any words of wisdom?

Hi,

It’s certainly possible that your daughter has a vision problem along with all of the other developmental issues, especially since you claim that LD issues run in the family.

I’ve spent some time discussing vision issues on my website at ontrackreading.com and I’ve put up a PDF file of a vision assessment checklist that you can download from the site. I’ll try to link to that page at the end of this post. Otherwise, just look for that topic on the sidebar of my site.

If it turns out that your daughter has a vision problem getting in the way of her learning, then she might well have had other developmental issues that eventually resolved. Unfortunately, the vision problems can persist into adulthood unless they’re addressed. To do this, you need to find a reputable developmental optometrist in your area. Your family OD is unlikely to pick up on the sort of problems that I’m talking about because they normally don’t do sufficient testing for vision skills deficits.

Rod Everson
[url=http://ontrackreading.com/the-vision-piece/vision-assessment-checklist]Vision Assessment Checklist at OnTrack Reading[/url]

Sorry. I posted twice. Erasing the second one.
[Modified by: Rod Everson on July 18, 2007 12:37 AM]

Hi Mhatt and welcome here,
This could be a combination of both auditory and Visual-Spatial difficulties.
Where frequent ear infections as an infant, can contribute to APD, Auditory Processing Disorder.
Which obviously relates to speech development, phonetic awareness and reading.
This can also effect ‘peer relationships’, as processing speech/conversations can be difficult?

Also in relation to ‘poor coordination, penmanship, and difficulties with math and the concept of time’?
This could indicate a difficulty with Visual-Spatial Thinking?
Where Visual basically refers to the ability to Visualise.
Consider trying to print Letters, if you couldn’t picture in your mind, what it looked like?
Spatial refers to our ability to imagine ‘space’ in our mind. Try closing your eyes, and touching the tip of your nose with your fingertip?
Then close your eyes and bring the fingertips of both hands together?
The concept of time actually involves spatial thinking.
Though you can do simple exercises to help develop these abilities.
I’ll wait to hear from you.
Geoff,

Your daughter appears to have a number of the warning signs for dyslexia. Here is a complete checklist of warning signs for dyslexia:
http://www.bartonreading.com/pdf/Dys%20warning%20signs.pdf

Go to the following website you’ll be able to watch the online video presentations on what is dyslexia and what you can do about it.
http://www.brightsolutions.us/

You may also wish to see if you can make an appointment with a developmental neuropsychologist for a complete evaluation of your daughter. Their evaluation will be much more specific than what is offered through the school system. You may also wish to have your daughter tested by a speech pathologist or audiologist who specializes in the diagnosis of auditory processing disorder.

Jim — Michigan

Words of Wisdom - Don’t expect the schools to tell you what is wrong with your child, in many cases they won’t evaluate until your child is so far behind they can’t catch up, Also, get a good through evaluation from a neuropsychologist or psychologist. Don’t wait. Expect to have to do remediation of deficits and academics outside of school.

I have a dd with very complicated LDs. We got the “generic” LD label from the school and after a year of no progress I insisted on an outside evaluation with a neuropsychologist. This was the best thing we ever did because we were able to get a clearer picture of what her needs were and what therapies and accommodations would be more helpful.

You will also need to do a lot of your own research. Learn what you can about the various LDs, therapies and accommodations so that you will have an idea of what to try. Not every therapy will work the same, so you may have to try a number of different things.

I agree with the others. Get a private evaluation. I believe that if you disagree with the evaluation of the school they are supposed to pay for a private evaluation, but regardless, the schools definitely don’t go that deep into it. And my experience is that they don’t really treat the problem either, they just try to make accomodations or offer tutoring and in most cases, speech therapy, whether the child needs it or not (so I am finding out). Most important, read read read read read. I have found google to be most helpful in putting in various combinations of symptoms and then go from there. The nice thing is that you can probably rule a lot of things out yourself. Most evaluations will involve the parents input anyway, because you know your child better than anyone.

One thing you said is that she is very aware of the fact that she is not up to speed with her peers. The SLP working with my daughter told me that was a good sign of intelligence. Kids who have a very low IQ are most often unaware of the fact that they don’t know. She said “They don’t know that they don’t know”, so as hard as it is to watch, you can rule out intelligence issues, which is why the school is calling it an LD. That basically means that her academic performance is out of line with her intelligence, but like the other poster said, it’s a generic term. And without a specific diagnosis, you cannot even begin to treat the problem.

Good Luck. Keep us posted and be aggressive and get that private eval done so that you can get answers. Don’t wait for the school to do it because they wont.

Kathryn

Generic terms are given in EL and until you do the research it will continue to be a generic term.

I think no one tells you when your kids are young and have dyslexia that they can still attend college their is alternative text to help them comprehend what they are reading without decoding the words for example electronic text, audio, etc., We have screen readers that should be shouted from the top of the buildings.

