Here's hoping you get feedback from this psych that adds clarity to your understanding of your little guy. You know all about how evaluators typically hold things close to the chest until they analyze the data. Maddening but better to have someone be thoughtful and thorough than to speak off the cuff.

ALTA's term for their certified members is "Certified Academic Language Therapist." While the CALT competencies overlap the AET Board Certified Educational Therapist (BCET)competencies to some degree, the scope of practice for a CALT is somewhat narrower than for an ed therapist. The other organization that uses the term Educational Therapist is NILD. Their fully certified members are referred to as Professionally Certified Educational Therapists (PCET) and the model of Ed Therapy is referred to as "NILD Educational Therapy" which is a registered trademark. It gets a bit confusing because there are several organizations which serve the LD population through 1:1 and/or small group academic/educational therapy, but it is important to look closer at how each organization defines its practice to determine what kind of therapist will best serve the need. (Sorry, that bit above is a diversion from the main response)

If you would like a professional to help you navigate the implications of the testing you've received, one type of professional that can help is an educational therapist. An ET who is a member of the Association of Educational Therapists has training in helping parents understand test results as well as prioritizing interventions. He/she can also implement interventions and assist parents in implementing home-based interventions as well. The AET website has a directory of professionals you can check out.

Hi Elizabeth, I have only been able to peek in here and there so I've kind of lost the thread of what's going on with this eval. Is your ds seeing the guy who did the evaluation for your dd that you found so helpful? It sounds like you're possibly looking at a spectrum diagnosis? You've had your son in intervention since he was a little guy and it certainly sounds like he's a complex little guy. Because of the complexity, I would not get overly hung up on the labels that get attached to the descriptions, except in relation to their helpfulness for getting services. But as complete descriptors of who he is or predictors of future function, not so much. You know this already, but on one hand keep yourself eager to learn what you can about strengths and weaknesses in the various areas of cognitive function: auditory and visual processing, attention, memory, executive function, etc., and the meaning for intervention with his particular combination of traits. On the other hand, your son is only 6yo and he's got a lot of years of development left. The labels that apply when he is 18 or 20 years old may be different from what gets applied this week. You are engaged in intensive intervention and that will give your son many advantages that lots of complex kids never get. But don't forget to relax a little and not fret over every red flag in the mix.

It's hard when there is such precious little time with our young adult children. It only gets harder. After getting two girls through college and watching them make new homes with their spouses, I've learned to be thankful for each day I do get with them. They current live 800 and 1300 miles away from us. Ds is over 500 miles away at college. His spring break is next week and he's not coming home. I thought I would be ok with it; in fact I have a conference later in the week that I want to attend. When he decided to stay up north, I went ahead and registered for my conference. Now, I'm wishing I had planned to go visit him for a couple of days instead.

Hi, rbk mama! My son was granted 1.5x extra time plus keyboard accommodations for College Board tests; he would have received those had he chosen to take APs or SAT2s. Essay writing is still a significant weakness for him. It would have been pure torture for him to have to sit an exam with multiple essays. He did take the SAT and his accommodations helped bring his essay score into an "acceptable" range but it was not commensurate with his other scores. In his case, he was able to do dual enrollment and his credits transferred to his chosen university, making APs unnecessary. He, too, is STEM-focused and essay writing isn't an issue in his math, physics, and computer science courses. One thing to consider is that your son's ability to handle this type of test might change over the next 2-3 years, so you'll need to see where you're at then. How soon are you hoping to have him start taking these tests?

I encouraged one of my daughters to take her financial safety. I wish now I had encouraged her to go ahead with the other choice, even though it was more expensive (but not exorbitantly more expensive) because it was more highly ranked and had a better known department in her major. I think it's possible she would have been more likely to find her "tribe" with regards to students in her major even though she originally felt the professor who would mentor her at the university she chose was a better fit.

This information will qualify your daughter for Learning Ally and Bookshare. It is important data that will help her qualify for an IEP- and she should get an IEP, not just a 504 if she is in school. However, the school team needs to do its own eval, which will include reviewing this document. 315.00 is now formally referred to as "specific learning disorder with impairment in reading." There is a statement in the DSM that it is also known as dyslexia.

kbutton, this is an excellent article. It captures the challenges that these students and families have, and discusses well some of the strategies that can be implemented to overcome the gap between special ed and regular ed.

I wouldn't write off the College Board yet. My son took the PSAT unaccommodated as a 10th grader, and his scores were much higher than average for sophomores. They would be considered average (on 2 sections) to somewhat above average (on one section) for juniors. This information was available to the CB when they processed his application for accommodations. Our requested accommodations were granted. He used his accommodations when he took the SAT during the fall of his senior year. I am not sure what to think about CB's decision making process. It seems like some who should qualify aren't getting approved. OTOH, I don't know that for sure because I haven't seen the documentation for individual students other than my own son.

