From: "Suzanne Heath" To: "Judy Gaudet" Subject: Re: Questions Date: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 8:25 AM Dear Judy, I assume from your letter that David is in second grade. Get a copy of your state academic content standards for first and second grade. They are on your state department of education website. They may be called curriculum or standards. Look at the reading, and writing sections to see what your state says all children in the state need to know and be able to do by the end of first and second grades. The team needs to design a program of specialized instruction that will teach him these skills at the same pace they teach his non-disabled peers. Re-read the evaluators recommendations until you are very familiar with them. These are the recommendations that the team should be following. It is the most recent evaluation. It tell them his present level of performance. It describes his disability. It describes how it affects his learning. It recommends the methods necessary to teach him to read. Is it possible for you to go with an advocate to this meeting? Will the evaluator be able to attend? I recommend rescheduling the meeting if necessary to accommodate their schedules so that you will have your support people with you to participate in the meeting. In the meantime, whether you work with an advocate or not, read everything there is about reading, understanding evaluations, and IDEA 04.Get a copy of your state special education laws, and IDEA 04 and read those. State departments of education http://wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/Programs/EROD/org_list.cfm?category_ID=SEA Understanding tests and measurements http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/test.index.htm Writing measurable IEP goals http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/iep.index.htm Advocates and attorneys http://www.yellowpagesforkids.com/ http://www.copaa.org/index.html http://www.napas.org/ scroll down to link to directory http://www.edlaw.net/frames.html scroll down to link to directory http://www.education-a-must.com/aalist.html IDEA 04 http://www.wrightslaw.com/idea/index.htm Reading http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/read.index.htm Preventing Reading Failure - Written by Joseph Torgeson, http://www.state.gov/p/io/unesco/members/49096.htm Bio link http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/fall04/reading.htm Becoming an effective advocate http://www.fetaweb.com/ Sue ----- Original Message ----- From: Judy Gaudet To: sueheath@wrightslaw.com Cc: Judy Gaudet Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 1:46 PM Subject: Questions Hello Sue, In my search for information, I found you :) Hoping that you'll take a moment to read a summary of my current concerns. Please share your thoughts with me. My 7 year old son, has difficulties with muscle coordination, chewing, swallowing, and has low tone. He was been diagnosed with congenital hypotonia (low muscle tone) with hyperextensible joints, dyspraxia (swallowing dysfunction) , oral apraxia (improved allot), and ADHD (inattentive type). David wears foot orthotics as well. David has received services thru the local public school. He has benefited from receiving OT, and SL since age 3 1/2. He has had PT added into his IEP for the past year. During the last year he has unofficially (not on the IEP) received small group instruction in school for reading, writing and math help. We have always supplemented services privately in hoped to expedite these early intervention years. David enjoys swimming and karate. David and I read together daily. I read to him, and he reads to me, and we play games. We alternate pages or we alternate books. The school recommends that children of this age read 15-20 minutes a day. David and I spend a minimum of 40 minutes and a max of 60 minutes a day. Progress has been very slow. In January of this year, the school suggested an educational analysis for find David's strengths and weaknesses. I agreed. (my mistake) The results showed that David is a bright little boy that is not in need of educational services. It appeared to me that they blamed all of David's educational issues on his ADD - inattentive type. And since he did so '50%' average on the testing, therefore did not qualify for an IEP. At this same time, they decided to drop S/L sessions, and half the OT (from 2 units/week to one unit/week) and soon re-eval PT since he was doing 'so great'. I saw the 504 they proposed and it looks like typical elementary school classroom modifications. Basically, they want to drop him. Over the summer, I had David tested privately. The results revealed Language-Based Learning Disability, or Dyslexia.. Characterized by difficulties in several areas, including processing/production speed/work pace, attention, organization and executive functioning, fine motor skills/writing/output, language and academics. Impairments were noted in several areas, including language-based skills such as reading, spelling, and written expression/writing j. Significant problems were noted with rapid naming which have a negative impact on David's automatic word recognition skills and his oral reading fluency. During the testing, David's some of difficulties were not consistently reflected in his formal test scores, which ranged from above average to below average expectancies for his age. Given David's high intelligence, his low average scores likely connote areas of relative weaknesses for him. Also, an interesting finding - David completed most tasks slowly and in many instances, his average/above average scores did not reflect the large amount of time, effort, and energy that was necessary in order for him to arrive at his answers. A 'team meeting' is scheduled. I will share this new report with them. Does a child only qualify for support when they are in the bottom percentiles? I'm afraid that although I'm providing the team with enlightening information, they might say that his scores do not qualify for services. What should I do? He might lack support at school, but we at home are 100% behind him. Any suggestions for learning, reading strategies? Programs? Schools? Thank you, Judy Gaudet email: gaudets@comcast.net home # 472-8040 cell # 566-3334