Last week, I went to my kindergarteners Parent Teacher Conference. She’s a young kindergartener. She turned 5 in November, and the cut-ff date in our area is Dec. 2.
It seems that my daughter is performing below average in a couple of areas, although they seem interrelated. She is having trouble recognizing symbols, whether they are letters or numbers. The teacher said she’ll know something one day, and the next, she won’t remember it. She said she needs lots of repititon. It may be a memory issue, or an issue of recognizing symbols. I don’t know.
She only recognizes the symbols for numbers up to 10. I asked what she’d recognize if she were “average”, and the teacher said she’d know up to about 20. And by the end of the year, she should know up to 30, the same as in a calendar.
She did score highly in vocabulary and verbal expression, which doesn’t surprise me. I guess since she’s always been so expressive, we figured she’d have no trouble in school. And since her preschool teachers were so enthusiastic about her being ready for kindergarten, we never seriously considered holding her back.
Here is my question today. Should I have my 5 year old tested for learning disabilities? Some people say it’s really not useful to have them tested before age 6, when their brain has had sufficient time to mature.
On the other hand, if she just isn’t ready for 1st grade, I’d like to know so I can insist on having her held back. But, if she has an LD, would holding her back be useful? An extra year isn’t going to change the fact that she has a learning disability. It might be better to let her stay with her class, and get her in with a Resource Specialist next year.
Decisions. I want to make a good one, since this could affect her academic career, and I want her to maintain her confidence in her abilities. Her confidence is still good, because her teacher and I have been careful not to speak negatively about her abilities in front of her. We both keep instilling her with confidence and an I-can-do-it attitude. And, she does have an I-can-do-it attitude. She just doesn’t realize, yet, that she is not doing what a lot of kids in her grade are doing.
Also, FYI, her teacher said that if our district has summer school for entering 1st graders who need extra help, she’d definately recommend my daughter. So, if they have it, we’ll send her. Also, my brother is paying the fee for her to go to a reading program this summer through a local junior college, so that’s a given. Plus, I’m reviewing her schoolwork with her, and working with her at home as much as her attention span will allow. Her attention span is another concern I have about her going to 1st grade. Is it worthwhile to have someone so young tested?
BTW, my 7 year old daughter is mildly retarded, and we’ve been “in the system” since she was three. So, I know my basic rights about assessments, IEPs, and their time limit in having an assessment performed once I’ve requested it. I’m not an IEP pro, I still call her Regional Center service coordinator about a lot of things, but I know many of the basic rights.
All opinions and suggestions welcome! Thanks!
~Kimberly
Re: New Here/Have 5 year old tested for LD?
I think kindergarten is the ideal place to ‘hold a child’ back. As you say, your daughter is young to begin with. That year can’t hurt her and can only help her as she goes through the system.
Your daughter is young for intensive remediative work so testing at this point might not lead to doing a great deal different for her right now. If the district is willing to test her and it will not cause your daughter concern, though, there’s also nothing to lose by the testing.
You might want to keep a close eye on the college reading program and the summer school together to make sure what’s happening to her in those two programs is meshing well. More can sometimes be less. Different programs can have very different approaches to students and their issues and can leave a young child confused. One could teach her one approach to reading and the other a very different approach.
Good luck.
Re: New Here/Have 5 year old tested for LD?
My son was classified in K because of language delays. These improved a lot in K such that he no longer qualified for sp. ed. status on this basis. Noone felt comfortable declassifying him so the school did some testing on him. As a result, he was classified as having a visual-motor integration deficit.
It wasn’t until the end of first grade that we realized the auditory part, which should have been obvious I think in retrospect given his language delays. I wish we had a better handle earlier.
I guess what I am saying is that I would pursue testing. They may not be able to classify her because the delays often aren’t sufficient at this age but it may give you useful information to help you make a decision about what to do.
Beth
Re: New Here/Have 5 year old tested for LD?
Have your child tested privately; schools are not very good at testing young children. Few school psychologists give the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children or the Stanford-Binet, and the WPPSI is not very reliable. Use a private speech and language therapist as well. More reliable testing can be done at 7yrs. old. Very, very few young children qualify for services(unless significantly delayed or having been in early intervention) in K.
Re: New Here/Have 5 year old tested for LD?
My son is 5 almost 6 and was just tested through the local public school. It was beneficial to us because it showed a auditory processing disorder and he is scheduled to have a auditory processing screen.
The only problems he is having are recognizing letters and letter sounds. He forgets almost instantly the letter name. However, in math and science and social studies he is not having difficulties.
The testing may give you a clearer picture of what is going on. I would also rec. private testing. The school testing I received may have been adequate but it was not really explained to me and I am left with tests that I have to decipher on my own.
thanks
K.
P.S. Another of her strengths is her motor skills, fine and gross. Her teacher says her artwork is great, and very detailed. She does reverse some letters and numbers, but I don’t think that is related to motor skills.
Thanks!