Teacher's role in discovery

Good question! In my experience the teacher often suspects learning disabilities but the “system” is such that it takes a long time to get to testing. Once the child study process is initiated, strategies are suggested and implemented for at least 6 weeks. If they don’t work, we try another round. By that time more than half the school year has passed, since it took the teacher awhile to get to know the student in September. There are certain criteria that must be met before we test- e.g. the student has to be failing despite all the attempts to help. What ends up happening is that teachers accomodate so well or feel that the student is trying so hard that s/he “squeaks” by with barely passing grades- maybe for several years. Or we decide to retain the student to see if that helps. If s/he has frequent moves between schools or a lot of absences, or a chaotic home life, we cite those as exclusionary factors. All very frustrating, a lot of time spent in meetings with little result, and teachers give up referring kids because they will never see the results (I keep telling ‘em to refer anyway, the teacher two grades above will thank them). OTOH, testing is expensive and not entirely “painless” for the child to go through. We only have a psychologist and diagnostician 1-2 days per week and after she spends so much time in child study meetings there isn’t much left for testing. Not good, but reality. It really helps if the parent is able to advocate for their child. Still, I was an educated parent with a teaching degree and it took until 7th grade for my child to get services when difficulties were first noticed in 1st.

You raise some very good questions. In our district ALL first graders are tested individually in reading by the specialized reading teacher. She actually sees every kid in the school and does a series of tests. This is not the same testing routine as a child study team evaluation. More of reading screening. This is how my daughter was identified as needing extra help. However, I was the one who questioned WHY she needed the help right from the beginning. I started researching and sure enough there is a problem.

Megan, here is a post I sent to another BB about two weeks ago. The teachers we were working with all seemed to be very dedicated, but their hands were tied because of their employers, the school system - a sad, but often true, reality.

Lil

Hi all,

I’ve been an advocate for my son for about 2 1/2 years now. I got into this particular forum late in that process, and don’t know how many of you know my story. I HAVE found this group to be the most supportive of personal issues of any I have found in special ed.

You’ve heard about my son in special ed - inattentive ADHD, NLD, APD, VPD, developmental coordination delay, anxiety - medicated for the ADHD and the anxiety. Which is not who my story is about - he’s the ending, not the beginning.

When I met and married my husband, he had sole custody of his two kids from his first marriage. They were a Kristin who was 8, and Corey who was 6. Funny story about how we met (at the babysitters) that I won’t go into now. :-)

Corey always had problems learning. Not knowing any better (both my brothers were salutatorians and I graduated 4th in a class of over 500), I thought he just couldn’t learn.

We worked with him, read out loud to him daily, helped him with homework, helped him study for tests, took him to Sylvan Learning Center, etc. And he would perform beautifully one day, and totally flunk the next.

This really came to a head in sixth grade (sound familiar?) when his teachers all told us that if they could test him orally, he would be an ‘A’ student. So, we had a meeting with the principal, assistant principal, all the “team” teachers, the guidance counselor, etc. They told us he was just lazy, because we all had “evidence” that he could perform! Not knowing any better, my husband and I bought into it. And contributed to the situation by browbeating him to show that maximum performance most of the time.

About the time he hit ninth grade, I started to wonder about learning disabilities. We hired a tutor ($60/hr - three times a week, six years ago - cost us a fortune!) to work with him who had a PhD in SpEd. SHE told us he was just “lazy” because he could work for her in a one on one situation, and not translate that to a real world environment (what do they teach them in college?).

Then, we moved, and he started school in 10th grade in a new school system. Before school started, I called the school psychologist, and asked about learning disabilities. She told me that he wouldn’t get any real help at school (no kidding), and his peers would reject him because they had a special “hall” for LD kids, and his peers would mortify him so much, it wasn’t worth having special ed in high school. Not knowing any better, my husband and I bought into that, too!

So, Corey finally graduated from high school (after going to summer school for five years - two classes each summer - where they passed the course by being able to sit quietly through videos re: the subject matter). We didn’t know if he was going to graduate until two days before it happened. So there were no announcements, etc. - none of the normal trappings that happen when a child finally gradutates! It didn’t help anything that my daughter was in his same grade level, and extrememly smart.

So, we have a child with a learning disability, who has gotten NO credit from anywhere for how much he has stuggled in his life, and no real help (although we tried hard, and so did he). He worked from the time he was sixteen, but couldn’t hold a job for more than about three months (they were always “picking on him” - and could have been, hindsight being 20/20).

The end result of all this is that he moved out between Thanksgiving and Christmas after he graduated from high school - about two years ago. I was downstairs working on the computer (I’m an architect who works out of the house), he had a friend spend the night, and I could hear an abnormal amount of footsteps upstairs, but would get back into work, and didn’t really think anything of it.

He stole about $5,000 worth of things from different family members. Our young son’s (then eight) Nintendo games, and all his saved cash from his birthday from his grandparents, my daughter’s CD player and various CD’s, my diamond tennis bracelet, an extremely nice camera, etc. And he took enough clothes for his back, and the truck he was using that was still in his father’s and my name (not included in the amount - it was understood at that time that it was HIS truck).

Our young son (whom I post about) also told us (once he understood that Corey was never going live here again) about how physically abusive Corey was to him - kicking him in the stomach when he walked by because our young son was laying in the floor in his way. I used to ask our young son how he got those bruises when I gave him a bath, and he never let on …

We haven’t heard anything from Corey for almost two years.

Now, I need to back up a little bit. Our young son was identified with learning disabilites the summer between second grade and third grade, through private testing. I got extremely concerned in second grade, because he was exhibiting the same learning style as Corey. And the school system refused to test him - so I had it done privately. Corey left the following November - AFTER I had gotten an application for Corey to the Lab School in Washington, DC for adult remediation - and his father and I were willing to pay for it. I smiled and told him that our young son had a lot to thank him for, because I would never have recognized the need in him, if I hadn’t lived through it with Corey. He grinned, and said “Glad I could help!” and then left unannounced two days later. And then we discovered the theivery, abuse, etc.

NOW we have discoverd that he has been giving people our phone number (over two years later) as a contact - we’ve had banks call us, and case workers call us, but they can’t give us any information, or his where abouts.

I did finally talk one person into giving us a phone number today (which is why I need to get this off my chest) - but I’m not sure what to do when my husband calls him. The caller said that “He hasn’t talked to his father in over four years (not! my edit) and he really needs to talk to him!”

So we have a child who is still trying to manipulate the system.

BTW, our system also has implemented a system for testing reading skills beginning in kindergarten (Jenn, I’ really not trying to be argumentative here - we just have different experiences). My son passed all those tests, but when tested with a more appropriate test, he was more than two grade levels behind on decoding skills. You have to be careful what and how the tests are testing.

Lil

In the ideal world, you’re right. What you might be missing is that sadly we don’t live in the ideal world.

The laws that deal with the rights of learning disabled students do not mandate that children be tested as early as possible. They mandate that testing be done if parents request it. Rarely do schools pressure teachers to ask for testing or even to keep an eye out for students who might benefit from testing. Indeed, many schools discourage testing as testing costs money and results in IEPs which burden schools with extra work.

What you’re also missing is that school was set up to be a group process. School is designed to take a group of children and move them together from one point to another in their learning. School is not set up to teach children as individuals.

But some extraordinary teachers rise above this and it sounds like you’re going to be one of them. Any school and its students will be lucky to have you.