Need help with Evaluations

I am sure the LD is caused by his ADD. but to strengthen his non-verbal skills you can do some vision therapy to strengthen his eyes and focusing…things like word searches will help him with focusing…Do puzzles to help him with his non verbal skills. Also art therapy may help with non-verbal concepts in a fun way by getting his hands and eyes working together to create a work of art..

You are lucky he doesn’t have speech and language issues becuase I feel it is easier to remediate the non-verbal tasks than it is to remediate the speech and language issues..

It seems like his reading skills are his weakest link and that is something the team is working on…You can do is do books on tape to help him with reading…I like read naturally and have found it helps with reading fluency. He would have to learn to pace himself as he reads and listens to the tape at the same time.

Now that he is on medication he will probably make considerable strides, half the battle is in conquering and mastering his own mind and focusing…and you have seen a dramatic improvement with the Adderall so that tells me he is on his way.

pattim,
Thanks so much for your input. You have somewhat confirmed my suspicions that his problems maybe due to his ADD, and he now needs to catch up from all that his missed. At least I hope so. He loves I SPY books and have the entire collection. It has been his passion. He also loves Mazes, and things he has to look for and puzzles too and he loves books on tape. I guess maybe he was trying to help himself as all the things you mentioned are things he loves.
Thank you again.
Linda

Linda:please go to Mel Levine’s one mind at a time web siteI think there are some nice descriptions re different LD’s- are these folks sure he’s ADD? OFTEN when a kido has small neurological quirk- when the info comes too fast in the class room and the kid shuts down- becasue the info is too fast/too overwhelming. what I’ve seen a fair amount of on this board is something called Vision Therapy- (try a google search i guess)- I think this is something you get done at a eye Dr.- it has to do with tracking.
One one level- you’ve got to be relieved that your son’s school and you recognized that something was a little different with your kid- at a re;atively YOUNG AGE kudos to you. the hard part is NOW- get on the web RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH! Alss let me suggest Wrightslaw.com- there are some good articles on testing and understanding the stuff! good luck and god bless

ALSO! look at oral story recall vs passage comp- he CLEARLY understands stuff- but cannot pull it off the page becasue he hasn’t been taught the way he learns- he’s pretty little- and caught young- easier to work on strategies, remediation techniques etc. also go to Reidmartin.com

Did you read the whole message? At the bottom the parent said he is on medication for ADD and has shown dramatic improvement while on meds, my inference was he must have been diagnosed by a medical doctor….He certainly wasn’t diagnosed by the school IEP team…

yes i did read this:
we can only hope

Thanks both of you for your input. Yes, my son was dx as ADD/IN by his pediatrician but just to make doubly sure I am sending him to a NeuroPsych for more testing in July. The Adderall Xr is working wonders for him - his side effect is difficulty falling asleep and sometimes he gets a little weepy (not too bad). From reading on this site, I am trying the Epsom salt bath (tried it last night) and he slept a little earlier, and he likes it. I think Sandy you were the one who brought up the Epsom salt thing. He wants to have another bath tonight. We have always thought that there was something different about my son, but because he is non-hyper you just don’t see the “signs” when he was younger. We always thought it was because he was young, then he was immature. But as we get to more of a structured type of schooling (same complains from Pre-kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st grade and now 2nd grade, his inattention (needed constant reminders to stay on task, playing with school supplies, drawing on school tables, even simple instructions like put your folder away - 19 kids would be doing it, he will be starring into space) shows up more and more. After the meds, not only is he able to focus in class but at home he is more aware of what is happening, is asking more questions and best of all stays for the answers and he is reminding me of things. Before you could be talking to him but can never be sure he got what you said even if he is looking straight at you. He tells me there are “noises” that is why he can’t think and he tells me he tries very hard to be a “good boy” in school, it was also effect his opinion of himself. He tells me he is stupid and he is bad. His teacher had put him on behavior modification - ie. he gets a happy face in the morning if he does his work and stops playing, the same in the afternoon. It was effecting him negatively because if he doesn’t get a happy face he thinks he is bad, and no matter how hard he tried he still could not do it. It got to the point he was hiding notes from the teacher to me because he was afraid it was a “bad” note. His self-esteem was slowly being chipped away.
With the meds it is just like he can finally “see” clearly. I didn’t jump into the ADD wagon immediately, much less medicating him - we just started last Saturday and am testing it for 2 weeks. In fact I had researched reseached researched, and finally had to face facts. I was both happy and sad when the meds took because it would seem he does have ADD/In. Now I need to figure out if he has an LD or was the LD due to the ADD. If it is an LD, what LD is it?
It seems from both your inputs, that it is a visual thing. Right? Should I send him to an Opthalmalagist for testing then?
Sandy I have gone to all the sites you had suggested before, when I was doing my research. In fact,Wrightslaw.com was where I went to learn to interpret some of the scores, so I can ask the right questions when I met with team who tested my son. I had gone to Patoss to get sample letters to write to request the evaluations and to understand what evaluations to ask for. The school principal was very impressed and asked if I had “someone” I spoke to about this. I am constantly on the Schwablearning.org (under Mayleng) where I got alot of info and help from the mothers there. In fact, that is how I knew about this board. I have checked all LDs, which seems to have alot of similarities when it comes to the symptoms. It is like a puzzle I am trying to solve.
Thanks very much for you input, I really appreciate it. Keep them coming.
Linda

