Why are so many UMC average students "Learning Disabled"?
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Anonymous
You should be ashamed of yourself. |
Anonymous
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You're not "just labeled as LD." We took my son in for testing. There is a bell curve for results- behavioral and learning. When a child falls outside of the bell curve on test or there are 2-3 standard deviations between different scores, it's not typical.
The tester takes all of the scores- IQ, achievement, executive functioning, attention, impulsivity, and in our case, language testing, etc. to form a diagnosis, or no diagnosis. We took our son in because we though he had ASD (high functioning autism). He was having significant difficulties with social awareness at school. He did not receive an autism diagnosis because that's not what the test showed. He has ADHD and a language (pragmatics) disability. The testing is expensive- 2K at the least and kids need a re-evaluation every 2-3 years. Insurance doesn't pay for all of it. It may be why there are more kids in the UMC with a diagnosis- because these are people who can afford this kind of testing. |
Anonymous
This is false. |
Anonymous
How so? Lyme disease didn't exist then? My point was that it did, but people didn't know about it. If I understand right, Lyme bacteria was discovered in 1982. Please explain. |
Anonymous
It may be true that LDs were always present, however it seems possible (there is disagreement about this) that some special needs, particularly ASD, are actually increasing in the population rather than just more diagnosed. For Lyme disease in particular, though, the incidence is increasing. There are environmental reasons for this. Other diseases, of course, have been reduced or eradicated. |
Anonymous
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We know more. 30 years ago, my DD would have been considered a bad student. Now, we know she's dyslexic.
If we were a poor family, there's a chance my DD would not have been diagnosed because she did ok in elementary school, because she was very good at masking her struggles. Things would have fallen apart as she moved along, and she would have been considered uncooperative, or uninterested, or being a teenager, rather than having reached the end up her ability to mask her LD and behaving in an entirely predictable way in a system designed to fail her. But since we're UMC, she goes to good schools, with teachers who have the time and space to notice things other than children who are living lives of trauma, and with parents who could sit with her to do homework and notice red flags, and get her tested, and find out she has a learning difference, and then work with the school, as well as independently, to provide appropriate supports. That's not how it should work. Teachers shouldn't be drowning in dealing with traumatized kids making it harder for them to recognize or support kids with milder problems. Parents should be able to spend time with their children to help notice problems. Testing and supports should be available to all. |
Anonymous
I don't get your point about the Lyme disease. I don't think the incidence is increasing, I think detection is increasing. What are these environmental reasons for increase in Lyme disease today? As a sufferer I really want to know. As for increase in ASD, who is making these studies? I think more kids have access to medical care today than eve in the 80s. |
Anonymous
| You can have an LD and still be stupid, a bad student, or a C student. You can have ADHD and still get Cs and still be a below average student. |
Anonymous
You're so wise. |
Anonymous
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2017/06/cases-of-lyme-disease-increasing-nationwide/ https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2018/05/410401/lyme-disease-rise-expert-explains-why https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/ecoinf/lyme.jsp https://www.healthline.com/health-news/heres-why-lyme-disease-keeps-spreading-in-the-us#1 |
Anonymous
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Addressing LD is hard and expensive. First you have to believe that their child isn't struggling because they are stupid or lazy or have a behavioral problem. You need to do a lot of research to understand LD because common knowledge is flat wrong about a lot of things. Then you learn to ignore the teachers who have zero training in identifying a child for screening. They want you to put off testing until after your child has already failed and developed low self esteem. Then you need to do research find some place that can do real testing. Educational testing isn't covered by insurance so a regular in network psychologist wont do the right testing. Then you pay around $3000 for testing. Then you start working with the school and quickly discover they don't follow evidence based practices to remediate dyslexia. The most you're likely to get is an additional half hour per week with a reading specialist who will do more of the same things that were already not working. You finally throw up your hands and start working your network to find a good tutor. Since you're pretty comfortable, you can afford the additional $1000 to $1500 a month to help your child. If you have a great tutor and your child works their ass off, they might get up to grade level in decoding and comprehension. They will never read as swiftly and as fluently as a natural reader, though, so they still need appropriate accommodations to access the curriculum.
People from lower SES are less likely to navigate a lot of these steps. They are more likely to trust that our educational system knows what they're doing, less likely to have the time and resources to track down real experts, and less likely to be able to pay for real testing. It's not categorical of course, but I grew up LMC and know many people who were bright kids but dropped out of school due to untreated LD and SN. A characteristic of mild LD in adulthood is having dropped out of HS, no college degree, but successful career in a technical arena or as an entrepreneur. Most people I know who have a child with moderate, severe, or profound dyslexia have private tutoring because schools rarely have the resources to teach dyslexic kids effectively. |
Anonymous
The incidence of Lyme disease is increasing. The type of ticks that carry Lyme are mobile and even more so because of climate change. |
Anonymous
Thanks! |
Anonymous
Hahaha! I’m not ashamed, but the parents of these children certainly are. That’s why they flail around, looking for a “diagnosis”. Guess what, buttercup? The diagnosis is just that your kid ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Deal with it and stop looking for something to blame. |
Anonymous
What is this fixation with calling children stupid? |