public or switch to private school for my LD/Asperger son

Well, quite frankly, if his issues with reading are due to the visual issues, then correcting the visual issues would be the best track to pursue. A private school, even with smaller classes, may not be the answer because he would still have the same issues.

Does he have 1:1 support in his class? This might be something to consider to help with reading, organization and behaviors.

There are many accommodations for the reading and organization skills. He could be provided with auditory books, large print or a Text-To-Speech program that can read to him. (TTS would also allow him to use large print, highlighted visual tracking and receive auditory input. Multi-modal forms of reading may be better for him.)

Both of my kids have done visual therapy. My son was very successful at it but still requires glasses as he also is nearsighted. My daughter did not do well with the visual therapy because her visual problems are more complex. She uses 2 pairs of glasses - 1 for near/far reading and 1 that is a prism for extended reading. She also has accommodations for Irlen Syndrome which include using a colored paper for writing, colored background for any computer work, dim lighting when needed and visual breaks so that she doesn’t get over-stressed.

You can also request an Assistive Technology Assessment. This could help with his writing issues and would be necessary to get the auditory books.

If you would like more support for the Bipolar issues, there is a great support forum at http://www.bpinfo.net

YOu’ve gotten good advice already - but of course the flip side to teh “if the visual issues are at the base of it” is that if they *aren’t*, and there are all kinds of other things going on, then it may not be the best investment. If he *refuses* to read, then visual therapy is unlkely to change that (unless he refuses to read because he can’t and that would enable him to do so). However, it sounds like he really does have major visual issues and if visual therapy can help that it can open doors and help ease some of his frustration with learning.
“Is ____ the answer?” … alas, usually our kiddos don’t have one answer and you do kinda have to ask whether you’re doing something to make *you* feel better ( because it stinks so bad to feel so danged helpless and frustrated and you want to do SOMETHIGN!! … I’m not trying to make you feel worse here…) or if it really targets what’s going on with the kiddo.
The right school (private, public, whatever) is *huge* - it’s where he’s going to be spending so much time and emotional and physical and mental energy. I’d focus my investment of time and energy in getting a school situation with the best support possible.
[Modified by: Sue on January 02, 2007 01:30 PM]

Thanks for the advice. My son did have an assistive tech eval. They felt it slowed him down more to type in stuff on a computer. They felt it would definitely be more distracting too, as my son hates to stick out in the crowd. He already hates and refuses to use his slant board in class because it’s cumbersome and “sticks out in the crowd.” His resource room teacher did use color overlay strips, but he seemed disinterested as much as the resource teacher is(she’s an old one ready to retire). His public school doesn’t think outside the box at all, they don’t want to be bothered. They keep saying to me they worry more about his emotional issues re: auditory books and told me they don’t where to get larger print for him. They keep pushing the “he doesn’t want to feel different then the other kids” excuse to me. I just learned about Irlen syndrome in the last 24 hrs, and spoke with someone who does the eval up near Yonkers, Ny with the lens lab and all. I’m in Staten Island ny. She said though to me first get him the proper Rx glasses. I’m taking him to the developmental optometrist Jan 5th due to development of astigmatism. Once glasses are prescribed, I’m taking him to a pediatric opthamologist as well for another opinion. The developmental opt was the one who strongly recommended vision therapy minimum of 20 sessions. Very expensive. The lady at the Irlen clinic today admitted to very mixed results and a lot of expense regardless of the results. Thanks again for all. My son’s case is very complex due to not only LD, but mood disorder and meds. Hope no one out there has to deal with the mood aspect, it’s a KILLER on family life and tremendously draining in every way. It’s a double whammy on top of LD. Thanks for the bp website. I have gone on CABF(Children and Adolescent BP foundation.) Have a healthy and happy New Year…

I totally understand how the mood effects the complex LD. Ms 15 was dx’d with bp when she was 8 and complex LDs (Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia, APD, and SID)when she was 9. She was 12 when she was dx’d with Irlen Syndrome after years of no progress reading. Its taken years to get everything sorted out but I have to say that she is now doing really well. Once we got the bp stabilized we really worked on getting more help for the LDs and now have a pretty good program in place.

