Thanks for the responses. I agree with all of the comments. We have IQ and achievement private testing from last spring. We had that done out of a feeling that she was hiding her abilities ( claiming should could not read for like 6 to 12 months after i knew she could)
I have no idea if this is related to my ds' LDs at all.. but fwiw... we had the same thing happen when he was in K - he had learned to read (who knows when?) and he never told anyone. We were on vacation during winter break visiting relatives, and my SIL gave me a book that she said my ds might like to read and I made some comment about sure, we'll keep that for when he learns how to read... and she told me he already knew how to read... and sure enough, I asked him if he could read and he said yes and he read to me - hilariously funny in some ways, frustrating as can be in others. After that holiday revelation, he went back to school, admitted he could read to his teacher, and read his way through all the classroom's leveled books in just a few weeks.
Which I know is so young to worry about the handwriting output. My oldest son is dyslexic and something about her concerned me that she had similar traits to him. As her reading has gotten strong the writing as not improved at all.
I don't think a child is ever too young for a parent to listen to their gut instinct if something doesn't seem right. I listened to teachers tell us our ds' handwriting was completely age-appropriate for too many years and believed what they said... and by the end of 2nd grade my ds was so anxious he became very close to clinically depressed and was having panic attacks not only at school but at home. I would give anything to have been aware enough when he was 4-5 years old to realize that his reluctance to read, his letter reversals, his refusal to do what seemed like should be simple work for him, were all more than just "quirky" kid things. There was a huge red flag in some testing he did for consideration for our school district's HG program... and how I wish they had thought to mention, hey, this might be something more than developmentally age-appropriate. I realize they can't really suggest something like that and they don't want to worry parents, but that was the first place he was tested and in hindsight it stands out clear as night vs day.
She again only tested around 50 percentile on their math assessment. This is a timed test and she doesn't do well timed.
Totally typical for a fine-motor dysgraphic kid.
The teacher put her in enrichment anyway because she was the first kid done everyday and getting the work done correctly. I honestly do not have a vested interest in the Math placement. A friend of mine, who teaches at the school, has always said it is a joke for enrichment.
We see her reading at home as strong. Initially, they said her comprehension was weak. Which didn't jive with me at all. When pressed they said it is the retell part of the test. She needs 2 or more prompts to retell a story. When I spoke with the reading specialist, I inquired about if she felt she doesn't understand the material or if she isn't articulating the information back well. She said it was a matter of articulating the material back. Which made sense to me. I can ask her any question about something she has read and she answers the question correctly, but if I ask a for a retell it's a short limited response. I have to tell her give me more information for her to expand her response. Which she will do but only if you prompt her for more information. She has great fluency and reads with really good inflection. She will change her voice for different characters in a book, etc. The comprehension appears strong as well as her fluency.
All of this sounds VERY much like my ds - he has a bit of an expressive language issue that is mixed in with the dysgraphia - I think it's all probably related in the area of the brain function that's impacted. He struggled tremendously in elementary school with things like summarizing what he read (without prompting - but he has what seems like a photographic memory if you ask him specific questions). He's worked with an SLP for several years and continues to work with her on written expression and it's helped quite a bit - but it's been an area that's made it really hard at times for school staff to see how really smart he is, because so much of school depends on written output. If your dd has a challenge in this area, getting her accommodations and AT and remediation can really help.
At the first meeting they agreed to give her an alternative reading assessment and look at her writing. We got back to the second meeting and none of it had happened. They said the DRA is the very best test and they had not looked at the writing.
I would request they give her the TOWL (Test of Written Language) - this is a VERY common and widely used test and I'm guessing there's a 99.999999% chance your school district uses it routinely in evaluating student's writing ability for IEP evals.
Two weeks after our second meeting they gave her another DRA and moved her to a lower group because it was unchanged from the previous DRA.
I also think that due to the family history of dyslexia, it would be reasonable to ask for a "real" reading analysis, not just the routine DRA. It sounds like you'll get there now that you've contracted the district...hopefully!
I did get to see a practice test for 3rd reading and Math on our state assessments and feel she would do just fine on both of them. If I could talk them into give her that I would do it.
It's possible you might be able to find a sample test that would cover the same things the state test does - our school district keeps samples online and uses them to help prep students for the test each year. I had my ds take a sample test at home when we were trying to understand his test scores - he scored one point below "Advanced" on writing in 3rd grade in spite of not being able to write *at all* independently in class.. and the school district wouldn't share specifics about how he scored on different parts of the test, so I used the sample test as a way of showing that he was scoring very well on multiple choice questions about grammar/punctuation etc, but wasn't able to write any sentences on the prompt to write a paragraph.
I don't think she is getting challenged at school, but I'm most concern about the possible underlying issues and addressing them now. I would be happy to be wrong about it.
This is the issue that I think almost all of us 2e parents have had - it's tough to deal with lack of access to appropriately intellectually challenging classwork because of the 2e issues... but doing what you're doing - figuring out everything you can now and dealing with it - will put your dd in a place where she'll be able to access higher level classes and appropriate acceleration in a few years and she'll take off - really and truly!
I would like her reading placement changed back to the higher group. She was doing really well according to the teacher and moving her on DRA alone seems short sighted. The reading specialist told me it didn't seem to be reflecting her levels and yet they are solely relying on it, UgH! The pupils services person did seem agree with me that she should be placed at the higher group while you work on writing instead of moving her backwards. I am hoping she gets that done for us.
Keep advocating! I hope the pupil services person has influence and can get her appropriately placed.
PolarBear was there any particular test or assessments that helped bring it to light with your DS?
There were - I don't have time to post them at the moment, but promise to return and add them here later today.
Best wishes,
polarbear
