After three years of frustration I broke the system. A friend that is a reading specialist gave me the clue, you have to say the words: Learning Disability.
A little back story. My 8 year old son is a really bright kid. Here’s the thing, in third grade he is still reversing letters, his reading progress has been slow, written work absolutely exhausts him and so on. We kept getting the “it’s developmental” answer from the school. Thankfully his teacher this year agreed that his progress wasn’t what it should be. But we kept getting more observation. Turns out you have to say “I want my child evaluated for a learning disability.” If you use beat around the bush terms like “concerned” you don’t get the real testing.
Here’s the irony, had we not worked so hard with him daily on reading, homework and spelling he would have fallen below grade level a long time ago. Below grade level gets the attention and testing. Because we have worked so much with E he has remained at grade level.
Two days after I asked for testing we had a meeting set up. For today. So today we begin the process. I don’t want to be the parent that goes into the meeting thinking I know all the answers, but after working with my son on a whole lot of homework, spelling and reading I am 99% sure he has a visual processing disorder.
Fingers crossed the testing will support that, and my bright little boy will be less frustrated and we will be able to give him the tools to succeed in school.
Kristin said,
May 11, 2011 @ 5:05 pm
Kati-has he had his eyes checked too?
coachkati said,
May 11, 2011 @ 7:18 pm
I thought of you Kristin when I was reading more about the visual processing – he has only had a standard eye test, I am hoping a more in depth eye test will be included in the testing they do. If not we will do that on our own.
Laura said,
May 12, 2011 @ 6:56 am
Good luck…. you are such a great mom… the solution starts now!
vasqlartek said,
May 12, 2011 @ 4:22 pm
it’s sad that you have to beat on the school system to get anything done, but that is so true. my stepson has dysgraphia, and getting any help from his middle school only led to disappointment and frustration for all of us. we are fortunate to have a school dedicated to kids with learning disabilities in our area that we have been able to transfer him to. it has made all the difference. keep fighting!
Dyslexia – finally! « CoachKati's Blog said,
December 16, 2011 @ 10:04 am
[...] was struggling with learning. You can read my previous posts here: Some People are Idiots and Step one: Parent Meeting. We have finally entered a new chapter, an actual professional has done real tests and *gasp* [...]