I haven’t posted in a long time because I haven’t been able to get on! Just an update for those interested or who remember me (used to post under Suzi) and my daughter Katy. Katy was diagnosed with auditory processing disorder and dyslexia at the end of Kindergarten. She was 4 reading levels below where she should be starting 1st grade. After 4 weeks in summer school at Shelton in Dallas and this school year at Shelton, she is making slow steady progresss in her weak areas of math and reading!!
She couldn’t read at all at the end of Kindergarten and is now reading on what the teacher says is Kindergarten level, but some would say 1st grade level. At the end of kindergarten, she couldn’t recognize numbers above 10 and could barely count above 10 and now she flies through her numbers. Her self confidence is increasing. Problem areas are still social interaction and attention. The teacher did suggest that we have her evaluated for ADD and maybe also SI (because she leans forward to do her work?).
I love her new school. More importantly, she loves it! So, why am I doubting anything we are doing now? My mom and dad are SO negative about all of it. They think we are overreacting, that she would be just fine at public school. (well, she wasn’t!) They think she can just be “fixed”. Why can’t they just pat me on the back for all of the sacrifices I’ve had to make to get her where she is? I’m just not going to even discuss it anymore with them. Grandparents day is next week and they are coming. I hope they come away with a different perspective. Anyone else have non-supportive relatives?
Suzi
Re: First progress report/parent conference of the year
Suzi, Sometimes it is hard with family. Mine didn’t think my son was ADHD and Ld but after showing them his journal and they could see how awful his handwriting,spelling and punctuation was they were astounded and apologized for not believing me. If they don’t come around then the best thing to do is not discuss it with them. Good Luck, Jan
Re: First progress report/parent conference of the year
SAR-
Thanks for your input. I think it is unusual too, but we felt we had no other choice. She has been in ST since she was 3 for articulation problems, late learning ABC’s, couldn’t even sing the ABC song in the right order until she was 6. Her SLP at public school did some preliminary testing when she had problems with a standardized test administered in Kindergarten that is suppose to help i.d. children who need extra help. Those scores were well below average. We had her tested again at the school and again indicated that her receptive language was much below normal. Her IQ was above normal and parts were gifted. Our school district would do nothing with her until 3rd grade other than stick her in Reading Recovery. We didn’t want her struggling through until 3rd grade. She is obviously very bright and I think it would have really affected her self esteem to allow her to struggle. It is a good suggestion to have her tested sometime by an outside source. It is really hard to find someone you really trust, like I do this LD school.
Suzi
Re: First progress report/parent conference of the year
Your parents may not have accepted that their grandchild really has a disability. As SAR says, there is wide variation in development with kids that age and they may attribute her learning differences to that. I know that my now straight A daughter did not read much more than her LD brother did in K. But the big difference was that all the prereading skills were in place for her. I now realize that he was several years behind by the time he started first grade in development. By the end of first, it was very obvious.
Also, many people, perhaps including your parents, would not have started in a LD school. They would have found a tutor or the like if they didn’t think the public school would do an adequate job. That is what we did. I will tell you it is a harder road AND I think it would have been far less difficult on our family in man;y ways had we done what you did. I saw an LD school as a last choice alternative, mostly because of the cost.
You have made a good decision that is working for your family. That is all you can do.
Beth
Re: First progress report/parent conference of the year
Beth-
We really didn’t have a choice. We live in a rural area and tried to locate a tutor. There just weren’t any in our area. I would have had to drive the 1+ hours to Dallas for tutoring during the week. When we weighed it all out, we thought that starting off in the LD school in hopes of returning to school here in a few years was the best choice.
Suzi
Re: First progress report/parent conference of the year
Suzi,
You did the right thing! Gosh, I’d be rich if I had a dollar for all the sad posts I read on here from parents who are in despair with their 4th and 5th graders still reading at first grade level!!! I always think, WHY did you wait so long to get help when the problem was obvious a long time ago?!
Most of our kids have invisible disabilities. When we and our parents were all in school, more than likely there was no special ed., so grandparents are unfamiliar with all these terms and services. They don’t want there to be anything “wrong” with Katy because they love her. They, in essence, are in denial, and I don’t know a lot you can do about it. The alternative would have been to have let her struggle a few years in school until everybody accepted there was a problem!
