How likely is it a six-year-old with a developmental delay to catch up?

[Anonymous]

Kindergarten teacher here. I have a student this year who came in with an IEP from preschool under the category of developmental delay. She receives services in speech/language for expressive and receptive delays and cognitive services, with goals like identifying the letters in her name and counting to 10. Her speech goals are using the pronoun I, identifying nouns and verbs, and answering who and what questions.

This child is on track to meet her speech goals by her IEP meeting next month but has made no progress at all toward her academic/cognitive goals. The service providers do not seem concerned with the lack of progress and actually said that due to her delays the goals may be too challenging and she needs easier ones in her new IEP, and that we should not worry if she doesn’t appear to be learning much with the current level of support because she is at a three-year-old level developmentally.

I did try to advocate for more service minutes (she is only pulled out 30 min 3x a month for speech and 60 minutes weekly for cognitive).

I brought up that I am concerned about her being in school every day just watching other kids learn. I was told that she may catch up in the future because some kids with developmental delays do (although I haven’t seen this happen in all my years teaching kindergarten), but we shouldn’t sweat her lack of progress because she isn’t ready from a developmental standpoint. I also don’t see how not providing more intensive services or a more restrictive placement is going to help her catch up.

Does anyone have a similar child? I guess I am looking for insight on what to do differently or how to advocate for her. I have 25 students, several with other special needs and behavioral issues, so it is difficult for me to figure out how to work with her more in the gen ed classroom.

Thank you so much!

[Anonymous]

How much time does she work with the special ed teacher? In what size groups? Does the special ed teacher have access to high quality, multisensory curricula?

[Anonymous]

Can I give you a sticker for speaking up for the kid when everyone pressures teachers into keeping quiet? Thank you for operating with integrity. I've been there, and I have several tips. Say what you truly believe in the confines of the IEP meeting, in front of the parent. This ensures that her accurate levels of functioning will be captured in her IEP. When you go to supervisors about your concerns, document them. Send a follow up email to any conversations, or keep the discussions strictly by email. Don't be afraid to contact the central office yourself as a teacher to get someone to come out if your admin is useless. I've done it more than once. Have your union rep on speed dial if anyone tries to mess with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much time does she work with the special ed teacher? In what size groups? Does the special ed teacher have access to high quality, multisensory curricula?

Me again. I just saw that she gets 60 minutes a week of cognitive therapy -- does that refer to specialized instruction with the special ed teacher? She needs much more than that -- probably 120 minutes a day, to start.

[Anonymous]

Are the parents in a position to provide private services?

[Anonymous]

That kid needs way more speech therapy. It’s anyone’s guess. Some kids catch up, others don’t.

[Anonymous]

A child with delays should still be learning. It sounds like she's learned speech skills and will meet her goals. So then why isn't she learning any academic skills? Nothing at all?

Lots of 3 yo's recognize the letters in their name. If that's her developmental level, it seems like a reasonable goal. Why hasn't she made progress in half a year?

[Anonymous]

I hope my kid has you as their K teacher next year 🙏🏻 thx for caring enough to write your concerns!

[Anonymous]

Hi op, I don’t know much but the thing that jumped out to me is 60 min weekly. My K student has adhd, no developmental delay beyond that from an academic perspective and he has a special Ed teacher in the classroom providing direct support to him and two other students 120 min every single day. So what the student is getting seems very low. Granted I think we’re discovering my son doesn’t need that level of support which is great but it seems like 60 min a week may be low in comparison

[Anonymous]

And agree with the pp, thank you for being a wonderful teacher!

[Anonymous]

First of all, thank you so much for being attuned!! I have definitely seen kids on the autism spectrum with language delays but normal/high IQ progress an incredible amount between K and 3rd as their language improves. But it’s not clear to me if this child has a normal IQ or not. In any event, the amount of services you describe sound low. What do the parents say?

[Anonymous]

Doesn’t she get academic 1:1 in addition to speech and cognitive? My child with less severe delays got 1:1 time with the math and reading specialist and that made a huge difference.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, my kid with serious developmental delays did catch up. But until middle school he was always recommended for specialized placement and everyone was shocked that he caught up. I do think my son is highly unusual in that regard. But to others’ point, it does not sound like there are adequate services. Mine got pullouts (I know, not popular now) for math and language subjects in his early ED years. Also the goals seem too ambitious.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know if she “caught up”, but my sister was like that at 6 despite early intervention. She graduated HS at 19 and takes CC courses. She tends to lose skills if she is not in some type of formal instruction. So, she needs to be a lifetime learner to stay functional at a HS grad level (which is actually shockingly low). Luckily, her employer does tuition reimbursement.

[Anonymous]

My DD5 is going to be a kindergartener in the fall with IEP from private preschool. She has similar problems with what OP has described here, speech (expressive and receptive delays) and academic goals learning learning phonics, numbers and learning to read anything. We did 1x/private speech & 1x/private OT since age 3, has IEP since age 2, and private daycare with preschool curriculum full time since age 2.5. Well, she is still developmental delay, and struggling on academic (letters, phonics, numbers) the most. Speech has improved a ton even though she is still falling behind.

I think she is learning at her own slow pace, and I am suspicious she has learning problem like dyslexia or others. She understands the concepts like some knowledge of science, world, but she can't recognize any words as long as it is written on a piece of papers in letters or numbers. Teachers say that she has problem understand phonics, and that is the early stage of reading. We hope that she will have a great IEP for kindergarten which I still have not received the draft yet. I am not sure what I would expect on IEP draft, but I hope it has enough support not to crush her confidence and helping her to learn.