My 10 yr old boy was diagnosed with ADHD and now OCD. Since 1st grade, I have been telling the school that he needs extra help in class but after evaluating him twice over the years, they said that he did not qualify because he missed by 1 point. They convinced me that my son was ok and that I should hire a tutor for him. For 1st grade to 3rd grade, I tried different tutors $25.00/hr for him, I send him to summer school for 3 years, but I could see that he was not progressing like other children. Grade 4 became extremely hard for him. At this point, I asked my son’s psychiatrist to write me a stern letter to the school that he needed to be in a resource class with a smaller group because of his condition. In 4th grade, my son became very frustrated with school work, he refused to do homework, everything was too hard for him. I stopped all tutoring. Finally the school decided to make a psychological evaluation on him. The evaluation results showed that he failed all aspects of his academics and his IQ was 50! This meant that he would finally be able to get that extra help I was asking for all those years. But this result did not break my heart. As a mother, I knew that my boy will be ok. They started to pull him out for English and Math in the resource room. For 5th grade, they decided to put him in a self contained classroom which I thought would be good for him. Instead what I found out that in that class, there is one child with Downs Syndrome and another child who does not know how to talk. These are the only two children in his class! They were starting to teach then 6+1 and 0+2 stuff! My son knows all his multiplication tables, has been reading since the age of 3, has great memory, has no behavior problems,plays the violin, so what exactly is going on with him? He hates math but so did I. I always failed math but I always was first in class in history and SS. And ironically I am in an accounting field all my adult life. I finally checked out some private schools around my area and one of the schools tested him for reading comprehension for 5th grade and he passed! Except he couldnt do the 5th grade math. So tomorrow I am going to enroll him in the private school. In the last IEP meeting, they told me that there is no way any teacher could teach my son in a regular classroom. I know my son is capable of doing much more than where he is now! I just hope I am doing the right thing! By the way, this site is great and I have learned so much.
Re: Am I doing the right thing?
Boy, is that the question we are all constantly asking ourselves, or what!!!
You did not say (or I missed it) in your posting as to whether your son had ever had a complete evaluation by a pediatric neuropsychologist. The reason I broach this subject is that we have a son who the school told us (last year during second grade), based on their multi-factored evaluation, had an IQ in the low 70s. We, too, had confidence that our boy would be okay, but we also knew (my husband has been a schoolteacher for 28 years) that if the school’s assessment was wrong and he was put into a resource room or whatever with other children in that IQ range, that that situation would quickly smash his spirit (for the same reasons you described).
We, after much searching followed by much begging (just to get an appointment within a reasonable amount of time), had him completely evaluated by a neuropsych (a process that took place over several days). It turned out that our son had two connected learning disabilities, but his IQ was actually in the normal-bright range. He was also not ADD as as previously determined by another, private psychologist.
Once we had that complete evaluation report, we were able to go to the school (the neuropsych actually accompanied us) and get an appropriate IEP in place for our guy.
Of course, I don’t know if this same situation would apply to your son. I just know it’s hard to integrate all of the assessments when they’re done by all kinds of different school personnel and private providers.
Good luck and God Bless!
Re: Am I doing the right thing?
He stayed in the self contained classroom all day except was sent to regular class for reading. In this class,the teacher didnt seem to have any knowledge of what exactly was going on with my son. In the new school which he started this morning, I decided to put him back in 4th grade and he will be taught 3rd grade math. There are about 14 kids in his class. It is a Christian school and we are not Christians so I really dont know how all this will affect him. He has to go for Bible classes etc. I found 2 other schools about an hour’s drive from where we live who specialize in LD children but after they checked his low IQ evaluation, they turned him down. I changed 3 psychiatrists over the 3 years, trying to figure out what exactly is wrong with him. We also took him to a pediatric neurologist who said nothing was wrong with him. Finally, I decided to take him to a psychologist (3 rd one as well) who after 5 visits told me that all the ticks that he is having after trying Ritalin, Clonidine etc. are actually impulsive movements. He was 95% sure that he has OCD. But this is what I had told the 2 psychiatrists before but these doctors nowadays dont seem to listen to you. They kept pushing Ritalin on him which made his condition worse. Now I am going back to his psychiatrist to see what he has to say. In the meantime, I am having sleepless nights, not enjoying life, there is a knot in my stomach which I know will not go away until I feel that my child finally has a desire to get up in the morning and do something. I am sure all of you feel the same way if your child is not happy and not progessing in his life, we are not happy and we cannot progress in our daily life as well.
Re: Am I doing the right thing?
Oh, Sara, I hear you! It is so hard. Believe me, my son is now 20 and we still don’t have the OCD/anxiety issues totally worked out. Our youngest started in a Christian school, ironically, as that was our first choice school for her at the time, but because of auditory processing disorder and the need for speech/langauge therapy, we moved her to a charter school after a year. I would say that the smaller class size will be good for your child. Christian schools often are nurturing environments, but some do not know how to differentiate instruction or really accommodate special needs. I really hope it will work for your son. Have they tried him on an anti-depressant for the OCD yet? That might be your key to begin making progress.
Janis
Re: Am I doing the right thing?
I think you should consider getting an independent IQ test done at public expense. I have worked with a great number of children, hundreds, as a child advocate, the IQ score you gave (50 )does not fit at all with what you have told us your son is doing. Something is very wrong here. I suggest you get both a verbal and nonverbal IQ test done on your child.
Re: Am I doing the right thing?
Hi
I would do as the others suggested a neuro-psych eval No way a 50 IQ is reading at the 5th grade level or doing 3rd grade math . That said you are entitled to resource room services provided by your district at no cost even if he attends a private school . Get a comprehensive eval like jao said and go to a cse meeting . Your son would do well in inclusion class with reg kids and the spec ed teacher works with him a couple of hours a week . If your district doesn’t have that maybe you can get them to pay for private school as they can’t offer an appropriate and least restrictive environment .
good luck Don’t give up
Sara, none of us can tell you if you are doing the right thing and I’m sure you realize that. But I want to make a couple of comments. First of all, it is possible the ADHD diagnosis was wrong since you now have a new diagnosis of OCD. So many of those disorders have overlapping symptoms. And the impulsivity of OCD makes the school think ADHD almost always. I’m sure the doctor has told you that meds for ADHD can make OCD worse. So be sure you get all that sorted out. (I have a son that we initially had diagnosed ADD but it was wrong…he was really anxiety disorder/OCD).
You did not say if the privae school was willing to work with a child who is below grade level in math. Are the classes small? Are they willing to adapt to his individual needs? Do you know what curriculum the private school uses and is it good for your son’s learning style?
The missing link in your post is why the school thought the resource room was not working and why they thought he needed self-contained. It would be highly unusual for a child on grade level in reading to be in a self-contained special class. So I am wondering why they made that recommendation.
Wherever you put him, it does sound like you will have to get some outside help for the math. And not just a math tutor… someone who specializes in LD Math.
Janis