Tell me about getting your child tested for dyslexia

[Anonymous]

Have you formally requested a meeting with the school to assess whether testing through the school is appropriate? How is your child's writing?

I requested a meeting to assess whether IEP is appropriate (the school is legally required to have a meeting within 30 days of the request to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant testing).

I brought to the meeting samples of my child's writing. The samples included often illegible handwriting, inability to stay on the line, writing characters of various sizes, some backwards, one sample where he misspelled his own name 3 times! - in different ways!, etc. The school went from, "Nothing to see here" to "let's test to be sure." This school also doesn't dx dyslexia, but the testing showed issues "commonly found with" or "consistent with" dyslexia, or something like that. We also did private testing, but the school testing was critical for school interventions and accommodations. Turns out he he also has dysgraphia and dyscalculia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thank you. I am planning to call Mindwell soon to try to get a test either before school starts or at the beginning of the school year - is that who people in Fairfax County typically recommend for this sort of thing? I don't think my health insurance will cover the testing and I'm not sure we want to wait a year to get medical testing anyway, right?

Also, will the dyslexia testing alone cost the $3000-4000 that everyone says this costs or will that be less since we're not testing for ADHD?

If you do a full educational neuropysch, they shouldn't be pre-choosing a diagnosis so, yes, ADHD might be in there as well. They should be looking at everything.

As for waiting a year for cheaper testing, it depends on how you want to go about it. TBH, the diagnosis itself doesn't matter as much as moving forward and getting appropriate instruction. You can do that now. The school isn't going to do that much academically or support-wise for a 3rd grader so an IEP isn't a huge deal. You can talk to the school special ed department and your child's teacher and see if you need a 504. You don't really want the school's extra instruction anyway. It's not worth it. What you would want is maybe extra time on tests, a space to ask questions, and perhaps something re: spelling.

Figure out what you want to do financially re: testing. Try to do it now or wait. But, in the meantime, dive in headfirst into an OG tutor for multiple times a week. If DC responds well within,, say, four months or so, you'll kinda have your answer.

I disagree with this advice because the IEP will be in place for 3 years and will give specific goals for the team to be working towards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think testing is over rated and takes too long. Pour all that money into tutoring! You know your child is not a on grade level. What is the reading tutor doing with your child? Is it intensive phonics? If they advanced from k level to beginning of second in one year with the tutor, maybe increase tutor to three times a week.

I agree. Deal with the reading problem not the diagnosis.

A good tutor will customize instruction to remedy your child's weaknesses. Maybe the remedy is a little different for a dyslexic, maybe not. Either way intensive tutoring will be the solution. Three times a week in your home if you can afford it. Make sure the tutor is OG trained and experienced.

An expensive neuropsych evaluation might allow you to make demands of your school. If that is not your goal, spend the money on tutoring. BTW, the tutoring is not forever. Get your child up to grade level then move on. Your DC only has to learn to read once.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thank you. I am planning to call Mindwell soon to try to get a test either before school starts or at the beginning of the school year - is that who people in Fairfax County typically recommend for this sort of thing? I don't think my health insurance will cover the testing and I'm not sure we want to wait a year to get medical testing anyway, right?

Also, will the dyslexia testing alone cost the $3000-4000 that everyone says this costs or will that be less since we're not testing for ADHD?

If you do a full educational neuropysch, they shouldn't be pre-choosing a diagnosis so, yes, ADHD might be in there as well. They should be looking at everything.

As for waiting a year for cheaper testing, it depends on how you want to go about it. TBH, the diagnosis itself doesn't matter as much as moving forward and getting appropriate instruction. You can do that now. The school isn't going to do that much academically or support-wise for a 3rd grader so an IEP isn't a huge deal. You can talk to the school special ed department and your child's teacher and see if you need a 504. You don't really want the school's extra instruction anyway. It's not worth it. What you would want is maybe extra time on tests, a space to ask questions, and perhaps something re: spelling.

Figure out what you want to do financially re: testing. Try to do it now or wait. But, in the meantime, dive in headfirst into an OG tutor for multiple times a week. If DC responds well within,, say, four months or so, you'll kinda have your answer.

I disagree with this advice because the IEP will be in place for 3 years and will give specific goals for the team to be working towards.

To each their own. My kid has had an IEP since 1st grade. He's now in 7th. School interventions have done zero. I think the "goals" are nonsense in practice but look pretty on paper. All progress is from private tutors.

I'm not saying an IEP is useless. It's been especially helpful in middle school - but not because of pull-outs or interventions. Having access to the special ed teachers to ask questions and to go over something he doesn't understand has been great.

[Anonymous]

Don’t wait for the school to say “something is wrong,” because they won’t. They will keep “waiting it for click” and MAYBE giving your child some time with their reading specialist, which will be USELESS for dyslexia.

Thanks to Covid and virtual school, I was lucky enough to catch the problem early on with my child at the end of her K year (she was just shy of 6). It was so bad that I made the case to the school to let her repeat K and worked one on one diligently with her (daily) using the ALL ABOUT READING curriculum/program. She is NOW at slight above grade level but at AGE level.

Meanwhile, I had a neuropsychological eval done at Children’s along with a learning disabilities eval. Insurance covered the neuropsychological eval but I had to pay for the learning part since it was not medical. Because it was done at the same time I got a big discount.


