My son has above average IQ scores (I feel these are in reality much higher) anyway, he has been DX’d with Dyslexia and has just finished the 9th grade. He has had difficulty with organization and creative writing. His spelling is still somewhat below grade level although he has improved greatly since receiving one year of the Language! Program.(Orton)
I am wondering if there are any learning strategies & compensating techniques that he can learn to help with his deficits in : Written Language, Auditory Processing, Recall of Structured Auditory Material & Organization difficulties. (These deficits are based on Wepman - Rosner - Spencer McGrady tests)
I am looking for Goals & Benchmarks that can be included in the IEP to address teaching him these strategies and techniques - would Lindamood Bell be good for a high schooler?)
He has dual learning behaviors in that he has exceptional abilities in computers and was DX’d as mechanically gifted. But he has little ability in completing assignments in the classes that require more reading and writing. (He can read well enough but it is still somewhat stilted)
I hope to hear some advice soon as we are going to Mediation on Friday!
Thank you for any information you may have time to give.
Lori
Re: HELP- GIFTED w/LD
Thank you Mary.
I’ll look up the book by Judith Birsch.
Our school isn’t willing to provide any of the options we’ve suggested at our IEP meetings. They feel he is doing so well, that he doesn’t need help. And he is doing well, but it’s because he has the ability to cover or hide his areas of deficit and the stress this causes is terrible. It’s hard to ‘show’ how he is covering and compensating. We have testing that shows his areas of weakness, but this goes by the way-side when we are asking for specific services when they bring on the Literature teacher who swears that he is working at the same level as his peers.
Thanks for your reply. I’ll be looking up those ideas.
Lori
Re: HELP- GIFTED w/LD
Thank you Mary.
I’ll look up the book by Judith Birsch.
Our school isn’t willing to provide any of the options we’ve suggested at our IEP meetings. They feel he is doing so well, that he doesn’t need help. And he is doing well, but it’s because he has the ability to cover or hide his areas of deficit and the stress this causes is terrible. It’s hard to ‘show’ how he is covering and compensating. We have testing that shows his areas of weakness, but this goes by the way-side when we are asking for specific services when they bring on the Literature teacher who swears that he is working at the same level as his peers.
Thanks for your reply. I’ll be looking up those ideas.
Lori
Grrr . . .
That kind of BS makes me so mad! They were talking about taking away “all” of my accomodations in high school, because I had close to a 4.0 in all AP and honors courses. My only accomodations were calculator use on tests, extra time for assigments and tests, computer use for tests and access to a resource teacher as an advocate (for dealing with those teachers who wouldn’t take self-advocacy at face-value).
I *was* working at a level similar to my peers, but it was taking me twice as long to do things (especially math and math tests), homework was a chore, and I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. My resource teacher was overworked, and didn’t believe that I needed the accomodations (and was very loath to deal with the one teacher who wouldn’t give me the accomodations I was entitled to.
The only way I got to keep everything is constant pressure from my very patient mother (also I *finally* got re-evaluated for my “tri”ennial 6 years after my last evaluation, and this showed an even widening gap between my Verbal and Performace scores, and other indications of learning difficulties).
There is a gift-led email list you would probably find helpful. I don’t have the address handy at the moment but, if you want it, I will post it later.
I would think FastForWord might be useful. However, most school districts do not offer it. Some school districts provide it only if requested by a parent. You could try. FFW is an auditory training program that often helps auditory processing and auditory memory. Website is http://www.scilearn.com
Someone working with him using Inspiration software (http://www.inspiration.com, I think) might be very helpful for written organization. Inspiration provides graphic organizers for writing.
I’m not an expert on LMB, but I don’t think it would be suitable in this case.
That’s about what I can think of that a school might be able to provide. There are additional avenues you could pursue on your own. PACE (http://www.learninginfo.com) would likely help with the reading fluency and written expression, but it costs about $2,200. It is very new, and I have never heard of a school paying for it. The book “Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills” edited by Judith Birsh has a good chapter on teaching organizational skills. You might try to get it from inter-library loan.
Mary