Learning Disabilities & Reading Disabilities

Guest Column by

A Concerned Mom

Ashburn, VA

What do you do when the school considers your child borderline, but his teachers express concern about his ability to read, follow directions, and stay on task? As a parent you start a process that you don’t realize will take all your energy and attention to ensure your child’s success. It’s an emotional exhausting experience that feels like it will never end.

Resistance

My story starts when my son Jim was in first grade. His teacher told me something was not right. Unfortunately, he passed his school’s test by one point. This “success” stopped him from getting one-on-one reading help he needed, despite his teacher’s warning. Thankfully, his teacher didn’t give up; she got him into small group reading.

Jim forged along with lots of support at home. In mid-first grade, I formally requested that the school’s Child Study Team evaluate his learning problems. The Team wouldn’t; it argued that he had good grades.

Second grade was a re-run of first grade. Jim couldn’t keep up with reading, couldn’t stay on task, couldn’t follow directions. In a sad way, there was some good news: he failed the school’s test. I thought for sure the Team would now evaluate him. But he passed a different test. So again, the Team would not evaluate him.

Third grade came and I hoped Jim had matured. After all, I had often been told that boys matured slowly and that with time he would mature, with time things would come together. Maybe this was the time. But third grade was a re-run of the first and second grades. He could not keep-up with independent reading, stay on task, or follow directions. The school focused on his inability to focus, not the reasons for his problems. Using logic, I insisted that we find the causes for his problems and then use strategies to increase his ability to focus. This would require an evaluation; again, the Team refused to evaluate him. It reasons defined a catch-22: Jim had good grades because he had involved teachers and lots of support from home. To get an evaluation, I had to eliminate the support from home and let Jim fail. I was unwilling do this. Failure would have crushed his spirit.

Classification

Enough was enough. I had a private educational specialist evaluate Jim. The specialist found the problem: Compared to his abilities, Jim’s processed information very slowly. His slow processing impaired his focus, his ability to follow directions, and his reading.

I gave this information to the school’s Team. Finally, it classified Jim as having a Specific Learning Disability (with a poor memory) and developed an Individualized Education Program (IEP). For the rest of elementary school, Jim’s IEP was a great help.

Jim’s did fantastic in fourth and fifth grade. He was consistently on the honor roll and scored very high on his state tests (a perfect score in science). The reasons were straightforward: He had the right teachers, the right placement, consistent classroom strategies, home support, and a tutor at home. He did so well that his teachers strongly recommended that the middle school place him in honors history and honors science.

Middle School

Middle school differs markedly from elementary school. In middle school, Jim has to deal with four content teachers, all with different teaching styles, expectations, and personalities. This creates new challenges for Jim and for me.

My major challenge is ensuring that Jim gets a quality education and is not penalized for his processing problems, like slow reading speed (fluency). The change in schools has been demanding. Again, I have to develop new relationships, help Team members, teachers, and administrators understand what Jim needs, and if he needs something, justify, justify, justify. It’s exhausting.

At the beginning of sixth grade, Jim’s needed a re-evaluation, as his current one was expiring. The school strongly discouraged re-testing due to his high grades and high standardized test scores. This worried me. After all, the school’s data showed that his reading speed (fluency) was still far below average, a problem that could create monumental problems with textbooks and long assignments, a problem that could result in failing grades. I couldn’t let the school ignore this problem.

I sent the school many e-mails and letters about the problem. In them, I requested that a reading specialist evaluate Jim, to define the problem and develop an intervention plan. The school told me that Jim did not qualify for a reading specialist’s evaluation because he passed his standardized testing and he continues to get “B’s” in Language Arts. It’s frustrating when the rules and structure of a school stop a child from getting the help he needs. Children with poor fluency often times develop major reading problems. And it takes them forever to do their work—if they don’t lose motivation.

IEP Meetings

When I attend IEP meetings I bring evidence of Jim’s extra efforts to succeed, his efforts in and out of school. But the structure and rules of the school work against helping Jim. For unknown reasons, they do not consider processing speed, or the fact that a child who must work twice as long and twice as hard as another to obtain the same success needs to be looked at differently and his effort needs to be considered in determining services.

This month, before Jim’s IEP review, I will update his evaluations and show the new ones to his school. To help him, I know I must stay ahead of the game, I know I can’t count on the school to identify and respond to his problems. I can only hope that he will continue to invest the extra effort and that he will succeed. I refuse to allow his successes to justify the school system ignoring him. Sadly, the school’s indifference continues, forcing me to continue what should be an unnecessary journey.

Advice

My advice to parents in similar situations is to never stop advocating. Always get the evaluations you need. And when your child starts to succeed, don’t sit back and relax. Always remember the effort that produced success. Continue the effort, continue the hard work: If you stop, your child might fail.

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