Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Well I feel vindicated

Yesterday we had our first PT conference at the spec ed school DD8 attends after a hard fought battle for out of district placement. She is doing amazingly well. I mean really, truly amazing. They see her as the sweet, hard working, eager to please, incredibly smart child we have seen all along. With proper supports for her LD issues, material being presented in an appropriate way and the freedom to use her amazing strengths there has been no sign of her school based anxiety. None. We finally have gotten the migraines under control and hopefully will be able to start backing off the meds which were almost tripled in the last couple of months.

I asked if there were any concerns at all. A resounding "none" from teachers, literacy specialist and SW. I asked about math. All last year I kept insisting she had hit a block in early first grade and hadn't budged. The district kept insisting she was making progress and was on grade level. Surprise, surprise. Spec ed school's intake testing showed her stuck in early first grade just as I had been saying. Remarkably once she got access to appropriate apps on the iPad she broke through that block. After 6 weeks DD herself reported "I've already learned more math at [new school] than I did all last year at [old school]." PT conference bares that out - she has just about completed 2nd grade math and is now moving onto 3rd grade. Not bad for a kid with an identified math LD huh? Not only is she sailing through the 8th grade reading comprehension group she is also making amazing progress on Assistive Technology and is adding extra work herself in other areas of interest. She recently did a PowerPoint on the pilgrims "just for fun". I actually see a light at the end of the tunnel which may lead to her being functionally independent in the not too distant future. In the past that light tended to turn out to be an on-coming train. Dare I let myself actually feel optimistic?

I mentioned that at the public people called her lazy, said she was just trying to get out of doing her work, etc. They were shocked and said she is the last kid they would EVER call lazy. They can't even imagine someone seeing her that way. I asked about the neuropsych's label of ADHD-inattentive (which DH and I flatly reject) and placing her below the 1st percentile in attentional ability. Again total shock. "No way" was the response - in fact they see hyper focus when she is working on a task. They could not believe anyone could see her that way.

So I feel totally vindicated. All last year when I would come to this board and say I felt as if I was losing my mind, that nothing the district or the public with that horrible principal was doing made any sense? Apparently I had good reason for it.

I will continue to hold my breath, cross my fingers, stand on one foot or any other silly superstitions required to keep this on track. I just wanted to report for those of you still in the thick of the battle that it can work out. If my DD shows anything it is that *getting* the kid and all of their issues makes a huge difference. There would not have been any way for my DD to adjust to the standard program as the public wanted her to. She is just not neurologically capable of it. When things are presented to her in the way she needs? Wow - what a difference!

I am SO happy for you and for your DD! What a big sigh of relief, and how fun to see what she can do with a great enviroment with people who get her! Your DD is really amazing for sticking it out through such a horrible school situation and still feeling brave enough to be herself in this new situation, and you are amazing for fighting for her for so long. You are absolutely right to feel vindicated. Yay!!!

Update the iPad situation? You ended up buying one and loading it yourself...what happened to the other one? Did it ever get loaded properly?

Did you send them a bill?

So happy to hear that you have had such a good outcome after the horror of last year. I hope that you can relax for a while. You worked hard for your daughter.

Ah the iPad situation...

We bought one ourselves and DD carries it back and forth to school everyday. We also sent in iTunes cards and advised the school to load anything and everything they think might be helpful. No restrictions. They still haven't figured out how to load everything she needs on the district iPad but they have ours as a back up. As silly as it sounds she uses both each day and they still haven't figured out how to provide audio access to the text they are using for the 8th grade reading group. The district asked us to sign a release for DD to carry their iPad home and/or for them to load the text on to ours. We have declined. After all we've been through with them we are not signing any kind of release or waiver for them. Nope - not gonna happen.

Consultant approached district's director of pupil personnel services recommending that they just reimburse us for the cost of the machine we provided and take theirs back, giving it to someone else in the district. Their response was that no one else in the district (a district with 6000+ students...) would use it. DD is apparently the only one.

So a silly and cumbersome solution that cost us yet another $1000 but at least it seems to be getting DD what she needs. The irony is that we are also working a solution to getting Dragon Dictation to work for her but that will need a desktop machine - the program can't work for her on an iPad. Luckily we have both a desk top and a lap top for home use so won't need to be spending even more.

Pemb, SO glad to hear it. Your DD deserves to shine.

Would you be willing to post a list of apps she's finding helpful? I am especially interested in apps that let a dysgraphic child show math work intelligibly in these early grades. But what's working across the board would be of great interest too.

DeeDee

You are a fabulous parent.

