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Lillend, welcome! This site has been a source of information, advice and encouragement for me for many years. It helps to not feel alone. Don’t worry about terms and abbreviations, just ask for clarification. If a diagnosis would help you plan then I suggest you ask for specifics from school and doctors. You might look in the papers you have for terms that indicate processing delays and how the frontal lobe and siezure problems translate to everyday skills. Obviously, the reading difficulty is a concern for you and a source of frustration for your son. What has been done to teach him to read? I know that you think the special education placement means something “special” is being done, but unfortunately many special ed teachers do not have the training, materials, schedules to really allow them to teach your son to read. I don’t pretend to have answers, but I am a parent of an ld son and a special ed teacher. I have sat on both sides of that IEP meeting table and have had to look hard and fight hard to get answers to help my son. ldonline is a great place to start. Good luck>

I do not think anything special is being done…in fact I know it is not. I’m actually getting ready for an IEP next week. I’m very non-confrontational and I have no choice but to confront the teacher. My son is in a class of 6 children and there are 2 teachers. He does get one on one attention, but they also insist on assigning the exact same work to all the children in the class regardless of what grade they are in or what level they are currently at. At this moment my son has spelling words that he cannot read, and geometry when he is only just beginning to multiply and is not very good at long addition or subtraction. It is not that the teacher has stopped teaching him smaller words, those are his reading words. Or that she has stopped teaching him simple math facts….he does those too. He now just has more work to do. On average he brings home a packet of 15-17 pages of homework per week and atleast half of it is stuff he cannot do at all.

I really just do not know what to do. It takes so long to get through his school work that I do not have time to try teaching how to read on my own. I’m also panicing. My son is supposed to start junior high next year and he cannot read. I’m scared.

OK, some practical advice from a tutor here.

As far as the work that is far above his level and he cannot do it, don’t do it. Period. Politely and nicely tell the teachers that a student who reads on a K level cannot spell anything above “cat”, period. What are they going to do to him if he doesn’t do it, after all? Can his situation get any worse? Refuse to play along with the game. If they punish him for not doing inappropriate work, you can make a legal complaint to the school board then to the state.

I work teaching reading to kids who have reached middle school and higher without success. There are no guarantees and no easy answers, but yes, in general it is doable. I won’t make any promises for a child who has a problem with his brain wiring, but in most cases it is possible.
He will have to take time and sound out words; tell him too bad, this is the way life is — BUT let him know you will work teaching him to work *up* through the levels and get faster, if he will work with you on getting there.

I have posted many answers to parents like you over the past four years. To avoid clogging up the board with the same advice over and over, I have saved down the how-to-tutor-reading and math posts (now enough to make a book in progress) and I email them out free, no strings attached, to anyone who asks. Just email a request to [email protected]

When my son was in second grade, he was in the resource room for both reading and math. The resource teacher wasn’t very good. She loaded him up on homework, way beyond his ability. I eventually brought up how much time he was spending on HW in an IEP meeting. The other teachers/staff got on her case about it. She was so mad at me that she never gave him another homework assignment.

Fortunately, my son was a very pleasant child and was better liked than his mother.

Giving a child homework that they cannot do goes totally against both the spirit and the law of an IEP. I would make a fuss. And I would send it back not done with a note that he could not do this. And I would do it every day. And I would send letters to the principal. And I would call an IEP meeting to have his needs met.

You may have an incompetent teacher like we did. I made such a fuss about so many things that year. I eventually pulled him for 2 hours a day and taught him myself. He was the only child in resource room the next year who could read. And lo and behold there was a new teacher.

Beth

Wow! Thanx for all the help. I am still nervous about the IEP, but I do feel a bit better now! :)

I have sent homework back with notes, but he hates when I do it because she yells at him and makes him skip recess to do the work. We are photo-copying his homework packets to take to the IEP with us. We already went in and spoke to her about it once, but if anything it just got worse. So now we will bring it up at the IEP with hopes that something will get done about it this way. If nothing else I am considering Home schooling him, but I’m very nervous about that!

Take another adult with you to the meeting. She is really out of line. You don’t yell at a child who can’t do the work you assigns. Also, I would have written into his IEP that he can’t be forced to do work during recess.

As far as homeschooling goes, you have to do better than she is.

