Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Diagnosis and test results (small update)

(UPDATE is in the 3rd post)

My daughter was tested at a Children's Hospital and was diagnosed with dyslexia. The tester ended up using the Woodcock Johnson Test of Cognitive Abilities but the brief version which was only 15 min. She said that she wouldn't be surprised if she had a full iq scale done that the results would be higher. She was then tested with WJ Achievement test, TOWRE, GORT-4, and CTOPP.

Verbal: 90%
Concept Formation: 97%
Visual Matching: 12%

Processing Speed: 15%
Decision Speed: 24%
Rapid Picture Naming: 7%

Math Fluency: 10%
Oral Comprehension: 64%
Passage Comprehension: 28%
Letter-Word Identification: 45%
Spelling: 44%
Word Attack: 49%

Sight Word Efficiency: 42%
Phonemic Decoding Efficiency: 21%

Rate (GORT-4) 37%
Accuracy (GORT): 16%
Fluency (GORT): 16%

Phonological Memory: 16%
Rapid Naming: 12%

She recommended a 504 plan and intensive reading program. In school I would say she is an average to above average student so I don't think she would qualify for an IEP. While she is somewhat behind in reading and math I don't think she is behind enough. But it's the amount of effort she puts in relation to the results she achieves that is frustrating for us. She is also extremely self-critical and I worry about her self-esteem.

If your child has dyslexia do you find that a 504 plan with accommodations is enough? Do they get any extra support with reading or math?

ETA: Right now I just have the numbers but we will get a full report in a few weeks.

This described my DD9 at the end of first grade. I know how hard it is to watch your kid struggling. DD was exhausted when she got home from school and homework was a constant source of tears. We had DD tested the summer following first grade and learned that she is highly gifted with dyslexia and dysgraphia.

We shared the psych report with the school at the beginning of 2nd grade. DD did not qualify for an IEP but we hoped for a 504. The school was not willing to do anything. We asked for extra reading support and they said that she was not a good fit with the other second graders who were getting Orton-Gillingham instruction through school -- they said DD was further along in her skills. They did give us an overwhelming list of that we could try on our own at home. It was incredibly frustrating. We took on extra reading instruction and vision therapy on our own.

Over the course of the year, I kept in close contact with the teacher. I started pointing out that the teacher was providing informal accommodations in class, i.e. more time, desk dividers, contrast strips for reading, etc. By the end of the year, I convinced her to document what she had been doing informally in a formal 504 plan. We also asked for a reduction in the number of spelling words figuring that DD might have a better chance to learn them if she had fewer at a time. Since she does not qualify for an IEP, the school said that they were not willing/able to change curriculum requirements.




This is hard to answer. We have done a lot of work outside of school. Currently, DD is in 4th grade and her 504 accommodations include extra time and the option to keyboard. She doesn't get any additional support. Having extra time, has taken a lot of pressure off of my DD. She doesn't beat herself up if she takes more time to do something. She also started keyboarding this year and likes using it. For now, she is doing okay. As she gets older and her work load increases, I'm not sure if it will continue to work. I could see her getting overwhelmed next year in fifth grade.

We had a meeting with the learning specialist, my daughter's teacher, the school psychologist, and the speech/language pathologist yesterday regarding the test results from the children's hospital. They want to do their own testing which I can understand somewhat but nonetheless makes me a little leery that they don't trust the diagnosis from Children's. The psychologist wants to test her with the WISC-IV and said she feels that the brief cog ability test doesn't give enough detail and is just an estimate of my daughter's cognitive ability. The speech/language specialist wants to evaluate her as well. They won't redo any of the educational testing because it will be too soon to retest.

My daughter's teacher told me that she was last tested to be at a level 18 for DRA which was back in November (my daughter is currently 8 1/2 yo) and would possibly test at a DRA level of 24 now. She felt her biggest weakness is currently math. Also, when they would ask the teacher questions her answers didn't really match up with what I see at home with my daughter. So I'm concerned that since my daughter's teacher doesn't seem to think she is too far behind in reading and math, that my daughter will probably not qualify for an IEP or 504.

They said they will know the results of the testing by late March.

I'm replying in a bit of a hurry this morning, so I apologize if some of this doesn't make sense. My children don't have dyslexia, but ds12 who has severe dysgraphia, developmental coordination disorder, an expressive language disorder, and fits the Eide's profile of a stealth dyslexic. We have successfully advocated for an IEP in public school for him to provide him with services in written expression and organization skills (which are his areas of challenge) - in spite of his extremely high IQ and not being behind grade level, and in spite of some extremely stubborn lobbying on the part of his school to try to convince us there were no issues and he was "just fine" (we heard a lot of that "he's just fine" and "he's right there in the middle!" lol!).

