HI! Wow! Who knew such a thing existed? Don’t you just love the internet?
My 6-year-old son, Elijah, has been diagnosed with ADD and also has some type of language “issue.” It has not been pinned down and his teachers don’t seem too concerned about naming it so all I can do is describe the poor boy to you. He does not recognize the letters in his name if you ask him what they are but he can hang his coat on the right hook and write his name. He does better if he has a picture to associate with the sound or word. He seems to have both expressive and receptive problems. It seems to me that the problem is with the way he stores information or maybe how he retrieves it. The Speech teacher has described them as “coding” problems and they have been wonderful to work with him. He has made great progress in just a few weeks. He goes to LD class 1 hour per day and has 1.5 hours a week with the ST. We have been working on basic number, counting, writing and reading skills at home. He can read/sound out most basic 3 letter words but he is very inconsistent (maybe related to the ADD.) He is counting “better” but seems to have gotten so far behind the rest of the class as they are adding and subtracting and he can barely count to 20. He is very bright and had normal IQ but with dramatically lower achievement level. He does not have any other disability. Vision and hearing are normal. No deficits in Motor skills.
I guess my questions are: Should we search further to try to get a specific diagnosis? And what else should we be doing outside of what the school offers? after school and over the summer?
Thanks!
Amy
Re: Introduction!
I don’t think there is a right answer to your question. It is as much a matter of philosophy or approach. One approach is to get as much information as possible. A neurospychological evaluation is usually the key to that, although they are expensive and not often covered by insurance.
You also can take the road of doing what works until it doesn’t and then seek out more information.
One thing that did strike me is that you have a kid who has both difficulty with verbal tasks and nonverbal. This is a more unusual profile (my son was like this) and it is harder to sort out what is going on, as well as to remdiate. We never ended up getting a neuropsych evaluation but did many other evaluations (developmental optometrist, audiologist, slt, ot, neurologist ect.) I really have had to put it all together which would be at least a little less true if we had a neurospych eval.
Beth
Re: Introduction!
Thanks to both of you for your input. It helped a lot. He is a busy boy and a challenge to keep up with. We have made good progress in the last few weeks. Our first child was VERY verbal and is reading 3 or 4 grades above her level. So…. when Elijah came along we knew he was wired different but did not realize it was a problem until he started school.
He does have his strengths and I am grateful that his teachers have recognized them and are using them to build his confidence and broaden his horizons.
Thanks again for your advice.
Amy
Sounds to me like you’re doing the right thing.
It doesn’t hurt to keep looking for a better diagnosis, but don’t break the bank and don’t wait to teach him — some people chase diagnoses and legal remedies for years and years while the kid falls further and further behind.
Keep going with what works — you are lucky to have sound something effective so fast; some people hunt for years.
There are some speech therapists who post here who can guide you to private and/or home-based programs that you can use during school vacation. In particular LindaMood-Bell Lips has a good reputation and might be a good thing for both language and writing.
In reading, sounding out three-letter words is good — please do NOT fall into the trap of trying to have him memorize words and sentences and books, as many people will offer you to try to speed him up — it does not lead to real reading, quite the reverse, it has to be unlearned later.
If he is ever going to repeat a grade, now in Grade 1 is the time to do it; he would see the teaching of reading and math over again and could get a good foundation. Later on, repeating things he doesnlt have the foundation to understand would be a waste. First you have a couple of months to work on the therapy and see if he is starting to catch up, and then you should have a long talk with both regular and special ed teachers and see where to go from there for next year.