Beth

At your meeting I would suggest you asked for research based reading instruction provided by a well trained, experienced teacher. Perhaps there is another teacher in the school or the district that can provide quality instruction. Tell them not to worry if they don’t have a qualified teacher and a quality program - they can pay for someone outside to provide a program. They can pay to transport him to a private clinic for reading instruction (hopefully there is one in your area).

Thanx again for all the help. I have been doing a lot of reading at my state’s (New Mexico’s) Special Education web site. It is a bit overwhelming! His IEP is Wednesday and I want to be prepared.

My son told me today that his teachers said that the only reason I keep writting that he cannot do certain things on homework assignments is because he want’s to be Home Schooled. One of them also apparently told him that he has to do 5th grade homework because the President says so! My son may be in 5th grade, but he is a long shot from 5th grade level! I feel that the school is asking him to run before he knows how to crawl!

One thing that complicates your situation is your child actually has brain injury or disfunction that is organic. In most cases of ld this is just not the case.

I have worked with a kid with fetal alcohol syndrome, and used a program called LiPS with him (Lindamood Phonemic Sequencing program). It is NOT user friendly (parents have been known to take the training and do it, but this isn’t typical). I have done it without training but I wouldn’t really recommend that. Generally this is done by speech pathologists. The thing that a kid with FAS has in common with your child is organic brain injury.

You might try something short of that first (something like abeecedaran — why did that guy name it that!!) — as they are easy and parent friendly. I wouldn’t necessarily guess that the school is going to teach him these things. Teachers do NOT learn how to teach kids to read unless they spend their own money and learn.

—des

What is abeecedaran? All I had ever heard of was Hooked on Phonics so we bought that. It does seem to help some, but he really struggles to remember certain sounds.

Definitely look into LiPS (Lindamood Intensive Phoneme Sequencing) by Lindamood-Bell. You son will learn to recognize the sounds and how they feel in his mouth. It will add another sensory mode for him to recognize and remember sounds. It teaches auditory descrimination and sequence skills that are a foundation of reading. It is not a reading program though and there are many other good ones out there - Wilson, Phonographix. Look for trained experienced teachers that use these or other methods. We did a number of programs with our son. The final most impressive break through came with Read Right which does not address the sounds of the letters, but works on predictabilty of the text and the fluency of reading. Our son was tutored over the phone, from the comfort of our home, twice a week. All of the programs mentioned have websites that you can investigate.

Hooked on Phonics gives a little phonics for a lot of money. I suggest programs that do the reverse, a lot of phonics, pages and pages of practice on each skill and set of skills, for a very little money. Less exciting to look at and less hype, but a lot more progress qat that is what is *really* exciting.

The ABeCeDarian Reading Program is related to the LiPS program and PhonoGraphix but is MUCH more user friendly. It is an excellent remedial program and I use it most of the time even though I am trained in several of the effective programs.

Here is the website:

www.abcdrp.com

Janis

Hooked on Phonics is a very poor excuse for a program, but as some children will learn doing anything, I’m sure it works with someone.

The reason I specifically mentioned LiPS is that they have a track record
with brain injured kids. I imagine, depending on the particular problem, that not every kid is effected exactly the same way. If your kid’s phonological problems are not terrible, he could benefit from something less intensive. I think you would try less intensive (like abeecee..) first, and if he is still struggling you try something else. One thing that might be really nice re: Abeecee.. for your kid specifically is the relatively clean (free of distraction) pages (I don’t actually use the program, but did download some samples).

Stay away from anything you might be able to get thru mailorder or Walmart. THough I have read good things here re: Leapfrog— but that would be as a supplement.

—des

I will look into the stuff that has been recomended….unfortunately I already spent the money on Hooked On Phonics. I guess my 1st grader enjoys it so it is not a total loss.

I have spent the morning reading info online and reading through my son’s file. His most recent evaluation was a Neuropsychological Evaluation done on 2/18/04, here is a bit of it….

Overall, Sebastian demonstrates significant neurocognitive impairments in attention and verbal learning, reading skills, sustained attention, processing speed, and fine motor coordination. The pattern of results are consistent with specific learning disorders in reading, math, and written language, as well as a motor coordination disorder, likely related to his significant neurocognitive impairment. Also, based on clinical history, behavioral ratings, laboratory findings, and clinical observation, he also demonstrates significant behavioral dysregulation, consistent with a diagnosis of ADHD, Combined type. Etiology of these difficulties is not clear given the clinical history, test results and behavioral ratings, although his difficulties with behavioral self-regulation, attention and executive functions could be expected given his abnormal EEG demonstrating frontal dysfunction.

