I have asked some questions here before and always been given such thoughtful advice. I am working with the school on accomodations for my soon to be 6th grader, but I really want some answers as to what is going on with my son and how to help him improve in his weak areas. He has trouble finishing work.
We had him tested by an aducational psychologist, but that really hasn’t provided enough answers. He is high IQ with slow processing speed. He has a 16 point discrepancey between reading achievement and IQ, Oral language and IQ, and a 32 point discrepancy between wriiten lang and IQ. The school has him under 504 because his achievement scores are in the average range, so he doesn’t have educational need. He also has deprssion/anxiety due to his problems and sees a couselor. Those problems are not going to go away just by talking about them, however. Therefore, although he gets accomodations, he is not having his problems addressed.
I am thinking he may have mild dyslexia or CAPD. There also may be ADHD inattentive going on. What is the next step, and then, what can we do to help him? As school gets harder, math calculations/facts are hard for him even though he has high comprehension. The school, which I volunteered at for years and wish I hadn’t, now is fighting me on his accomodations for next year. We have hired an advocate to help us at next week’s 504 meeting.
After we get that straigtened out for next year - 6th grade, what tests would help us focus in on what is really wrong and what he really needs? He will never make it through the system without some remediation, especially in math/writing. What is funny is he has beautiful handwriting and excellent writing content (high school), but his grammar and spelling errors are grade level and below. And of course, the writing is very slow..
Bless you for any suggestions,
karen O.
Re: I'm lost about what to do next!
There really are two general approaches you can, plus a combination of the two.
One is to try to remediate the academic areas. You mention math and writing. You can find a good tutor and work at these areas or figure out how to do it yourself. With math, you might need to focus on what is the issue. You mention calculations. My son had a devil of a time learning multiplication tables but with a systematic process (which I detailed some time ago on math board), he learned them. It made a big difference with math fluency.
Now taking that approach assumes that you think your son sufferred from poor instruction or just required a slower pace and more repetition than the class had. Sometimes working on academics is like beating your head against the wall because the child just can not learn. In that case, you might be better off trying to figure out what the underlying deficits are that are causing the problems in academics and seeing if you can remediate them.
A neurospychological evaluation is the time honored, although expensive, way to start to get a handle on that. We never did that though. Instead, my son had individual evaluations by a slew of people….occupational therapist, audiologist, neurologist, speech and language therapist, developmental optomtetrist as well as a psychologist. I ended up putting it all together, but it seems that most of the time that goes on anyway.
You could start here by with what you observe and try to confirm or rule things out. You mention CAPD. Find a good audiologist who specializes in auditory processing.
ADD-inattentive is tougher. It often looks like other things and other things look like it.
Make a list of what you observe about what he has trouble with in math.
Think of your child as a puzzle. There is a rhyme and reason behind his difficulties.
Finally, think about teaching him to type. For some kids, that is the magic bullet around writing problems. My daughter, who is not LD, but had some difficulty with the mechanical task of writing typed everything starting at about age 12. Now 14, she still doesn’t hold a pencil correctly but her spelling is much improved because of using spell check. This is one route I am going to pursue this summer with my LD 12 year old.
What I have done is go back and forth between working at the sensory level and working at academics. My son’s deficits were so severe that an academic approach would not have been adequate. On the other hand, kids with less severe issues sometimes just need a little extra help.
Beth
Thanks!
I am actually considering Lindamood Bell for him part of the summer. They have a center in Dallas, and my parents live there. It looks expensive but often effective. I have scheduled testing and tutoring there. I may have to sell my firstborn to afford it. :) There is definitely more going on than just he needs more repetition. We have done flashcards for years! He is VERY visual, and I think he cannot visualize math facts, oral instruction, etc.
We will proboably also go to an audiologist. My son is not going to be thrilled about the LMB schedule, because he did Huntington learning center in the past and it did nothing for him. I’ll have to convince him that this program is much better for what he needs, and pray that it is!
Nancy3
Because of the huge discrepancy between IQ and writing, you might want to have him evaluated by a neuro-psychologist for dysgraphia. Since dysgraphia is considered a neurological disorder, the evaluation should be covered by medical insurance. My inclination would be to go for the neuro-psych eval before investing tons of money in a single therapy approach. A neuro-psych eval can save a lot of time by pinpointing the exact nature of the underlying deficits. It provides a lot more valuable information (especially in terms of which therapies are likely to be helpful) than an educational eval.
Nancy
My husband and our advocate say neuropsych, too!
I guess neuropsych would be a thorough starting point. I just hope once they do the eval. they can recommend what to do next. When we had our educational eval. we really were left hanging afterwards!
Re: I'm lost about what to do next!
Karen,
I agree about the potential LD in writing. Here’s a great article:
http://www.nhida.org/docs/writestuff.pdf
Janis
the way I see it
I have been on both sides of this CAPD/ADD fence. As an SLP I have encountered kids who are more ADD-Inattentive than truly language impaired with CAPD. IMHO if you treat the ADD the CAPD won’t be as apparent…
I have spent about 6 hours testing an eighth grader in middle school that has been retained twice. this kid should be in 10th grade in high school. I was pulled in because he tested out of RSP but there was this nagging slow processing speed and some holes that the psyche just couldn’t figure out. When I tested his auditory processing…he was WNL but his logic and reasoning is still an issue…but it isn’t a problem with auditory processing…it is a language issue due to inattentive tuning out behvaviors.
This kid has a history of doing LMB intensives…he has the LMB program down. His spelling is impeccable, his vocabulary is WNL, But when I was testing him…I could see how he could hyper focus like nobody’s buisness and the just zone out at random times. He said it just gets boring for him in class somedays…and he can’t control his wandering mind… My assessment shows problems with his disorganization and attention to details. Yeah, I can qualify him for Speech and Language but that isn’t what the true problem is…this kid is ADD-Inattentive…there is NO DOUBT in my mind…He is just like my ADD-Inattentive son…
If ADD is treated a kid will just take off considering the tens of thousands of $$’s the parents have spent at LMB…This kid has the skills but he just can’t stay focused enough to apply them consistently.
Treat the ADD first and then do an intensive because the therapy would be more effective.
Has he been seen by an audiologist to get a better picture of his capd?
My friend’s son went to an audiologist and the result was recommendations for specific programs that worked on his problems. He did interactive metronome, fast forward and the listening program. Subsequent testing showed an improvement in all areas of auditory processing. Some have been able to get at least the audiologist testing part covered by medical insurance.
My son’s problem was not auditory it was more visual motor but I think there was also some underlying auditory issues that were less severe.
My son’s developmental optometrist seemed to believe that addressing his deficits would improve some of his anxiety and I have to say it has. It makes sense when you think about it.
One other thing. My son looked marginally adhd when we started all of this but doesn’t present that way now. I think his deficits made it difficult for him to pay attention.
Just so you know, there are no silver bullets. It is just one piece at a time.