Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Really Really Disappointed.

polarbear,

I do very much understand that many families (probably more in this forum than elsewhere) go through years of frustration, and often more than one unprofessional or incompetent professional.

(And I don't think you're arguing with me! That was a real experience you had, with a teacher who clearly set out to sabotage your attempt to obtain objective data. Plus, there's a reason we homeschool our own.)

I'm in a position to see a fair number of students of various types (and their past evals and interventions) coming out of different school systems, and it is quite apparent that certain settings are more conducive to this situation. I try to do my little bit to change the experience and trajectory for families in a positive direction...

There are certainly as many problem professionals in education as in any other; I guess the difference is that they affect children, who are not in a position to advocate effectively for themselves.

I think most of them somehow ended up in DD's school. Ok that was a joke (probably a bad one). I just don't understand how there can be so many incompetent people there. How could i have sat through an IEP meeting with the principal, teacher, OT and ST and none of them had the foggiest idea how a child would qualify for help with writing. Or else they were being deliberately obtuse which is even worse(although they did seem genuinely clueless, and not particularly interested in finding out either, til I made phone calls and started complaining). And even the special ed director for the district never heard of dysgraphia. When the parents are more educated than the staff, it seems pointless to even try. I've given up this year, in terms of getting something in place for DD. Hopefully different staff at a different school will be better but I'm trying to be realistic.

Some may say that supports for being on-task may be important items for an IEP or 504; Although the subject of your post focuses on his difficulty with written expression and technology supports to accommodate that, the development of other skills may also be necessary to help him fully access the curriculum. The teacher may have been indicating this; If so, it may actually be an area in which you and she agree.

As a separate issue, some parents may coach their children that a child's self-advocacy may be most effective when a child asks for what they feel would support their progress, rather than telling the adult what the adult needs to do. For example, "you need to give me a minute" may be seen by some as affrontive, bossy, and lacking respect for authority, therefore less effective than "would you mind repeating that for me when I have finished this?" or some similar question which invites a partnership.

Supports for it are already in the IEP and have been since last year. So that is not the teacher's goal. The implementation however is often lacking - with the "supports" being an irritated aide shouting a bunch of directives at him at once, walking up behind DS chastizing him and asking him "can he not see why he is so frustrating to everyone?" etc. Yes, we work on how DS talks but it is hard for a kid with this kind of challenge to, at the same time, have to tip-toe around some aide (who is suppose to be supporting him) who is annoyed and chastizing him with his inability to multitask. He now has a very nice para who does not say nasty things to him and it's all good. But that was not the teacher's doing at all - that was mine. I don't think DS's teacher and I agree on anything, quite honestly.

Regarding our discussion of ADHD diagnosing, I thought some of you would find this interesting: many of us have been told or believe that the common practice/thinking is that the criterion that adhd symptoms must be evident in at least two of three settings (home, school, work) and that a child should have sufficient symptoms of ADHD by both parent and teacher report before they can qualify for the diagnosis. This is not necessary apparently. A manual that I read advised that if both reports do not endorse a diagnosis (and it pointed out that when the parent report endorses it, the teacher report almost always does too but often times the problem is you have a teacher report that endorses it and a parent report that doesn't), clinicians should count the number of adhd symptoms reported by the teacher report, and then add to it any additional symptoms endorsed by the parent report, which were not reported by the teacher. In other words, the clinicians were not advised to look at why the child may be symptomatic in one setting and not the other, they will not be reluctant to diagnose if the child is showing symptoms in one setting but not another - rather they will just add all of the symptoms reported and get the diagnosis that way.
Interestingly, the manual did mention to be careful of parents shopping for an adhd diagnosis, but did not express the same concern regarding teachers... Again there seems a general bias against parents in these manuals... That teacher's reports, motivations etc are considered more credible, more reliable, particularly if there are any discrepancies. There is never any concern expressed about the appropriateness of the educational environment, etc.

More accurately, best practice dictates that the symptoms should be present across settings. Also, that there should be multiple raters and methods of data collection, including direct observation. (I make sure to do my own direct observations in at least some of the same settings from whom I receive ratings.) Unfortunately, there are practitioners out there who do not follow either best practice guidelines or good clinical (common) sense. In my experience, it is whoever wants the child out of their hair who pushes for the Dx (often parents, often teachers/staff). I have seen the discrepant reports work both ways. Also, many pediatricians are not qualified to make this diagnosis, either from lack of training, insufficient time/data gathering, or both. Yet they routinely do so, and put kids on psychotropic meds.

Note: I'm not sure what manual you saw, but none of the ones I have imply that parents are less credible. School personnel will automatically lean toward that assumption, though, because the teacher reporters are people they know personally, and with whom they have relationships. Additionally, I think it is safe to say that there is greater diversity in home environments than there is in school environments, which makes the meaning of parent ratings more challenging to interpret than that of teachers. (I mean, some of us think it's okay to do oral algebra problems while kicking a ball into a soccer goal, while others would consider that excessively high levels of activity.)

This is why I think the most productive solution to this problem is to cultivate balanced relationships and cordial communication between parents and school staff as much as possible. ... I know I'm being an idealist, but one can but try!