Educational consultant for dyslexic rising 4th grader?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you say more about your daughter? Most dyslexic kids don't need a special school - I say this as a dyslexic myself and the mother of a dyslexic rising 5th grader. If she has covered her deficits thus far she probably isn't profoundly dyslexic, and my guess would be that you will be able to keep her in her normal school if she'd like.

The major danger with dyslexic kids is that they feel crappy about themselves and their abilities, since they have to work so hard and they think they are dumb. Get a kid help, let them know they have different brain wiring that comes with positives and negatives, and they are much more able to deal with the ups and downs.

Good luck, OP! Oh, and you might want to let your daughter check out the new Made by Dyslexia organization on Facebook - Richard Branson (dyslexic) started it to highlight the positive sides of dyslexia. My son likes seeing all the brilliant famous people who are also dyslexic.

Thanks. She has a form of dyslexia called "stealth dyslexia" https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/the-inside-track/2015/03/04/stealth-dyslexia-how-some-dyslexic-students-escape-detection so, while she can keep up now, it will be (and is) getting harder and harder for her as reading texts become more complicated, and writing expectations get higher. So, while she is hanging on by the skin of her teeth now, it's only with a ton of my hand-holding and heavy-lifting each afternoon when we sit down to do homework together. We've got to address this now, before she gets older. I am thinking if she were to spend a year or two at a place like Oakwood, perhaps then she could mainstream back into a regular classroom? The other problem is: she's not doing badly enough to get any IEP (we tried) and we also tried with her (parochial) school, and they are not equipped to really give any accommodations - ugh! So, we're kind of falling through the cracks here, if that makes any sense.

Ok, so these are two arguments for better academics over all by staying in "regular" school and supplementing/tutoring as needed. I am really glad you guys are pointing this out to me. I originally was leaning the other way just b/c of the time factor. Timewise, it seemed better to get all the dyslexia "stuff" done during the regular school day, rather than having to squeeze in tutoring and other remedial help at home. My daughter also does ballet 4x/week and I am worried about how we can fit all this in 24 hours in one day.

I don't have any knowledge/experience at Oakwood, but do have experience with another SN school that specializes in dyslexia. Our experience there was that grade level expectations were much lower than public school, which made switching back to public more difficult than it should have been. The SN school was telling us that DC was on or above grade level in all aspects, so it was a shock to switch to public and learn that she was on (not above) grade level in her strongest subject and below (not on) grade level in other subjects. We lost a year of instruction because of low expectations.

Ugh! We certainly do NOT want that to happen! Thank you for telling me this! I will have to do some more looking into that, then. Thank you!!!

We found that to be true too. We ended up choosing our local public school as a result- we could not find any private school that matched our local public school in terms of math and science (science more in MS and HS). DC could get the advanced math and science courses he needed to be challenged and we did fought for what we could get in school on the reading/writing front and supplemented heavily at home with a 2-3 a week private reading tutor and daily "home" work with us. I would also suggest joining Learning Ally and Bookshare as those are ways to get audio books and textbooks. We found listening to audio books (and us reading them) at our DC's cognitive level (not reading level) helped continue increasing his vocabulary and understanding increasingly complex plot and character developments.

Sorry, my response got lost somehow, so I am reposting it here:

Ok, so these are two arguments for better academics over all by staying in "regular" school and supplementing/tutoring as needed. I am really glad you guys are pointing this out to me. I originally was leaning the other way just b/c of the time factor. Timewise, it seemed better to get all the dyslexia "stuff" done during the regular school day, in a school such as Oakcrest, rather than having to squeeze in tutoring and other remedial help at home. My daughter also does ballet 4x/week and I am worried about how we can fit all this in 24 hours in one day.

