Every time I try to put my square-peg DD12 into the round-hole public school, we end up with a new round of testing to prove that there's something wrong with her. When she leaves, the need for diagnosis magically disappears.
...I probably haven't explained this well, but as a parent of two children who are both intellectually gifted and also have disabilities, it's simply not the same thing as saying "my child doesn't fit here therefore I should test for a disability". My kids' issues extend outside the classroom, outside any classroom, and they don't go away just by finding them a gifted classroom or better overall intellectually challenging classroom.
I do understand. In our case, DD needs more time for everything. Lots more time. In our schools, she manages perfectly average to slightly below grades if she works three times as long as the other kids, so we have to prove that this is actually a disability so she can be accommodated. We have to demonstrate below grade level performance. Outside, the teachers see how much she struggles and are able to give her the time she needs without the labels; the disability doesn't go away, it just stops requiring a label.
ljoy, I'm sorry - I misunderstood what you meant before - I thought that you meant that "outside" the things that seemed to be an issue at school disappeared, when instead you were referring to the need for the label.
the disability doesn't go away, it just stops requiring a label.
I still believe having the "label" has been very helpful for my 2e kiddos outside of just getting accommodations at school. Dysgraphia/DCD/dyslexia are issues that impact them in areas of life outside of school, knowing what the diagnosis is makes a difference in how you approach accommodating and remediating, and each of them appreciates understanding what their diagnosis is. Sometimes getting *to* the correct diagnosis is a long journey - it definitely was for our dyslexic dd... but having it has still been extremely helpful in understanding how to help her. So I guess I'm not sure how you get to that point without having the label?
polarbear
