how do I go about getting my daughter tested?

[Denisemomof4]

should I go through the pediatrician or the school? SOmething is DEFINITELY going on here and I'm frustrated. I need to know what the issue is so I can deal with it.

 

We do Rod and Staff Grammar and I have no intention of switching that. It's a wonderful curriculum which served my two sons very well. I want her to have the same, but she can't even write the complete sentences down right now. And she NEVER finishes a complete lesson. If there are 10 problems in part A and 10 in part B, she'll likely do 7 in part A, and even some of those will be incomplete, and who knows what, if any, she'll do in part B.

 

It baffles me because I had her copying whole paragraphs and she did fine with that. But I'm wondering of she's distracted because she's trying to get the answers AND trying to write out the sentence.

 

She can do double digit multiplication, as I mentioned earlier, but NOT triple. She carries things into all the wrong columns.

 

Her spelling is HORRIFIC and that's why I took the SWR plunge. I'm hoping to get that going in the next month or so and we will keep at it all summer.

 

She can do just fine on her work if I'm sitting at her side. I can't do that. I have her go to her room so she can concentrate because we have aides in the house every day working with my mother. I can school my other daughter downstairs just fine.

 

I'm finding huge issues with her but I don't know what they are. She used to be a very bright and advanced student. She was reading early and just knew things early. She was advanced at math in PS 1st and 2nd grade. Then she averaged out. Since I've brought her home I've seen a HUGE decline. Well, the decline is also because we only started up our school session again in the past two weeks. I had to take a HUGE break while we had construction done to accommodate bringing my ailing mother home with us. It was impossible to care for mom, accommodate the construction crew, and homeschool. The schooling was put on hold and since we've started back up, I've got HUGE concerns.

 

I'm frustrated with her but really try not to show it. I don't know what to do.

 

We're heading out now so I'll check back later. We're going on a field trip today - an entire day away in the NH White Mountains! Yippeeeeeee!

 

 

 

Denise

[Aunty Social]

I only ask because my dd has similar issues. In her case it's not an ld. It's that she just doesn't WANT to do the work. She's very bright, which is actually part of the problem. I'm not sure if I can explain this very well but I'll give it a try.

 

My dd (9) is capable of doing wonderful, neat, complete, correct work - when SHE WANTS TO. Most of the time she just isn't interested (because she feels that she already knows it - I feel she needs the practice to cement the skill), therefor she skims through, hands me a sloppy, incomplete paper, and tries to go off to read her latest book. I'll call her back and make her redo, get more messy incorrect slop, repeat over and over until she gets it right. Math will often take 4 hours or more! If I'm on top of things and make her redo right away then after a few days I see more timely, neat and correct work. Then I get complacent (or busy) and she reverts. She also tends to be a dreamer, and will often lose focus and need to be redirected. I have found that limiting distractions, having her out where I can see her to redirect if she starts daydreaming, and consistent/immediate redoing of work has positive results.

 

Re-reading this, it sounds like we have a constant daily battle. We don't - but I do have to be on top of things. Once she gets redirected to the "proper" way of doing things we can finish a full day of school with extras in just a few hours. It's when she decides she doesn't want to do the work that we have problems. And she can be stubborn! No idea where she gets that;).

 

ETA: You've had a fair amount of upheaval by the sounds of things. It may just take her a while to settle in and get back into the swing of things. Maybe just concentrate on doing the 3R's really well for a while then add things back in one at a time.

Edited May 13, 2009 by Aunty Social

[Mom22ns]

You can talk to your pediatrician or your public schools or both. You will need to document all the issues, make a list, what is wrong, what she can and cannot do. You can request (in writing) testing from the public schools along with that documentation. The problem you will have with ps is that they will not do anything until the fall. You can also talk to the pediatrician and get a referral for testing. If your insurance will cover testing (some will, some won't) I'd keep it private, if not, see what you can get from the schools.

 

It is very true that gifted kids can have as much trouble with focus and attention as anyone. Sometimes boredom and lack of structure can get them. I don't know how old your child is, but there are many children who can not work independently because of personality types and learning styles, not necessarily a disability. She may need more structure and attention from you.

