Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Confused...What to do, if anything?

Hi all. A few months ago I requested an Assistive Technology Consultation from the school district for 2e DS. As many of you may recall, he is gifted with dysgraphia and Ehlers Danlos. Basically, I strongly, strongly suspect he is gifted with Dyspraxia/DCD (albeit his dyspraxia isn't very severe, more on the mild side) and the dysgraphia (which is pretty severe) is a part of the dyspraxia. We are on the route for getting that quantified and identified for the school (and for us - once and for all!). But, as far as the school knows right now, DS is gifted and has Ehlers Danlos and his writing is a huge issue - he has scribes and when he does write he writes things backwards, etc. He can't write in small spaces, very poor fine motor. So basically the kid can't write. We have writing accommodations based on the EDS dx (joints in hands fatiguing, pain, discomfort) and the school (at my insistence) is currently specifically evaluating him to identify him with Learning Disorder of Written Expression (last time he was evaluated by them, psych did put in report he was "at risk" for it). He also has some executive functioning issues due to poor motor planning, problems with sequencing, not being able to hold several steps in his head while completing motor tasks (basically can not muti-task well). This is very, very common with dyspraxia.

Okay, so anyway. After a request for AT evaluation, our district does a "SETT Framework" eval. The teachers and parents are given forms to fill out, which ask things like, for the teachers: "Does the student have any communication difficulties that impeded his or her learning in the school?" "Does the student exhibit any behaviors that inhibit his/her learning." For the parents, some questions were "What weaknesses does your child exhibit that impeded his ability to function?" and "What tasks and activities does your child struggle with or is unable to do that affect his progress?"

So the wording is a bit different and perhaps that accounts for the discrepancy between my form and the teacher's form, I don't know. But, I wrote that he has significant fine motor problems, can't complete assignments that involve writing or drawing. Basically, I put in the form that he struggles excessively to write - letters or numbers. I mean, it is and *Assistive Technology Eval*! AND my kid clearly can not write. We all know DS struggles so hard to write and needs scribes to get any kind of writing done in a reasonable time. So, what did the teacher put on her form? She put his problems are all executive function, distractability and that he can sometimes be oppositional and argumentative. She put not one thing about his struggles with writing! Seriously? WTF? This is an assistive technology eval. And, how can she have had him as a student all year and not even mention that the fact that my DS can NOT write affects his functioning in class and affects his learning? What was she trying to accomplish with that? I am really confused!

So, the form is a draft. And the meeting went well. Although seemed slightly ridiculous to go through all that for them to decide he needs an Ipad (duh) but I guess it's a beauractratic thing too). Anyway, all that for them to say they are going to get him an ipad and get these apps where they can scan in his worksheets and he can do them on the iPad, and something about a blue tooth key board (my husband took over with the tech stuff and I was more than happy to see him finally get really involved). Oh, and the most recent co-writer is suppose to be quite good so we are trying that. And it's a process so they are going to do trials and help train and ramp up and see how apps and technologies are working and we will continue to meet to monitor, discuss, tweek. Great.

But as I sit here looking at the this draft I wonder - should I be concerned the teacher's section does not mention his issues with writing (the whole reason we had the meeting)? Should I say something?

It just seems we are of two completely different mindsets. Teacher thinks DS's only problem is ADHD - not that she specifically uses the acronym "ADHD" ('cause she can't) but she uses all of the specific ADHD buzzwords, etc. and every chance she gets is pushing that DS is a litany of ADHD characteristics. My position is DS does have some executive functioning issues due to poor motor planning BUT the big problem that is the most pressing right now, impacting his school learning is the fact that he CAN NOT write or communicate effectively via writing. It disrupts everything! Him needing scribes, him having to go around asking for scribes (until recently), him getting frustrated, him arguing with them when they tell him to type instead of giving him scribe (until recently). I mean it is a HUGE issue.

So what do I do? Or do I just ignore it? The AT lady came right out and said at the meeting "the focus of this meeting is to get him on technology that will allow him to "write" and participate fully and independently eventually without a scribe (eventually without a scribe)." So it was fine as that was my goal as well. I am just disappointed that the teacher seems to use every opportunity to paint this picture of DS as this very ADHD, impulsive, completely distracted kid who probably can write but just doesn't have the attention span for it. Whereas, my picture of DS is more like this is a very, very bright kid who actually loves a challenge but is very frustrated b/c he simply CAN NOT write, struggles tremendously with fine motor tasks, struggles with and motor planning and he has also has some executive functioning challenges.