I'm the first PP who "warned" against SN schools. Your concerns about time are valid too -- many kids don't have any energy for doing challenging work at the end of an already challenging school day. There are no perfect solutions (and, often, no good solutions, just less bad ones).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am also looking into the vision thing. So far three names keep popping up:

Dr. Kavita Malhotra: http://www.optometrists.org/drmalhotra/vision_therapy.html

Dr. G. Vike Vicente: https://www.edow.com/about/g-vike-vicente-md/

and

Drs. Stan and Bryce Applebaum: http://www.appelbaumvision.com/

We went to Dr. Vicente. He and his office staff were beyond accommodating with my anxious child and I really appreciated that he didn't find any problems -- it didn't feel like he was a hammer looking for nails.

PS And just to clarifiy: your child had dyslexia, but no vision problems?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you say more about your daughter? Most dyslexic kids don't need a special school - I say this as a dyslexic myself and the mother of a dyslexic rising 5th grader. If she has covered her deficits thus far she probably isn't profoundly dyslexic, and my guess would be that you will be able to keep her in her normal school if she'd like.

The major danger with dyslexic kids is that they feel crappy about themselves and their abilities, since they have to work so hard and they think they are dumb. Get a kid help, let them know they have different brain wiring that comes with positives and negatives, and they are much more able to deal with the ups and downs.

Good luck, OP! Oh, and you might want to let your daughter check out the new Made by Dyslexia organization on Facebook - Richard Branson (dyslexic) started it to highlight the positive sides of dyslexia. My son likes seeing all the brilliant famous people who are also dyslexic.

Thanks. She has a form of dyslexia called "stealth dyslexia" https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/the-inside-track/2015/03/04/stealth-dyslexia-how-some-dyslexic-students-escape-detection so, while she can keep up now, it will be (and is) getting harder and harder for her as reading texts become more complicated, and writing expectations get higher. So, while she is hanging on by the skin of her teeth now, it's only with a ton of my hand-holding and heavy-lifting each afternoon when we sit down to do homework together. We've got to address this now, before she gets older. I am thinking if she were to spend a year or two at a place like Oakwood, perhaps then she could mainstream back into a regular classroom? The other problem is: she's not doing badly enough to get any IEP (we tried) and we also tried with her (parochial) school, and they are not equipped to really give any accommodations - ugh! So, we're kind of falling through the cracks here, if that makes any sense.

Ok, so these are two arguments for better academics over all by staying in "regular" school and supplementing/tutoring as needed. I am really glad you guys are pointing this out to me. I originally was leaning the other way just b/c of the time factor. Timewise, it seemed better to get all the dyslexia "stuff" done during the regular school day, rather than having to squeeze in tutoring and other remedial help at home. My daughter also does ballet 4x/week and I am worried about how we can fit all this in 24 hours in one day.

I don't have any knowledge/experience at Oakwood, but do have experience with another SN school that specializes in dyslexia. Our experience there was that grade level expectations were much lower than public school, which made switching back to public more difficult than it should have been. The SN school was telling us that DC was on or above grade level in all aspects, so it was a shock to switch to public and learn that she was on (not above) grade level in her strongest subject and below (not on) grade level in other subjects. We lost a year of instruction because of low expectations.

Ugh! We certainly do NOT want that to happen! Thank you for telling me this! I will have to do some more looking into that, then. Thank you!!!

We found that to be true too. We ended up choosing our local public school as a result- we could not find any private school that matched our local public school in terms of math and science (science more in MS and HS). DC could get the advanced math and science courses he needed to be challenged and we did fought for what we could get in school on the reading/writing front and supplemented heavily at home with a 2-3 a week private reading tutor and daily "home" work with us. I would also suggest joining Learning Ally and Bookshare as those are ways to get audio books and textbooks. We found listening to audio books (and us reading them) at our DC's cognitive level (not reading level) helped continue increasing his vocabulary and understanding increasingly complex plot and character developments.

