Hi Everyone,
My 8 y.o. DD is foreign born (adopted at nearly 6, home 2.7 years). Intially I had her in public school 1st grade (for ESL). I pulled her after 6 months and put her in Montessori (until this past September). She is currently back in the same public school district, but in a different elementary school. A year ago I noticed a problem with her memory. She has a wonderful 2nd grade teacher who adores her and does everything to make things as easy as possible for my DD. I didn’t want to wait for school testing so I had DD tested privately and got the results last week. WJIII (looks like all tests and optionals were administered).
She has a -21 difference in Broad Reading and the private Psych diagnosed her with DSM-IV 315.00 Reading Disorder. I was not expecting this and had read-up on everthing but “Dyslexia.” Her Long Term Retrieval combined, was K.6 (Visual-Auditory Learning K.8, Retrieval Fluency K.3). So my hunch about her memory was correct.
DD’s teacher had already requested an “intervention meeting” and told me secretly that she was thrilled I’d gone the private route to speed up the process (there are only 2 openings left in the resource room). The intervention meeting was today with the Resource teacher, principal, ELD teacher, school counselor, classroom teacher, Speech and Language, School psych, I think that’s it :)
I had provided the school with a copy of the report last week (of course no one had read it prior to the meeting)! The meeting went well and I was asked many questions about my DD’s history and my observations. The school psych kept mentioning the “memory.” I informed the group that the private psych had “strongly” urged me to hire an Educational Therapist for DD, and referred me to the Frostig Center (about 5 miles away), and, that we are currently in the process of arranging tutoring there. Frostig is supposed to address the “concept” issues of the memory/retrieval problems that are being attributed to DD’s combination of strong Visual-Spatial Thinking (GE spatial relations 9.6, picture recognition 3.2, planning 3.5) and superior Auditory Processing (GE Sound Blending 11.5, Incomplete Words k.7, Auditory Attention 5.8) (except for those darn incomplete words).
I brought work to show them what she is capable of doing on a given day, but not necessarily the next day. Her “story recall” PR was 6! “Story Recall-Delayed” PR 94!! She has no reading fluency and very little comprehension. Fortunately when the school psych tried to attribute the memory problems to ELD, that teacher didn’t even let her finish the thought before saying,” absolutely NOT!” “She’s tested verbally out of ESL using “?,” test, but completely shut down for the reading and writing portion.” The ball was back in the school psych’s court.
The meeting ended with the psych telling me that she’d “like to do more testing to better define the specific areas that needed to be addressed.” She will be sending home a packet for me to fill out and “okay” for further testing. She gave no time frame. At the end of the testing IF my DD needed resource would I be willing to allow it. I said, “yes.”
Now…I have already written and IEP request letter to the principal but did not give it to her. Will requesting an IEP now, impact Resource support for my DD? Should I wait for the school testing? What other tests can this school psych do that can’t be clearly seen by the results of the private testing (dyseidetic dyslexia). (It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to she she knows and understands phonics, but can recognize the word). Is she trying to see if I “bought” this diagnosis? Should I push for Resource now based on the private evaluation?
Your thoughts please!!!
TIA
Susan
Re: New Here, Question About "Other" tests School Psyc
Susan,
Sure, I’d go ahead and let the school test, too. But school resource programs are usually not very effective at remediation, and sometimes removing the child from regular class causes them to fall even further behind. There is the option of regular class placement with consultation by the LD teacher along with accommodations in the classroom as long as she is having difficulty. This is possible when you are seeking the remediation privately. I would find out more about the Frostig Center and the methods or programs that they use before making a decision about that as well.
What other tests did they do besides the WJ-III?
Your child sounds a bit like mine. I had her tested at a Lindamood Bell Clinic and they recommended Seeing Stars and Visualizing and Verbalizing for her. I like their methods so much that I am taking the trainings to use these methods with my own students. My child is also adopted (from China), but she was 6 months old.
Janis
Re: New Here, Question About "Other" tests School Psyc
:oops:
I’ve spent a few days trying to respond to you (Helen and Janis). I kept trying to log-in and it kept telling me “not available.” I just figured out that all I needed to do is click “reply.” Now I’m wondering who has the “learning disability” in my family :lol:
Thank you for responding Helen. I found out that the additional testing is required so that they have a record. We’ve moved from “student success team” to IEP (scheduled for Nov 24) within 3 days. I didn’t have to formally request anything, and have found out that they are moving quickly to make sure my dd gets one of the two remaining slots in resource. If not, she’d have to go to another school to get the services. The school psych is picking the tests to establish the need for services, but I’ve already been in discussions with the Resource teacher. So my suspicions at least for now, were unfounded. I’m still leary, waiting to see what the IEP will look like and what goals they are going to try to achieve.
Thank you Janis. I’ve been “lurking” for awhile and have gotten many useful suggestions from your posts. I’m already becoming more familiar with many of the programs people use/recommend on this board. I had come to the conclusion that LMB Seeing Stars might help. On Back to School Night I went early and sat in on the Resource Teachers session. She was excited because this year they implemented Seeing Stars for their reading program. She gave us a sample exercise to do. I am hopeful that this will have some positive results for my dd. The resource teacher didn’t mention V&V as part of the curriculum. This may be something I have to do on my own.
We set up an educational therapist at Frostig that starts on Nov 13. They want to do a little more testing ($$) but have given me the option of declining. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted Frostig to do, so I spoke with the Ed Psych who did the private testing. What my dd is missing is the ability to categorize/organize/access her knowledge. I thought that’s what he meant, but couldn’t remember anything other than “she needs help building templates.” This is what I want Frostig to work on. The Ed psych indicated that there was no one center around here that could address all of my dd’s learning issues, but he felt Frostig was the best to address some of them. I will check out V&V again. I’ve been searching the web looking for software that would help with this. Any suggestions?
Thanks again for your help, encouragement, and support. I can’t tell you how much it means to me!!
-Susan
When a parent provides the school with assessment information the school has the right to do their own assessment. It was decided at the meeting that they would do an assessment. The school has 15 days to prepare and provide you with written propoesed assessment plan. After you sign and return the signed assessment plan they have 50 calendar days to assess and hold the IEP meeting. It is important that you return the signed assessment plan as soon as possible.
Helen
(CA)