I think I understand maybe 1/3 of all that!

Overall, Sebastian demonstrates significant neurocognitive impairments in attention and verbal learning, reading skills, sustained attention, processing speed, and fine motor coordination. The pattern of results are consistent with specific learning disorders in reading, math, and written language, as well as a motor coordination disorder, likely related to his significant neurocognitive impairment. Also, based on clinical history, behavioral ratings, laboratory findings, and clinical observation, he also demonstrates significant behavioral dysregulation, consistent with a diagnosis of ADHD, Combined type. Etiology of these difficulties is not clear given the clinical history, test results and behavioral ratings, although his difficulties with behavioral self-regulation, attention and executive functions could be expected given his abnormal EEG demonstrating frontal dysfunction

This is what I do understand I am a parent not a professional:

1. he has an abnormal EEG demonstrating frontal dysfunction
2. He has behavior consistent with ADHD—combined type-which means both attention, executive functioning, and impulsive behavior
3. The evaluator doesn’t know whether #2—behavior observed—is actually due to ADHD or to the frontal dysfunction. (etiology means cause)
4. It isn’t clear to me whether evaluator thinks that LD is connected to frontal dysfunction.

Beth

I just got back from my son’s IEP a little bit ago. What we got out of it was this…

The teacher wants us to decide a set amount of time for homework per day, and to only have him do homework for that amount of time. She will only grade him on completed work.

The 5th grade work will continue though. We were told that they have to expose the children to work of their grade regardless of ability. This is due to the No Child Left Behind Act. I have done some reading on this, but understood very little of it.

The school is currently waiting on a new reading program, but they ordered it months ago. It is called SRA, I plan to look it up after I’m done posting here.

Sebastian’s behavior has gotten very bad at school and has gotten somewhat worse at home. He has a doctor appointment next week so we are going to talk to his doctor about it. The teachers will be sending me papers describing Sebastian’s behavior so I can take them with me to the doctor. Sebastian has also had problems with sleepiness lately and his teacher is going to send a log she has been keeping about that.

The teacher is going to lessen the number of new spelling words Sebastian gets and she will work on Phonics and phonemic awareness with him.

We will have another IEP after he is reevaluated. That will be sometime after Winter Break.

OK…I that is all I can think of now. His IEP was nearly 2 hours long and I’m emotionally wrung out right now.

I WANTED TO COMMENT ON MANY ITEMS, SO I PUT MY THOUGHTS IN CAPITALS AT THE END OF YOUR PARAGRAPH. HOPE THAT IS OK. YOU DID WELL. PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK AND REST. BEST WISHES!

“The teacher wants us to decide a set amount of time for homework per day, and to only have him do homework for that amount of time. She will only grade him on completed work.” THIS IS A GOOD MODIFICATION WHICH WILL LESSON SOME OF THE STRESS AT HOME DOING HOMEWORK.

The 5th grade work will continue though. We were told that they have to expose the children to work of their grade regardless of ability. This is due to the No Child Left Behind Act. I have done some reading on this, but understood very little of it. YOU DO WANT HIM TO CONTINUE TO GET AN EDUCATION, LEARNING ABOUT GRADE LEVEL SUBJECT MATTER. WORK SHOULD BE MODIFIED AND SUPPORT GIVEN FOR READING AND WRITING.

The school is currently waiting on a new reading program, but they ordered it months ago. It is called SRA, I plan to look it up after I’m done posting here. BE CAREFUL HERE…GIVE THEM A LITTLE MORE TIME, BUT IF THEY DON’T HAVE SOMETHING SOON TELL THEM YOU’D BE HAPPY TO HAVE THEM PAY A PRIVATE SOURCE. PLUS - WHICH SRA PROGRAM IS IT? DOES IT REQUIRE TEACHER TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE TO DELIVER IT EFFECTIVELY?

Sebastian’s behavior has gotten very bad at school and has gotten somewhat worse at home. He has a doctor appointment next week so we are going to talk to his doctor about it. The teachers will be sending me papers describing Sebastian’s behavior so I can take them with me to the doctor. Sebastian has also had problems with sleepiness lately and his teacher is going to send a log she has been keeping about that.
HERE WE DO A BEHAVIOR SUPPORT PLAN TO ANALYIZE THE PROBLEMS AND FIND POSITIVE SOLUTION TO REINFORCE GOOD BEHAVIOR.