Wonderful news Pemberley!!! I'm so glad that your dd finally has the opportunity to show her knowledge and not be frustrated at school - and so glad you can finally relax a bit too!

I'm curious about the voice-to-text - did you try the built-in iPad voice recognition? That's what my ds uses - it works inside apps and is much easier to use than Dragon. Is the issue for your dd her age/voice stability?

One math app you might want to look at is Panther Paper - it lets you type in addition/subtraction/etc equations, line up and carry #s etc. We've got it - I don't remember how much it cost but I think it was relatively inexpensive. There are also a lot of different "practice" apps for math facts etc. and a ton of different calculators. DS has a graphing app too but I can't remember the name of it and his iPad is at school at the moment.

Looking forward to a happy school year for your dd Pemb!!!

polarbear

Your post made my day. How wonderful! Your daughter has a bright future with the right team of people at her back. Surely there will be more bumps in the road, but at the very least, you all know what this success feels like.

How lovely to hear this, Pemberley!!

So happy for you and your daughter. Thanks for sharing a success story.

Congratulations to you and your daughter. Success stories are so hard to come by, savor yours!

You can congratulate yourself -- and your daughter! -- for an excellent job well done

That's SENSATIONAL news, Pemberly!!!!

Apparently the app that helped the most is one that allowed her to take a picture of the math worksheets and write the answers on the iPad rather than using a pencil and paper. No stylus just her finger. The best I can guess is she became comfortable forming the shapes of the numbers without the pain in her hand. I don't have her school iPad here so I can't check for specific apps - sorry. I know there was a song she learned that totally unlocked the problems she was having with money. They use a lot of manipulative for math but let her do what works for her - no insisting she use a certain technique or method. Mostly the pressure was utterly and completely removed from her. This is a kid who loves to learn. I mean really, truly loves it. Learning, and now creating PowerPoints on topics of interest, is play for her. I really think the biggest difference is she has been given the room, flexibility and opportunity to do this. In the process the decoding skills have improved a lot. There continues to be major issues with encoding but word prediction and dictation software should help with that. She is also getting lots and lots of OT along with a ton of 1:1 instruction.

Yes she has tried the built in dictation on the iPad and it doesn't work for her. From what I understand it is not intended for use with children below middle school age and it just can't read her voice. They could not even get a baseline to start the training program for her. Then you add in her speech impediments (s/sh/th, r/w, certain vowels, etc) and it didn't even have 50% accuracy. We have a friend with contacts inside Nuance, the makers of Dragon, who made it her mission to get DD functioning dictation software. Long story short DH spoke with one of the software developers who the spoke with the AT consultant and there is a plan in place to get a program up and running for her. It will require developing and training an individualized speech program. Everyone is on board and we have a meeting scheduled next week to see about getting it going. According to the programmer from Nuance they should be able to get a functioning program for anyone but it will need to be done on a desktop - the program for iPads and other mobile devices won't work for her. He told DH they even got it working for a client without a tongue so there is no reason it shouldn't eventually work for DD. I would love if whatever they figure out for DD can get generalized out to help more LD kids. I'm all too certain that there are a lot of dysgraphic kids who could benefit. Just look at this board to see a number of examples...

Great news - enjoy basking in the glow of it

Wonderful news! Thank you for sharing. Must be such a relief for you and your DD that someone finally gets it.

Pemberley, your updates actually gave me a sense of hope so thank you for sharing them.


*love*

OK so I checked with DD and have a bit more info on the apps she's using.

The app that let's her use her finger to write is called Notability. I really can't believe how much her letter formation has improved. Really, really amazing. She is also using an app called Spelling City for spelling. She basically learns the spelling words through games like Hangman. It can also speak to her so she can repeat the word as many times as she needs or have it used in a sentence. She takes her spelling test right on the iPad and it will repeat the words as many times as she needs it repeated. They also have a program loaded that allows her to highlight text and the machine reads it aloud to her so she can do any kind of research she wants. As she types word prediction software pops up with the most commonly used words which is a good work around for the encoding difficulties. They have also color coded her keyboard - one color per row - which helps her visually track the letters. I think the idea is that it cuts down on the visual noise of trying to decipher 30+ keys to find the one she's looking for.

Oh and she came home today all excited because tomorrow they are having an all school assembly and she has been asked to present her "just for fun" pilgrim PowerPoint to the whole school! Her new favorite topic is ancient Egypt so tonight she started a new "just for fun" PowerPoint. How awesome is that?

This is so heartening to read. I am so happy for you!

Inspiring; thanks for posting, and congratulations!