Reply to Why are so many UMC average students "Learning Disabled"?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Addressing LD is hard and expensive.  First you have to believe that their child isn't struggling because they are stupid or lazy or have a behavioral problem.  You need to do a lot of research to understand LD because common knowledge is flat wrong about a lot of things.  Then you learn to ignore the teachers who have zero training in identifying a child for screening.   They want you to put off testing until after your child has already failed and developed low self esteem.  Then you need to do research find some place that can do real testing.  Educational testing isn't covered by insurance so a regular in network psychologist wont do the right testing.  Then you pay around $3000 for testing.  Then you start working with the school and quickly discover they don't follow evidence based practices to remediate dyslexia.  The most you're likely to get is an additional half hour per week with a reading specialist who will do more of the same things that were already not working.  You finally throw up your hands and start working your network to find a good tutor.  Since you're pretty comfortable, you can afford the additional $1000 to $1500 a month to help your child.  If you have a great tutor and your child works their ass off, they might get up to grade level in decoding and comprehension.  They will never read as swiftly and as fluently as a natural reader, though, so they still need appropriate accommodations to access the curriculum.

People from lower SES are less likely to navigate a lot of these steps.  They are more likely to trust that our educational system knows what they're doing, less likely to have the time and resources to track down real experts, and less likely to be able to pay for real testing.  It's not categorical of course, but I grew up LMC and know many people who were bright kids but dropped out of school due to untreated LD and SN.  A characteristic of mild LD in adulthood is having dropped out of HS, no college degree, but successful career in a technical arena or as an entrepreneur.

Most people I know who have a child with moderate, severe, or profound dyslexia have private tutoring because schools rarely have the resources to teach dyslexic kids effectively.  [/quote]

It's such an uphill battle even when you have the resources. We're paying for dyslexia tutoring out of pocket but are on waitlists for psychiatrists who take insurance to try to get the ADHD addressed. DS's classroom teacher didn't do anything except make DS feel bad by telling him the problem was he wasn't trying hard enough. [/quote]

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