Hi everyone! I’m new here and found this site while trying to get more information.
We just met with the school psychologist this morning and heard her diagnosis. She said my son (8 yrs old) has a “specific learning disability” with problems in reading and writing. The meeting was long and I didn’t leave there with any more information than when I walked in. I was hoping to find out what we can do to help him learn, but I guess that’s in yet another meeting! UGH I feel so bad for him because he hates school and thinks he’s stupid. I keep telling him he’s not and try to be encouraging to him, but it doesn’t change how he feels. Last week they had spelling review tests each day … these were words he’s already been tested on and he brought home an “f” on each test. He was so upset and I didn’t know what to do for him. But this week he got a 100% on his spelling test. :shock: I can’t make any sense of this.
Anyway, I just wanted to say “hello!”.
Lisa
Re: son diagnosed today
Do you have copies of the test results? Often you (and we) can do a better job of figuring out what his strengths and weaknesses are, and what to do to make the classroom a better place, than the school folks can.
The sooner you get past the illusion that they’re really experts, the better. Training for education doesn’t achieve that end.
Don’t expect that meeting about what to do to help any time soon. It rarely happens. A lot of people do the diagnosis and then leave it — not productive but that is what happens. Often, also, teachers don’t really know how to do effective intervention, and/or it may not be possible in the constraints of their class.
You can ask here for specific help and get answers to what to do and how, and I semail out copies of my old posts/tutoring outlnes/book in progress to anyone who asks. [email protected]