted. For GT/LD usually there are around 3 or more subtest ceilings of 18 -19 on the WISC with much lower scores on some subtest ( this is called subtest scatter)..

Helen

I’m not qualified to comment on your son’s scores - so I’ll leave that to our resident experts. But as a well read mom of an LD 9 year old, I would agree with Linda F. Your son is obviously highly intelligent (whether he qualifies for a gifted program or not…) and will respond well to proper remediation.

I was in your place about a year ago. I didn’t know about the availability of intensive remediation either through a local LMB clinic, or a school based program over the summer. That is the one thing I wish we had done. While we got him a tutor right away, the progress has been slow and we are now planning to take him out and put him in a highly regarded school for bright dyslexic kids. Intensive remediation before 3rd grade might have prevented this. In retrospect I would have gladly sacrificed one summer of camp to not have to change schools. Kids like this need tons of repetition. The sooner the better.

One note on the gifted thing - our school system has gifted programs for kids with IQ’s at various levels. They don’t always require an IQ of 130 for eligibility. But the local gifted/LD program does have that requirement. SO it may be worth your while to look into this and see if there is a program that would remediate him while feeding his intellectual growth as well.

Get intensive remedial reading help immediately. Your child is learning to read now but soon will be reading to learn. His struggles with reading will affect the whole educational process. Its tough to be bright and feel stupid.
Do not depend on the school, they have too many kids that need help. It is up to you to educate yourself on your child’s problems and possible solutions.

Good for you that you went ahead and got private testing. You would have to wait and wait and wait for testing through the school. Look to the next step and find the right reading tutor/program for him as soon as possible.

Welcome to the board. Welcome to finding your own solutions.

That’s the best place to find them usually, OUTSIDE the school. Reading, researching, BB’s (i firmly believe this one is THE best).

My daughter received LMB intervention at the beginning of 2nd grade. B/c she was not reading, it worked quickly and effectively - though her fluency is not the best she continues to improve. (Comprehension was never a problem).

The reason for saying this is many times when the kids get older, they have to go back and unlearn false ways of reading that they either taught themselves or were taught. Early intervention allows the ability to learn to read ONE way and in the correct way to meet their specific needs.

One thing my evaluator said when I first discovered my daughter’s LD and asked, “Is there any hope?” She replied, “Yes, she will learn to read like everyone else, just in her OWN way”. We did LMB, not intensive, 2x wkly. Doesn’t work for some, worked fine for us.

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