New to LD and need advice

Others will have lots of advice for you. Just a few thoughts… in our state, 6 1/2 is on the older side for kinder. Are you comparing her with others her age, or one year younger? Frankly, most pediatricians don’t know that much about LD. While labeling can be a bad thing, it can also mean getting appropriate services— including being taught to read in a way that will work. Not being able to hear the sounds in words can be a big problem in learning to read, write, and spell. I’d go for the evaluation, perhaps privately if your insurance will cover it. Then you can share with the school if it is to her advantage.

Yes, she is one of the oldest in her class. I’m in Texas and the cut-off is Sept 1 and her b-day is Sept 17th. There are many fall b-days in her class and even some summer b-day kids whose parents decided to hold their children back. I do feel she should be doing better than being in the middle of her class.

Suzi

I think you are lucky that they are catching this early for my son it was not caught until he was in 2nd and then there is a lot of catching up to do. Go ahead and let them test and be sure they are comparing to the age and not the grade. You might find out that she is not far enough behind to qualaify for help and if this is the case post back again and people will tell you of programs that you can do at home.

Helen

My son was in speech therapy beginning at age 3 also. He is now labeled LD. The problems first showed up in K. But he was at the bottom of the class!! But I would say that it is def. worthwhile to address her problems early.

My two suggestions, in addition to what others have said, would be to purchase the program Earobics and the book Reading Reflex. Earobics is an auditory conditioning program which works with hearing sounds. Reading Reflex is a program designed for parents to teach their children to read. It has lots of exercises with sounds. These are some things you can do at home to help her.

I don’t think being in the middle of the class is problematic. But I think a history of speech problems and difficulty with sounds are a red flag. I would def. consider an evaluation along with early intervention.

Beth

Your story sounds so much like mine. My 10-y/o daughter had the same speech development issues, and also underwent considerable therapy. She began kindergarten at 5, attending T/TH and every other W. Early on, she was identified as delayed, and began attending a skills program on the off kindergarten days. At the end of the year, she was in the bottom 1/3 of the class, with only ESL students lower than her. We made the decision to repeat kindergarten. The next year was much more successful. However, after we moved into first grade, things began to come apart. She couldn’t learn to read. She wrote in “code”. She didn’t understand math very well. After having the school test her, and then having independent testing done, it became very apparent that she was dyslexic. We chose to move her to a private LD school, as our local school couldn’t teach to her in a manner that would allow her to learn — and we decided we had more money than time. We’re about ready to mainstream her, so there is plent of hope in the scenario presented.

A label is simply a word. It won’t define your daughter unless you allow it to. Please don’t be afraid of a word. Get her the help she needs to be the most successful kid she can be. By doing so, you will ensure that she has positive self-esteem, and the opportunities to take on the world.

I tend to agree that labels aren’t particularly helpful. I also would not take a wait and see approach.

I would seek outside help as directed by some of the wonderful parents who have been through this. You don’t have to involve the school.

I found having my child labled to be more a negative experience than a positive one.
After all, most of the remediation he received was done outside of school anyway. All the label did was make him feel bad about himself.

Suzi,

You say that your daughter is very bright, has known language issues, but is still managing to be in the middle of her class. That is a classic early description of a gifted child who has learning disabilities. Essentially, the child uses her strong abilities to compensate for her weaknesses. The result is a child who isn’t average at all, but ends up looking that way. GT/LD children start out being interested in learning but soon lose heart and begin to hate school. Kindergarten is not too soon for testing, especially given her age. Early intervention is key for any child with LD. Pediatricians (and sometimes teachers as well) often suggest a wait and see approach, but that can be the very worst thing to do. If you think something is wrong, chances are it is. If you have your daughter evaluated, at least you’ll know what(if anything) is going on and can find out what you should be doing about it. As far as labels, people have their own views, but mine is that ALL children are labeled by their teachers in one way or another. One kid is the “smart kid” another is the “smart-aleck.” One child is “a hard-worker,” another is “lazy.” The problem is, kids with undiagnosed LD, especially bright children, often end up with that “lazy” label. My child was labled as gt/ld in first grade and spent four years in a self-contained class for gt/ld students. After receiving the help he needed, he has now left special ed, entered a private school for gifted boys and has made straight As all year. His school is well-aware of his “label” but it hasn’t affected how they view him, or how he views himself.

