I thought I would update everyone on my meeting with the school for dyslexic students yesterday.
For those of you that haven't been following my previous posts, we believe that DS9 has stealth dyslexia. He is an excellent reader, but has significant problems with writing and fits the description of someone with stealth dyslexia perfectly.
Anyway, the school is K-8th grade and has a total of 37 students in the entire school. They only accept children of at least average intelligence. They use the Orton Gillingham, multi-sensory approach to learning. They have 1 teacher for every 4 children. The maximum class size currently is 6 students. Students are grouped according to ability. In addition, each student works one-on-one with teacher for an hour each day. Most students work on reading during this time, but since DS9 is a good reader, he will work on writing or other identified areas of weakness during this time.
The meeting went GREAT!!! I walked into the directors office and her bookshelf was filled with all the books that are on my bookshelf...The Mislabeled Child, The Out of Sync Child, books on ADD, books on visual-spatial learners, etc etc. She lives and breaths "different learning styles". All of the teachers live and breath "different learning styles". They even dedicated 30 minutes everyday on Executive Function and they put an emphasis on teaching executive function throughout the day.
My only concern is that most of the children there function at or below grade level...although, not all of them. The director feels like that won't be an issue because the kids are grouped according do ability and not age. In other words, there is no 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade. So DS9 would be placed with similar minded kids, regardless of age. She says that she has a group in mind for him based on what she knows thus far, and they are of similar age to him.
Anyway, I am very excited I have found this place. I'm still concerned that I'm making a mountain out of a mole-hill, but I imagine a lot of 2e parents feel that way. It's hard to believe their gifted and it's hard to believe they are learning disabled....since the gifts mask the LD and the LD masks the gifts.
DS9 will go next Thursday to shadow their summer program and then we will make a final decision about attendance, but I'm 99% sure we'll make the switch. It's so nice to know that he'll be somewhere that "gets" him!