We do not qualify for any need-based aid. The year my oldest started college, she was awarded a significant merit scholarship. Her college required that we fill out the FAFSA for the first year. Once it was established that we did not qualify for, thus would not be using, need-based aid, we were not required to keep filling out the form. I was happy to see that the universities my other two attended did not require us to fill out the FAFSA. I did not need one more thing to do that was a completely fruitless endeavor.

7 or 8 is usually the earliest that an audiologist will do the full CAPD testing, but as Elizabeth mentioned, they sometimes (often?) will screen younger children. My younger two were seen at a university (I believe it was probably the same clinic that tested Elizabeth's son) years ago. My daughter was 10yo and had the full testing done. My son was 4.5 and they did a screening.

Congratulations! I'm hoping this will be my college boy in about 4 years. Same major & likely same focus.

I haven't read this book but Barkley is one of the '"thinkers" on ADHD and executive function. Thomas Brown and George McCloskey are two others.

This is how Ben Foss's comments related to homeschooling struck me. It felt to me like he was telling parents that they have an obligation to put their child in public school or they won't be fulfilling their advocacy duty. That may or may not be precisely what he thinks but that's how it hit me when I first read what he wrote. I read his words only about a year after I had a school advocacy experience that left me deeply exhausted and angry. Public schools need to be pushed to identify and educate students with dyslexia properly but the advocacy shouldn't come at the expense of children who need proper instruction NOW. Parents need to feel free to make the choices for their family that fit their family's needs and not feel guilted into sacrificing their children to contribute to the greater good of society.

I think this is partly what I was reacting to. I see Ben speaking from his own experience- an experience where, for whatever reasons, he didn't learn/wasn't able to learn to use visual, print-based reading as an effective way to learn. I'd have to dig up the statistics and don't have time to do so now, but I think the number of children who are unable to learn to read well enough to use print as a tool at least for daily life activities and some of their learning is pretty small. The vast majority of people with dyslexia, with appropriate instruction, can and do learn to read, if slower than average. Some folks will use only "eye reading" to access their books, even if it takes longer to read. Others will prefer "ear reading" when they have to do a lot of reading quickly. Some of it is personality, some of it is actual reading ability. Many students have never had access to excellent, multi-sensory structured literacy instruction. We cannot just move kids to using only accommodations and not provide effective literacy instruction. Kids need both so they can keep growing in their language skills while they are also learning to read. At a certain point, it does make sense to scale back on remediation, but not before they've had proper, expert instruction in as intensive enough a format as necessary to bring about effective growth in skills. Only then can you be confident that you'll know you've reached a point when you say, "Enough is enough." As the parent of one child who had a *lot*of difficulty learning to read in spite of good instruction, I wouldn't want to drop solid reading instruction early in the game. Did I "fix" my child? No, the fundamental weaknesses are still there and affect his writing and the way he prefers to access information. But he is not handicapped when it comes to his ability to access information through print when he needs to do so.

He is definitely profoundly dyslexic. I remember way back when I was a college student- long ago- I worked for a woman who was a speech pathologist. She tutored dyslexic college students and adults after hours and one of her students listened to her college textbooks (on cassette tapes, back in those days!) at something like 2-3X normal speed. I like that Ben Foss is very much into not hiding one's dyslexia. I personally find his communication style to be very abrasive and I couldn't finish his book because of that. I also didn't like his take on homeschooling. Other people like his style a lot.

Happy New Year to you, too, and to everyone who contributes to the wisdom found on this board. I've been a TWTM board member since, hmmm, 1999. But participating on the Learning Challenges board over the last 5 years has changed many aspects of my life and, indeed, been part of the formation of my post-homeschooling life.

I really wish my children could have met others when they were children who were open about being dyslexic. So much of the talk about dyslexia 15-20 years ago focused only on disability. Only in the last 5 years or so has it been possible to openly talk about dyslexia as a whole, the strengths and the weaknesses. And really, the focus on meeting needs related to both the strengths and the weaknesses is just beginning to filter into the general cultural conversation. Until people begin to see dyslexia as a different way to process information that requires an approach to learning written language that is different from what our schools typically use rather than as a limiting condition it won't be easy for children with dyslexia to find community. Similar to Heathermomster, I'm not interested in the kind of community that focuses on navel-gazing and thinking of dyslexia as disability. I really wish my children could have met others who openly acknowledge their language-based challenges. However, if I were to attempt to create such a community, it would be focused on celebrating strengths and developing talent in an atmosphere where the challenges are accepted.

