Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Introduction

I have been lurking for awhile and have decided to jump in.
I have a DS9
who was accepted as a DYS in May. Our school dist. still does not accept him as gifted or LD. We are really frustrated that we see this child as 2E but our school simply says not gifted, not LD just an average kid with some mild learning struggles.
He has CAPD, SPD, and dyslexia. How do you get the official 2E label from the school? Do you really need to be below grade level to be considered 2E?

Welcome, moonbeam. Congratulations on your ds being accepted into the DYS program. I find it puzzling that your district will not accept your YS into their gifted program. I would ask your family consultant to contact them for you.

I'm sorry I am not very knowledgeable about LDs, but I'm sure someone else with some LD experience will be able to answer your question soon.

I just wanted to welcome you to the forum.

Summer

My 10 year old has SPD and motor dyspraxia and when he went to Kindergarten he was not eligible for any kind of therapy because he was not below grade level in anything. When I contacted our state's special ed dept. and the gifted ed coordinator they confirmed that there is no law requiring them to provide an appropriate education for twice exceptional children. My son would have had to be below grade level to receive help for the LD and handwriting issues and he would been held back from learning at the level he was capable of because of his issues. The state gifted coordinator and teachers at our school and even the superintendent agreed it wasn't fair, but said there was nothing they could do unless the laws were changed. I was told that I needed to homeschool so that is what we are doing now. I wrote letters to my legislators and the governor and the state superintendent of public schools and didn't even receive a reply. I hope you have better luck than I did.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!

Oh, excuse my manners, welcome, hello, congrats.

Now, then...
What the heck! I cannot believe that is possible.

Is DYS attempting to help you?
I hope so.

Neato

Welcome!! Yes I would try to get DYS to intercede since from what I read, is one of the helpful things being DYS gets you!


Dazey

Welcome!

Sounds like a job for the DYS folks. Have to agree with neato on this one. Hard to believe any SD could argue that a kid who qualifies for DYS isn't gifted. That is mindboggling.

Thank you everyone for the welcome.

DYS is in the process of writing letters- it is summer and there are lots of vacations and re-assignments of principals and staff. When I spoke with the new principal last week, he said he had never heard of the DYS program. DH and I have been living in a nightmare for about 4 years. We are in a highly rated urban school dist. that does not believe in "outside" testing. They have certain achievement criteria that must be met within the school to be in the gifted program.

I have felt rather alone and unsupported. It was on the advice of our family consultant that I decided to post here asking for support. I would still like to know how do you receive the official 2E label for a child? Because DS remains above or at grade level, he is not considered to have an LD.I am not sure I want any services, I would like him to be challenged academically and have some understanding from the teachers for his difficulties.

We have been homeschooling DS and he is happy but I feel like a fish out of water. Is the big secret that 2E children are all homeschooled?

Isn't it usually as a result of a discrepency between the IQ and achievement test scores? A child with a PG IQ and average achievement scores, for example, is both GT and not living up to potential.

What testing does your school do to ID GT kids? Maybe that is the place to start if they will not accept outside testing. Do they do any IQ testing, or only achievement tests for GT program placement?

Another consideration: is the GT program worth the fight? What I mean is that if your child is only going to get, say, 30 minutes of pull-out program per week, and it will be "fluff" instead of actual challenge work, then maybe it's not worth banging your head against the wall to get him in.

Assuming you think the GT program will meet your son's needs, then I'd say that homeschooling is one potential solution for 2E kids. But if that's not what you want to do, then I vote to stick a pin in that and try to solve the school problem. Homeschooling isn't going anywhere. You can always go to that if DYS can't help you.

I'm glad you're here, and I hope we can help! Or at least make you feel better...

DS has IQ in exceptionally gifted range.
He had a WIAT-2 given 3 years ago. His strength was in the numerical operations. There is more than a 50 point spread with the weakness in spelling, writing, and reading.

We had a WJ3 given this summer. The strength remains broad math calculation. His reading fluency remains more than 50 points lower on the standard score.

