I would love some suggestions for what should be in the IEP for my 2e DS who is 9. At the end of the school last year he was diagnosed as gifted with an LD.

WISC %iles:
VCI 95
PRI 99.9
PSI 9
WMI 95

His LD primarily relates to written output and rapid recall.

Sadly the IEP that has been prepared addresses mainly the LD with very little addressing the gifted part. My problem is that I know I am not happy with the IEP but I don�t know what they can do to change it. They have said that if he can show he knows the curriculum then he will be given extensions but he has to KNOW the curriculum well before they teach it in order to get the extensions....


They are doing lots to accommodate the LD � longer time to complete tests, oral testing, he will be supplied with his own laptop with text-to-speech software etc. ~ which I am happy about but I really think that more needs to be done to address the gifted side of things...

Any suggestions? What are some things that your 2e kids have in their IEPs to accommodate the gifted side?

Thanks!

Hi athca,
Clearly you have a bright son! You mention difficulties with recall and and written output. Tell us more about these. Is the written output primarily a motor issue (handwriting), or are there other/different issues such as formulation, organization, spelling etc? What about the recall - is this mostly in oral communication (ie word retrieval), or does this extend to other things such as long term memory, ability to remember details etc.

It is hard to get a picture of a student and their strengths and challenges via the WISC alone. It is clear that his reasoning is very solid (VCI and PRI) as is his auditory working memory (WMI). He seems to have a Ferrari brain with a Volkswagon processor (PSI) which can be very stressful and can impair input and output in an academic setting. Extra time, access to technology seem to be very reasonable accommodations. Generally an IEP has instruction in addition to accommodations. Does his IEP include any? I'm thinking perhaps OT, speech and language, maybe previewing of concepts ideas so that he can better formulate his oral and written responses to take advantage of class discussion. How is he with math facts? Does he use a calculator?

What are his strengths and interests? How does he like to learn (reading, discussion, hands on?) Tell us a bit more about your son as a learner and about his school's current approach to his education, and maybe we can chime in with some ideas to reach his strengths and to compensate for his challenges.

Punctuation is pretty much non-existant, his writing is messy and I think that the task of writing is so difficult that he tends to have poor organization and a lack of ability to get his point across. He can talk to you for 10 minutes about a topic then will write 5 words when it comes to describing. Some letters are still backwards and he will completely skip the "ands and thes" at times. I suspect dyslexia and we are looking into it.


The recall is mostly with word retrieval and automatic recall of math facts... 7 + 5 is not memorized etc. Sometimes he gets confused with some of his long ago learned information and how it relates to topics that are being discussed - for example the teacher was talking about the Chunnel and he said he knew about that it was called the underground railroad.


His IEP doesn't include any of that - those are good points. I think that he would do really well if he was given some preview time. He doesn't use a calculator but again that should go in the IEP given his rapid recall of math facts.


He loves any kind of learning - in order I would say hands on, reading then discussion. He loves science and history. He is a self directed learner at home - I will bring home books from the library and he will devour them, we go to the science center and he lights up. He loves Lego and K'nex, he loves science experiments and figuring out how things work. He is in a regular classroom and the pace is quite slow.

Thanks for your help - this totally helps to get the juices flowing in my brain!