Reading disability?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
My 3rd grader did psych ed testing and I'm wondering if we need to dig further about a possible reading disability. School says he reads "on or above grade level." Relevant scores:
IQ 133, inc verbal comprehension 142 On WIAT, total reading was 112 (79th percentile), with word reading 121 (92nd percentile) and pseudoword decoding 103 (58 percentile). School says no problem because everything's above average, but that's a big gap between IQ and achievement. |
Anonymous
My child had a similar profile. School evaluated for only a Specific Learning Disability in Reading which was not her disability. An 8 hour private neuropsychological evaluation identified ADHD as the disability. There’s a lot of executive functioning required when switching between the 12 skills in reading. Her decoding issues were resolved with private services using the Lindamood Bell method. Only then could she begin comprehending chapter books. I would encourage for you to get a private evaluation. The school maybe testing for the wrong disability. Do not consent to them testing after you provide the private evaluation because a private evaluation will have everything needed. They do that to discredit your private data. |
Anonymous
| It is worth looking. Which district? Go to wrightslaw.com to learn how you can request an independent evaluation for free if you cannot afford a private one. |
Anonymous
| Agree with PPs that you should consider additional testing. However, just as a data point, my DD does have a diagnosis of specific learning disorder in reading and her reading scores were in the low 20 percentiles, with reading comprehension score at 9th percentile. |
Anonymous
| What's the point? Your child is reading on grade level or above grade level. How could there be a disability and be why do you want there to be one? A test is just a snapshot in time. |
Anonymous
A kid with an IQ more than a couple standard deviations above average should be reading well above grade level. Just meeting "grade level" is a way to deny 2E kids' true needs. |
Anonymous
I agree - but in this situation, I would think that investing in a tutor to attack decoding might be a more worthwhile effort. If you are in the greater DC area - you are only going to have a headache and not get support that your child needs as unfortunately the schools have no means to support their needs. I know it is frustrating - as this approach is not aligned with what we all know the law says. As a parent of a child with dyslexia - I can share that our experience with getting services have been a struggle - and my child was 2 years behind grade level in reading (with an above average range for IQ) |
Anonymous
OP here. I don't know if we want to fight about an IEP or get a tutor -- but first I wanted to know if this was a problem. My initial concerns that led to the evaluation was around ADHD. |
Anonymous
|
I have a similarly complex kid. High IQ, 99th percentile comprehension, similar in vocabulary. He has always had red flags, though. Shocking spelling. Dysgraphia so extreme that handwriting is not/will never be a practical option for him. Major bilateral coordination and midline issue. We tested him due to the writing, not because of reading problems. (He also has ADHD.)
Over the years, though, the reading scores have become more spread out. He still scores as high as can be scored on comprehension and his strengths, but has done increasingly worse on the Dibels screeners and other parts of the language testing. As a high schooler on language sections, his scores are spread out like yours and don't seem to make sense. The poster who said, "What's the point" may sound callous but represents an important point of view. A child who scores in the average range *at worst* is probably never going to be diagnosed with an LD no matter how many standard deviations away from the top scores. (To give a sense of how bad things could be, my kid scores under .5 percentile - yes that is a point five! - in fine motor, ability to trace a line, and so on.) So the score range can indeed be much worse! Moreover, what do you do with a dyslexia diagnosis?? We used to have a really wonderful developmental pediatrician, who was actually very interested and intrigued (and I think maybe personally had some similarities with the reading and ADHD, not the dysgraphia). He definitely said there is a glitch here, something is off, but for the most part, the child has remediated. He predicted that it would get worse as school work became more complex, which was correct. But he also recommended that we NOT do a targeted dyslexia intervention. He said that it would be just too outrageously slow and frustrating and not worth the effort. I couldn't see it then but given that my child's comprehension remains extremely high, I am glad we invested in other areas for therapy. |
Anonymous
My kid is dyslexic, and his scores were either very high (99th percentile) or very low (6th percentile). Nothing in the middle. Not to say that other kids with Specific Learning Disorders in Reading don’t have different profiles, but that your kid’s profile may not necessarily mean dyslexia. |
Anonymous
My thoughts is that there is more going on than just decoding problems then if you suspected ADHD. The school system was probably intentionally avoiding collecting the data needed. I would recommend having your child privately evaluated. A good evaluation report becomes a road map of how your child learns and without it a tutor won’t know how to best help your child. The report gives suggestions for gaps that need to be filled in. It even provides documentation for needed accommodations for a 504 plan or special education services on an IEP. Worthwhile doing even if you don’t take the results back to an IEP team. Take the testing the school performed |
Anonymous
as your child ages, you will want at least a 504 to get accommodations like extra time, electronic textbooks, text to speech software….. Getting an evaluation will help further that. |
Anonymous
Good luck with that. DC was denied a 504 Plan despite testing and a doctor's 'order' because DC tested above average in all subjects. DC was denied admission into our school's gifted program despite very high CoGAT scores because DC didn't score high enough on standardized tests. I just hired a tutor to help DC with AoPS to keep DC moving forward with math - we consider school math review at best. I don't have an answer for reading. I hired a reading tutor and she felt like there wasn't much she could do for DC because DC tested well above grade level on her assessment that she uses with new students, so for now I just try to enforce 30 minutes of 'pleasure' reading per day and we do some vocab workbooks. |
Anonymous
|
Those scores you cited do not look like LD to me. If the child is getting along well at school, don’t worry. The WIAT is not that in-depth. Just have the kid at home as many days as you can
-special educator |