In anticipation of going to school this fall, our school tested him with the Terra Nova. We were asking for acceleration in math. He received some very strange results.
He received a 94% in reading and a 91% in math. With those results, he will receive no acceleration in math and no help in reading. I am not familiar with the test but I am baffled how he was able to score so well in reading. I would have loved to have seen the tests. It is not a timed issue, he has problems with memory and reading.

I think Dottie is right. You may want to post in the "Regions" section to see if you can find someone from your state who can direct you to local resources. Laws vary widely from state to state. For example, in Texas dyslexia is considered a disability and in Virginia it is not.

Our school district does use the RTI and not the discrepancy model. They use the terra nova to determine achievement. DS will probably do the EXPLORE test this year through TIP.
He has what the Eide's call the "stealth dyslexia". His cognitive abilities are so high that he is able to compensate and read at average SS99.

Deep down, I want our education system to work for these 2E children and at least in our situation -it is not.

Ohhh moonbeam -- I'm soooo sorry. This sounds like a horribly frustrating situation. I don't have any real experience with LD, but in my brief wonderings if DD has some LD with reading and writing, I've encountered the same school position. Since she's above grade level in reading, her teachers have literally laughed at me when I suggested I thought she struggled with it. When I suggested that her verbal IQ scores indicated her reading achievement test score should be higher than it is, it became rapidly apparent that I knew more about this than they did, and I don't know much!

I believe the DYS folks can be great allies to you in this situation and point you to the resources you need to advocate effectively for your kiddo. But in the meantime . . . . I'm really sorry that this has been so difficult. It just shouldn't have to be this hard. ((((hugs)))))

Here are some internet resources that might help:
www.wrightslaw.com
www.uniquelygifted.org
http://gtworld.org/gtspeclist.html (listserv for parents of 2E kids)
http://2enewsletter.com/

I know that many states don't even include the category of gifted under special education services. In order to qualify for special education and get services your son would need to meet the specific entry criteria for a category of eligibility (such as specific learning disorder). But it seems to me that the issue for you is that they don't recognize that he's gifted OR LD because they don't have or won't accept the scores that say so. Sounds like you just need to keep advocating and presenting them with the data that supports his needs.

Hang in there and welcome to the board. Good to have you here!

Good luck, moonbeam, and welcome. I had sent you a PM, and then deleted it, b/c I saw that your schools don't use the discrepancy model. Sorry I couldn't help.

hi again gratified:

DD8 is in a similar boat. Her reading comprehension scores don't jive. This can be indicative of a LD, such as a processing issue. Spelling that doesn't seem to match up with what you would suspect would strengthen that assumption.
In DD's case, though, she whips through the test because they are easy. So easy she actually loses interest while she is taking them!
I've attempted to teach her test taking strategies.
Also, sometimes the answers to multiple choice tests seem illogical to a highly intelligent child. Have you ever seen those questions? Who writes that stuff?

Moonbeam,

I can't help you with the law in your state, but I can offer some other advice.

Somedays, it's really good to laugh. A good, big belly laugh.

Often you find that around here, so stick around.

We are in MO. where gifted education is not funded.

His WIAT was done several years ago, but his math reasoning was 127 and his numerical reasoning was 153.
His current WJ shows Calculation 152,Fluency 120, and applied problems and math reasoning was 130. We have used the EPGY program for math for 4 years and have been happy with it.
He does have dyslexia and I know word problems throw him.

I only discovered this site this summer and I have been reading a lot of the older posts; I wish I would have found this site 4 years ago. My life would have been easier if I had. It is comforting to know there are other folks out there dealing with similar situations. We felt very blessed when our children were accepted into the DYS.
It affirms what we knew about their abilities and intellect, now we have to convince our school they are not just average kids with normal general education needs.

Are you a tester by chance? In reading other posts, I notice you seem to understand what all the subtests are truly about and what the numbers mean. I remember the first time that I saw DD12
WISC4 results that all I could wonder about was why are there so many spikes in the graph? I have learned so much over the years simply reading and researching on my own and I still cannot figure out if the school system truly doesn't get it or is it simply that they cannot acknowledge because then they will have to do something aabout it.

Thanks for your insight.