Sorry, my response got lost somehow, so I am reposting it here:

Ok, so these are two arguments for better academics over all by staying in "regular" school and supplementing/tutoring as needed. I am really glad you guys are pointing this out to me. I originally was leaning the other way just b/c of the time factor. Timewise, it seemed better to get all the dyslexia "stuff" done during the regular school day, in a school such as Oakcrest, rather than having to squeeze in tutoring and other remedial help at home. My daughter also does ballet 4x/week and I am worried about how we can fit all this in 24 hours in one day.

I'm the first PP who "warned" against SN schools. Your concerns about time are valid too -- many kids don't have any energy for doing challenging work at the end of an already challenging school day. There are no perfect solutions (and, often, no good solutions, just less bad ones).

Eeek. Ok, yeah, I am beginning to find this too. Ok, thank you. . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am also looking into the vision thing. So far three names keep popping up:

Dr. Kavita Malhotra: http://www.optometrists.org/drmalhotra/vision_therapy.html

Dr. G. Vike Vicente: https://www.edow.com/about/g-vike-vicente-md/

and

Drs. Stan and Bryce Applebaum: http://www.appelbaumvision.com/

We went to Dr. Vicente. He and his office staff were beyond accommodating with my anxious child and I really appreciated that he didn't find any problems -- it didn't feel like he was a hammer looking for nails.

PS And just to clarifiy: your child had dyslexia, but no vision problems?

Yes. She had dyslexia and had always passed the vision screen at the pediatrician. But we noticed she was doing some funny stuff, holding her book close to her face and zooming the font way up when she read on a kindle. Plus her coordination is terrible -- she learned how to throw and catch balls way later than typical -- which can also be a sign of convergence problems. We wanted to make sure we were checking everything out. Vicente found no problems at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am also looking into the vision thing. So far three names keep popping up:

Dr. Kavita Malhotra: http://www.optometrists.org/drmalhotra/vision_therapy.html

Dr. G. Vike Vicente: https://www.edow.com/about/g-vike-vicente-md/

and

Drs. Stan and Bryce Applebaum: http://www.appelbaumvision.com/

We went to Dr. Vicente. He and his office staff were beyond accommodating with my anxious child and I really appreciated that he didn't find any problems -- it didn't feel like he was a hammer looking for nails.

PS And just to clarifiy: your child had dyslexia, but no vision problems?

Yes. She had dyslexia and had always passed the vision screen at the pediatrician. But we noticed she was doing some funny stuff, holding her book close to her face and zooming the font way up when she read on a kindle. Plus her coordination is terrible -- she learned how to throw and catch balls way later than typical -- which can also be a sign of convergence problems. We wanted to make sure we were checking everything out. Vicente found no problems at all.

OH, okay. Thanks for the further info. Yes, I'd like to at least rule this out for my daughter as well. If he finds something, ok, well, then I guess we'll tackle it. But if he only rules it out, that would be a sigh of relief and then we can focus on the other interventions. Thank you again.

[Anonymous]

Update: I just called and got an appt. with Vicente. This board is so helpful. Thx!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you say more about your daughter? Most dyslexic kids don't need a special school - I say this as a dyslexic myself and the mother of a dyslexic rising 5th grader. If she has covered her deficits thus far she probably isn't profoundly dyslexic, and my guess would be that you will be able to keep her in her normal school if she'd like.

The major danger with dyslexic kids is that they feel crappy about themselves and their abilities, since they have to work so hard and they think they are dumb. Get a kid help, let them know they have different brain wiring that comes with positives and negatives, and they are much more able to deal with the ups and downs.

Good luck, OP! Oh, and you might want to let your daughter check out the new Made by Dyslexia organization on Facebook - Richard Branson (dyslexic) started it to highlight the positive sides of dyslexia. My son likes seeing all the brilliant famous people who are also dyslexic.

