Foreign language requirement and dyslexia - MCPS

[Anonymous]

My middle school aged son has an IEP for dyslexia. He does fairly well in school with accommodations - though reading, writing, and rote memorization are really challenging for him. I've been trying to understand what support MCPS offers to dyslexic students when it comes to meeting the foreign language requirement - but either my questions have been ignored so far! Can anyone offer any guidance on this? My son just started Spanish - but is really struggling with it. And I can see it making him like school even less than he already does. I was hoping he could take ASL - but it is not offered at the high school he will attend. Any experience with this issue or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My middle school aged son has an IEP for dyslexia. He does fairly well in school with accommodations - though reading, writing, and rote memorization are really challenging for him. I've been trying to understand what support MCPS offers to dyslexic students when it comes to meeting the foreign language requirement - but either my questions have been ignored so far! Can anyone offer any guidance on this? My son just started Spanish - but is really struggling with it. And I can see it making him like school even less than he already does. I was hoping he could take ASL - but it is not offered at the high school he will attend. Any experience with this issue or advice would be greatly appreciated!

American Sign Language could also be tricky as it involves spelling. My niece has had trouble learning it and she also has dyslexia.

[Anonymous]

My DD has dyslexia and ended up excelling at languages...so you never know!

[Anonymous]

MCPS doesn’t really do much for dyslexics - they treat them like red headed stepchildren. This is a a heavy lift because you now have to interface with ANOTHER difficult section: foreign languages. But the above PP is right - sometimes dyslexics are great at languages. My dyslexic (not at MCPS) is thriving in ASL. The only downside - not all colleges will accept ASL as a foreign language.

[Anonymous]

My son is in VA and has a language waiver for dyslexia
with no alternate needed. Apparently VA doesn’t require a substitute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD has dyslexia and ended up excelling at languages...so you never know!

Wow! That is surprising but great to hear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS doesn’t really do much for dyslexics - they treat them like red headed stepchildren. This is a a heavy lift because you now have to interface with ANOTHER difficult section: foreign languages. But the above PP is right - sometimes dyslexics are great at languages. My dyslexic (not at MCPS) is thriving in ASL. The only downside - not all colleges will accept ASL as a foreign language.

Why is it that MCPS is so weak on dyslexia? They seem to have a strong autism program and social/emotion support programs - which is great. But I don't understand why they care so little about kids with dyslexia- especially when it is such a common learning challenge.

[Anonymous]

One of the things you can do is to take level one of different languages to meet the requirement. Also the requirements are easier in middle school so you can try meeting the requirements in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is in VA and has a language waiver for dyslexia
with no alternate needed. Apparently VA doesn’t require a substitute.

VA as in Virginia or VA as in Virtual Academy. MCPS is in MD so different rules than Virginia. VA does by MCPS rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS doesn’t really do much for dyslexics - they treat them like red headed stepchildren. This is a a heavy lift because you now have to interface with ANOTHER difficult section: foreign languages. But the above PP is right - sometimes dyslexics are great at languages. My dyslexic (not at MCPS) is thriving in ASL. The only downside - not all colleges will accept ASL as a foreign language.

Why is it that MCPS is so weak on dyslexia? They seem to have a strong autism program and social/emotion support programs - which is great. But I don't understand why they care so little about kids with dyslexia- especially when it is such a common learning challenge.

This is the 64,000 question. My guess is remediation is so expensive - and also culturally dyslexics have been ignored for so long by the bureaucracy it’s hard to change. We had to leave. Quickly realized this place is dark for dyslexics. Weird too when Moco hosts a pretty renowned dyslexia training center for teachers (ASDEC). But MCPS employees often attempt to discredit them on this board and elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the things you can do is to take level one of different languages to meet the requirement. Also the requirements are easier in middle school so you can try meeting the requirements in middle school.

Thanks, this is interesting. So you can meet the foreign language requirement by taking first year only if two different languages- it doesn't have to be 2 years of the same language?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the things you can do is to take level one of different languages to meet the requirement. Also the requirements are easier in middle school so you can try meeting the requirements in middle school.

Thanks, this is interesting. So you can meet the foreign language requirement by taking first year only if two different languages- it doesn't have to be 2 years of the same language?

Yes. That’s how my son got through. The school suggested it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is in VA and has a language waiver for dyslexia
with no alternate needed. Apparently VA doesn’t require a substitute.

How did you get the waiver? Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS doesn’t really do much for dyslexics - they treat them like red headed stepchildren. This is a a heavy lift because you now have to interface with ANOTHER difficult section: foreign languages. But the above PP is right - sometimes dyslexics are great at languages. My dyslexic (not at MCPS) is thriving in ASL. The only downside - not all colleges will accept ASL as a foreign language.

Why is it that MCPS is so weak on dyslexia? They seem to have a strong autism program and social/emotion support programs - which is great. But I don't understand why they care so little about kids with dyslexia- especially when it is such a common learning challenge.

I don't think their Autism program is that great. MCPS just is terrible all around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD has dyslexia and ended up excelling at languages...so you never know!

I am dyslexic and my son is dyslexic. I excel at languages and he really doesn’t - we had to get “opt out of foreign language “ written into his accommodation recommendations from his psycho-educational testing. He is in private school (mainstream) and they are fine with the opt-out - I don’t know how you get that implemented in MCPS.

One thing that makes a difference for dyslexics and learning languages is how it is taught, and how you measure “doing well.” I learned two languages (and a little bit of a third) through pure immersion, first as a teen spending time in another country and then in the Peace Corps. Taking French in college was an absolute debacle, though. And I still managed to get very mediocre grades in Spanish in high school…despite being essentially fluent. I could talk to anyone about anything, but I couldn’t spell, couldn’t use accent marks, and had no ability to describe the grammar rules - I just knew how to speak correctly, the way I knew how to speak English correctly.

My son has had no opportunities for immersion the way I had, but I can see flashes of the same skills. He speaks no Spanish but spent an hour playing with a 4 year old neighbor who speaks only Spanish, not a word of English, and my son somehow pulled language out of the air. But he couldn’t memorize the same words and phrases when he heard them/read them in 7th grade Spanish.