Dyslexic 7 year old- struggling to decide on schooling options

[Anonymous]

We just found out our child has dyslexia (the school definitely didn't help with the diagnosis- we sought out private advice about why he was in the 1st through 5th percentile on reading classes in 2nd grade.)
Here are the options we could pursue:

Option 1: stay in public with pull out services thorugh IEP, wait til next year to enroll in specialized school like McClean school. Or wait another year until 4th grade for Siena School. Could supplement with tutoring one hour a day, four days a week

Option 2- take a mid-year spot at a small private school that is not for special needs kids but has smaller classes (not accepted yet and not yet sure which school.) Could do LindaMood Bell classes two hours a day at night with this option because the private school would be more flexible on scheduling and their hours are easier than our public. Could always switch to Siena in 4th grade.

Any advice? thanks

[Anonymous]

If child is happy at school, I would push for a better IEP and private tutoring and wait till 4th grade since school year has started. The 1-1 would much better. If child isn't happy switch.

[Anonymous]

Tutoring after school was draining, 2 hours of LMB plus switching schools twice in two years is a lot for a kid. I would try to finish out this school year where you are and add tutoring and try to get a spot at McLean or Lab for next school year.

I was looking to LMB, and studies showed it works for some but not all kids, and kids with ADHD are less likely to benefit. We did OG tutoring.

I think McLean and Lab both want a full neuropsych eval, so check on that if your child didn't have one and get that scheduled ASAP. Admissions deadlines will be here before you know it.

[Anonymous]

If your goal is Siena, make sure you remediate enough through tutoring such that your child is no more than 2 years behind grade level.

IMO - 2nd grade is early enough identification that you can make material progress with an IEP if the teacher has training in OG.
For the IEP you want really targeted goals and after you define the goals, services should be about 1 hour a day outside of general education.

[Anonymous]

OP do not go to a small private that will be a disaster no matter what they tell you.

I'd do McClean or publc

[Anonymous]

Op here. thanks this advice is helpful

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP do not go to a small private that will be a disaster no matter what they tell you.

I'd do McClean or publc

I agree. Small class sizes help with some things but not with an issue like this - you need specialized help and you shouldn’t assume it will be available at a private. IEP at public can be surprisingly strong once you qualify.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP do not go to a small private that will be a disaster no matter what they tell you.

I'd do McClean or publc

x1 billion

Try to make public work or somewhere like McLean.

[Anonymous]

Not all public schools are the same. Mosaic in FCPS won't even say the word Dyslexia while Marshall Road has more OG trained teachers than any other school in the district.

I would not do LindaMood Bell at this age. 2 hours is too long for a child to sit for the intensive therapy.

I would start with Dyslexia Connect (online). You can do that 5 days a week for 25min/day. That's about all your kid can tolerate at this age.

If they enjoy their social life at public I would keep them there. You can opt for pull out services but it may not do much. As long as you keep her to within 2 grades behind she will qualify for any of the local dyslexia schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not all public schools are the same. Mosaic in FCPS won't even say the word Dyslexia while Marshall Road has more OG trained teachers than any other school in the district.

I would not do LindaMood Bell at this age. 2 hours is too long for a child to sit for the intensive therapy.

I would start with Dyslexia Connect (online). You can do that 5 days a week for 25min/day. That's about all your kid can tolerate at this age.

If they enjoy their social life at public I would keep them there. You can opt for pull out services but it may not do much. As long as you keep her to within 2 grades behind she will qualify for any of the local dyslexia schools.

They do OG? How does that work online exactly? (not OP)

[Anonymous]

Do not wait until 4th grade. Get what you can out of public and apply to lab and McLean now for the fall. You do not want to wait and have your child be further behind. Get OG tutoring going 2-3 days a week.

[Anonymous]

My child has mild dyslexia and ADHD. Switched to small private school which used an OG-based approach to reading in first grade and DC started reading, but with trouble. Got ADHD under control, dyslexia more apparent, now does tutoring 4 times per week.

Almost a year of tutoring and DC at grade level for reading, writing still problematic. However, teachers at private school accommodate DC, and DC pulled out for tutoring at school 3 times per week plus once at home.

Particularly with their ADHD, where the medication wears off in the afternoon, the ability to have the child pulled out during their foreign language time for tutoring is a huge benefit of sending DC to an independent school. Of course we pay for the tutoring in addition to the tuition.

[Anonymous]

Adding two hours a day after school is a lot! I would look for options where your child can get solid reading intervention integrated in their school program.

[Anonymous]

Depending on the severity - which should be clearly spelled out in your neuropsychological exam - should determine your course of action. However, I would caution you on leaving a child who may be experiencing emotional distress due to the ‘wait to fail’ (until 3rd or in MCPS sometimes later) model.

The only thing that works IMHO is one on on tutoring 3x a week. Sorry. We tried public school (ignored); we moved overseas to military school (better but not enough) then small private school (hard to judge with pandemic). But ASDEC tutoring thorough out was worth every penny spent - too bad MCPS refuses to use them as service providers for OG training. (Some political fight on MCPS’ end)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Adding two hours a day after school is a lot! I would look for options where your child can get solid reading intervention integrated in their school program.

Yes that would be ideal. Can you talk to Dr. McKnight about why MCPS continues to refuse to remediate for dyslexia - probably why more than half of her students read below grade level in third grade - no phonics based curricula.