Seeking Information on Dyslexia (Or Should I Say Processing Deficencies)

B.,

I could be wrong but I was told that the school is required to test. It may not be as invasive as going to a professional, but at least it's a baseline test. It took a year to get my son tested after many conversations with the speach teacher, teachers and principal. His fist grade teacher was no help. It was his second grade teacher that agreed that there seemed to be some issue with him. So it helped having her on our side. Finally they did and low and behold he has processing issues and has been in speach class (they help him with his processing issue)and they developed in IEP for him.
Also I had to fight the school system to get my daughter into a reading program in 6th grade. The principal kept telling me that while he agreed that she needs it, there were worse kids than her. I told him that as I understood that, I didn't care. This was my child I was concerend about and perhaps the school needs to find a way to help all children that need it. After all thats what I'm paying taxes for. It helped that one of her previous teachers moved on to assistant principal so again I had someone on the inside on our side. They got her in the program in her second semester and she went from a D student to the honor roll the same year. She is now in her first year of college majoring in Elementry Education. The help she received changed her academic life for the better. She was on the honor roll all thru high school. So early intervention is the key.

Keep pushing and see if you can find out if indeed the school is required to test. Again, I was told they were and when I said that to the principal, things changed. If I had not pushed my son may have fallen thru the cracks as we are not in a financial position to have him professionaly tested.
Good Luck!

If you believe your son is having any type of learning difficulties, especially with a significant family history of learning issues, you should request a multidisciplinary conference meeting to discuss your concerns at his school. You may request this verbally and/or in writing to his teacher, school psychologist, principal and/or special education coordinator for the district. Even if the school is "resistant" to testing your son, they should still provide you with concrete interventions they plan to implement to help him. If you feel like you're having a hard time navigating the "system" at your son's school, you might want to contact the school social worker to ask for help.

how about Sylvan ? this place should be your best bet for your child. Good Luck

I would go the school route at this time...I worked as an SLP in many schools in CA and UT and it's always a good idea to start with school assessments, it may take some pushing but hopefully your son's school has already been doing some type of interventions, even if it's not officially by the Special Ed team....ask for a meeting with his teacher and the special ed team to discuss your concerns and to request an assessment, even better, write out you request and send to the principal.

I know it's frustrating to wait for the school but getting outside assessments by a private Psychologist/SLP, or Sylvan type doesn't always help the school....and having worked in the schools I've yet to see a kid tested by Sylvan who didn't need "their" services! I think Sylvan can be good but I'm also a little leary of their testing protocol.

Just be the best advocate you can for your son, but understand the the school will respond best to positive rather than negative approaches...ah the stories I can tell....

Best of luck and I hope you are able to schedule a meeting soon to start the process!

B.

I want to start by saying you are right by calling it a processing disorder. If reading is his only problem it could be a problem with convergence of his eyes and other processing centers of his brain. If this is the case, it can be tested with some easy neuro tests and treated just as easily with some chiropractic adjustments to the neck and lower back to free up any restrictions to the flow of info from the brain to the eyes and rest of body and then some easy and usually fun exercises for the kids to strengthen the eyes muscles as well as the deficient areas of the brain. If you want more info just let me know. I am a chiropractor in Villa Park that treats a lot of children with this and many other processing disorders.

Dr. B

B.,
I agree with you on a processing disorder if your district is not cooperating ( because if they do they have to offer treatment )go further up the chain call the Special Ed director and ask for guidance in how to proceed in getting help for your child.
My son also has a glitchy issues with reading. I use a program called Audiblox. You can also check out the book "The Right to Read" by Dr. Jan Strydom and Susan du Plessis
J. O

I agree with Shelli. We had the same situation with our daughter when she was in the first grade although the teacher did cooperate with the testing. The gap will widen with his abilities as the reading and work gets harder. Now is the time to intervene. our district provided speech and hearing for our daughter who had auditory processing issues.. she also was delayed in her expressive and receptive language and struggled with learning to read. We also did private testing to make sure she was not learning disabled. We had to end up hiring our own private reading tutor. She was awesome. She did intensive phonics and word attack skill building among other things. We hired her for one summer and then we paid her to come in and work at our daughter's school.. (once/twice a week) and she met with our daughter when the regular class was having reading. It was great but I had to fight for it!

her tutoring work and the speech and hearing did the trick but it may take a few years. Don't give up and be assertive for your child. They must have some reading scores for your child. How below grade level is he? My daughter is a senior in college and justlanded an awesome intership at an advertising agency. This early intervention is critical!!
hang in there. you are a great mom!