How do you know when its time to try a SN school?
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Anonymous
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Our daughter has been at an immersion elementary school for three years and at the beginning of the year was diagnosed with dysxlexia and a language processing disorder. She's in the first grade, cannot read and barerly on grade level. This year we have seen a large change in her attitude towards school. Many days she does not want to attend. She has an IEP in place and we are doing private tutoring.
We are seriously considering pulling her from this good DC immersion school and having her attend (if we can get her in) a SN's school that specializes in language processing issues. We are torn though and don't feel like we have the data one way or another to make this decision. Financially we wonder if paying $25k for Lindamood-Bell would be better spent on SN private tutition for a year. What data should we be looking at to make this decision? |
Anonymous
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I'm not sure...but my son is at a good language immersion school and could not read at all at the beginning of 1st grade. He's now in third and a stellar reader...poor speller but making progress. He gets SLP at his charter. no, he wasn't diagnosed w/ dyslexia but he was 'extreme at risk' on his DIBELS.
Do you think your IEP is good? Are there things you want but do not get? Did you enter the lattery? (assuming DC). |
Anonymous
| I would not do an immersion program given her SN. I'd go to a regular English school or try private. |
Anonymous
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OP here. We did lottery ( a bit blind) with CMI and ITS. Have no idea if they have good special education programs and the chances our daughter will get a good number are slight.
Our current IEP is not strong. We will be coming back to review it soon. Our school does not have strong reading specialists or in-house expertise in evidenced based OG programing. Also our experience has been that the general education teachers have no experience or training in how to teach or support a child with dyslexia. We still haven't landed on whether or not this *truly* is impacting or daughters ability to learn in the classroom. We are supplementing with private LMB tutoring. |
Anonymous
| She's only in the first grade. You probably need to make this decision within the next two years. |
Anonymous
| My bigger concern is she is not happy and not wanting to go to school. She may not need a SN school but may do well at a smaller private. We did that for two years with our child and it was very helpful. I would heavily supplement with tutoring. |
Anonymous
| There is no such thing in the DC area as an SN school that specializes in language processing issues. Would that there were! I would send my child there in an instant. |
Anonymous
You may run into the OG gap everywhere, including suburban public schools. As well as gen ed teachers who don't know how to help and lack training. I know CMI trains all in Floor Time principles but not sure they have had many kids with reading or language disorders. See what happens in lottery and visit Lab. If nothing else it will give you a basis for comparison. |
Anonymous
| I would not skip from a language immersion school that is not supporting her, to a SN school. Go to a regular DCPS or charter with a strong IEP first. |
Anonymous
| +1 |
Anonymous
What the what? Kingsbury, Lab right in DC. For older kids Siena, Chelsea, and Commonwealth. |
Anonymous
There is no way a child with complex communication issues (severe expressive language issues) is going to make it at those schools. |
Anonymous
Do you have a sense of why she's unhappy? If it's the academic demands, then I would try a SN school. If it's social issues like she's having trouble making friends, etc. I would think about a smaller school. However, a smaller, more nurturing school may not be able to support her learning issues. |
Anonymous
| My kid was diagnosed with dyslexia in 1st grade, and he also hated going to school by that point. He hated himself, thought he was stupid, it was just awful. He was (still is) at a private, and while they were sympathetic and supportive they did not provide any of the help he needed. The first year my son did 3x week intensive tutoring, then 2x week for the next two years. It was expensive and tiring. If I had it to do all over, and if there was a specialized school near by, yes, I would move him. Dyslexia doesn't just impact reading, it impacts math and working memory AND reading. My kid is one of those 2E kids with a deficit and huge strengths, but in school he comes out average. Now that his reading is remediated teachers don't see him as dyslexic, and so they think he's just an average kid with average intelligence. He's actually a really smart kid who works his tail off to stay in the middle of the pack. Anyway, I think a specialized school would have served him better. |
Anonymous
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We are in a similar situation but my daughter is in 3rd grade and has been a proficient, if not above grade level reader, so what she has is known as "stealth dyslexia" and is primarily affecting her spelling (abysmal) and writing (very impoverished, compared with her other abilities).
She is doing LMB this summer 6 weeks and then we will decide what to do for next year (4th grade). I am contemplating pulling her out for all of 4th grade and homeschooling her -- by having her go to LMB almost every day -- and then doing the other subjects myself. But again, I am going to see how this summer goes. May I ask, how much does LMB cost during the school year? The website is giving me no info. |