Thanks. She has a form of dyslexia called "stealth dyslexia" https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/the-inside-track/2015/03/04/stealth-dyslexia-how-some-dyslexic-students-escape-detection so, while she can keep up now, it will be (and is) getting harder and harder for her as reading texts become more complicated, and writing expectations get higher. So, while she is hanging on by the skin of her teeth now, it's only with a ton of my hand-holding and heavy-lifting each afternoon when we sit down to do homework together. We've got to address this now, before she gets older. I am thinking if she were to spend a year or two at a place like Oakwood, perhaps then she could mainstream back into a regular classroom? The other problem is: she's not doing badly enough to get any IEP (we tried) and we also tried with her (parochial) school, and they are not equipped to really give any accommodations - ugh! So, we're kind of falling through the cracks here, if that makes any sense.

Ok, so these are two arguments for better academics over all by staying in "regular" school and supplementing/tutoring as needed. I am really glad you guys are pointing this out to me. I originally was leaning the other way just b/c of the time factor. Timewise, it seemed better to get all the dyslexia "stuff" done during the regular school day, rather than having to squeeze in tutoring and other remedial help at home. My daughter also does ballet 4x/week and I am worried about how we can fit all this in 24 hours in one day.

I don't have any knowledge/experience at Oakwood, but do have experience with another SN school that specializes in dyslexia. Our experience there was that grade level expectations were much lower than public school, which made switching back to public more difficult than it should have been. The SN school was telling us that DC was on or above grade level in all aspects, so it was a shock to switch to public and learn that she was on (not above) grade level in her strongest subject and below (not on) grade level in other subjects. We lost a year of instruction because of low expectations.

Ugh! We certainly do NOT want that to happen! Thank you for telling me this! I will have to do some more looking into that, then. Thank you!!!

We found that to be true too. We ended up choosing our local public school as a result- we could not find any private school that matched our local public school in terms of math and science (science more in MS and HS). DC could get the advanced math and science courses he needed to be challenged and we did fought for what we could get in school on the reading/writing front and supplemented heavily at home with a 2-3 a week private reading tutor and daily "home" work with us. I would also suggest joining Learning Ally and Bookshare as those are ways to get audio books and textbooks. We found listening to audio books (and us reading them) at our DC's cognitive level (not reading level) helped continue increasing his vocabulary and understanding increasingly complex plot and character developments.

Sorry, my response got lost somehow, so I am reposting it here:

Ok, so these are two arguments for better academics over all by staying in "regular" school and supplementing/tutoring as needed. I am really glad you guys are pointing this out to me. I originally was leaning the other way just b/c of the time factor. Timewise, it seemed better to get all the dyslexia "stuff" done during the regular school day, in a school such as Oakcrest, rather than having to squeeze in tutoring and other remedial help at home. My daughter also does ballet 4x/week and I am worried about how we can fit all this in 24 hours in one day.

I m the immediate PP. In addition to the mediation outside of school, DC also got mediation for reading and writing in school- he had an IEP from 2nd grade through 12th (he just graduated last month). You have to figure out what works for your DC. My DC needed and needs quite a bit of down time and a 4x a week activity would have been a no go. Your DC may thrive with that and need it to get through the week. It all depends. Only you know what your DC needs to thrive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you say more about your daughter? Most dyslexic kids don't need a special school - I say this as a dyslexic myself and the mother of a dyslexic rising 5th grader. If she has covered her deficits thus far she probably isn't profoundly dyslexic, and my guess would be that you will be able to keep her in her normal school if she'd like.

The major danger with dyslexic kids is that they feel crappy about themselves and their abilities, since they have to work so hard and they think they are dumb. Get a kid help, let them know they have different brain wiring that comes with positives and negatives, and they are much more able to deal with the ups and downs.

Good luck, OP! Oh, and you might want to let your daughter check out the new Made by Dyslexia organization on Facebook - Richard Branson (dyslexic) started it to highlight the positive sides of dyslexia. My son likes seeing all the brilliant famous people who are also dyslexic.

