I have a son in 4th grade that was diagnosed with LD thru the public school system at the end of 2nd grade. During his 3rd grade, we worked hard with reading and he seemed to be hanging in there. I also started the process of evaluation for ADHD or ADD and was told he didn’t fit the description. Here we are at 4th grade and the work is getting harder, and I am afraid he’ll fall thru the cracks. He seemed to lose alot of his reading skills over the summer. I have no idea exactly “what” kind of LD he has, and feel frustrated with the lack of knnwledge to help him. I live in Minnesota. Any suggestions?
Re: I don't know where to start!
I would start with the school psychologist who did the testing 2years ago. If s/he is not available, ask to make an appointment with someone on the sped team to review his files. Tell them specifically that you want to go over the previous test results to better understand his LD and strengths and weaknesses. If you didn’t get a copy when it was done, ask now for a copy of the test results. People on this board can help you understand if you are willing to post the results here.
Re: I don't know where to start!
Oh, and I would also suggest doing Audiblox with him at home (http://www.audiblox2000.com ). This program addresses a wide range of learning skills problems — e.g., works on developing attention skills, visual sequencing and short-term memory, auditory sequencing and short-term memory, logic and reasoning, etc. Most children with vague LD problems benefit significantly from this program.
Audiblox requires about 1/2-hour per day 5 days a week of one-on-one work doing the exercises with the child. Usually significant gains in everyday life are seen after the first 40 to 60 hours of training.
Nancy
Re: I don't know where to start!
Nan, is that you?
Just curious, do you use Audiblox at school? And if so, for what profiles of deficits?
Thanks,
Janis
reading weakness
The testing that was done at the end of second grade should have offered you more than just the knowledge of ‘some kind of LD’. Get hold of that testing and read what it said for a start.
If though reading is his issue, one approach that can only help and never hurt is to read outloud to him every day for 15-30 minutes. Someone else reading out loud can help struggling readers. What’s also helpful if to have them read for 15-20 minutes a day in a book that’s easy for them to read. He might also benefit from working one on one with someone skilled in tutoring reading and certainly keep him reading over every summer so his skills don’t fall back.
In the meantime, support him with his school work as best as can be done including reading assignments outloud to him if he can’t read them on his own. If he’s still in public school, he might benefit from having an IEP that details accomodations for him but again that would begin by taking a good look at the testing that was already done at the end of second grade.
Good luck.
My suggestion is to work on remediation yourself as much as possible, rather than relying on the school system. Schools typically allow children to fail far too long, so that the problem becomes huge before it is addressed, and then offer poor remedial programs that work slowly. Reading is one area in which “Do It Yourself” is often the best choice.
Third and fourth grades are where decoding problems really begin to show up. If you haven’t already, I would recommend getting the book “Reading Reflex” (available in many libraries, or for under $20 at most bookstores) and tutoring your son at home. If he is ready for advanced code, I would recommend also getting the company’s $39 “parent support guide for older students” from http://www.readamerica.net .
If you really don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself, then I would recommend hiring a reading tutor — preferably a Phono-Graphix reading tutor, because that approach tends to work very quickly.
Nancy