(warning - I started with a short reply and it grew - feel free to ignore! plus anyone who's been around these forums for awhile has already heard it previously... but for aeh, I will go ahead and leave it all here - it felt good to write it out again lol!)
polarbear, you are exactly right. The two subtests referenced form the Spontaneous Writing composite, and are derived from an open-ended writing exercise, which is extremely challenging for students whose written expression deficit primarily has to do with idea generation, organization, initiation, or elaboration. I hope at least one of these is in the IEP goals.
aeh, my ds had very weak IEP goals (with no outline on how to measure progress). By the time I'd come up to speed (working with an advocate and also getting advice from our local disability legal services) the fight for updating and maintaining his IEP was just not worth it. The sad thing was that after several years of never-ending advocating, and finally getting an IEP, we were still left with teachers who didn't believe ds needed help and preferred to think it was ds being lazy rather than an actual challenge (ds has had a diagnosis of dyspraxia and dysgraphia since 2nd grade, as well as years of classroom evidence that he couldn't produce written expression). By the time he'd reached the end of 5th grade my ds was aware enough to realize that I was spending a tremendous amount of time advocating for help for him, he knew he had an IEP that specifically stated he was supposed to be getting help, and he knew that he wasn't getting that help and that his teachers didn't seem to care if he ever learned how to write. He was also put in the position (by the teachers at school) of having to request the accommodations outlined in his IEP each time he wanted to use them, rather than being encouraged or at least allowed to use them all the time - which is what he needed and what was specified in the IEP. These realizations on his part intersected with an increasing frustration that the rest of school - the discussions about science and history etc were extremely boring to him because he was in a regular classroom with non-gifted peers. All of that coming together in a maturing kid led to ds simply telling us at the end of 5th grade "I'm not going back". We pulled him out and sent him to a private school (recommended by his neuropsych because they were technology-friendly) where he didn't have an IEP but he had teachers who were happy to let him use his laptop for classwork and who believed us as parents when we explained what ds' challenges were and who were personally happy to help meet ds where he was.
It was like night and day suddenly being able to drop my child off at school in the morning and not have to prepare myself mentally for the next round of emails requesting that ds be allowed to use his laptop, without having to explain over and over again what the impact of dysgraphia is, without having to follow up to make sure my ds was actually receiving services, without having to fight for proper placement in class based on his intellectual abilities (among other things, ds was held back in math in elementary school because he couldn't write fast enough on math facts quizzes and because he had difficulty writing out word problems - yet this is the same ds who at his new school was immediately multi-year subject accelerated in math and never blinked an eye or made a grade less than "A"). We gave up on school meeting ds' needs and pursued the private SLP (which I mentioned above, ds would never have qualified for through the school district in spite of so desperately needing it). I mentioned above that ds' low written subtest scores on the WJ-III weren't low enough to meet the school district policy for IEP eligibility. I didn't mention that in spite of his not having produced enough words on the TOWL to even have it *scored* - and scoring in the 5th percentile on another test that was given in place of the TOWL (after the school psych made my ds sit for the TOWL twice because he was convinced my ds was just being lazy or not trying or whatever instead of acknowledging that not producing words was exactly what was happening in class and that it was a real issue for ds )... we *still* had school staff trying to convince us that ds was "a-ok" and didn't need an IEP.
I so often wonder and worry about the kids out there who's needs go entirely unrecognized in our district and elsewhere, or who's parents don't have the knowledge or energy to relentlessly advocate, or who's parents don't have the resources to pull their children out of public school when it's not working. Honestly, my ds would have been in just a soooo not-so-good place at this point in his life without intensive help. He was already on the verge of being diagnosed with severe depression at the end of 2nd grade due to anxiety that was *all* classroom related due to his then-undiagnosed LD.
If you haven't noticed, I am a passionate person when it comes to things that matter to me - and as you also most likely know, parenting a 2e child is so time-intensive. (And ds is one of two 2e kids in this house, and sandwiched in between I have a child with physical challenges - so there is precious little time left over for much else other than parenting lol!) - but I do so wish/hope that I can somehow do something someway at some point in time to help make a difference for the kids in my school district who are perhaps not receiving the help they need and deserve.
Sorry for the long semi-rant! And aeh, thanks so much for your insightful and knowledgeable contributions here on the forums - we really appreciate your input!
polarbear
