Socially & Developmentally Behind. Should We Retain?
My 11-year-old son, grade 5, is behind a little socially. He has no real friends who seek him out or invite him over. He says he wants to be in Continue Reading →
Author Archives: Sue Whitney
Testing Accommodations for ACT and SAT
My daughter’s evaluation results said, she “may experience difficulty in retrieving phonological information from long-term or permanent memory, as well as difficulty executing a sequence of operations quickly and repeatedly.” Continue Reading →
Can We Hear a Little about What Teachers Have to Deal With?
I’m responding to a request from a special education teacher who asked if I would “tell our side of it.” She wrote: Teachers are getting more and more students who Continue Reading →
Caution! Don’t Let the Transition Plan Fail Your Child
My daughter has autism. Her goal is to get a college degree, not a specific kind of high school diploma. Her high school told us she did not need a Continue Reading →
Doing the Work Will Get the Results!
I’ve been writing my column, Doing Your Homework, for many years. Parents and teachers ask questions. Sometimes they don’t agree with my answers. Often, they aren’t willing to do the Continue Reading →
Running Out of Time to Teach Your Child to Read!
My 11 year old 6th grader has always struggled with reading, phonics, spelling, and his handwriting is atrocious. He is diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder. The most recent private evaluation Continue Reading →
High Test Scores, Disruptive in Class…Academic or Discipline Issue?
My 9th grade daughter has an IEP for NOS/PDD. She has extremely high standardized test scores. But her teachers say she has inconsistent work habits and is disruptive in class. Continue Reading →
Retention is Not a Form of “Specialized Instruction”
The school wanted to retain my son who has an IEP for OT, PT and Speech. They insisted he repeat second grade. I disagreed. Now in third grade, his teachers Continue Reading →
Reading Comprehension Programs and Assessments
My son has high functioning autism. He is a middle schooler, reading 2 years below grade level. He has difficulty in comprehension and inferencing, but not decoding. The school uses Continue Reading →
Transition: From Special Ed Teacher to Special Ed Advocate
I am a certified special education teacher K-12. I will be retiring in two years and would like to become a special education advocate. What is the first step? You Continue Reading →