Where to start.

Kindergarten is not too young to test. Though your child will probably not qualify for any special education services at this time (the descrepency between ability and acievement will most likely be wide enough at this young age) but it will establish a good baseline for any follow-up testing.

Learning disabilities usually aren’t detected until second grade (because of the guidelines that most states have established). If you are truely concerned that there is a problem, you may want to have a psychologist do some testing. You may learn a lot about how your child learns.

good luck

Ed - elementary principal - Prescott, Arizona

I too have a child who in kindergarten showed early signs of LD/Dyslexia. I agreed to let him go start first grade and see if the problems were still there. I started by talking with his teacher and then made contact with the LD teacher at his school to get her opinion as well. She was very kind and watched him in class on different occasions and spoke with his teacher. And she gave reccomendations. One of which was to send a letter explaining his history from birth. If he was early, home life, LD with in the family, anything you feel they need to know. Send this letter to his teacher as well as the principal. From that I found out that in the state of Indiana they are required to test the child at the school with in 90 days. From this testing we found out yes he is highly intellegent and yes he is dyslexic. The school is now helping with his LD. He started LD after the Christmas Break and we are hoping that he will be able to overcome this by fourth grade. Good Luck and stand strong.

My son is five and in kindergarten. He was recently evaluated and is going to have an Auditory Processing evaluation with an audiologist as a result. I don’t think kindergarten is too young. I would rather know now while he is young and still learning the basics of reading instead of when he is supposed to be reading. I gathered some very valuable information from the tests and it has helped his teacher understand better how to teach him.

thanks
K.

You all have brought up such good points! I feel encouraged to look at testing outside of the school (the teacher was interested and listened, but was dismissive of testing until 2nd grade, saying the school wouldn’t do anything differently if she was dyslexic!). Does anyone have any ideas/guidelines for finding someone to test objectively? Thanks again for all the info. Lots to think about.

Test her NOW. Very important. Do it independently no matter what the cost. Get your pediatrician involved. Get his/her recommendation on where to go for testing. Make it comprehensive, not just educational, not just neuropsychological. You need the big picture FIRST. Then, treatment strategies to follow. We’re going through this right now with our second grade daughter. She has auditory processing problems, which are beginning to affect her socially and academically. We can treat the auditory processing but we’ve been told by several people to find out if this is part of bigger picture like ADD. Even though they co-exist, they are treated differently. That’s why it’s important to do comprehensive testing.

Make sure that you have gathered information about the person who will be completing the evaluation. We made the mistake of selecting a psychologist who had a basis towards ADD ( his son was ADD and taking medication). He diagnosed my child as being mildly ADD and recommended that we should medicate him. After several years ( we began when he was 6 he is now13 and in the 7th grade) of searching and have additional testing done he has been diagnosed as having several learning disablities. My concern is that we wasted all that time.

I have a daughter in kindergarten as well w/ PDD-Autism, ADHD, Bi-Polar, Speech/Lang Delay, Dyslexia, Auditory Processing, where does the list end. I ALWAYS recommend an evaluation by your own personal choice psychologist as well as requesting one from the school. Most times, the testing from both sources is very similar and you will find the pattern of her weaknesses and strengths. The school, by law, has 90 days to complete the evaluation process (you need to send a letter requesting reevaluation to your central off spec ed dept). Once you are done testing her, reconvene an IEP and rewrite with the supports she needs in place. If she is not tested until 4th grade, she will have lost 4 years of learning to read/reading to learn. If she is found to be dyslexic and have central auditory processing problems, services can put in place at school to ensure she is able to learn. Those services include assistive technology, sitting in the front of the class, being asked to answer questions in class with extra processing time and prompts, using visual prompts during testing, taken out into a small group setting for tests/learning new tasks/when she is over-stimulated, and many more. I just had a huge IEP yesterday and am in the process of doing a lot of this work. I read and read and read and research anything I can get my hands on to write IEP’s. E-mail me with any questions.

Hi- my oldest child, who is now in grade three was diagnosed with a “specific disability in reading in grade 2- however, it was a clear as can be that something was awry in K and grade 1. I had my kid tested in grade one-screened only. PLEASE KNOW that as a parent you have the right (IMBEDDED IN FEDERAL STATUTE) for your child to be evaluated- and within a certain time frame (60-90 days-state regs are different than federal regs). My kids’ screening came out “fine”. We redid this process in grade 2- once again the screeing was fine (except for the 50 pt gap between the math and reading areas!- I INSISTED (which you can too and the school MUST comply- not a choice- but the LAW-IDEA now being revised) upon a full pyschoeducational (sp?) evalation. Here is were we found a neurological processing burp with my kid. SO now we know my very bright, savy, with-it kid is dyslexic- has been receiving resource services for a year (not too pleased with , but this is another whole story)
I am so sorry that your child’s teacher is such an uneducated ignoramus.
YES-early testing is indeed posible, and can be quite useful.Search for work by Torgenson et al- a very simple test of sound-letter association predicts with pretty darn good accuracy which kindergartenders shall have difficulties with reading by the end of grade 2. I by no means live in a state that is the epicentre of educational cutting edge practices, but even here- it is part of the kindergarten report card.
YES- there are effective ways to teach your child to read- I think your child’s teacher needs to be tarred and feathered and run out of town saying what she has- if we can send space ships to Mars, and teach Shamu the killer whale to act in movies OF COURSE there are methods to teach your little one to read. You need to go to the International Dyslexia Association web site, you need to educate yourself about multisensory-kinesthic teaching, and I would visit a couple of web sites in addition to IDA: Wrightslaw.com, reedmartin.com, Lindamoodbell.com
Remember, if you live in the United States
Your school,i) like any good citizen, must obey the laws of the law (IDEA, ADA, and section 504 of Rehab act), ii) has a financial agreement with the state you live in to uphold those laws, and , most importantly, iii) has a moral obligation to teach children the way they learn- this is called a FREE AND APPROPRIATE EDUCATION.
you know your child better than any teacher- you know when something isn’t quite clicking, don’t be put-off by no-nothings, and don’t expect folks in the school (as well intentioned and nice as they may be) to be leaping to your assistance- the squeaky wheel DOES get the grease
best of luck!
feel free to email

Kindergarden is not too young to start testing. I think you should talk to the teacher again and if she says no then test her indepentently.