Thanks. She has a form of dyslexia called "stealth dyslexia" https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/the-inside-track/2015/03/04/stealth-dyslexia-how-some-dyslexic-students-escape-detection so, while she can keep up now, it will be (and is) getting harder and harder for her as reading texts become more complicated, and writing expectations get higher. So, while she is hanging on by the skin of her teeth now, it's only with a ton of my hand-holding and heavy-lifting each afternoon when we sit down to do homework together. We've got to address this now, before she gets older. I am thinking if she were to spend a year or two at a place like Oakwood, perhaps then she could mainstream back into a regular classroom? The other problem is: she's not doing badly enough to get any IEP (we tried) and we also tried with her (parochial) school, and they are not equipped to really give any accommodations - ugh! So, we're kind of falling through the cracks here, if that makes any sense.

Ok, so these are two arguments for better academics over all by staying in "regular" school and supplementing/tutoring as needed. I am really glad you guys are pointing this out to me. I originally was leaning the other way just b/c of the time factor. Timewise, it seemed better to get all the dyslexia "stuff" done during the regular school day, rather than having to squeeze in tutoring and other remedial help at home. My daughter also does ballet 4x/week and I am worried about how we can fit all this in 24 hours in one day.

I don't have any knowledge/experience at Oakwood, but do have experience with another SN school that specializes in dyslexia. Our experience there was that grade level expectations were much lower than public school, which made switching back to public more difficult than it should have been. The SN school was telling us that DC was on or above grade level in all aspects, so it was a shock to switch to public and learn that she was on (not above) grade level in her strongest subject and below (not on) grade level in other subjects. We lost a year of instruction because of low expectations.

Ugh! We certainly do NOT want that to happen! Thank you for telling me this! I will have to do some more looking into that, then. Thank you!!!

We found that to be true too. We ended up choosing our local public school as a result- we could not find any private school that matched our local public school in terms of math and science (science more in MS and HS). DC could get the advanced math and science courses he needed to be challenged and we did fought for what we could get in school on the reading/writing front and supplemented heavily at home with a 2-3 a week private reading tutor and daily "home" work with us. I would also suggest joining Learning Ally and Bookshare as those are ways to get audio books and textbooks. We found listening to audio books (and us reading them) at our DC's cognitive level (not reading level) helped continue increasing his vocabulary and understanding increasingly complex plot and character developments.

Sorry, my response got lost somehow, so I am reposting it here:

Ok, so these are two arguments for better academics over all by staying in "regular" school and supplementing/tutoring as needed. I am really glad you guys are pointing this out to me. I originally was leaning the other way just b/c of the time factor. Timewise, it seemed better to get all the dyslexia "stuff" done during the regular school day, in a school such as Oakcrest, rather than having to squeeze in tutoring and other remedial help at home. My daughter also does ballet 4x/week and I am worried about how we can fit all this in 24 hours in one day.

I m the immediate PP. In addition to the mediation outside of school, DC also got mediation for reading and writing in school- he had an IEP from 2nd grade through 12th (he just graduated last month). You have to figure out what works for your DC. My DC needed and needs quite a bit of down time and a 4x a week activity would have been a no go. Your DC may thrive with that and need it to get through the week. It all depends. Only you know what your DC needs to thrive.

Yes, still feeling my way forward with all this. We shall see. Thank you so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Martha Ein @ Stixrud. She was great when we used her for my DD.

Is this the Martha Ein who was a teacher at McLean School?

[Anonymous]

I want to echo what a PP said about sometimes you're looking for the least bad option. For my DS we figured the over riding concern was his emotional well being. He's very bright and curious but with ASD, LD, and anxiety, many environments were too stressful for him and destructive to his self esteem. So for a couple of years, we put hI'm in an environment that was very stabLe and nurturing but didnt push acade mics as well as othe places mugh hab e.. Of course your DC is different ... I just want to point out that sometimes you prioritize but that things can change over time. Having a good foundation in reading is such an important thing, I would prioritize it very highly but at the same time, children need to also play to things heir strengths to build good self esteem and confidence.

