I have a 5 year old girl who has always had trouble with her language skills. We are military and have recently moved AGAIN and her new teacher wants her to repeat Kinder. So as any proactive parent, I am holding the why card. My daughter has been involved in learning programs since age 1 1/2 ( the Infant & Toddler program and went on to Early Childhood when she turned 3 and remained in the program until she started school). She has received extra help thru the schools and IEP’s and still hasn’t caught up. She was born premature and I have been told she will grow out of the delays by age 3 or 4 and is still sruggling. She didn’t take her first unassisted step until 15 months and always has been uncoordinated and behind in many other physical ways. She is now having problems with numbers and letters. For example she gets 9 & 6 mixed up and 6 & 2,she writes 3,4,2,9,7,6, and any two digit numbers backwards ( 31 for 13) She is also having the same problems with letters. She also has always had IEP/s for subing sounds for others ( elebin for elevin, faree for three ), placement of beggining,middle and end sounds, she also blends sounds incorrectly…. the list just goes on and on. I don’t want her to get lost in the school system as many children do so I have always be vary involved in my childrens schools and their learning. I have also done the same for my son who has severe to moderate persistant asthma,severe allergies and ADHD. I refuse to allow my child to be left back and overlooked because of a disabilty. I believe early detection,proper education and encouraging parents can make the diffrence in a child who can achieve anything and one who is lost and depressed. If you can help point me in the right direction for finding answers I would greatly apprciate it.
Thank you,
Cara from Ga.
Re: Dyslexia... need help..does my child have it??
Hard to know where to start on all this. Go to the Parenting board and talk to Socks and others about appropriate testing; talk to Linda F and others about many many programs to help with underlying deficits.
If she was premature, well she is really younger than her birthday suggests — if she’d been born full term her birthday would have been two or three months later. So her walking was spot on normal. The kid of speech and number and letter issues you see are common in kindergarten children. Yes, you should do something to help her get over them, but no, you shouldn’t panic yet.
Considering the age/development issue, you might think whether she would be happier in another year of K. BUT you would want that year to be a valuable educational experience — you want to get her evaluated (see socks and others) and you want to get good early intervention programs, such as Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy. Refuse to repeat her if it’s just going to be warehousing.
I can help you by sending you reading tutoring guides — it takes time and work and dedication to tutor your child at home, but it can be doine. Email me if you are interested.
Re: Dyslexia... need help..does my child have it??
Don’t panic. I too have been through some of what you are looking at. We moved alot, premature and thought it was dyslexia. We have seen all different teaching methods and heard all different reseasons. It never ends and there is no perfect answer but for us and our daughter we are working on it. Recently we had her through a battery of test with a strongly recommended educational testing firm at our expense and to our total surprise they told us she is Add inattentive type. Now, she is not a hyper child by any means but she cannot focus therefore she cannot really do the school work. It is making sense and we still have decisions to make about medication but the explanation of this “type” of ADD make sense. Something to try.
Re: Dyslexia... need help..does my child have it??
Hey, as a kid with dyslexia I know first hand what it is like. And although, difficult at times, it is not something to panic over! I spent part days in a resource class for a few years and then graduated and now I am in a JC and doing well. As long as you get her into the right program and stay involved everything should be fine. You seem like the perfect parent for the situation, I know that with out the encouragement from my mom I would not have done as well as I have. Also you just need to let your daughter know, if she does have LD, that it is something that she can over come and it does not make her stupid or lower than other kids her age. With that out take and a good teacher to show her how to work with her disability she will be fine. Good luck!!
Well, I do hope you realize that it is sometimes even *easier* to get lost in the system if you’ve got a disability label; they can stick the kiddo in the special ed room where nobody’s expected to learn anything because gosh, they’re so special.
What is in that IEP? What services is she getting to address her specific needs?
I would strongly suggest posting this on the “parenting a child with LD” forum instea dof this one, which just doesnt’ get as much traffic :)