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    Joined: May 2011
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    Trying to solve the puzzle of potential learning disabilities.
    DS 10 got in district gifted program and is thriving there. At least he is socially happy and more adequately challenged. However, also as expected his problems in some areas are more obvious as the work becomes more challenging.
    He is top at his class for math and vocabulary but below average in reading comprehension, specifically producing a report after reading assigned story.

    In the teacher parent conference today, his teacher pointed out areas of concerns such as following and suggested testing for learning disabilities.

    1. Very slow in making switch to a new task
    2. little or slow response to the teacher when speaking to directly
    3. Difficult to maintain focus on tasks such as reading a passage of uninteresting material and trying to summarize the story.
    4. Poor eye contact

    DS was tested at 7 with the profile below and was treated for vision issues, which did not make much differences, so we stopped after 12 sessions. We also suspect he might have auditory issues as he fit a numbers of the symptoms of CAPD.

    But what do we do from here, get him retested by a psychologist? or find different specialists for different issues?

    We live in southern California, any suggestions are very appreciated.

    Thanks

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    Especially if the teacher is concerned about him, then one of your options is to have the school district evaluate him for possible learning disabilities (some possibilities: reading disability, receptive/expressive language disability).

    That would address primarily academic/school-based concerns. But CAPD would fit many of the symptoms, and you would need a clinic-based evaluation by an audiologist for that, which requires a referral from your physician. If your insurance allows, you could also request a referral for a neuropsych, preferably at a hospital or clinic, where you could have an audiologist on the same team do the CAPD testing.

    Given the range of possible issues (LDs, vision, CAPD, attention, social responsiveness), there may be some advantage to having a clinic/hospital-based team do the whole evaluation, rather than going through the schools, which most likely won't have the resources to follow up on the vision, and very likely will not be able to do the CAPD testing.


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    Thanks aeh!
    So should I start with our pediatrician and let her referral to the specialists if we decide to go with private testing?
    I did ask his teacher about district evaluation. But she said, the school district is mostly concerned about low performing kids than kids like him who is academically capable.


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    I sent too quick and forgot to ask, if we do request school district to perform the testing, who should we approach first? Is it his teacher, or district gifted office.

    Thanks aeh for your wealth of knowledge.

    Grace

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    aeh Offline
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    If you go through the school district, call the director of special education, and then follow it up with a written request for a comprehensive evaluation for special education eligibility, stating your exact concerns. Make sure to describe the actual behaviors or skill deficits of concern (that includes the teacher's concerns), in addition to the areas of suspected disability.


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    Thanks aeh for your inputs.

    We've been contemplating this a lot. I don't know why the teacher urges us doing the tests. He is doing just fine academically with all As and one C in English. he has made friends and very happy. He is not disruptive at class just not as engaged. The teacher's concern was he might not catch up at higher grades, but from what we've seen , he is actually doing better every year. Back in lower elementary grades, he is a solid B student.

    I am concerned about identification of learning disabilities and the label attached on him. Since we won't consider medication, why can't we just wait it out.


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    aeh Offline
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    Medication is an option for only some of the diagnostic possibilities (ADHD, mainly), so it shouldn't be a principal determining factor in pursuing evaluation. For the other possibilities, early, non-pharmacological, remediation can make a pretty big difference, particularly in terms of academic engagement. As long as he is happy, not only with his experience, but with his understanding of himself as a learner, waiting it out is, of course, one of your options, but if there are ongoing concerns about a suspected learning disability, it might be worthwhile investigating. If he has some kind of LD, the presence or absence of the label will not change the existence of the LD--but it may affect his access to supports that could lessen its long-term negative impact on him.


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    Also, if the evaluation is done privately, through your pediatrician or another clinic, you may choose whether and how much of the results to share with your school.


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    Originally Posted by purpleviolin
    I am concerned about identification of learning disabilities and the label attached on him. Since we won't consider medication, why can't we just wait it out.
    I just wanted to say that the gifted/LD labels that DS got back in grade 1 were huge improvements over the ones that the teachers were coming to on their own - lazy, defiant, stubborn, rude, etc. The teacher assumed he was an average IQ kid with ADHD with behavior issues. To clarify I don't think ADHD is a bad label when it is accurate but in his case it wasn't. The teachers had much more success when they had the right labels to start with. It is hard to improve things when you're just looking at symptoms rather than the correct root cause(s).

    ETA - more importantly DS was also starting to come to his own conclusions about his challenges (he started saying things like - I'm so dumb). Helping him understand both his strengths and challenges made a huge difference.

    Last edited by chay; 10/05/16 06:28 AM.
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    KJP Offline
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    If you have a Lindamood Bell center near you, you could take him there for their evaluation. It would in no way replace a full evaluation and could not be used for school accommodations but it might give you insight into some part of the reading comprehension difficulties and offer solutions.

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