Just So You Know

What a relief!!

The school finished the testing on DS#2 and we had an IEP meeting today. DH went in loaded for bear because he was positive that it was going to be “medicate him.” The resource teacher brought in the test results and started with, “We didn’t waste time testing any of the areas that we already knew your son was strong in. That would have been an insult to his intelligence.” The classroom teacher then piped up with , “I do wish you would reconsider testing him for ADD. He has such trouble focusing, I had to tap him and get him back on the page with the rest of the class several times during science today.” The resource teacher replied, “Page? You were reading together? Of course he was off task then. The behavioral section did show that he was on task 74% of the time when the other kids were 98% of the time but the school counselor did note that she noticed either a start of a new sound (such as people in the hall or the furnace) or that the assigned task involved reading.” She then looked down her nose at the teacher, “It’s easy to see why so many children in this school have been misclassified.” She then turned to DH and me and started going over the testing. I thought DH was going to jump up and hug this woman.
Needless to say, she finds that DS#2 has a classic reading disorder defined by extremely high Thinking Ability, Visual – Spatial Acuity and his Fluid Reasoning is just down right spooky. (He did more of the computer generated problems in his time frame than she did when she pre-tested this exam). Given children of his same age, if they were all given this same exam – he would score 95 to the average of 90. His Auditory Processing, Visual Processing speed, Basic Reading and Written expression are below average and on a test he would score between 30-43 compared to a peer score of 90. So, without admitting that he is dyslexic, they are going to work with him on reading, language and spelling.
I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off me. We did decide that he would still get the regular classroom language page and the spelling word search over the weekend and the resource teacher would grade them since both projects are good for him even though he finds them difficult.
I think the resource teacher really won DH over when she asked him when he was first diagnosed and what he did as a child to compensate. I’ve already had one friend tell me that this resource woman is a gem and to thank God that we’ve found her. Believe me; I’ll be on my knees cheering in prayer tonight.
On a final note, since she feels we haven’t any time to lose, she starts working with DS#2 tomorrow.

posted by Shondratasha @ 20:59