BTW, the county refused to have her tested (FCPS) - I had to meet with a panel and they denied the test because she was very young and they wanted to see if her starting taking meds for ADHD (since she had recently been diagnosed- at the time by ped only as i was on the waitlist for the complete neuro at Children’s) would solve the problem, plus the fact that our principal had allowed her to repeat K. Just their typical wait and see…

One thing to consider is that during her evaluation the doctor told me she had been lucky to have an intervention done early because, as she put it, if a child gets to 3rd grade not reading fluently (for grade level that is), it will be very hard to acquire complete fluency. Not impossible of course, but it just becomes very hard and requires more work and intervention.

Because of that, if you have the $$ means, I would take your child during this summer to an evaluation at MindWell (faster). And probably not even that… I mean, what would be the point of having a diagnosis? It is not like the county will help gim if he has the diagnosis. You will still need to either work with your child one on one or find an EXCELLENT tutor who uses OG. They are like unicorns I have found.

Another approach, and probably the one I would take to my child if he were a rising 3rd grader, would be to fork the money for Lindamood Bell for a boot camp - everyday, 4 to 6 hours for 3 to 4 weeks. Something along those lines - they have a proprietary e evaluation and would tell you how many hour your child would need to get to grade level. I would expect you would have to spend at least 8 to 10k with this.

IMO, it would be a wash out of what you end up.paying a good and effective OG tutor 3 hours per week for God knows how long. The advantage of LB to me is that it is fast, and it doesn't keep dragging on.


Good luck op. Whatever approach you choose, DON'T TRUST the school system to effectively help your child in this.

[Anonymous]

Yep.

I think one of the first things you learn as a parent of a child with dyslexia is that there is only you.

I'm not saying that's necessarily bad but it's important to realize that so you can move forward faster.

[Anonymous]

Do not trust FCPS regarding dyslexia. The wait to fail model is prevalent. Highly recommend Mindwell with apreference for Dr Varia although office staff will recommend the best fitfor your child based on age etc. I think a diagnosis is very important especially to direct energy and resources http://asdec.org/For-Children call and ask advice. https://www.sdsquared.org/our-staff another resource https://www.decodingdyslexiavirginia.org/what-is-dyslexia join DDVA on facebook. Review old posts. Ask questions. Good luck. Trust your gut

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep.

I think one of the first things you learn as a parent of a child with dyslexia is that there is only you.

I'm not saying that's necessarily bad but it's important to realize that so you can move forward faster.

So well said. Don’t forget the research institutions. For years Georgetown university gave free neuropsych and tutoring in exchange for being part of a study. I think the NIH funding ran out. Op I know it’s ridiculous when you moved to FCPS - which has a good ‘reputation’ (like MCPS) and spends billions of our tax dollars but does nothing for dyslexics. This poster has it right - you are on your own with regards to the public school system but will be able to build a team to help your child. Time is your true enemy. (That’s why ‘wait to fail’ is so morally bankrupt). The public school systems are merely jobs programs for adults. It’s basically Boss Tweed all over again with reading scores dropping like a skydiver without a parachute deployed.

[Anonymous]

My husband is quick to "defend" our DD when I point out she is struggling with something and suggest intervention. She also has dyslexia. Due to covid testing took and insanely long time. If you can pay for it privately, go that way, but it is expensive.

If your child's 2nd grade teacher is still at the school you can 100% do summer clinic. If you request them to evaluate your child they have to start the process within 14 days, then they have 60 (I think) to test. Not saying it would be done before the school year started but you'd have a jump start and wouldn't have to pay for it. There's a limit to how often your kid can have the IQ test.

All that being said FCPS is crap for kids with dyslexia, especially 2E kids (gifted and dyslexia). Those kids are more able to hide it and are diagnosed a bit later. Or it looks like they are "catching up" when they're just getting better at hiding it. That was our kid.

DyslexiaConnect is great for tutoring. It's online and our is now reading above grade level. We pulled our kid from FCPS when it was clear she wasn't going to get what she needed. She needs both help and to be challenged and our school would never be able to handle that with where things stand today.

[Anonymous]

Where do you find an OG-trained tutor?

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of places to find OG certified tutors- two that I am familiar with are Learning Ally, and IMSE:

* https://learningally.org/Solutions-for-Home/Dyslexia-Resources/Tutor-Network
* https://imse.com/support/ (scroll to the bottom)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of places to find OG certified tutors- two that I am familiar with are Learning Ally, and IMSE:

* https://learningally.org/Solutions-for-Home/Dyslexia-Resources/Tutor-Network
* https://imse.com/support/ (scroll to the bottom)

The Orton Gillingham academy has a certified tutor list (formerly known and AOGPE)
And you can go to program websites for Wilson and possibly Barton to find someone. You can also check out Sliding Doors for an OG style program with science embedded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do you find an OG-trained tutor?

https://readingreadydmv.com
https://www.wyzant.com

[Anonymous]

We love DyslexiaConnect. It's virtual and our tutor is simply amazing!

[Anonymous]

We've also had some success with grad students who are studying special ed. Sometimes it's hard to find an OG certified instructor and they can be over booked. We've had some really talented students use All About Reading with my dyslexic DS with good results.