Andrea

Andrea hit the mark. It sounds exactly like my gifted/LD daughter who in k-5 was the OLDEST child in the class and I was being told she was “developmentally delayed”. I kept asking WHY would she be delayed below children a year younger than her? BTW, she WAS passing and even passed 1st grade in the 37% for reading.

Unfortunately, I waited until the beginning of 2nd grade before I had her independently evaluated. She was gifted with “severe specific learning disabilities in ALL academic areas and significant processing delays.” My evaluator told me She CAN learn to read, just in a different way. My evaluator said she was “treading water” and using all the energy she could muster just to get through the school day. We immediately began LMB tutoring and SI OT.

My daughter is now in 4th grade, never attended a special ed class, attends the gifted program at school, makes great grades and LOVES school. She receives very minor accoms. and uses a laptop for long written assignments. We are, at this point, doing extremely well, but I continually have her re-evalued and make sure she’s staying on the top of the heap.

Mom, stay on the ball, request that evaluation and don’t back down. Make sure your request for evaluation is in WRITING or the school can ignore it. Come back with any questions you have - you have found one of your GREATEST resources on this board.

I agree with everything Beth said. Doing Earobics will quickly show you where problem areas are. She should not be having sound discrimination problems at age 6 1/2. Check the professional listings on this site for auditory processing disorders (www.ncapd.org) and see if you can find an audiologist in your area who specializes in APD. You cannot afford to wait and see as your daughter is too old to repeat K or first grade. My child was the youngest in her class so we were able to let her repeat first grade. Good luck!

Janis

I agree with Beth and Janis. My daughter has auditory processing
issues and had trouble discriminating sounds in words.
Get Earobics. It worked wonders for us. I also agree that you
should NOT wait and see. I would get a complete speech and language
eval., find out what issues you are dealing with, and begin to address them.
The earlier, the better!

And if your child can not do Earobics, consider sound therapy or Fast Forward. My son could not do Earobics before doing Fast Forward, even though he was 7. Others have had the same experience with doing sound therapy.

Beth

For what purpose was this note written to you? I’d speak with the classroom teacher, thanking her warmly for her note, telling her how much you appreciate being informed, but also asking - was that the only purpose of your note? Or did you want us as parents to do something around what you’re seeing in our daughter?

As your daughter goes through school, my advice to you at this point and any other would be to always be pleasantly strategic with the school. Schools and their teachers are long practiced in ‘slipping out from under’, firing salvos and then moving out of range. Pleasantly don’t let them do that to you or to her. Ask direct questions often centered around, “Yes and now what? or What are you really saying here? or what is it you really mean to say? Your note is a little unclear.”

I’d suggest a book to you called Educational Care by Mel Levine. It’s a bit dry but look up auditory processing in it and see what strategies he might suggest to deal with issues in that area.

Good luck.

Since you are in Texas I would suspect that the teachers are working on the TAKS related skills one of which is ending sounds and your child is having trouble with the little benchmarks the teachers give the kids in that area.

In our Texas district there is a constant flow of information to parents when there appears to be a weakness in one of the specific areas. When these kids get to 3rd they must pass the reading portion to be promoted. If the kid fails the district will have “back-up” to the child’s progress, or lack thereof.

Our distict uses this papertrail for summer school to. If you child is ID’d as someone who would benefit from summer school ( and it doesn’t take much) your child must go or you sign a waiver saying you understand that in 3rd grade there is a no pass no promote deal, the district offered extra help in summer school and the parent turned it down. If the kid fails the 3rd grade TAKS test then the school can defend itself by saying We Tried To Help but the parent refused.

Our district doesn’t like to eval for LD until 3rd - too late! - so for K-2 they offer extra help to any kid, no IEP needed. They want these kids to pass TAKS.