My friend, Diane Lang, who helped pass Timothy’s Law in NY recently, posts and reads at bpinfo.net. She has a LOT of great resources for your state, if you are interested. CABF has a lot of great information but it never hurts to have more than 1 place for support. :)

The color strips that most resource teachers are using are NOT Irlen colors and tend to be very reflective, causing more problems than they help. I’ve run across this several times in our district.

Auditory books can be found at any public library. There is also the Blind and Dyslexic Foundation who provides auditory books for those who need them. Large print books can also be found at the library. There are tons of sites for auditory books, TTS programs and E-books.

It doesn’t sound like they did a full Assistive Tech Assessment. Typing is only one way of using the computer. Word Prediction programs cut down on keystrokes by providing a list of words to choose from which can make it easier for kids who have issues with spelling or don’t type fast. There are a number of different demos you can try. Another option would be to try a Speech to Text program such as Dragon Speaking Naturally.

((Hugs))

It is more expensive, but speakQ and WordQ are programs for word prediction and word recognition that were deisgned for students so the training process is a LOT easier (basically doesn’t require you to know how to read). More importantly, you can get a fully usable version for 30 days so if you plan, you can actually see whether it will work for you or not :) (Our computers were somehow set up in this lab so that the demo would have lasted forever, too - every time we started it up it said 30 days to go! … however, being ethical souls, we purchased it.)

For the types of vision problems you describe, vision therapy is usually very helpful. Instead of in-office therapy, though, you may want to try using software at home (less expensive). See http://www.homevisiontherapy.com for a list of developmental optometrists licensed to dispense the software. Cost for pre-testing, the software, and post-testing is usually under $300. The problem is that you *must* be able to get the child to cooperate and do the software exercises daily. If you don’t, the money is wasted. One of the advantages to paying more for in-office vision therapy is that the therapists are trained in getting children to cooperate. It takes a lot of the burden off of the parent, and sometimes off of the child-parent relationship. $1,000 for a 20-session course of vision therapy is a very low price ($50 per hour).

Most opthalmologists don’t believe in vision therapy. They are trained as medical doctors to look for physical problems and diseases. They usually have no training in developmental vision skills and are very skeptical of optometrists. However, the American association of opthalmologists found the independent research on the results of vision therapy compelling enough to establish their own branch for vision therapy — which they call orthoptics. Orthoptics addresses only convergence and accommodation problems, as those are the only two areas with enough independent research to be sure vision therapy helps. Optometrists address other areas, such as saccades and tracking, as well. There is a lot of research supporting those areas, but not enough independent research to be conclusive yet.

For a child with the problems you describe, vision therapy will only be a *first step* towards remediating reading. He will likely need a follow-up program of cognitive skills training to develop visual processing and phonemic awareness skills. LearningRx (http://www.learningrx.com) and PACE (http://www.processingskills.com) are provider-based programs that cost around $3,000. The home-based version of these programs, BrainSkills (http://www.brainskills.com) is very good and costs about $500. Again, though, the program is useful only if your child will cooperate with you on the exercises. BrainSkills requires one hour per day of one-on-one work doing the exercises, five days a week, for 12 weeks. (Summer is an ideal time to do this program.) These programs all assume that visual efficiency skills are in place, so you would not want to start until VT is finished, or the child is at least halfway through VT.

Once visual efficiency skills and cognitive skills have been addressed as much as possible, you need an explicit, structured, multi-sensory program to teach actual reading skills. My preference is for Phono-Graphix or ABeCeDarian, but Orton-Gillingham programs are also very good.

Private schools can be very good but, at least where I am, they are extremely expensive. If $1,000 for vision therapy seems a lot, you may be unpleasantly surprised by tuition costs for private LD schools. Some parents do succeed in getting the school district to pay, but usually that is only after a child has been allowed to fail dramatically — not an option that most parents want to pursue.

nancy