Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional how/what to communicate with school

I'm hoping I can get some guidance from folks who have already gone down this road.

We recently completed a full neuropsych evaulation for our DS6. The WISC IV results showed (edited to keep intervals, remove numbers):

FSIQ (extended norms) X
GAI (extended norms) X+29
VCI(extended norms)- X+39
PRI (extended norms) - X-10
Working memory - X-36
Processing speed - X-55

Achievement test results (WIAT-III) were low relative to IQ:
Math Composite X-14
Oral Composite X-15

The preliminary report also indicated dyslexic-type processing and dysgraphia.

As the new school year starts, DS is already struggling in the classroom with behavior/anxiety/isolation issues. This follows on to struggles he had last year. I had many meetings with teacher/principal/psychologist about support strategies, and I assume we will be doing the same this year.

What I am struggling with is whether to share any or all of the evaluation info with the school. I expect the school will look at any mention of IQ as excuse-making, and will point out that in our area, there are many kids with high IQs. I also fear that a dyslexia label will be an obstacle to DS getting opportunities he might otherwise get for advanced (interesting to him) work.

Any feedback you can offer as to why or why not to share the testing info with the school would be most helpful.

Thanks so much for your help!

A similar situation was recently discussed in this thread, also here. Possibly some of the information there may be of help?

Are you seeking accommodations for dysgraphia/dyslexia? Have you researched what might be helpful to your child?

Thanks for those links. I had reviewed those discussions before posting.

The school will not be able to give DS any dyslexia/dysgraphia support because he is performing at or above grade level. And we don't have any sort of GT or accelerated pull outs. We are researching private options.

The accommodations DS needs are more in the line of optimizing instruction and discipline strategies to leverage strengths and avoid weaknesses. These strategies don't usually align with typical classroom strategies (staying in at recess, green/yellow/red charts, etc.). The meetings we had last year eventually achieved this, but it took until mid-February before the teacher was on board with the plan. By then, there was a back log of frustration on both sides and learning was pretty minimal.

I was hoping to use the evaluation results to help accelerate that whole process this year. Based on the advice folks gave in the 504 thread, I've been waiting until the year settles in. But on the other hand, he's already starting to knock heads with the teacher and other kids, and my gut says the window of opportunity for this year is closing.

I'll meet with the teacher soon, but I'm fearful of sharing the quantitative evaluation results, and even of having the dyslexia/dysgraphia getting chiseled into his file, since they won't be doing anything to support that.

So the question I haven't been able to answer is - how do I sniff out whether it will hurt or harm DS in the school system if his evaluation results become a part of his plan.

Apologies if this is redundant. I guess I might be looking for answers that aren't there!

Many thanks,
Sue

Hi Master of None,

I love the way you (repeatedly) handled this discussion with the school and I will surely be plagiarizing!

This is 1st grade for DS, and he is anything but happy to make puppets, etc. Never mind the nightmare that is circle time! But we are jumping on therapies from private sources, and feeling up to the challenge for today.

Thanks very much,
Sue