children with ld

Love the chance to talk about my kid.

1.Age of child with disability
9

2 grade in school
3rd

3. diagnosis
Specific learning disabilities (reading and writing) and ADHD.

4. your relationship to the child

I am his Mother

5. who referred the child for special education evaluation

His first grade teacher referred ds for special ed testing on the third day of school.

6. an explanation of the reason why and when the child was referred and was there any documnetation of pre-referral interventions? ifso, what were they?)

When ds was 3, the preschool suspected ADHD and LDs and everything else known to man that could be wrong with a kid. I took him to a private psychologist and she told me that ds was with in normal range for his age, although there was a wide disparity in his developmental milestones. She didn’t beleive in ADHD as a diagnosis.

In the fall, the year before ds entered kindergarden, I took him to the “child find” people. He did fine at counting, naming his colors and such. I asked them to test him for fine motor problems, and there was a big problem. They recommended private OT covered under my insurance.

I knew Sam was too active and high strung for a regular kindergarden so I put him in a small private school where he had serious behavioral issues that got worse once they started trying to teach him to read.

I put Sam in public school for financial reasons. The teacher flagged him as LD because he was way behind in reading and writing. He also had behavioral issues, but she did not recommend testing for ADHD or EH.

7. what role did the parent play in the evaluation process?

Basically, I just agreed to it. My input was valued on placement.

8. the results of the evaluation and TEAM meeting(included diagnosis of special educational need, program implementation)

Sam was flagged as LD and given time in a reasource room. Later in the year he was given OT. When I changed schools in third grade, they recommended Sam be placed mostly in a self-contained room with children of different times of mild disabilities. They also recommened that he be evaluated for ADHD by his doctor.

9. parents’ reflection on entire process(pleased with result, feel comfortable and confident throughout the process/)

I had been to lots of parent/teacher conferences in the past and thought the IEP meeting was just one more. I was totally intimated when I walked into a room full of people pushing paper in front of me speaking a venacular that just had a nodding acquaintance to English.

After the first couple of such meetings I became more comfortable and confident. I became downright arrogant by second grade, knowing I could bully the TEAM with vague threats of lawsuits. However, I soon found out that a cooperative approach works better.

The teachers and the principal I respect even when we disagree, but I really don’t know what all those other people in the IEP staffing are doing there. Most of them have only met my son briefly if at all. How can they know what placemnt and programs are right for him?

1.14 yrs old

Auditory Processing Disorder, Dyslexic. Also has receptive language problems, never formally diagnosed.

I am his older Sister

My Mother refered him for services

My Mother called the school district when my brother was 3 years old because she noticed he was having trouble pronouncing certain letters and words. He started receiving speech/lang help at age 3.

My family is very active in the evaluation process. He has been evaluated 4 times since age 3. We need to stay active otherwise nothing gets accomplished.

He has been receiving modification and accomodations since kindergarten. The
school never made a diagnosis. They said that he had ADD, we only found a about 1 1/2 yrs ago that he had APD. An advocate reviewed his last test results and told us what was going on. She was right and he was formally diagnosed by an audiologist.

My family is very drained from the entire process. The school district has lied to us, continued to not follow his IEP, blamed us, blamed my brother. It has been really terrible, the worst part is how much my brother has suffered because of the school district.

K.