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

[Anonymous]

My kid caught up. Doesn’t have an idp any more and is near the top of his class

[Anonymous]

DCUM maxim: what works for my kid works for everyone's kid!
And its corollary: what doesn't work for my kid doesn't work for anyone's kid!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One pp mentions if he hadn’t caught up by 5, that the diagnosis of global developmental delay would go away and be replaced by intellectual disability. Is that true for MCPS IEP?

I’m the PP with the kid who is going from an GDD diagnosis to an ID diagnosis.

We don’t live in DC area anymore but these diagnoses have come via our doctors and the medical system, not the school. From the school’s perspective the diagnosis is still GDD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, OP,

It falls on the parents. My son was born premature with global development delay, then was diagnosed with ADHD and autism, and a host of other things, like dyscalculia, low processing speed, motor delay, etc. He had years of speech therapy, OT and PT.

... And I worked with him every day after school to reteach. I taught him to read. We read a TON. We brought him to museums, narrated his day, explained what everyone was likely thinking and how that was influencing what they were doing (in real life and in books), insisted on math fluency (which his dyscalculia, that was a significant achievement). We taught him hand-over-hand how to write, how to tie his shoelaces, how to swim, how to ride a bike. That kid worked 10 times harder than any other kid I know.

The greatest gift you can give this kid is telling her family that they need to spend time with her after school to do these things. They might take it the wrong way, especially if they have no understanding of early intervention can do. YOU can only scratch the surface - you're responsible for so many kids! These days it's normal for doctor and IEP teams to lower the bar for students with special needs. I was told my son would be extremely delayed in walking and talking and might not ever make it to general ed. It sends the wrong message to their parents, who think there's nothing to be done. I think the reality is that we live in a society were it's not considered healthy for kids to receive intense academic support. "If they're dumb, they're dumb."

My "dumb" kid is a freshman in college now, with merit aid because of his multiple AP courses and 35 on his ACT.

But this is on the parents. No one else has that kind of time.

Eyeroll. You didn’t make your kid into the smart kid that he is. IQ was never going to be an issue for your kid. Stop being smug and telling yourself and others that IF ONLY they worked hard and loved their kids as much as you then their SN would get better. I’m happy your kid is doing so great. He likely would have done well even without all the therapies.

They told me my kid would never walk or talk but he did. Not because I worked harder than other parents but because his condition is rare and not well understood. He has a genetic disorder with only 300 or so cases. 299/300 don’t walk or talk but my son does. A geneticist told us he might have some kind of a modifier gene that helps counteract the effects of the disorder. It’s not because we did more for our kid than other parents of kids with this same disorder. My god, PP. You really are out of line.

Er… you’re taking things the wrong way. The point is never to give up on your kid. You maximize whatever potential they have. Very sadly, I see parents give up because society tells them they shouldn’t push their kids. And then, these kids don’t do as well as they could have done, or in some cases, fail entirely and have no future. I’ve been around the block and witnessed multiple cases. This when years of intense therapies and tutoring could have ensured more rosy economic options for them.

Please don’t diminish other families’ challenges and efforts. It makes you look inexperienced.

I’m a different poster, and you may not realize but your post was incredibly tone deaf. You are inexperienced about situations with low IQ given what you wrote in your post. I’m happy for your family that you “didn’t give up” on your kid and it worked. I haven’t given up on my kid either. But with an IQ of about 25, I’m certainly not going to have the experience you had. And at least 10 therapists/doctors told me “she will catch up” until age 5. And then, I pushed to get more expertise, for a genetic diagnosis and realized that the 100s of thousands I had spent on various therapies was actually a waste. I should have kept that money for the 24/7 care she requires. That said, I would never discourage someone from pushing in therapy if they can afford it and can find the time. But your sense of self righteousness about your path is off putting at best.

This is a great example of how the question of "will a kid catch up" is all about learning what's going on with the kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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!

As children begin kindergarten and start school, needs can become more clear. For example, it’s a challenge to test academic skills in preschoolers. We don’t have many details to help us assess and interpret, even though many posters are doing so. When was student found eligible? Are they an English learner? Do you suspect another disability like autism or Other health impairment? Keep in mind it is a challenge to qualify for Spevific Kearning Disability at such a young age, and many are qualified under Developmental Delay until needs are more clear and testing is more valid.

You could suggest an IEP meeting to document your academic concerns and consider if students services are adequate. That is common. You could ask your team if a reevaluation is appropriate, to help determine what her needs are and what services are needed. It sounds like her language is developing through speech/language services and through being in the classroom setting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As others have said, thank you for advocating for her. If her developmental delay prevents her from understanding/being able to learn what you are teaching the other kids, she needs a different curriculum. That’s the whole point of individual, specialized instruction. She should be getting instruction that she can access. Maybe that numbers or colors or drawing or following one step instructions or cutting with scissors. I don’t know what she’s ready to learn. But “will she catch up” isn’t the relevant question. Does that make sense?

