Dyslexic 7 year old- struggling to decide on schooling options

[Anonymous]

I've heard this concern that academics aren't as strong as McLean, but all I can speak to is our personal experience which doesn't match that. We're in the Upper School at McLean and there's plenty of rigor and focus on prep for college. There are AP classes, and honors classes, and I think the focus on advocating for yourself, developing organizational and time management skills independently, and the way they have English (where they do writing) as a separate class from literature all make for really good prep for college. We have friends whose children graduated from McLean and they are all at good colleges and doing well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)

It varies by tutor. Our specific one used Wilson but DD has no issues transitioning to OG. They do offer a free session to check it out. We signed up April 2020 and were also curious how well it would work. Turns out it's fabulous. They have a great system in place and from our experience fantastic tutors. We still use our tutor every summer so DD doesn't slip. In one year our tutor brought DD from reading around 15-20 words per minute to 80. She had the tutor for all of second grade (we also homeschooled as it was August 2020 - August 2021). Her reading level (DRA) went from 8 (early 1st grade) to 30 (early 3rd grade). She had no issues getting into Oakwood post-2020.

The sessions include repeating letters and sounds, moving to reading words to sentences and then paragraphs (building stamina). They also play a lot of games. DD always looked forward to her sessions since we kept them short (25min/day). They offer 55min sessions but it was too much for her at that age. Even now I think I'd still keep the sessions on the shorter side but more frequently. That's key.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

The issue with McLean is they don’t know who they serve, dyslexia often isn’t totally supported, and it’s very hard to get in.

[Anonymous]

I can reply more later, but McLean is not the place for dyslexia. First thing you need to do is find out how severe the dyslexia is and get a private tutor. I think LMB is too much for a kid that age. ASDEC can be extremely helpful in finding a tutor or beefing up an IEP. Get what you can public but they are nowhere near great at this. You have to fight for everything you get.

[Anonymous]

Do folks recommend another private school for dyslexia?

[Anonymous]

We just tutor and then go a small catholic school. It’s been good for us.

[Anonymous]

We are at McLean and there are quite a few students with dyslexia in my child’s class, which for reading, is divided into small groups of about 4 students each. Despite what someone else wrote above, I do believe the school serves students with dyslexia and other reading challenges.

[Anonymous]

I'm the 1040 poster. McLean will say it serves kids with dyslexia, and kids who have mild cases might be OK there. They are not known as a school for kids with dyslexia. The schools who serve dyslexia around here are Siena and Lab. There are others if you venture toward Baltimore - Jemicy and Odyssey among them. They are all competitive and difficult to get into.

I talked with McLean and at the time, had a very strong tutor who advised us against it. Primarily because tutor had clients who were paying for McLean and still having to pay her for tutoring. Their kids were not getting what they needed at school. What's the point of paying for private school if they aren't going to help the reason you're there?? I would be very careful with them.

[Anonymous]

If you stay with MCPS you can see if Barnsley is right for you. Their program starts in third. It has been great for some kids with dyslexia and giftedness. It also has the challenge that there are often kids with severe behavior issues in the mix.