You are just incredibly blessed to have a quality LD school within driving distance. We don’t have that option here. Hope you have a nice visit and that your parents keep quiet on their schooling opinions. It is extremely rare to find a regular public school that can really remediate dyslexia.
Janis
Re: First progress report/parent conference of the year
Janis-
Thanks so much for your reply. It really means alot to have someone say I’m doing the right thing. I’ve really doubted it over the weekend, thinking maybe I did jump the gun and maybe it was all just developmental delay…
BUT, I know better. Her school is a blessing and we are truly blessed to be able to have her there. I know we are doing the right thing for her.
Suzi
Re: First progress report/parent conference of the year
Suzi,
Quite honestly, I was still pretty much in denial about the seriousness of my son’s learning disabilities when he started first grade, despite having been in special ed since he was 4 (for speech). I probably would have thought putting him in a special ed school was overreacting, which is probably what your parents think. In saying that, I don’t mean to imply your choice was wrong but rather that I understand where they are coming from. I also applaud you for taking the bull by the horn, as they say. My head in the sand cost my son. I should have been more aggressive earlier but I really thought it would be OK.
Beth
Re: First progress report/parent conference of the year
I hate me too posts, but I guess I’m going to do one. I have several parents with 5th-6th grade kids. Then I get the calls occassionally for 6 year olds. They don’t call back. They are ambivalent about needing help, or do the school tutoring route, I think. I would doubt the school will do much but give the kid a bit of one on one which is not enough. (I mean one to one without any training/ skills. Just babysitting imo.) Maybe they will call back when the kid is in 5th grade!! They just don’t see the seriousness of the disability.
—des
Re: First progress report/parent conference of the year
Beth—
I too have put my head in the sand. I knew that something was just not quite right with my daughter all along. There were signs all along the way that she was having problems. I listened to friends, listened to our pediatrician, listened to preschool teachers who all reassured me she was just fine. I actually had a evaluation set up for her when she was younger and decided not to go at the last minute. How I wish I had kept that appointment. On the other hand, she probably wouldn’t be where she is today. Shelton starts their early childhood development at 3 years old! Some of my daughters classmates have been there a few years before she. They are much further ahead of my daughter. I can’t help but think that those years were crucial. I wish I had gotten her help even earlier. At least we are all doing the best we can!
Suzi
Re: First progress report/parent conference of the year
Des-
I know what you mean. I have a friend whose 7 year old 2nd grader desperately needs speech therapy. I was around her just the other day and she is very hard to understand. My friend refuses to help her for some unknown reason. This child also has severe reading problems and the mom again acts like nothing is wrong. I really don’t get it.
Suzi
it is hard to understand unless you have lived it
Many times as a professional I need to step back and let parents run the show even though I think they are wrong I need to step back and let them make mistakes. I think that was what people had to do when I wouldn’t listen about the ADD. I would just get angry and mad and besides they were talking about my baby…there was nothing wrong with my youngest child. Yeah…I was a big part of the problem…I didn’t want to see my own issues with ADD, distractibility, hyperactivity. I didn’t see it until I was in grad school to become an SLP and the professor was describing kids with hallmark ADD and I thought…OH MY LAND….she is describing..me, my daughter and my sons….That was when I got my head out of the sand for good…
People thought I was nuts when I pulled my daughter out of public school in 6th grade and drove over an hour each way to and from the NPA lab class 5 days a week so she could get the help she needed…It was a gift of time and growth, with meds and the proper remediation we made great strides…we still have the language issues but at least I know what I am doing now and I stay on top of them 24/7…Also my daughter has developed other gifts and has some wonderful non-verbal talents to make up for her problems with langauge… She is indeed a ray of sunshine in our lives….
But all we can do now is to sally forth and do the best we can…and listen and hopefully through sharing our experiences we can help others avoid some of the heartache we have experienced…
Hopefully you can guide the conversation in other directions; that said, it is unusual to start a child in a private LD schol in first grade; most start in 2-3rd; many, many kids are not fluent readers at the start of first grade and it is difficult to diagnose LD in a 6yo, as develpment varies a lot at that age. I am glad you are pleased with your decision, please seek outside testing at intervals to confirm or dismiss the diagnosis of LD(ie not done by the private school).