LD and AIG Is there anyone out there?

Melissa,

I’m a resource teacher who works with junior high LD students. I agree with you that you don’t want to squelch your son’s desire to travel forward. My suggestion is to ask for your son to be provided an Alpha Smart to do his writing assignments and responses to other assignments. These machines can be hooked up to a computer and the responses can be printed up.
I also have a nephew with the same problem and he types quickly now on his computer; this has had to become his mode of written assignments also.
The school district should be required to supply this for you under your son’s identified disability.

Good luck! Jannelle St. Clair

Melissa,

You are not alone! I also have a son in fourth grade with the same duel diagnosis. He scores average on standardized ELA and math, but comes out in the 96th percentile on I.Q. My school district gives group IQ tests, so that’s how the giftedness was picked up. I’m looking into having him placed in an inclusion class with a pull out for the gifted program. His teacher thinks it’s a good idea, but the district may not go for it. I’m also not sure I’m pushing for the right thing. I’m afraid his lack of organization and difficulty with transistions will make it difficult. However, when we do hands on things, like trips to museums he lights up and absorbs everything like a sponge. Also when he’s challenged in things he likes, I don’t see as much of the ADHD behaviors.

Andrea

Dear Melissa,
My 10 yr old is GT/LD (dyslexic). He is now in a superior cognitive gifted pull out class and receives intervention. It is VERY important to push your childs strengths. It has helped my child believe in himself and see himself as an intelligent person who also has challenges.

Read the articles under LD/InDepth GT/LD. It has a lot of helpful information. Then read the gifted identification policy for both your district and your state. Advocate for your child. Push their strengths.

Good luck.

I am a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and the mother of a now twenty year old son who is gifted/ld in written expression. You are doing exactly what you should be doing. Both exceptionalities need and deserve to be recognized. I have made it my business to learn bunches about this subject—email me if you have further questions. OSEP said in 1995 “Gifted children shall not be excluded from IDEA.” Your child needs bypass with payback in all areas of written expression, including homework. Tina Grant

My 5th grader is both gifted and ld but his disabilities mask his giftedness. In fact his group administered IQ scores were so average it wasn’t until we paid for our own private testing that we found out how high his true abilities are.
Each year has gotten worse for us because of his severe dysgraphia and combined with the social problems many gifted and ld kids suffer from.

After much soul searching we have decided to go the private ld school route even though it cost a fortune and is a thirty minute commute from our house.
He is starting to suffer from depression and we were concerned about sending him to the very large middle school in our district. We are optimistic that he will have a chance to thrive in this new environment. It is a huge sacrifice but we are very excited about next year.

Good luck on your journey…

Susan,

Is there a possibility your district will pay for your son’s tuition? It may be a long shot, but I have heard of districts footing the bill when they can’t offer the appropriate service for the child. I know of one child in particular who at least gets the bus paid for. You would have to consult with a lawyer or professional advocate. Perhaps the private school may know of someone.

Good luck.

You could be talking about my son.
I don’t have any confirmation from the school system that he is gifted. He is on an IEP for a visual perception ld. I mostly just get blank stares when I use the term dual exceptionalities or twice exceptional.
He talked in sentences and 12 months and seems to understand things way above his age level. He tested in the 94% for vocabulary but 2% in block design. His IQ was just above average. I think the visual components of the test dragged down that score.
There are some great articles on twice exceptional children from the ERIC clearing house.

My child is in second grade. I have come to the conclusion that my main focus for now was to do EVERYTHING possible to remediate his deficits while he is still young. I am a big believer in various therapies to remediate deficits.
I worked at a rehab hospital with quadraplegics and head injuries. I saw speech, OT and PT accomplish such amazing things for these people. It makes me think of exercise for the brain. Use it or lose. Lets reconnect those neurons that aren’t firing.
I also talk incessantly to his teachers about challenging him and giving a chance for his gifts to shine. He is a great public speaker when he was in first grade he gave a speech explaining the way red and white blood cells function throughout the body.Everyone was able to see how SMART he is and he felt great about his success. It hasn’t always been easy convincing the teachers because they seem to only see the deficits.
Most of the literature supports the idea that more attention should be payed to the gifts than the deficits.

Legally to receive services for a gifted program the student must have a minimum IQ score. Many schools provide enrichment programs to meet talented students that do not qualify for the gifted program. I would suggest you continue to enrich your child outside of the school day. I have a student that uses an Alpha Smart - it provides a great tool for lengthy written work. However, he may have to give answers verbally to worksheets with fill in the blanks as it might be too complicated to use the Alpha Smart. There is another tool called Dragon Speak that is connected to a computer and is trained with someones voice. It will write for the student - this might be another tool. Check with your assistive technology people. Your child needs to continue to write - these are only tools not solutions.

Actually I have done some investigating on this issue. Each school district has different criteria for gifted. I spoke to the person in charge of special services in New Jersey and she said it is up to each district on how Giftedness is identified.
Some districts use recommendations from the teacher or school psychologist to decide others look at specific parts of the IQ test others just use the IQ number.

It would be difficult to just use IQ as a law was recently passed in New Jersey that requires that all children are eligible to be evaluated for giftedness starting in Kindergarten. I don’t believe that IQs are accurate in children that young.

Now where did I read that ;)