I have two sons who have been diagnosed with issues that effect their learning. Both boys have average IQ’s but have struggled with learning various aspects of learning especailly that which is language based. My oldest son did not receive good services until he entered the 7th grade. Proir to this we were in another
district and it was just dismal, he made little progress. Since entering our new district things have gone extremly well. He has improved to the point where teachers in his old district would not recognize him. No he is not cured, he still has some of the same issues, but he has learned how to work around his difficulties that remain, some have been remediated fully. At the beginning of 7th grade he was in an LD self contained class for 50 % of his day working on the 3 R’s. This year he is a freshman in high school and has been dismissed from special ed. He is taking the same course work as his peers. He struggles in his Lit and Language class but does average to above average work in the rest of his classes. As a matter of fact his Language grade is even coming up to average. He knows what the terms mean, median, and mode are and can apply them. Math is a strong subject for him. He went from a child who could not take notes and listen
at the same time to a student who takes some of the best notes. His reading reading sills improved 5 grade levels in a 2 1/2 year time frame. His ability to reason and think abstractly have significantly improved. His GPA the 1st half the school year was 2.67, not bad for a former special ed student. He was recently tested independently by a nueropsychologist who says he still shows nuerological deficits but has learned to commensate for them well. Most important he has great self-esteem and is highly motiviated. My youngest son who falls on the Autism spectrum came to our district basically on the pre-primer level for most skills
(2nd grade when started district). Now in 4th grade his skills have sky rocketed after 2 years in a self contained class. He recently tested with reading skills ranging from early 3rd grade to mid 4th (word attack being his best score/comprehension his lowest). His math skills are on grade level, his science and social studies scores have come up to mid 3rd grade. His teacher has listened carefully when I shared information with her. She even tried Ken Campbell’s Great Leaps I leant her with her class. She was so impressed with the results that she is petentioning the school to purchase the program. When I suggested he use an
AlphaSmart for his writing she agreed to give it a try. He know has lots of confidence, trys hard, and has great self esteem. Sometimes the program does work. I agree that not enough people share the positive stories. Once in a while I try and come on here and share my positive stories. Although things are going
better for the boys sometimes we still have questions and concerns so we stay here on the board, reading and getting ideas.