Children in the beginning of kindergarten- their needs are just being identified. Assessments are not easy at this age. This is very typical. Many students in kindergarten and first grade have needs that are being identified. Please stop bashing schools and sped teams. How would they know at the start of the school year? give teams time to assess, interpret, and intervene before bashing and assuming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have said, thank you for advocating for her. If her developmental delay prevents her from understanding/being able to learn what you are teaching the other kids, she needs a different curriculum. That’s the whole point of individual, specialized instruction. She should be getting instruction that she can access. Maybe that numbers or colors or drawing or following one step instructions or cutting with scissors. I don’t know what she’s ready to learn. But “will she catch up” isn’t the relevant question. Does that make sense?

Children in the beginning of kindergarten- their needs are just being identified. Assessments are not easy at this age. This is very typical. Many students in kindergarten and first grade have needs that are being identified. Please stop bashing schools and sped teams. How would they know at the start of the school year? give teams time to assess, interpret, and intervene before bashing and assuming.

They are six months into K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS just turned 5 and we were told that if he hadn’t caught up by 5, that the diagnosis of global developmental delay would go away and be replaced by intellectual disability. No one says it explicitly but what I have discerned is that kids don’t catch up if they haven’t caught up by 5, and that we shouldn’t expect DS to.

One thing that I have found is it feels like so much if the infrastructure for kids with SN is geared towards ASD. I think kids with ID are more rare and it sometimes feels to me like the SN infrastructure caters so much to the ASD kids that the ID kids are sort of ignored.

I’m actually an attorney and my DS wasn’t getting any services until one of his teachers basically privately pushed me to push much harder and gave me language and almost a road map to use. That conversation combined with my own research allowed me to go into the IEP meetings to FINALLY get services. It makes me ragey that my DS’ education literally hinges on my ability to figure out some set of magic words and then say them verbally and in writing. Because I believe everyone agreed that he needed more help but he wasn’t getting it until I essentially said the magic words. Now he gets a lot more support. It makes me angry. If I needed help from the teacher to know what to say and I’m an attorney who works in education law no less, then how do “normal” parents stand a chance????

Tell the parents very specifically what to do if you can.

“ My DS just turned 5 and we were told that if he hadn’t caught up by 5, that the diagnosis of global developmental delay would go away and be replaced by intellectual disability. No one says it explicitly but what I have discerned is that kids don’t catch up if they haven’t caught up by 5, and that we shouldn’t expect DS to.”

This is such false, inaccurate info. Whoever told you this is wrong, or you misunderstood. Please do not post this as if it is true or fact. THIS IS NOT ACCURATE INFO. Sorry you had such a terrible experience. This is not what I see happening in the schools. It is wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have said, thank you for advocating for her. If her developmental delay prevents her from understanding/being able to learn what you are teaching the other kids, she needs a different curriculum. That’s the whole point of individual, specialized instruction. She should be getting instruction that she can access. Maybe that numbers or colors or drawing or following one step instructions or cutting with scissors. I don’t know what she’s ready to learn. But “will she catch up” isn’t the relevant question. Does that make sense?

Children in the beginning of kindergarten- their needs are just being identified. Assessments are not easy at this age. This is very typical. Many students in kindergarten and first grade have needs that are being identified. Please stop bashing schools and sped teams. How would they know at the start of the school year? give teams time to assess, interpret, and intervene before bashing and assuming.

They are six months into K.

In FCPS, it is still the second quarter. You are wrong with your assumptions and judgement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many thanks for your responses! To clarify, “cognitive minutes” are basically resource room minutes for reading and math support.

The girl’s parents are not in a position to get her private services outside school and are not savvy about the system and advocating for their daughter. I feel like she is being “swept under the rug” because she is not a behavior problem.

I will attempt again to push for more service minutes. After seeing what some other kids get, she is not getting enough resource room time or speech services. I am going to frame it as what does she need now to learn now because she is not making progress with the current level of support!

As a teacher you can advocate for further testing by the school district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Thank you to everyone for your helpful insights! It is next to impossible to get kids into self contained placements in my district in kindergarten. I suspect this child may need that in the future though.

I am concerned that the speech path is setting low goals for her so that she will meet them with a lower minutes rather than setting more ambitious speech goals and providing more minutes of speech therapy. When I brought this up I was told pulling her more than once a week wouldn’t be the least restrictive environment. I do also know the speech path has a high caseload and can’t help but suspect that is part of not wanting to provide more minutes. I can’t help but feel like a child who just learned to use the pronoun I and answer who and what questions needs more support with language to access the curriculum. What argument can I make that receptive and expressive delays impede access to the curriculum such that she needs a “more restrictive environment” ie more speech minutes? Would more speech therapy even make a difference for her?

