I was given a detailed explanation of why middle school being do difficult because of increased organization and independence requirements, would put an added layer of stress on DS, to where we wouldn't want to burden him with the rigor of the accelerated program!
I would point out to the school staff that a child who has challenges with organization is going to have those challenges no matter what program he is in, gifted or not. Having an organizational challenge is not a good reason to keep a student out of a gifted program.
In the grand scheme of school challenges, organizational challenges are actually not that difficult to accommodate. And it's quite possible that you might find that in middle school, many teachers have purposely built-in organizational helps for their full classes simply because it's a huge step up in organzation demands from elementary school for *all* students.
A number of his attention and other difficulties are markedly reduced when he is presented with challenging material.
He has an ADHD diagnosis and Mixed Expressive Language Disorder, along with a small bouquet of other diagnoses. His executive function tested at below the 10th percentile, and he has difficulty with the pragmatics of language. As others have found, the school(s) see that he is performing significantly above grade level on test scores, so he wouldn't qualify for instruction (basically, they can't go through the RTI process with his scores). While we have held on to the IEP, it really doesn't have much content. The school has not been able to see the child as a whole, with the 2e piece. Does any of this suggest a possible avenue for evaluation? [quote]
Potentially. We were able to advocate for an IEP evaluation even though our ds did not have poor grades and even though he was testing at an advanced level on state testing. I can't go into details at the moment (because it's morning and I need to get my kids to school lol), but I have some thoughts for you - I'll try to get back here later today and go into more detail.
[quote]How did you work with the expressive language challenges within the gifted program?
We didn't remediate through the school. Although our ds was able to qualify for an IEP, the goals and strategies provided for help with written expression were weak and also weren't followed through on. It was a lot easier (here) to get appropriate goals and help with organization challenges. Once we realized ds wasn't going to be getting any meaningful help from school that would allow him to catch up with written expression, we made the decision (for our family) to put him into private speech therapy - and that made all the difference in the world for him! It wasn't overnight, it took several years and it is still a work in progress.
Did it impede consideration for the accelerated setting? I guess I'm trying to figure out what to do next in trying to advocate for him. In a program that includes ELA acceleration, their counter is that his written expression has to be similar to other participants without accommodations (though they are not saying that explicitly).
It was only an issue in the area where it was clearly going to be an issue, and where we knew it was going to be an issue we had accommodations and strategies in place to deal with it. How is that for a confusing answer? It would also have been an issue had he not been in an accelerated classroom. So, from ds' viewpoint, and from our viewpoint as a family, it was important that he be placed where he was intellectually capable, not placed based on the limitations of his written expression challenges. The impact - for us, family and ds, he has to put in more time on homework primarily. His LA grades probably aren't as high as they would be in a regular class. We also have to deal with teachers and counselors who really don't understand 2e very well, because yes, 2e kids are discouraged in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, from being accelerated or placed in higher level classes in our district. On the flip side, ds is very happy with his classes - for him, the important thing is to be in a class where the intellectual discussion is at or nearer-than-far-away-from his level.
Hope that helps a bit -
polarbear
