Hi,
Our 6 year old daughter has been diagnosed with a LD, but we aren’t really sure what her LD is. She has always had a speech problem (delay…not being able to be understood) and has been receiving speech therapy since she was 2 1/2. First with a speech pathologist through the hospital here, and then at the school. I am not always happy with the speech services the school is providing, but we live in a small community with not a lot of services/support. So we do a lot of on time stuff with her at home.
Our biggest thing is that we notice that our daughter understands a whole lot more then what she is able to tell us. It is like she can get it in, but can’t get it out after or again. We can tell her to do something, and she does it…but she can’t always tell you what she did (like what she had for lunch or names of kids she played with). IS there a specific disability that she may have that we are missing? We really don’t know where to go from here.
I should also note that she is having trouble with reading (she can tell you the word CAT has a C and A And T, but not what the word is)….but is great in math/numbers and loves music. She is in K.
Thanks for your help.
We don't know where to go/LD Daughter
She had a hearing test through the school, (the one with the beeps) but that is the only hearing/auditory type of testing done. Where do I go for that kind of testing?
She has had genetic testing for fragile X and such, but all that came back ok. She then had testing at the school at the end of PreK and the only thing that the school would agree on is that she has a problem but aren’t sure what that is.
She receives extra help in the school with one on one in the classroom and also outside the classroom (we had to fight for that) but we feel that there is something missing and needed to help her reach her best potential.
We don't know where to go/LD Daughter
An Audiologist can should do the testing for auditory processing issues. The standard hearing tests done at school do not have anything to do with how the processing of sound may be effected. Example - My dd has CAPD but always scored perfectly in the standard hearing tests given at school. Her hearing is excellent, her processing is where it breaks down.
To sort out more thoroughly what her issues may be, a battery of tests by a Neuropsychologist would be the route I would go. This person has extensive training in educational and emotional testing. When the school knows there is “something” but can’t pinpoint it, testing by an outside expert can help to clarify what the “something” or “many somethings” might be. This would allow you to be able to direct the help to where it is needed.
We don't know where to go/LD Daughter
Thanks for the help and advice. I will look around here and see if I can find someone who can do the testing outside of school. I already know if I bring it up to the audiologist that the school provides , that I will be laughed at.
I will also see about the Neuropsycholist as well.
Re: We don't know where to go/LD Daughter
She sounds a lot like my dd, but my dd has multiple issues. She is in 3rd grade, almost 9 yrs old. She too had early interventions for language delay at age 2. She is not so good at math, however, but it is a relative strength compared to her language skills. She has both expressive and receptive issues, but receptive is better than expressive.
You might want to read about dyspraxia or apraxia (verbal). And our school shut me down mid sentence when I was asking about auditory processing disorder testing. They said to me “She wouldn’t do well on that kind of a test.” The truth is, they don’t have an audiologist on staff and would not want to pay for the testing outside, but I just bypassed them and tested her privately. Our insurance covered it anyway, so I figured that I didn’t really care what the school thought. I don’t need their permission to find out what is wrong with my dd. If you have insurance that will cover it then go for it on your own. My dd passed the first 2 subtests, but then could not do part 3 or 4 because of the difficulty. We did not know if a general language processing disorder was causing her to fail this test, so we didn’t get all that many answers, but that was us. Your dd might perform differently giving you not only answers, but recommendations on how to deal with it. So, read about auditory processing disorders (APD or CAPD) and read about expressive language disorders. Also remember, than an expressive language disorder can confuse academic areas such as reading. My dd can read a passage quite well because her decoding abilities are ok, but then when the teacher says “What was the story about?” she cannot tell you. If you ask specific questions about the story she can give you details, so she must have comprehended some of what she read, because she answers correctly, but in my opinion, she cannot expressively say what happened. And I’m sure that her reading comprehension is being compromised from the language disorder, so I’m sure she struggles more with comprehension, but I don’t know to what extent.
We had to seek outside private speech/language therapy because what they get at school is pitiful. And in kindergarten, the teacher chose to not allow her to go to the resource room for help because they were using a different phonics program than what the class was using and felt it might confuse her. I thank God daily for that teacher, because it turns out that our resource room is not nearly as good as that one teacher and she had her for kinder and 1st grade, which, in my opinion, is partially why her decoding is so good. She had a good teacher teaching her phonics. I picked up the rest in 2nd grade by doing it at home because the 2nd grades don’t teach phonics. The students are expected to know all of their letter sounds and letter combination sounds (vowel partners such as “ee” and “oa” etc..)
So, my advice to you or anyone else dealing with this is to stay on top of your dd’s issues. They will get bigger as she gets older. Once a child has a language disorder they will always have a language disorder. But you can teach her different ways to learn and she will do just fine. But please, STAY ON TOP OF IT!! Don’t trust that the schools know what they are doing.
Has she been tested for an auditory processing issue? This might effect her ability to read in that she can’t hear sounds or blends properly.
I would also have further testing done for the speech issues. Expressive language issues could also complicate the picture.
You may also want to consider getting an independent neuropsych evaluation to make sure every area is tested appropriately. (School testing often misses more subtle problems or complicated issues.)