[kah]

You might start with your pediatrician, since he or she might have some knowledge about how the ps in your area handle things. DD was/is in ps, and we started with our pediatrician, who did recommend starting with the school.

 

In our case, DD's grades were still As & Bs, so the team at her school basically declared her "fine." At that point, our pediatrician referred us to a clinical psychologist for testing... It's kind of a long story from there, and not relevant! :)

 

But I wanted to add that along the way, I read a lot of recommendations for two books in particular, and having found a lot of insight in both of them, I wanted to pass along the recommendations to you:

 

Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children & Adults, James T. Webb, et. al. - this one deals more with traits that are common in gifted kids but which sometimes lead to diagnosis of things like ADHD, OCD, anxiety, Asperger's, etc.

 

The Mislabeled Child, Brock & Fernette Eide- this one deals more with issues related to learning disabilities like dyslexia, and how they sometimes look different in kids who are gifted. (The "mislabeled" in the title refers to the fact that these kids often are told they're just being lazy or careless, when in fact they really are struggling with task A, even though they can do task B just fine.)

[OrganicAnn]

While it may not apply to your specific situation. I always like to rule out everything I can, so I can focus the ped/school's attention on whatever is left.

 

Do you have any concerns about - Eye/hearing. Diet/allergies. Any family history of problems with school/attention?

[ElizabethB]

Was she taught with the Dolch sight words? That produces what looks like a good reader early on, but when things get more complicated later on, they have trouble.

 

You can take the MWIA to find out for sure. Give the MWIA I if she is reading at a 2nd grade level or lower on the NRRF reading test, the MWIA II if she is reading at a 3rd grade level or higher on the NRRF reading test.

 

The tests are here:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/readinggradeleve.html

[kaylk in tx]

after a long break, give her another couple weeks to get back in the routine. it can really take that long!

 

as far as testing in the ps.... like another poster said, you can submit the request but because it's so late in the school year, nothing will be done until school starts again in the fall. they will also want to rule out vision/hearing issues before doing any educational testing. here in texas, (former ps teacher who sat in on many ARD meetings) most districts only look for 2 things: a learning disability and dyslexia. they will go through the testing for one and then if you twist their arm, they'll do the other test. note that "learning disability" simply means that for some reason (which the testing doesn't pinpoint) your child is achieving below their ability. ie their achievement test scores don't match where they should be according to their IQ. for anything more precise (like auditory/language processing, visual processing, etc.) you'd have to see a specialist anyway.

 

so my advice.... wait another couple weeks and see how she's doing then.

if you still see the problems, have vision/hearing screenings done at your pediatrician. if necessary or the ped recommends, see audiologist and optrometrist.

if those are good, see if your insurance will cover the testing.

only after all that would i turn to the public schools, simply because the testing there won't really give you helpful information as far as the root cause and ways to address it.

[4kiddies]

Is this the same daughter that you have been having the medical issues with? Could they be related?

[Carol in Cal.]

The logic of writing and thinking are very different at that age. Some kids really can't do both together.

 

My DD absolutely could not do Rod and Staff grammar 3 in third grade. She couldn't do it all that well in fourth grade, either. It is hard to explain why this was so difficult, but I hung in there and tried a more oral program for a while and then went back to grammar later. Now she is 12 and is doing Rod and Staff 6, successfully for the most part. She needed me to keep pushing it with her, but to use other resources as well--letting her give up but also not making her feel dumb to be using an RS book that was 2 years behind grade level. Her usage/composition has always been excellent, too, and so I separated the grammar from her writing assignments to the greatest extent possible, so that the one would not contaminate the other.

 

She had similar trouble with math once it started to get complicated in about grade 4 or so. She just couldn't buzz through it; she needed to be able to slow down and play with the ideas, and the logic just wasn't there. I should have stuck with Saxon instead of switching to Harcourt, but it was a couple of miserable years before I switched back again.

 

I think that math and grammar are both areas that you can sort of grow into, and that the grade levels for them are different from child to child. You need to find a curriculum that really fits their learning style, or teach extra-curricularly to their specific modalities.

 

Elizabeth has a good point about sight words.

 

Be very careful not to define your child as a failure--you can't afford to let her give up on herself. Kids decide things about themselves at this age, and it's really hard to change their minds back again. I protected DD from that for the most part, but it was really tough.