[TheForge] dyslexia OT -- was books

[Rob Fertner]

I've been a School Nurse for 19 years (15 yrs elementary, 4 yrs middle
school) and as such I've been part of the Special Education process as a
member of the Child Study Team. These are Kansas terms. All the states
follow the Federal Guidelines but the details vary from state to state. And
like they say the devil in the details. Anyway, the Child Study Team at each
school is made up of a School psychologist, School social worker, School
Nurse, School counselor(not every school as one), and an Administrator.
An evaluation cannot proceed if there is an outside reason for the lack of
academic progress that hasn't been addressed. If a health or medical concern
is suspected, the process stops until the child goes to the doctor for an
evaluation. If there is a diagnosis then the special ed process includes it.

Now for a Learning Disability label you have to have a 25 point difference
between the child's IQ and their achievement. For example, child has an
average IQ of 100 and their measurement of achievement in Language Arts and
Math is 72. The difference is 28 and they would be eligible for special ed
services. Then we look at need. Does the child in fact, need special ed
services. If both answers are yes then we put in special ed.
There are different labels. If a child has a health condition that
interferes with learning, we can look at the Other Health Impaired label.
If we have an appropriate diagnosis and at least a 15 point difference
between IQ and achievement we can look at need.
Basically, for special ed services in school you have to be eligible under
the guidelines and have a need for such services. I seen kids qualify as
eligible, but didn't need the services at that time. Then those who had the
need, but didn't meet the eligibility for any of the categories.
I'm getting long-winded, so I'll cut it off here.

Rob
Wichita, KS

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of CGRAF
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 9:33 AM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] dyslexia OT -- was books

Rob Fertner wrote:
> There are different ways of learning; Visual, Aural, Tactile, and Kinetic.
> Most people are various combinations of these types with one being
> predominate. Learning disabilities are when there are significant
processing
> problems in one or more areas. Dyslexia is a medical term, in the world of
> education they use the term Learning Disability.
> 
> Rob
> 
Which is largely a funding term, and often times ends up with Deaf, 
dyslexic, emotionally challenged and intellectually deficient kids 
getting lumped together IN a class not just AS a class.

We got lucky and the initial help we received keyed into a speech 
problem that lead to a diagnosis of the dyslexia, while screening our 
child for autism. Actually it was a bit more than a screening. It was a 
full neuro -psyche workup, two full days worth of tests. (Turns out he 
wasn't autistic . The dyslexia was screwing with his ability to 
formulate sentences, and he was just massively frustrated.) Our speech 
therapist and the local university speech and auditory clinic and many 
hours with a tutor , taught him how to work around the roadblocks.

At age 4 he was totally non verbal, at age 14 he is entering a regular 
high school, plays and referees soccer, and holds his own socially with 
my older kids college age friends.

Although he reads at age level, the pace is still glacial.
The decoding process he needs to go through is not as efficient as 
phonics nor as fast as "See and Say".

That medical evaluation was the important one not the educational 
evaluation.
Knowing which devils you are chasing really helps.

Mike Graf

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