Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Need Assistance With WJIII for Non-Gifted Child

Yes. Sorry, I was thinking of the states I'm familiar with. If neurological is an option in your state, it has the advantage that the impairment doesn't have to result from a TBI; it can be from any origin, as long as there is a neurologist's dx. Cognitively Impaired is usually in its own category (previously Mental Retardation in the federal law, recently changed to Intellectual Disability).

Some states are actually non-categorical, and have eligibility guidelines based on needs and services, without disability labels.

The school stated they categorize dyspraxia as a developmental delay and that it is only covered through the age of 9. After that he is on his own. We have an appointment next week for a referral to a nueropsych and behavioral psych for further review. He just had a developmental optometry appointment 2 weeks ago. That doctor said that while he technically cannot diagnose dyslexia his profile is very much in line with diagnosed dyslexics.

Bizarre--I don't see how they can legally get away with that. It's like classifying ADHD as a "developmental delay", saying kids "grow out of it".

Well, he goes through more testing and I have called the district out on breaking the state and federal laws already. The best thing is I have it in writing so if they try to refuse I will file a civil rights violation.

Oh, and he is ADHD as well

I'm actually surprised that anyone in your district knows what it is. Here, they didn't. The POHI teacher knew what it was but she works in more than one district, I think. No one at the school knew. Not sure if the spec. ed directors knew or if they were faking it. The asst. special ed director doesn't know what "dysgraphia" is.

So, here is the latest update.

I met with the new psychologist that will be doing all of his new testing. He was very irritated at the lack of attention the last psychologist had with the discrepancies in DS13's testing. He also felt that with the high achievement on the WJ III academic testing compared to the low scores on many areas of the WJIII cognitive that the GIA was extremely depressed and not in the least bit accurate. He stated at our meeting last week that DS13 should have been placed with an IEP because what little testing that was done showed there were several issues. I feel like I am finally getting somewhere!

DS13 also took the ACT 2 weeks ago. There was really no reason other than it is good practice for him and it is a good above level test. He did absolutely no test prep whatsoever and did all of the math without a calculator (we forgot it at home-oops). Here are his scores:

Composite 16
English 15
Usage Mechanics 07
Rhetorical Skills 08
Mathematics 17
Pre-Alg/Elementary Alg 07
Algebra/Coord Geometry 07
Plane Geo/Trigonometry 11
Reading 18
Social Studies/Science 08
Arts/Literature 09
Science 14

I am very proud of him with these scores and I feel with all of the issues he has had that he did extremely well. His English scores correspond very well with the issues he has shown in school. His Algebra scores were very surprising to me because he passed Pre-Algebra with A's and has shown no difficulty with Algebra 1 so far. His Trigonometry score blew me out of the water because he has never seen 99% of the items on that area of the test. Science score doesn't surprise me because his school district does absolutely no science until 7th grade and his science instruction last year was extremely poor.

Oh, I do want to add that his reading score qualified him for Johns Hopkins CTY, which I was not expecting. He missed the math qualification by 1 point and math has always been his strongest subject by far.

We are in WA and when DD's IEP was updated to reflect her ADHD diagnosis, it was under the "health impaired" category. Before the official diagnosis, I believe she was "developmental delay."

He still doesn't have an IEP, even with the ADHD diagnosis. Our private psychologist also confirmed stealth dyslexia. We are waiting on the neuropsych but both the pediatrician and private psychologist believe he has dyspraxia.