He has a very very developed visual spacial learning style (normed against kids 4-6 years older than he is, he is at the 99.9%). His verbal/language skills are significantly below that (normed against the same age group 10 years his seniors he's in the 76%). Leaving us with a functional "learning disability". However, his composite IQ scores (depending on which test set is used) still max him out as high IQ or "gifted" and his individual scores in verbal also place him as "gifted". So the school refuses to see the delta as a "deficit or account for it.
Maelyn, what they are doing is not legal.
Per L.I. vs Maine School Attendance District (January 2007), the school experience is defined to include more than just graded academics. If your son has a deficit in an area-- such as social skills or executive functioning-- which impacts the educational experience, they must respond.
Personally, I found that printing out the entire legal brief and highlighting the appropriate parts, placing one copy prominently on the table during IEP meetings and giving another to the LEA representative, was a great visual aide.
Here's the link: http://www.aspires-relationships.com/Maine%20SAD55%20%28D.Me.%202006%29.pdf
Last edited by eldertree; 05/28/10 11:04 AM.