It sounds like she may be eligible for more resource room minutes since she hasn’t made any progress at all toward her academic goals. Again, I feel like the idea is to set easier goals so kids will meet them with a minimum of services. The plan is to give her simpler goals in her next IEP. I feel like identifying the letters in her first name and counting to 10 are already very low for a kindergarten age child.

Goals are set based on the students individual strengths and needs. Goals have to be achievable. That is therapy and special education 101. If a child can’t count to five, we aren’t going to propose a goal that they do two digit subtraction this year. That’s not realistic or helpful to the child. It is not about caseloads, minutes, or screwing over children. Respectfully, you are a caring teacher, but you are a general education teacher who does not appear to understand special education. You don’t appear to understand that sadly, but all children are on grade level. It does sound as if your student has more needs than are currently identified. This is not uncommon in kindergarten (or early first). The team can do assessments, add goals (appropriate goals), and increase services (appropriately). Schools are in a hard place because they are scrutinized for not providing enough services, while also literally being attacked (hello FCPS/ thank you “advocates”) for recommending too much special education services. Please talk to your school team.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for speaking up! My son had a host of issues due to being premature and while we knew he was behind I didn’t really know how bad until I volunteered one day. Teachers kept telling me all was well and I think they they were pressured by administrators.

We got private evaluations. It was bad. No words by age 4 and only 30 minutes of speech twice a month and the wanted to reduce it.

I learned a lot. Similar issues later as he grew and another teacher told me what to do and what to say.

Thank you for speaking up! This little girl needs help and to will only get harder as she gets older. Earlier the better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Thank you to everyone for your helpful insights! It is next to impossible to get kids into self contained placements in my district in kindergarten. I suspect this child may need that in the future though.

I am concerned that the speech path is setting low goals for her so that she will meet them with a lower minutes rather than setting more ambitious speech goals and providing more minutes of speech therapy. When I brought this up I was told pulling her more than once a week wouldn’t be the least restrictive environment. I do also know the speech path has a high caseload and can’t help but suspect that is part of not wanting to provide more minutes. I can’t help but feel like a child who just learned to use the pronoun I and answer who and what questions needs more support with language to access the curriculum. What argument can I make that receptive and expressive delays impede access to the curriculum such that she needs a “more restrictive environment” ie more speech minutes? Would more speech therapy even make a difference for her?

It sounds like she may be eligible for more resource room minutes since she hasn’t made any progress at all toward her academic goals. Again, I feel like the idea is to set easier goals so kids will meet them with a minimum of services. The plan is to give her simpler goals in her next IEP. I feel like identifying the letters in her first name and counting to 10 are already very low for a kindergarten age child.

I have had similar issues with my child. Too easy goals so that they can have less services. It is frustrating. We have also had the same goals over the years never achieved and refuse of teachers to think a different way.

Make sure the parents know how to advocate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS just turned 5 and we were told that if he hadn’t caught up by 5, that the diagnosis of global developmental delay would go away and be replaced by intellectual disability. No one says it explicitly but what I have discerned is that kids don’t catch up if they haven’t caught up by 5, and that we shouldn’t expect DS to.

One thing that I have found is it feels like so much if the infrastructure for kids with SN is geared towards ASD. I think kids with ID are more rare and it sometimes feels to me like the SN infrastructure caters so much to the ASD kids that the ID kids are sort of ignored.

I’m actually an attorney and my DS wasn’t getting any services until one of his teachers basically privately pushed me to push much harder and gave me language and almost a road map to use. That conversation combined with my own research allowed me to go into the IEP meetings to FINALLY get services. It makes me ragey that my DS’ education literally hinges on my ability to figure out some set of magic words and then say them verbally and in writing. Because I believe everyone agreed that he needed more help but he wasn’t getting it until I essentially said the magic words. Now he gets a lot more support. It makes me angry. If I needed help from the teacher to know what to say and I’m an attorney who works in education law no less, then how do “normal” parents stand a chance????

Tell the parents very specifically what to do if you can.

“ My DS just turned 5 and we were told that if he hadn’t caught up by 5, that the diagnosis of global developmental delay would go away and be replaced by intellectual disability. No one says it explicitly but what I have discerned is that kids don’t catch up if they haven’t caught up by 5, and that we shouldn’t expect DS to.”

This is such false, inaccurate info. Whoever told you this is wrong, or you misunderstood. Please do not post this as if it is true or fact. THIS IS NOT ACCURATE INFO. Sorry you had such a terrible experience. This is not what I see happening in the schools. It is wrong.

I’m the PP who wrote this. This is what we’ve been told by multiple medical providers-a psychologist who did a neuropsych on our kid, a neurologist, a developmental pediatrician, and our regular pediatrician. It has zero to do with the school. Im just sharing what our medical providers at CHOP have told us.

[Anonymous]

Here’s more context about how a GDD becomes an ID diagnosis if the child hasn’t caught up by 5:

https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/global-developmental-delay-dsm%C2%AD--5-315.8-(f88)

Again, this is from a medical context. It could be that the schools approach it differently!