Here are my suggestions:

1) Look for a parent's advocate group in your area - in some areas, it's possible to get the advice of an advocate at no charge. We found our local advocate's group through the yellow pages link at www.wrightslaw.org. Our local advocate was extremely helpful in providing us with insight into how our school district operates and the attitudes and perceptions about SPED services etc at our particular school - and they were able to give us strategies and help coach us with how to approach each situation as it arose in advocating as we sought an IEP.

2) Most school districts prefer to do their own testing - don't worry about it, it's part of the process. The school psych is probably right - the full WISC will give more detail of your dd's cognitive abilities - and that's not a bad thing, it's something that may be very helpful to you whether or not your dd ever qualifies for school district services. It's great that the SLP wants to evaluate her as well - overall, it sounds like you've got a responsive school - it took us quite a fight just to get our ds to the point of eligibility testing.

3) The school has offered testing - if you want to proceed, and they have only made a verbal offer (ie, they haven't had an eligibility team meeting and given you a document to sign saying you agree to the testing plan), turn in a written request for the IEP eligibility evaluation and specifically request the WISC and SLP testing.

4) I don't think it's necessarily true that they can't retest achievement if they were using the WJ-III. I've been told there are two versions of the WJ-III - I'm not a psych so I'm only passing along what I was told by our neuropsych - but fwiw I had asked about this at one point because I wanted to see if we could get a comparison of our ds' fluency test results when he was using handwriting vs oral response, and was told we could do this by having him take both versions.

5) Don't be intimidated by the school staff telling you your dd "has to have" (whatever) in order to qualify for IEP services. I'm guessing from her test scores that there's no question she can qualify for IEP services under specific learning difference in reading.

6) Your dd has a significant discrepancy in processing speed vs her other cognitive abilities. Our ds also has a relatively slow processing speed compared to his VCI and PRI on the WISC. And for our ds it does translate into many school-related type tasks taking longer than they take typical kids. When he was in early elementary he compared his challenges with what he saw other students accomplishing in class and had some really tough struggles with self-esteem - and still does. It has gotten better, however, as he's gotten older and matured, and as we've had time to give him extra instruction in the areas he's challenged as well as *very importantly* given him accommodations in the areas that he needs accommodations. From our experience though, it's going to be different than raising an NT kid and it's going to be challenging, but please know - it's going to take work but it's still going to be ok and it's still going to be amazing and it's still going to be fun.

7) Did the Children's Hospital include any specific tests related to processing speed and decision speed? The subtests on cognitive tests that measure processing speed can be impacted by fine motor challenges or visual challenges, and it might help to have an idea re which is the issue for your dd. Two of my kids have had dips in processing speed on ability testing - for my ds, it's all fine motor and OT did help a tiny bit but his fine motor will never be functional "enough" so we know that he needs accommodations in school. My older dd has a *huge* dip in her processing speed in her WISC in 2nd grade (it came in below 1%)... but it was all due to a vision challenge which we were able to remediate.

7) Math in early elementary was really problematic for my ds. I don't know if your dd has the same thing going on, or if she has more of a dyscalculia challenge - but fwiw, with our ds, he grasps concepts in math very quickly (he's really a math-science kid), but memorizing math facts and being able to regurgitate them on paper did not come easily (the getting them on paper part never happened quickly due to his dysgraphia). He wasn't allowed to accelerate at the pace his brain could keep up with learning concepts and he was extremely frustrated both with boredom and at the same time with not being able to keep up with anyone on the timed math tests that were required to move ahead. We dealt with that by after-schooling him in math online (Aleks), advocating over and over again for accommodations (he eventually was given in writing an accommodation of oral response on fluency tests - which was never actually given in real life, and allowed to use his computer to type his math homework). When he switched schools for middle school, we advocated for the appropriate placement based on his ability by showing the schools the documentation from his online work and his WISC ability scores and they put him where he needed to be, no questions asked, they allowed him to use software tools to write all of his math work on his computer, and he's done *really really* well in math this year.

Sorry I rambled on so long - I tend to do that! Hopefully some of what I wrote will make sense!

polarbear

ps - one thing I forgot to add - if it was my child, absolutely yes, I would not settle for only accommodations - reading is such a fundamental skill that yes, I would advocate at school for services specifically addressing reading. And, I would also quite frankly research what options are available for reading tutoring or reading programs outside of school. Your school may be able to offer a good plan for your dd and follow through, but with my ds we've found that the school plan just never was enough - he's made his greatest strides through private grade level at this point if we'd trusted what the school told us and relied on the school to meet his needs.

polarbear