LAS, I have a son in first grade, that we are having tested this month by an independent psycologist. We, too, live in Indiana. The agency that does testing in our school system cannot see him until they legally have to (sometimes in Sept.) We live near Bloomington and I contacted the Student Disability Services Dept. I then asked to speak to a Learning Disabilities Specialist, asking for a recommendation of a psychologist in my area that does testing. She was very prompt and helped me out. My son now has several appointments with a psychologist that does this testing. I’m going to go ahead and let the agency that works with the schools do their thing in the fall, to see what they come up with, too.
You certainly have the right to request that the school do testing. If the teacher won’t recommend, you can try the principal, but he/she may stick by the teachers’ recommendation.
It’s going to cost us dearly to have this testing done, but I feel it has to be done before he moves on to the next school year. This way he can be helped as much as possible and hopefully retain what he’s learned and maybe catch up over the summer. I hope this information helps you.

I would have your daughter tested independently. Many school systems take months to get the child into the evaluation process, by then you have wasted a year. Also if she isn’t performing latter 1st 2nd grade they may end up trying to retain her because they think she may need more time. Just go for the testing yourself and get what your daughter needs. Also familiarize yourself with the different type of test Bender-Gestalt, Wisc III,Woodcock Johnson, etc. I’m not sure of all the names you will need to ask some one else of what they mean and what each is for.
Elna

Dear LAS:
I am appalled that your child’s teacher would tell you there is nothing that can be done. As a special education teacher of learning disabled students in the 6th grade, I will tell you that
there are indeed things that a teacher can do to help children with these learning problems. It doesn’t mean that they are “cured”, but a good teacher can help fill in the learning gaps that could be keeping your child back.

Testing is not recommended in Kindergarten. However, you have the right to INSIST on testing. I would do so no later than second grade. You may need to go to the district special education department head with a formal letter of request.
It is difficult to be sure of the child’s problem when the child is very young. Some of the problem may be just slow development.

As a parent, use your right to have your child tested by first or second grade. Keep on them to get it done. Once they begin testing, they must keep within a specific federally mandated timeline.

Give your child’s principal and teacher a formal letter stating your request for assessment. They cannot ignore a formal letter.
The process begins with a Student Study Team (SST) meeting. Your child’s teacher and the SST teachers meet to discuss what is happening with your child. The SST teachers discuss too what interventions could be tried to help the child. The teacher goes back to the classroom and implements the interventions discussed at the meeting. Keep in touch with the teacher to see how the interventions are going. Within a months time, your teacher should know if the interventions are working. The teacher must document what she tried and what happened.

If these interventions did not work, the SST team meets again.
This time, they call you in to meet with them. As a team, you can decide if further interventions are needed or if testing is required.

Keep on top of this. Otherwise, the teachers that do not know what they are doing can stall which wastes your child’s time.

Good luck.
DR
SPED teacher/ 6th grade

I certainly can understand your frustrations my son has a communication disorder (LD) which he inherited from me(also diagnosed with LD). As a parent you have to advocate for your child. I live in Canada, I don’t know where you are from (I.e. US). Accessing services through your family doctor would be a first good step such as a Psychologist to determine areas of learning that are a strength for your daughter and also deficits. Occupational Therapy may also be a good avenue to use to determine any compensatory strategies that can be used orexercises to help decrease areas of deficit.
If your live in Ontario I may be able to help, I have worked in the field of disabilities for about 10 years (school, vocational training, case management, rehabilitation therapy) and could direct you to some advocacy groups or community resources.
As the parent you need to be strong as hell and very knowledgable about your child; I have learned this as a person with LD, professional and parent. Watch your child engaged in activities (I.e. reading, computer games, social interactions), make observations about contributors to her problems (I.e. does she learn better visually or audiorily, how eazily is she distracted, what functional skills does she have, reading, writing, math). Then you can try to determine areas of stregth for her (I’m sure there are many) that can be used to compensate for areas of deficit or altering her environment(when attempting to learn minimizing all distractors in the room, how often does she need to be redirected back to a task) and any asssitive technology that can help (often overlooked but incredibly valuable stuff) such as Inspirations software (www.inspirations.com/) which assists children to organize their thoughts. Unfortunately fequently parents are put into a very adversarial system where professionals have predetermined perceptions; don’t get me wrong there are very caring and devoted ones out there as well. In either case very clear observations will help the caring professionals understand the issues and will provide good information to advocate for your child with the adversarial ones.

Funding is always an issue either in Canada or the US. Accessing a Social Worker may help to determine any programs, government funding available and coordinate services. If youlive inthe states and have an insurance policy there may be money available through there. Let me know which country you are from and if I can help I will.

Remember that your child is intelligent and requires interventions as unique as her challenges. I was told that I was stupid by teachers, by my parents and others. I was recommended to be sent to a segregated school (never happened), and that I would amount to nothing. I am now a Rehabilitation Therapist in a Hospital focussing on Neurobehavioral Rehabilitation and graduated from College and have University certificates. I am the proud father of 2 children and have a great wife and career.
With a mother as devoted as yourself with alot of hard work and early intervention I’m sure your daughter will be OK.

All the best and if I can help in any way please don’t hesitate to ask,

Brad Forbes