Private schools for kids with dyslexia + ADHD?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what growing pains others are speaking of when it comes to McLean. We've been there 5 years and couldn't be happier. Yes, the prior Head of School retired after 10 years, and yes, there's an interim head right now (that's normal though for most private schools...when they hire a new head that person has to give a years notice at their current school), and yes, they just expanded and moved Lower School to another campus. We're excited about the incoming head, and love the growth and positive change. I see McLean still staying true to its mission of who it serves and serves well. Every year someone gets on here to complain about McLean taking a "new population" of kids. I don't see this at all. Isn't it likely that maybe they are trying to create a good balance of students in each grade?

Different poster here. Agree with this PP.

We are at McLean. It has been a magical place for our ADHD child.

I totally understand it is not the place for everyone. But to OP I’d encourage you to take a look, talk to current parents (not an anonymous listserv where very uninformed people can say whatever they want), tour the school for yourself, and make your own decisions about fit for your child.

[Anonymous]

The Landmark School in MA has boarding for students in grades 9-12. Focus is on specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia. The kids are bright, and quite a few go on to attend excellent colleges. Other boarding schools w. Support for specific LD are Lawrence Academy in MA and Proctor Academy in NH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No good answers for you and I worked in the field. The new lower school campus of Sienna school is a small dark run down church basement (ask about asbestos flooring) at premium private school prices. The outdoor area is not secure and not a safe distance from the highway from an air quality perspective. The kids are nice but insular and the school is very special needs focused. Education is child led, ans special needs focused, so not necessarily challenging.
McLean is going through some growing pains. K-8 private schools do not want yo spend the time, money, or resources on your child's disability.

It's a though road. I wish I had answers for you.

Are you talking about the Virginia Siena campus, because the Silver Spring Siena campus is small, but quite nice.

Our child is at Siena and is mostly happy. She is bright and super extroverted and right now she is fairly happy with the social scene there but she also has a lot of neighborhood friends and friends from her sport. I feel like we might need to switch her into a larger school down the road, but as others have said, there is no perfect fit and we’re not sure what school would work best for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not looking for specialized schools like Lab or Siena. I’m interested in which mainstream private schools best support a kid with the following profile:

- Dyslexia
- ADHD (hyperactivity type); mild

99th percentile IQ with particularly strong visual-spatial reasoning and math abilities

Strong interest and aptitude in the arts

We’re currently at a K-8, but I’m trying to get a sense of our options moving forward.

If the ADHD behavior is under control any rigorous private would work with your child on accommodations.

[Anonymous]

Don't let everyone steer you away from standard, rigorous private schools! They all will accommodate smart kids with mild issues! I have friends and family members with dyslecix children at NCS, Sidwell, Holy Child, and Prep. I cannot imagine other comparable schools would be different!

[Anonymous]

I have read this entire thread because I am in a very similar position, except my 2E child has dyslexia but not ADHD. My problem is child's public school only goes to 2nd grade and we have no good options going forward, since AAP is probably off the table now and the gen ed elementary school is frankly abysmal (the scores on reading/math are 39 and 40%. I cannot put my child in that kind of failing environment).

McLean school is 45 minutes away on a good day. We've been advised Sienna and Oakwood would be a bad social fit, and the dyslexia is not severe.

Congressional is close. I just looked at their website - application requires a writing sample with prompt. Reading is grade level but the writing has not caught up yet. I doubt they would want to take that kind of student on.

I am providing OG tutoring outside of school and will continue to do so.

I am completely at a loss. Child is bright (99 percentile on NNAT - I know everyone seems to claim that, but it's true), well behaved, social, and off-scale creative and artistic.

Anyone have experience with Burgundy Farms? Flint Hill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have read this entire thread because I am in a very similar position, except my 2E child has dyslexia but not ADHD. My problem is child's public school only goes to 2nd grade and we have no good options going forward, since AAP is probably off the table now and the gen ed elementary school is frankly abysmal (the scores on reading/math are 39 and 40%. I cannot put my child in that kind of failing environment).

McLean school is 45 minutes away on a good day. We've been advised Sienna and Oakwood would be a bad social fit, and the dyslexia is not severe.

Congressional is close. I just looked at their website - application requires a writing sample with prompt. Reading is grade level but the writing has not caught up yet. I doubt they would want to take that kind of student on.

I am providing OG tutoring outside of school and will continue to do so.

I am completely at a loss. Child is bright (99 percentile on NNAT - I know everyone seems to claim that, but it's true), well behaved, social, and off-scale creative and artistic.

Anyone have experience with Burgundy Farms? Flint Hill?

You should try Congressional. Our experience is slightly dated but they accommodated a variety of ability levels when my kids were there.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely try Congressional. My 2e dyslexic child started in 5th and it was literally transformative. Talk to the learning center for a better sense of it.

[Anonymous]

I have two girls at Holton, one with mild dyslexia and ADHD and one with ADHD only. Both have been thriving there, with standard accommodations (extra time, seating, etc). The dyslexia was addressed by outside tutoring.

[Anonymous]

PP- my DC was at St Mary’s in OT with dyslexia. She had accommodations and did fine. Almost an all A student throughout MS, above 90% on HSPT.
I think given you are providing OG tutoring, most schools could work for DC.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Burgundy is so-so for this type of situation. If you do all the work, provide the tutoring, help your child outside of school, they will at least have access to the outdoors and lots of artistic outlets. If DC is social it will work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boy or Girl? Would you consider single sex?

Girl, lower ES age. Definitely think she’d be happy with single sex, though she enjoys her co-ed school.

Madeira (but not yet). Find a K-8 with good support in the meantime.

+1

[Anonymous]

What age? And what 'severity' for dyslexia?

Our DC has dyslexia and ADHD (inattentive) but more significant, and 99% etc 2e kid.

Agree the biggest focus is to remediate/address the dyslexia, because without it, it's hard to access nearly anything else and keep up as the work gets harder. The 'breaking point' is often 4th grade, when there's a switch in schools from learning to read to reading to learn. So if possible, you want to get to a point where the child can read relatively well by then - but depending on the severity of the dyslexia, also to understand and make use of supports (like audio books, speech to text etc).

I tried and tried and tried schools - and aside from Lab and then Siena which doesn't start til 4th (and Oakwood but too far for us) - none of the schools really do enough Orton Gillingham vs. needing to do private tutoring. We did Lindamood Bell after trying some private OG tutors and it worked for my kid well - but different things work for different profiles and dyslexia is a wide range (I have it myself too!)

For mild ADHD - the thing that worked best was medication, sorry to say. And then building in lots of scaffolding reminders and structure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd look at St. Andrews or Bullis if you can afford it.

The thing about being 2Es is your child can thrive in public if there are specialized programs so they can thrive but most of those programs are in HS.

My children's IQ was just below the threshold for public to work. We could not afford Bullis or St. Andrews so we supplemented with tutors at a Catholic school then did the Ryken program at Good Counsel. Also, I had boys and they needed sports.

I can't answer about Bullis, but St. Andrew's did nothing to work with my ADHD child. We gave it two years, and then decided that our child's education was suffering due to the school's inability to work with our DC. The CTTL is really ineffective. It is pretty much a PR, marketing tool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: I want to clarify that I am not the player who says she doesn’t know where to place her child.

My kid has a definite dyslexia and ADHD diagnosis. She’s currently in 1st grade at a K-8. I posted because I’m thinking about what options we might have moving forward. She has a high IQ (99th percentile overall and maxed out the test on visual-spatial reasoning).

Our son is not dyslexic, but other than that, he also has a high IQ, ADHD, test anxiety, and scored in the 99th percentile for visual-spatial.