[Anonymous]

^ Further to least bad option and the sentiment that SN school is less rigorous... we opted for a few critical years of SN school specializing in language disorders. With at least a basic foundation in reading, DS could then move back to public magnet school and survive with accommodations. Ongoing tutoring is necessary in reading/writing, but the basic acquisition wouldn't have been possible w/o some time in the SN school, not just for skills but also to re-build self-esteem.

[Anonymous]

Mom of DD with diagnosed visual perception issue causing dysgraphia here. She does not have convergence insufficiency or tracking issues. She had been seen by two opthalmogists for intermittent exotropic strabismus. We always got perfect vision reports. It was only when we were seen by the LD specialists which included optometrists that we understood her vision was impaired, not because of her eyes, but her brain. She has perfect eyesight and superior tracking skills--and it's still her vision that is the root of her struggles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mom of DD with diagnosed visual perception issue causing dysgraphia here. She does not have convergence insufficiency or tracking issues. She had been seen by two opthalmogists for intermittent exotropic strabismus. We always got perfect vision reports. It was only when we were seen by the LD specialists which included optometrists that we understood her vision was impaired, not because of her eyes, but her brain. She has perfect eyesight and superior tracking skills--and it's still her vision that is the root of her struggles.

Thank you so much. I made a note of all these terms (convergence, tracking, intermittent strabismus) to make sure I ask about them and make sure they get checked out at our upcoming eye dr. appt.! Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want to echo what a PP said about sometimes you're looking for the least bad option. For my DS we figured the over riding concern was his emotional well being. He's very bright and curious but with ASD, LD, and anxiety, many environments were too stressful for him and destructive to his self esteem. So for a couple of years, we put hI'm in an environment that was very stabLe and nurturing but didnt push acade mics as well as othe places mugh hab e.. Of course your DC is different ... I just want to point out that sometimes you prioritize but that things can change over time. Having a good foundation in reading is such an important thing, I would prioritize it very highly but at the same time, children need to also play to things heir strengths to build good self esteem and confidence.

Yes, I see what you are saying. I am trying to do that too: prioritize what would be best for her, individually. Thanks for the empathy and sharing your own experience with all this. We're all in this together. Ugh. Thank you again!

[Anonymous]

One other thing to keep in mind if you decide to stay with a mainstream school and doing tutoring - make sure that the school is not also doing any literacy intervention. There was a great FB video post by Bright Solutions for Dyslexia (https://www.facebook.com/SusanBartonDyslexia/?hc_ref=ARQLgPZHbRODjdaNqtiVMpF40EvqTKZRLh9DuwSaKrixSRGfevmq9FEyoA8HnhKCkx4) where they talk about really understanding what types of interventions work (structured literacy) and what don't (LLI, Reading Recovery, etc.) for dyslexics. They also emphasize that there should only be one method used with the child.

Our DD is very similar to yours - rising 4th grader with dyslexia but has been able to compensate so she doesn't qualify for an IEP. I raised the red flag this school year when her spelling was still horrible for sight words and her reading comprehension was always just scraping by at grade level. We got her tested and diagnosed. The public school tried some interventions, but it was in a group setting with other kids who had issues with decoding but didn't necessarily have a dyslexia diagnosis and it wasn't really a system. Needless to say, she didn't make any progress. We started her with a private tutor in late April and she is now doing tutoring 3x per week over the summer. I am concerned about how much energy she will have when school starts back up, but we are just taking it one step at a time.

What I did get was for the school to agree to a 504 to give her certain accommodations and the school has agreed to not do any literacy/spelling interventions. She will have a separate spelling test with words her tutor gives to the teacher, she will not have to read out loud in class and she will be given instructions both verbally and written to ensure she understands them. We will also be looking to increase the amount of time she has for standardized testing.

Anyway, just some thoughts from someone else who is going through something similar. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as we get into the new school year.