I agree with others about finding a college major that is complementary. Unless her dance horizons broaden and she decides she's happy to pursue other dance forms, too, it doesn't seem like a dance major in college would be a good fit. On the other hand, if she wants to continue to pursue Irish dance and, perhaps, study and perform with some bigger names in the Irish dance world, she might consider going to college in an area with a large Irish music & culture community. Chicago and Boston especially come to mind. New York City could also be a good choice. She could study & perform Irish dance outside of class while in college for a different major. Looking back, I think I might have encouraged this for the Irish musician in my family but only realized, in hindsight, that if she wanted to follow her Irish music passion, it would have been best for her to be in one of the above cities.

Hi Manda, I've been thinking about your post and have some questions and thoughts. 1. Your daughter has been in your home for about 15-16 months and she is pretty severely hearing impaired. Do you have any history on when she first got hearing aids? Is English her first language or does she come from another language background? Has she ever been taught any sign language? With no attention to correction of her hearing impairment until late in childhood, and especially if, by chance, she comes from a different language background, it may be difficult to get a true read on her ultimate intellectual potential until she has had intensive oral language remediation. 2. Some earlier posts indicated that her visual and spatial scores were higher than language-based scores. Were visual/spatial scores higher than verbal scores on the neuropsych evaluation? If so, it would be appropriate to consider that her true intellectual potential may lie closer to the scores she got on the non-verbal tests, especially given her history of hearing impairment. 3. You mention that your dd has been on a list for speech therapy for months. What other options can you find for speech therapists? My first priority, if I were planning for this child, would be to get an excellent speech & language evaluation with a highly qualified Speech/Language Pathologist who has experience with language delays associated with hearing impairment and lack of environmental stimulation due to socioeconomic and/or cultural & linguistic influences. The type of SLP you need is probably a top-notch PhD qualified specialist in children who are similar to your daughter. If you live in an area where there are few local resources, it could be worth your while to consult with someone in a major city to help you develop a language development program to use at home if you can't get good services otherwise. 4. For cognitive and academic development you might consider consulting with an educational therapist who uses methods based on Reuven Feuerstein's theories of cognitive modifiability. NILD (National Institute for Learning Development) and International Renewal Institute are two organizations to check out for more information on Feuerstein's theories and methods. It is important to allow yourself to adjust to your daughter's current reality and realize that her ultimate potential is probably much lower than that of your biological children. On the other hand, I would not take the information from this evaluation as an expectation of her highest possible future performance. It may be, but I don't think you'll be able to determine that until she's had intensive language and cognitive remediation for a period of years under your care. Wishing you the best as you sort out this new information and figure out where to go with it.

I have a good report from my son's first semester. His grades were quite favorable, with a GPA that should qualify him for dean's list. I am so glad to see that he is continuing to thrive in his areas of strength. Next semester will be busy, but my next bit of concern is ds's summer plans. He hasn't made any yet, but I'm hoping he can come up with employment or an internship related to his major field.

Seconding the comment that a solid report from an evaluator who knows what the College Board & ACT want to see. Especially with CB, there are very specific testing requirements which depend on the disability and the desired accommodations. Just a small clarification- CB doesn't necessarily require processing speed in the lowest single digits percentile before it will grant extended time. It's the whole profile that counts. In our case, the processing speed score was a relative weakness, but it wasn't in the single digits. There were other scores that supported a request for extra time, however, including the regular time and extended time Nelson Denny.

I agree! Go buy yourself a box of chocolates. Oh, and a Starbucks gift card to go with it! I do have two thoughts: Parents who frequent this board really are a cut above most parents in terms of their willingness to learn what their child needs, figure out what materials to use, and spend the time doing the remediation work. Many parents have found that outsourcing at least part of the work to a professional saves their relationship with the child and their own sanity. Many moms who either work or have lots of children they handle with little assistance from others find it useful to have a professional involved because they don't have the time, energy, or inclination to figure out on their own how to do this work. People are right that prices in general for tutoring are high, especially in comparison to the average wage. Prices for therapies are higher and if therapies aren't covered by insurance the cost can make continuing on a regular basis unsustainable. One thing to consider when thinking about the per session cost is that built into this cost is the prep time and documentation time for that 50 minute session. Some therapists/tutors don't charge extra for regular 10-15 minute updates to parents that are built into the treatment plan. All of that time outside a session that the professional spends has to be accounted for in the session fee. I have no experience with LMB centers, though I have some experience with the materials and methods. The materials and methods are good and when applied in the right situations, can be extremely helpful. But I do have to say I was shocked when I learned a year or two ago that clinicians get such a low hourly wage.

Another way to look at it is that I have two 3 credit courses per quarter; they run back-to-back in 6 week sessions instead of concurrently. This is a graduate level certificate. It requires 28 credits but won't confer a full master's degree because there is no thesis/capstone or comprehensive exam involved. This program is usually done by working professionals so the work load needs to be manageable for those working full-time.