From: "Suzanne Heath" To: "Pam Wright" Subject: Fw: Late Dyslexia Diagnosis Date: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 5:00 PM ----- Original Message ----- From: Suzanne Heath To: Comcast Mail Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 3:58 PM Subject: Re: Late Dyslexia Diagnosis Sort of, but focus on working in the present rather than addressing the past. Focus on what your daughter she needs now in order to get her skills to grade level. Your daughter will be out of school soon. You do not have time to lose. Find an experienced advocate who can help make sure that you do not overlook anything that will help your daughter. Your daughter may need more intensive specialized instruction that most high schools are prepared and equipped to give a student. An experienced advocate can help get your daughter the instruction that she needs Also see if the person who did the evaluation will go to IEP meeting with you to get an adequate IEP in place. Your daughter needs to do more that make progress. The school needs to get her skills up to grade level in less than 3 years. These links will take you to more information- Directories of advocates and attorneys http://www.napas.org/ http://www.education-a-must.com/aalist.html http://www.edlaw.net/frames.html scroll down to the list Research based instruction http://www.wrightslaw.com/nclb/rbi.htm Understanding evaluations http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/tests_measurements.html State branches of the International Dyslexia Association http://www.interdys.org/jsp/branch/branch-list.jsp Advocacy http://www.fetaweb.com/ Sue Heath ----- Original Message ----- From: Comcast Mail To: sueheath@wrightslaw.com Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 8:32 AM Subject: Late Dyslexia Diagnosis I just want to ask a personal question, and would appreciate you advising me. I have a 16 y.o. daughter who is now a sophomore in high school and who has always worked hard to study and get her homework done, but never did extremely well in school, especially as her younger brother (14 y.o.) who is deemed gifted and gets his IEP yearly, and her sister (11 y.o.) In any case, after repeating first grade in a private school, by 5th grade I moved her to our public school which is very highly recognized. I was quickly asked to sign to get her support in reading, and I did and was pleased to see this, but the next time I had my parent-teacher meeting and I asked about it, they said they stopped taking her after a few classes, for she was embarrassed to get pulled out of class. I was truly upset that I was not notified of this when the decision was made. Then through seventh grade, I specifically spoke with teachers at that time each year in school, including in Middle School when I asked to have her specifically tested in reading and comprehension of reading, which a reading specialist teacher said he did with her and she did just fine, then I met again in Middle School with a Vice Principle, Guidance Counselor and all her teachers at once, to express my concern about relatively good grades but low standard scores and a long history of spelling and reading problems, in spite of having tutors and going to summer school. I specifically then asked teachers to work with her on spelling for many papers come home with misspellings and they are never addressed, i.e.. circled of anything. It wasn't until I, in the last year was identified with ADHD, that I had a private psychologist test her. He came up with no ADHD, but instead with Dyslexia. So now I am waiting for his final report and then will take it to her high school. I understand she should will be entitle to an IEP now, but realize the school will likely want to produce their own studies on her. Please tell me if I can hold the school accountable for missing her problematic diagnosis. Michelle S. Fielding 412-963-7372 Pittsburgh, PA