Each week Ms. Blabby provides her best advice for children with special needs. She answers your email questions then posts the best and most interesting letters on her blog [more].
Dear Blabby,
My daughter is in 2nd grade, she goes to Parsons school in Harrison. She is having serious difficulties in school. First of all, we use the Conners Scale and her rating was pretty bad (I don’t have the specific number with me). We went to see a neurologist and basically they say she needed to be tested in school, based on the Conner’s result, with a psychological evaluation. They did, and they decided she is borderline and they need to follow up. At this point she is being pulled out of the classroom for about 45 minutes every day, to get help with reading. My daughter comes home almost every day frustrated. She claims to be lost with what is going on in the classroom. She is behind in math and reading she is not able to finish her work at school and when she does she needs a lot of follow up from the teacher. Also she is very forgetful, I made an agenda and I stick it to her school folder, to help her remember what she needs to do everyday, but this is not working. She always forgets the folder and it is a chronic frustration, because her homework accumulates and she is returning it late most of the time.
I don’t know what else to do. My daughter says she hates school, she is making up excuses not to go to school, she cries almost every day about school or about being so slow at school. I would like to have an opinion or some guidance.
Dear AZ,
First let me say you are doing a great job advocating for your daughter and making sure she receives the support she deserves.
With the information you shared, it sounds like the formal testing did not definitively indicate a disability at this time. However, it seems like the Committee on Special Education and/or the school staff determined she does need some Academic Intervention Services (AIS). They most likely want to see if your daughter would respond to “theory based instruction”. This approach is based on a relatively new amendment to special education law. Students who are at risk or are suspected of having a disability need to first be supported prior to being classified. Data needs to be collected to see if the intervention selected is making a difference.
My advice is that you ask what program is being implemented while she is being pulled out of class for reading. Also ask to see the data that is being collected.
Some proven methods of reading interventions are PAF, Orton-Gillingham, Lindamood-Bell or Wilson.
Insofar as her attention difficulties, the school staff in conjunction with the school psychologist should have conducted a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) followed by a Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP). The assessment is conducted to determine how much her behavior (in your daughter’s case, difficulty attending) is interfereing with her ability to grasp what is going on in the class. Based on the results, a plan is developed and implemented (again data is collected). If the plan is appropriate and effective, your daughter should be able to improve.
It sounds like she would benefit from classroom modifications and accommodations. I would suggest the teacher accept, for example, five math problems being completed as opposed to ten or perhaps have her assign ten spelling words instead of twenty.
Some students work better when there are less items on a page, others write better when they are given a “word bank” or a list of words to choose from when filling in the blanks on vocabulary tests or when asked to use words in a sentence.
Your daughter may also benefit from preferential seating.
These are just a few suggestions. Asking the right questions and focusing on data and programs may put the teachers at ease and make them more willing to work with you on trying different approaches until the best one is found.
Stay strong.
Blabby
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