Skip to main content

Getting Diagonsed

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

Here’s my story: As a first grader, I had had much trouble with paying attention to things, and had an espically hard time learing how to spell words— it wasn’t until I had had addtional lessons in Phonics (one-on-one with the teacher, for hours) that I was able to learn how to spell. Back then, my teacher reccomemed to my parents that I be tested for LD’s … my father, not wanting his daughter to be ‘classified’ and stigmatized, refused to get me tested.All throughout school I had diffculities with my schoolwork, as my performace never matched my intelliegnce level. For somethings, I was able to figure out ways to cope; for others, like math, it took months of basic alegbra tutorting, and between middle school, high school, and college, 3 alegbra I classes for me to finally understand basic alegbra.I am now a college sophmore, and can forsee myself having trouble with certian classes unless certain things are modified (ie., the prof. writing things on the board in addition to speaking about them, so that I can SEE the things … for some reason, if I hear things, and I don’t write them down, I forget them, or, if I am lucky enough to remember them, I usually get things mixed up).I was told by my prof. that there is little that they could do for me, as far as “being allowed to modify the school’s mandated learning style” unless I was a classifed student.Has anyone had to go through testing as an adult? Where can an adult go to get this testing? Is this something that is usually covered through insurance if testing requires a bunch of specialized doctors?Many thanks to anyone that can help.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/14/2001 - 5:00 AM

Permalink

You can and should get tested by a Clinical Psychologist who specializes in educational testing. Unfortunately, most Clinical Psychologist are not covered by insurance and it can be quite costly. I paid $1700.00 for the testing and evaluation reports for my son (this year). If you compare the cost of the testing to the amount of time and money you will save on tutors and repeat classes…. it doesn’t sting quite as bad. My son also has a high intelligence and learned many coping strategies that made him difficult to diagnose. In frustration, I finally wrote to the International Dslexia Organization and they sent me a list of referral doctors that specialized in this field and practiced in my area. Best wishes to you. You are successfully moving forward in the right direction.Here’s my story: As a first grader, I had had much trouble with
: paying attention to things, and had an espically hard time learing
: how to spell words— it wasn’t until I had had addtional lessons
: in Phonics (one-on-one with the teacher, for hours) that I was
: able to learn how to spell. Back then, my teacher reccomemed to my
: parents that I be tested for LD’s … my father, not wanting his
: daughter to be ‘classified’ and stigmatized, refused to get me
: tested.: All throughout school I had diffculities with my schoolwork, as my
: performace never matched my intelliegnce level. For somethings, I
: was able to figure out ways to cope; for others, like math, it
: took months of basic alegbra tutorting, and between middle school,
: high school, and college, 3 alegbra I classes for me to finally
: understand basic alegbra.: I am now a college sophmore, and can forsee myself having trouble
: with certian classes unless certain things are modified (ie., the
: prof. writing things on the board in addition to speaking about
: them, so that I can SEE the things … for some reason, if I
: hear things, and I don’t write them down, I forget them, or, if I
: am lucky enough to remember them, I usually get things mixed up).: I was told by my prof. that there is little that they could do for
: me, as far as “being allowed to modify the school’s mandated
: learning style” unless I was a classifed student.: Has anyone had to go through testing as an adult? Where can an adult
: go to get this testing? Is this something that is usually covered
: through insurance if testing requires a bunch of specialized
: doctors?: Many thanks to anyone that can help.

Back to Top