Have a learning disability means that you learn differently and finding out what helps you learn and what accommodations you need to learn are the most important things besides knowing what you need and when you need them. Letting others know that you need these accommodations before you get behind in high school/college.

I think we stay in what has happened in the past and not focus on the future that you are a very lucky parent of probably a beautiful young girl. How lucky are you?

Be appreciative of the time we have with our children. Do not become dredged in the past.

OMG, mhatt you and I should talk sometime! My ds is 7 and has various difficulties as well that no one to date has put a label on but I am sure they all add up to something. He does not have all of the symptoms on your list but many of them are similar. Here’s his list:
1)Allergies and asthma (on meds for each)
2)Ear infections as toddler resulting from congestion buildup due to allergies and colds
3)Difficulties with reading, writing, spelling
4)Fine motor difficulties early on which seem to have resolved
5)Social skill problems
6)Lack of understanding of time concepts
7)Distractiblity
8)Unreasonable reactions to not getting his own way
9)SVT(fast heart rate currently controlled)
10)Born 6 wks early as result of #9 and spent 3 wks in NICU-also given several meds during first few days of life and continued a few till 1 yr of age

The thing however is, that there are some things he does REALLY WELL. His concentration is amazing when it comes to things he enjoys like Star Wars and construction trucks. His math skills are at grade level. He was an early talker and never really seemed to have developmental delays. He went for a hearing test a few years back and no problems were found. He recently went for a vision test and it was recommended he get vision therapy. At this time this is too costly as insurance won’t pay. Also, when he was younger he used both hands for activities and we weren’t entirely sure if he was going to be right or left handed up until he began 1st grade last yr. He has decided to be right handed btw. Any theories or comments on the above? I love my big guy but he is SOOO very frustrating when he is defiant and doesn’t want to do what I ask him. I think more so than the average child. BTW, I also have an education background but my strategies in trying to teach him things have fallen by the way side. So I will wait patiently for some advice b4 I go and find a shrink for both myself and him because we are about to lose it soon! Thanks for listening-Zoerhenne

You may wish to watch a online video on dyslexia. This video presentation was developed by Susan Barton. You can view this video on her website. This is an excellent video presentation which explains dyslexia. Click on the link “Watch Susan Barton’s presentation on Dyslexia: Symptoms & Solutions”
http://www.brightsolutions.us/
Jim — Michigan

I recommend, if a private eval is too pricey, that you have your child evaluated through a local college or university psychology department. Often graduate students in psychology will be able to test a person for low or no cost, under the supervision of a psychologist or psychiatrist. Sometimes school testing doesn’t sort out the type of disability (depends on the district), only that the child is learning disabled.

You child can still have a bright future, with the proper help and accomodations. Don’t dispair :-)

BTW, I am learning disabled and gifted. I have a college degree and teach mathematics (not arithmetic) and science. Eventually, you will discover that your child has strengths as well as weaknesses. Help foster those “islands of competency.”

Hi, my ds has many of these problems too. He was not breathing at birth, at least 6 weeks early, can’t write(dysgraphia), social problems, chronic illnesses, etc., Anyway he was finally diagnosed last month with NVLD (non-verbal learning disorder). A psycho-educational assessment should pick up on anything that the child is having problems with, it can be expensive if you have to pay, but worth it.

To me is sounds as if your daughter has many of the symptoms of being dyslexic. I have two children, both of dyslexic. My son went through the Davis Dyslexia Correction program, which I was very impressed with. Look it up on www.dyslexia.com where you will also find a tets you can do.

[quote=Aly]I recommend, if a private eval is too pricey, that you have your child evaluated through a local college or university psychology department. Often graduate students in psychology will be able to test a person for low or no cost, under the supervision of a psychologist or psychiatrist. Sometimes school testing doesn’t sort out the type of disability (depends on the district), only that the child is learning disabled [quote=Aly].

Why would you want to have your child evaluated through a local university for money when you can get it done through your school district for free? Even if it is free, I personally wouldn’t rely too much on the results because they came from an inexperienced person that is basically practicing on your child. Plus, the measures they use are the same instruments used within school systems. I think that I’d rather have an experienced psychologist conducting the evaluation because they are more skilled in administering and interpreting the test data. The supervising psychologist has to put their signature on the report because the graduate student isn’t certified.

[Modified by: Patrick on October 26, 2007 03:25 PM]

Patrick, it seems, by the formatting, that what is really part of your reply, is a quote from me. Any possibility of editing it so the only quote is what I actually said?

As for the answer, the reason I recommended a college eval was that the original post had had an eval done at school, but it did not give her specifics. Another poster had recommended a private eval. Since an evaluation done by a local college would be less expensive, I recommended that as an alternative. Had her public school district been more helpful, neither of these suggestions would have been made.