Sharon,
Mel Levine (I’ve read his book) has another website: allkindsofminds.org - don’t know if you talking about the same site.
Thanks
Linda

I just remembered what the School Pyschologist told me when I asked her what could be the problem. She did not want to assume that ADD was the cause of the problem. Basically she said, he is getting his information too fast and he is unable to process it and it had no where to go. So I asked how do we slow it down, and she said the Meds may help. So that left me very confused, which is why I am out here trying to figure out what the LD is. I should have brought this up earlier in my post but wanted other opinions aside from the School Pyschologist’s.
Thanks Linda

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Linda,
You’ve really done your homework. I’m a special education teacher and the parent of a young adult (now) with ADD, inattentive type. When medication is indicated, it makes all the difference in the world. Mel Levine and others, make me very nervous because he pushes ideas that make parents refuse to consider medication. Meds are one part of the puzzle. The child has to want to work and a therapeutic classroom is the other piece, so says the NIH long-term research. Definitely take him for the neuropsych eval. It can’t hurt. And don’t forget that if the medication isn’t what is necessary, as soon as he goes off it, there are no lingering long-term effects. My son has been taking dexedrine for 10 years now and is doing very well. He’s 6’5”, so it didn’t stunt his growth. Without the meds he would never have gotten through middle school or high school. He stopped his meds in college and flunked out. Now he’s back in school… on medication, and doing great again.

As far as the LD go, ADD doesn’t cause the disability. It’s more like it prevents him from attending long enough to learn to compensate for his disabilities, and it exacerbates LD. If he can attend, he can learn better and process better. If he has no speech and language problems, but his reading is so poor, he may be dyslexic, so working with a reading specialist is the best course. My favorite is Orton Gillingham, and I understand that Great Leaps is wonderful for developing fluency.

Hope everything works out. It sounds like you are on top of things.

Hi Lindamood. How’s it going? Fancy meeting you here.
Mayleng

Linda,

Don’t go to an opthalmologist. They are usually surgeons and this is not a surgical issue. Go to a developmental optometrist or a Behavioural optometrist.
My son is currently undergoing vision therapy. I wish I did this a long time ago.

Linda F

I am a school psychologist. Your son seems to have difficulty decoding words and therefore has problems reading. Basically this means he is probably having a hard time associating sounds with the correct letters (phonics). It also appears that he is having difficulty in math. He may have a reading and math LD. It is quite common for children with ADD to also have learning disabilities because both are believed to be neurological problems. Please have his vision tested as you reported his left eye turning inward and he positioned his head close to the table. Quite honestly it may also be the case that your son is farsighted and not seeing print well. However this probably doesn’t account for his academic difficulties. It sounds as though they have a good handle on his issues. But if you want a really in depth analysis of his learning difficulties and attention issues you may need to have him tested by a Neuropsychologist privately.

SB, thanks for you response. I am having him tested by a Neuropyschologist in July. The school’s evaluation shows that his strength is Auditory. I have a feeling that his ADD was effecting him when he was being taught that his why he is having problems with the phonics part. His main problems seems to be pronoucing the vowels. I am going to teach him using Phonographix to see if it helps. He is good when you ask him math (addition) verbally, it is only when he has to write the answers down and have to do it under 3 mins. that he has a problem. Because he is concentrating so hard not to reverse his numbers he takes a longer time. If given enough time he generally get all the answers correct (all 40 of them). But I think the pressure of being timed is effecting him too. The reason why he scored so low on the math during the evaluation, was they had symbol changes ie. from additional to subtraction. Firstly they have not formally done subtraction in class yet so I don’t expect him to be able to do it during the test. The school psychologist says that he is processing information so fast that his brain is not retaining the information.

Linda