Gifted children with LD and school

Assuming both can provide accomodations and remediation, which school can offer your child challenging classwork that will feed his giftedness? My son is gifted with learning disabilities and I have found that without intellectual stimulation, all the remediation in the world does not make a difference.

Andrea

My gifted/LD daughter has global LD’s and fine motor problems.

She attends gifted classroom (1 day/wk pullout). She has attended since age 7, 2nd grade. She receives OT through the school and we also provide private OT. She received 2 years of Lindamood Bell tutoring and we are currently looking for a follow up in OG.

You definitely want to address his needs on both ends, strengths and weaknesses.

The school has provided a laptop for her to use in gifted class and she also uses a Dana for general ed. She loves school and gifted is her favorite day of the week.

Don’t make the mistake of overlooking his strengths as you remediate his weaknesses. Public school often will only want to address the weaknesses. Don’t let them put you in that position.

Thanks for your message, it is good to get response from people, who are in the same situation.

In Toronto, our public school system is a mess, a real mess, strectched beyond what you could imagine, we have no choice but to go into the Private system.

The question is, the one Private school has only children with LD some of which are gifted, they focus on letting the children advance as they show they can, and challenge them with their gifted subjects, but the school is 35 students with 7 in each class. We went to visit their last night, it is a big old house that is incredible, one of it’s kind with no other focusing 100% on learning disabilities. The other 3 schools that are on the list of the Doctor that tested my son, are big private schools with a LD class attached to it, they get daily instuction and help with LD and then go into regular classes for gifted subjects, our fear are that that class will be signalled out, even though teachers say it works, what they know about is not always what is really going on.

The area of the city we live in in Financially strong, alot of parents worry about their children not getting into the big private schools, so we are concerened that the big schools have the LD rooms their just for these families, while the small school will actually give him everything he needs, it is a very hard decision to make.

Thanks for any advice that you can give.

Michelle

Honestly, a private LD school is not a consideration for us. Jami has done well in public with us footing the bill for private remediation.

Since I can’t give you advice on the school, one of the most important bits of advice I can give you is to be vigilant. Make sure your son’s giftedness is being addressed as well as his LD.

Stay on the BB and continue to glean as much info as you can. There’s lot of great advice here.

I am curious to know if the small school you are talking about is Arrowsmith in Toronto? I don’t know anyone who has sent their child there, but I have read about it. The women who runs it has developed the programs herself and I don’t know how much scientific data there is to support her claims. The tutoring center I sent my child to was considering trying her method, but in the end they decided not to.
Another possibility is take the money you would have spent on private school and put it into one on one tutoring with someone who is familiar with Lindamood or OG. You would also need OT for the finemotor issues.

How much pressure happens at the other private schools? The LD school where I taught (college-prep, though, then at 60 and now 100+ students) took in at least 1 and sometimes 2 kids midyear (after we were full) who were just at the breaking point because they were so hard on themselves or pressured by their school situations.

The otehr question would be — who, exactly, is in the grade your child would go into in that tiny school? And who would be his main teacher? If he ended up with a group where nobody was at his level, he’d feel like an alien to the second power and that’s not particularly good for the soul.

As is probably obvious, I try to come up with the worst case scenarios when making decisions…

Thanks again for taking the time to help out.

The one school is a school of only 35 students with 7 children in each class, they go up to Grade 8. It is a converted old house with lots of warmth. All the children in the school have LD, some are gifted, they work at their own pace and have a program designed to suit their particular level. This school is private, but in Canada after you have been assessed you get 40% back on your taxes for anything relating to education.

The public school system here is totally like I said not equipped to handle anything, they are actually striking today, it is a mess, I would definitely never put him there.

The other school are bigger private schools that have a LD class for each year, so they are with that class but can go into regular classes for subjects they are excelling in, like Math and French for my son. Our biggest worry with this is, although the teachers say this program works and that the LD class fits in, what teachers sometimes know and what is really going on are two different things. My sons confidence is really low. He doesn’t get as many play days as other children in his current class, and has been teased alot about his spelling and writting, but if you talk to the teacher there, she thinks he is fine and that the teasing is not happening.

We go to visit all the schools this week, so I will keep you posted on what we see, and mabye you can give some advice.

Thanks
Michelle

No the School is not Arrowsmith, I’ve never heard of it, I’ll look it up today, thanks.

Public here is such a mess that it is out of the question, you’d have to see it to believe it. The public school where he would go is full of mould and he has Asthma and it was terrible when he was there in J.K. and S.K., but more importantly the teachers are not in any shape or form supportive. Money fortunately for us is not an issue, so we can get him into a better situation in the private, it really is like day and night.

Are you sure about the 40% back on your taxes? You claim it on your income tax form under medical expenses, and we ended up getting only 25% back. This may vary according to each province, so you should check it out with your tax accountant. Testing and OT can be covered by private insurance where you might get as much as 80% back depending on the policy.

Thanks for that, I’m just going on what the Doctor who tested my son told us. I’m going to look into our Insurance coverage here at work, and see, was this threw your companies insurance.

Are you Canadian?

Michelle

My advice is to go see the schools and spend as much time observing as you can. Which school feels like the right one for your son? Regardless of what a school is or certainly how it describes itself, each school has a certain feel to it and you can pick up on that only by observing and being on site. In doing that, it will likely come to you as to which school feels like the right one for your son given his issues and how signficant or insignificant they are.

While you’re there, ask questions. I’d certainly ask the LD school what happens to their students when they move on. Do they return to regular classrooms or do they remain in special settings?

Yes, I am Canadian, but not from Ontario. The OT, Speach Therapy and IQ testing can be submitted to your private health insurance and you may get as much as 80% back, depending on the type of coverage on your policy. The tutoring has to be claimed on your income tax, and this is a little complicated because it goes under section where you claim medical expenses. There is a formula to follow, and you won’t get anything back until your expenses exceed a certain amount which is a percentage of your combined family income. You really need to check your income tax forms as this is certain to vary from province to province.
By the way, you must have a letter from the psychologist that states that your child has a life long learning disability or you will not qualify. There is also tax benefit for disabled children, but only for those that are so severly disabled that they can’t function at all. I don’t know any dyslexic children that would qualify for this. Contact your local Learning Disabilities Association for further info. It is a good idea to join, you will meet other parents with whom you can share info., experiences with private schools, etc. They likely have meetings and quest speakers. Ontario has a website. Good luck.

By the way, not all private school qualify you for the tax break, they must be classified as an LD school from what I understand. Be sure to ask or you may be disappointed when you file your tax return.