The teacher is going to lessen the number of new spelling words Sebastian gets and she will work on Phonics and phonemic awareness with him. ALSO KEEP AN EYE ON THIS- HOW IS SHE TEACHING HIM PHONICS AND PHONEMIC AWARENESS?

We will have another IEP after he is reevaluated. That will be sometime after Winter Break. AFTER YOU CATCH YOUR BREATH SEE WHAT TYPES OF PRIVATE CLINICS ARE AVAILABLE NEAR YOU, WHAT PROGRAMS THEY USE AND HOW MUCH THEY CHARGE. GIVE YOUR DISTRICT A CHANCE TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND IF THEY DON’T FILE A GRIEVENCE ASKING THEM TO PAY FOR PRIVATE SERVICES PLUS TRANSPORTATION COSTS.

OK…I that is all I can think of now. His IEP was nearly 2 hours long and I’m emotionally wrung out right now.

I do not know what SRA program they are planning to use. I assumed it was just one program till I looked it up yesterday. I do know that our school district has not decided on a special education program yet. They have multiple different programs being used in different school and by different teachers. In my childs school every special Ed. teacher is using something different. They are right now trying to decide on one thing to be used for the entire district, but I have no idea how long it will take them to decide.

As Far as phonics and phonemic awareness….about all I know is that the teacher is working one on one with him, and he is using a phonics workbook.

Exposure is for cameras and people who should be in jail, in my opinion… it ISN”T TEACHING. NCLB is supposed to be about TEACHING the children the grade level stuff. So, as it was suggested, they should be “exposing” him and then doing accommodations and modifications to make it possible for him to LEARN the material.

There are lots of different SRA programs out there; it’s good that the teacher knows she should be teaching that phonemic awareness & phonics, and hopefully it’s being done right. Hopefully it’s not mostly “workbook” kinds of things - phonics is about sounds, and I bet their workbooks don’t make any sounds.

OK…I really do not want to sound dumb here here, but what is NCLB?

I thought a lot last night about the whole exposure to 5th grade work yesterday and it seems to me he should learn 5th grade science and history. With those I feel he can learn them so long as someone reads it to him. However how can he learn 5th grade math and language arts? It just seems to me that he needs to learn 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade stuff first.

lilend, you are right and you have a lot more common sense than a lot of school employess. Stick to your guns abotu developing reading and math skills; it doesn’t hapen by magic, and the magic hasn’t worked for five years so it isn’t going to now. Yes, science and social studies can be taught orally.

You’re right.

There’s a lot of research that says math & reading should be taught at skill level, as in “grouping,” and content area at “age peer” level. (http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-927/grouping.htm is a good article on it.)

NCLB is “No Child Left Behind.” It’s also known as “No Child Left,” and “No Child Left Untested.” Does that ring a bell? Leave it to administrators to use it as an excuse for whatever they want to do that they *know* they can’t justify with good sense or what’s best for the students (or teachers).

Ok…I did not that it was just an acronym for No Child Left Behind. So is NCLB supposed to make teachers try to force children to learn things beyond their level or is that just the school district misintrepting it?

Sigh, WHO K NOWS — main thing being the people who *can* do something right or wrong with it are the local school people. Blaming bad teaching policies on it… that ain’t something right.

We discuss issues like this at Net Haven every Sunday and Thursday night at Net Haven.

Sue is our host every Thursday night.

peace,
marge
http://www.net-haven.net

I’ll try checking out the site when I have time. Maybe later today. Thank you everyone for all the help! I really do appreciate all you have had to say. :)

it sounds like you are going through a lot. My dd takes medication similar to your son. Her dx is Bipolar Disorder NOS along with several others and a list of learning difficulties. I found that it was not helpful to work “in the dark” without some proper information on what was going on with her. I had to request an Independent Educational Evaluation from the school because they kept saying her learning problems were from the bipolar and adhd. Turned out that she has very diagnosable LDs. Proper therapies have helped some of these, others have not responded to therapy but have been helped by proper accommodation.

I’m a strong believer in getting a “label” so that you can understand the direction that needs to be taken. It gives you a point of reference from which to explore options.

Its also good to educate yourself on your son’s rights. Some great information can be found at http://www.wrightslaw.com and http://www.truenorthedu.us