"Dyslexia isn't a learning disability"

Think “Gatekeeper”…

Suggest you write a letter of clarification to the Sped Dir as well as the Board members and the appropriate people in the Central office of your State’s BOE to straiten this out. If this child is “nearly” 2 years behind the discrepancy formula will kick in regardless of what this idjut tries to say.= to the contrary.

Let me guess. You’re in Texas.

Many schools in Texas don’t acknowlege dyslexia bec if they do then they have to meet the requirements of the Dyslexia Law and many, most ISD’s don’t have the money to do what the law mandates. Therefore, it’s truly a miracle, kids in Texas don’t have dyslexia!

What processing problem is causing the dyslexia? Auditory? Visual? Combination? Good book, You Don’t Have to Be Dyslexic, by Joan Smith discusses these areas, symptoms and remediation. Look at your testing and see what scores are remarkably low and what skills are tied to that subtest. Get your ducks in a row and get help for your child. Good luck.

OK, don’t call it dyslexia. Call it Learning Disability, Reading Disorder which in fact means exactly the same thing but as you have discovered politics and other foolishness gets involved with the word game. Get the nice people who did the testing to rewrite the reports (very easy in this day of computers) and go back to the school bosrd (and the state board if necessary) with the “clarification”. Good luck and keep up the good fight.

Oh that TX thing sounds like something that may happen with NCLB (aka no child left untested). Anyway I agree about trying to find the area of deficit and get her formally tested in ld by an outside source. But you do want remediation in reading. Unless you are really lucky (ie maybe have me as the teacher :-)), she may not get appropriate dyslexia tutoring using a form of therapy that works, ie Orton Gillingham or Lindamood Bell. However, the school SHOULD be providing accommodations under 504. Even her dx from Scottish Rite should get her that.

According to Sue Barton, many dyslexic kids do not qualify for ld services. Don’t know but her website (although semicommercial) does have some good info on this. www.brightsolutions.us

—des

I think that many kids with dyslexia will not qualify for services as LD because of that most ridiculous of arbitrary dipsticks, the dreaded “2-year discrepancy formula”. Because some of the kids with prcessing problems are actually quite bright and are able to struggle along because of superior listening/memory skills, their often profound problems with the printed page do not kick up the warning flag. Never mind that if we work with them when they are 7 we can spare them a lifetime of miseryboth in school and afterwards.

This move by your Sped Dir is just an attempt at limiting caseload. Nothing more.

Is your child currently receiving services thru Scottish Rite? Not trying to tell you what to do, but were it my child I believe I would go with the Masons in this, and see about getting him a good shot of O-G.

Scottish rite does have an Orton Gillingham based program.

—des

The TX thing has been on the books for 10 years or so. The writer of the law would like to fix this little loop hole, but she’s afraid she’ll lose the whole law if she brings it up to the legislature.

I know a lot of people poo-poo the dyslexia word, but it’s a word everyone knows and it means instantly this child learns differently and needs a sequential multi-sensory reading method and I like to use it when I have to talk about my son’s issues with someone. It’s a common and familiar term. Sure, when you are talking to experts in the field, you want to talk specifics, but when you’re just chatting with someone clueless, I like to use dyslexic and dysgraphic. It’s what the general public understands.

What the general public understands is one thing, and dealing with bureaucracies and politics is another. Is it worth thousands of dollars and a couple of years of the kid’s life to fight over picky fine distinctions about one word, or can you find a different but equally honest way to identify the problems and try to get help? I hold by my advice to get the computer file edited and retype the reports with a synonym that may get you a positive response. Costs very little and might help, worth trying at least.

I do not know Scottish Rite in person but everything I have heard about their reading program (*not* including the use of coloured overlays however) has been very good. If you can get in with them, definitely go for it; much more time, direct teaching, appropriate curriculum, and consistency than the school anyway.

I’m the above guest. I agree. Get the verbage you need to get the services you need. Call it whatever you need to call it.

My child’s former public school district preferred OHI for an ADHD dx, rather than any kind of Specific Learning Disability label. But, the services were not what he needed. He needed reading remediation and they didn’t have a remediation program.

He’s in a private LD school now getting the services he needs. Would it be more obvious to everyone that the public school is not providing the correct services if we actually called these kids dyslexic? Are the schools hiding behing a bunch of gobbley-gook labels that no one understands and is not familiar with so they don’t have to do the expensive 1-on-1 remediation these kids need? That’s what I worry about. Sure, call it what you need to call it to meet the criteria, but I think we’re selling ourselves short having to do that.

If you happen to be in the Houston area, I’d strongly recommend the Texas Reading Institute over Scottish Rite. I also would drop the dyslexia term and focus on the test scores needed to place the child LD. All you will get in the schools with the LD label is accommodations, as remediation generally needs to be found elsewhere.

http://www.texasreadinginstitute.org/

Janis