Working with MR students in an LD setting

I can so relate to this. I had a mom who could not /would not accept this.

I used a bell curve as a visual to help. I tried to explain that some kids in general ed would need to hear something from 1-20 times to stick, others 20-300, and still others 800 or more times. I explained that her daughter, as beautiful as she was, was in the later group. She could not believe it. She kept saying, “look at her, she is normal” yada, yada, yada. The thing is, at recess, this girl gravitated to these same kids “who drool”. SHe did not want her daughter to be in with the “tards”. The sad thing was, these “tards” were ahead of her beautiful daughter. SHe would get more help with a better ratio. But no, mom wanted her to repeat the grade because we were dumbing down the “spelling list”. Of course when the mom insisted I give her 6th grade words, she would get upset and ask me to tutor her after school. She would call and say, “SHE CAN”T EVEN READ THESE WORDS.” To this mom, it was all about the spelling. Anyway, what I have learned through all of this is that the parents have a harder time than the kids do with this “label”.

No wisdom but I can so relate. Been there.

Michelle AZ

Wouldn’t it be the responsibility of whoever did the testing that determine the child as MR to explain it to the parents?

I can understand that it would be heartbreaking news to hear. I think encouragement of what the child can achieve is extremely important.

I am sure it is difficult for you to be in this position

You know, since mental retardation is a politically incorrect term, I think parents who are in denial choose to think their child isn’t since the MR words were not spoken. Words like “cognitive delay” apparently do not hold the same impact as MR. I have had parents sit in an IEP meeting and talk about when the child grows up and can drive or go to college when there is no chance of either. I think, why have they gone this long without understanding?

I have had a case the last couple of years where I consulted on a pre-school child’s hearing loss and he is quite multi-handicapped. The mom said she wanted him to go to regular K. And I am thinking, well, this child has almost no language, learned to walk at 3 1/2, so his cognitive level appears to me to be at about the 18 month level at age 4 1/2. I think he recently had a medical appointment where they explained the reality a bit better to her. I heard she was upset, but better to understand than to have totally false expectations. I did try to tell her his language was more delayed because of the cognitive delay than the hearing loss, but I’m just not sure she really understood.

Janis

What is “MMR” and what actually determines this, versus speech & Language disorder?

I am the mother of a 9 year old third grader whose full scale IQ is 60. My son continues to amaze me and his teachers with his academic progress. My son has also been successfull in an inclusion setting, so I am am a concerned that you appear to be jumping to the conclusion that “Minutes need to be increased”. Perhaps educational approach needs to be tweaked instead?

The key to my son’s succcess has been understanding his individual strengths and weaknesses (as shown by his subtest scores and other psychoeducational testing) and using educational approaches that build upon his strenghts. For example, since my son’s visual processing/ visual memory is very low, attempting to teach him to read using “whole language” was not effective. Once he started with a structured phonetic approach (ReadWell), he made steady progress, and is now almost on grade level. Math was very difficult until we found TouchMath. Explicit instruction, small incremental steps, auditory strategies and repetition are keys to my son’s learning. While my son is in the lower third of his class, he is not the lowest preforming student, and the methods and resources used to teach him also benefit other kids in his class.

I am not a mother in denial of my son’s disability. But I know that in this time of decreasing social serivce budgets, my son will need to be employable to SURVIVE as an adult. Reasearch has shown that inclusion benefits disabled kids. He learns from the non-disabled kids in his class. I know, because I have visited the DD classrooms, that my son would not be doing as well as he is if he were in a DD self contained classroom. It is simply not an appropriate placement for him.

I am sure this mom would be more receptive if you met with her and developed a plan, based upon educational methods that use the child’s strenghts, to help her child learn. WHERE this learning takes place will depend upon the set-up of your individual school, but it should be a secondary consideration.

Jody

I am having interesting experiences at H.S. I have a student who is in my 10th grade resource English class and my literacy class. His I.Q. is i 60 and he outperforms LD kids with 25 IQ points on him. He is incredible, he does the work, participates in the discussions, answers questions and does WELL. I am thrilled. He belongs in my class.

Then, there is the Asian boy who was born here in the US, but who speaks Hmong at home. He is still, in 9th grade designated limited English. By now, after 9 years in English only education he should be proficient in speaking and listening with English, but he is at an intermediate level. He has an IQ in the low 80s and a very severe auditory processing deficit. His parents demanded he be removed from the special day class English class and be placed in the resource English class. He is so far below the resource students in the class it is pitiful, and he does try. He is failing.

I am in a dilemma. I teach this class of ninth graders who are resource, virtually all students (but this child and one other I am researching) are capable of earning a grade of A,B or C on the modified grade level work. Today the bulk of the class received As on their vocabulary quiz. Not this fellow, he is way below.

We have a ninth grade English class that meets his needs, it is the SDC class. His parents won’t allow him to be part of that class. I really don’t feel that it is right to expect me to modify my appropriately taught resource class so he can earn a C just so his parents can believe they made the right choice in fighting the school on the placement. Furthermore, delivering him further modified lessons will dilute the time I spend with the rest of the class who are appropriately placed.

So, I don’t think youngsters benefit from being placed with higher functionng students when they are truly not functioning at that level, if an appropriate placement is reasonably available. If it is not, then we must modify further. If it is, parents need to permit us to create appropriate to teach classes.