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Post by lisacap on Oct 25, 2007 17:46:19 GMT -5
I am at my wits end here, The school called me in last week to talk about Justin's academic's he is my Cerebal Palsy baby who is in a private catholic school with his siblings....well she kind of agreed with what I have been saying, he is almost 7 in First grade and can't read a word...she believes he is extremely bright, is compenstating for not being able to read by memorizing things, but here is the issue. Justin does not know all of his letters, but he can look at the letter and tell you what the sound is, he can sound out a word but can't put it together to make the word, so if he sees the word CAT and I ask him what letters they are he will say CA for the C sound AAA for the A sound and TTT for the T sound, ( sorry couldn't figure out the keyboard for sounds LOL) so I will say those are the sounds the letter makes what are the letters and he doesn't know, but knowing the sounds, he shoudl be able to say the word, and he has no clue...he has been doing very well in spelling and on his reading tests, if she reads him the questions he will tell her the answer and she points out wether it is A B or C, in spelling she will sound out the words for him and he will write them correctly but has no clue as to what word he is writingis. He does them all week at school and here at home he has to write them 5 times each night, put them in a sentence, do them in the phonics papers, he seems to have them memorized by the order that the words are in, but if I put it on a piece of paper and ask him what it is he has no idea.....sounds weird....I know, I haven't been able to even begin to figure this one out...so I agreed to have him cored, the teacher believes it could be a form of dyslexia...here is the clincher, I called the public schools and requested a core...their answer, April, 2008, I don't have that much time, I then called Mass General and Childrens Hospital in Boston, June 5, for MGH, and August for Childrens....where else can I go? I don't have that much time to waste...I already plan on keeping in back in first grade, I didn't think he was even ready to move on this year, but they said it would all come once the review kicked in, I have tried googling and searching for other places even if I have to pay out of my pockets, any suggestions from anyone would be great, I am in Boston....
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Post by misty on Oct 25, 2007 18:29:26 GMT -5
Shannon was diagnosed by the school and at an independent psychiatrist. Some parents have their kids eval'ed at a neuropsych. Sounds like he definitely has some sort of LD. I'll wait & see if anyone knows of a place in your area...if you need help looking up Drs let me know. I'm glad to help.
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Post by katiekat on Oct 25, 2007 19:22:05 GMT -5
My son is 7 and in first grade and cannot read a word either...and his school thinks that is just fine. In fact he was not even accepted into the reading recovery program. They say that where he is at as far as reading goes is "acceptable." I hope you have an easier time than I have.
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Post by lisacap on Oct 25, 2007 20:19:05 GMT -5
Does he know his letters or sounds. He doesn't recognize the letters only the sounds they make, so I look at it this way, if he can't recognize the letters how in god's name can he learn to read....the kindergarten teacher all year never ever led me to beleive that he was this far behind, the rest of his class is all clearly reading.
I have no idea where else to look, I called the hospitals and the waits are way to long, the public schools here are horrendous, I had him in special ed at public in K-1 and he was in a class of all mentally disabled kids, where at that point he was only considered physically disabled, here they don't have intergrated classrooms after Kindergarten, so you either go to a regular class or a special ed class and I honestly don't beleive he needs to be in special ed, I think he needs to be in a regular classroom and then taken out for the services he does need..he has no behavior issues, is clearly not ADHD like his brother, so I don't want him in the enviroment where he is going to stagger behind because of the problems in the classroom, which is why I orginially pulled him out. He was getting physically hurt by the other kids in his class daily.
I called his peditrician, she is going to send over a emergency request to MGH and Children's to see if we can get him in sooner, but I guess tomorrow I will start calling physchitrists offices to see if anyone can assist me or lead me in a direction of where to go.
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Post by katiekat on Oct 25, 2007 21:53:25 GMT -5
He does not know all his letters, so that it my question as well-how can he read? He knows a lot of them but cannot distinguish between p,b,d,and q; w,v,and u; t and f and there are some others as well that I can't recall right now. If I ask him what sound a letter makes he can tell me. He also does a lot of memorizing and I can always tell if they already read the book in school. They haven't even started working on spelling here.
We requested an eval. twice and been turned down. It costs thousands of dollars to get it done yourself and with the unbelievable amount we pay in taxes to live in this town we're not doing that. We're trying to move but in the mean time I'm just compiling lots of "evidence." In addition to the learning problems we have many behavioral issues as well. I hope your son gets some help, I know how frustrating it is.
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Post by lisacap on Oct 25, 2007 22:07:20 GMT -5
I know Justin is clearly memorizing what he is learning. He had a reading test today, and last night brought home the reading text book, he looked at the picture on each page, but said word for word what was written on each page, but he never put his eyes down onto the words. He got a 100 on the test, but the teacher read the questions he told her the answer, then she told him which letter to circle for the correct answer. He doesn't have a comprehension problem, as of yet, he just can't read...or remember the spelling words from one week to the next...He is up to knowing 17 out of the 26 alphabet letters off the top of his head, but knows the sounds of 24 of them, even though he doesn't know what the letter is. He does still confuse M and N, B, D and P, he knows them to look at them but if he has to write it he sometimes can't Forget W V and U, I don't think he will ever get them...who knows. I feel the same way as you, why the hell should I have to pay for something that I am entitiled too, and what is the wait, How can we get them the help they need to get through first grade if they are not willing to help them....ARGH
I know how frustrated you are, I was in the same boat. I thank god I am not going through the behavioral issues that you are, I did that already with Christian, and it was clearly no fun....I know how it is to be the mother that everyone is always looking at because of what your child has done, is doing or will do...I can remember him being in 1st grade and a parent yelling at him to sit down the minute we walked into the birthday party, and he just looked at me as if to say I haven't done anything wrong yet, and I said to the mother, did he do something I missed and she said NO I am just being prepared before he does do something, Iwould prefer he just sit down, so I left with him...it is hard. Hang in there, hopefully you will find something that helps him.
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Post by katiekat on Oct 25, 2007 22:16:15 GMT -5
Sean does the same exact thing-he "reads" the entire book without ever looking at the words. I often wonder if the teacher even notices, I mean does she think he's actually reading?! Or he totally guesses off the picture. Like yesterday he had a book called The S Book. Each page was one word that started with s.The first page is Star but he says sky, the 2nd page is seal but he says walrus and so on.Hello! I am no teacher but I'm not an idiot and I know my kid needs some help. Let's start while they are young,one day it will be too late. I think they hate the parents that want help for their kids as much as they hate the ones that are in denial.
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Post by annem on Oct 26, 2007 12:50:51 GMT -5
He does not know all his letters, so that it my question as well-how can he read? He knows a lot of them but cannot distinguish between p,b,d,and q; w,v,and u; t and f and there are some others as well that I can't recall right now. I don't know much about this subject at all ... but what you are describing here katiekat I have always understood to be possible signs of dyslexia .. ?? |
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Post by katiekat on Oct 26, 2007 14:36:19 GMT -5
I agree-I have suspected he is dyslexic for some time. He has all the signs. They still say he is too young to make that call-I do not agree.
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Post by annem on Oct 27, 2007 11:09:38 GMT -5
Katiekat I don't agree either ... IMHO the earlier they make the call the better ... there is so much help for those with dyslexia these days ...Just out of interest does he find it easier to read on coloured (esp blue) paper rather than white?
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