What should I expect at a child study meeting?

[farmgirlinwv]

Tomorrow I am meeting w/ the local school to do an initial child study meeting on my dd who is 11, just finishing 5th. They said I could bring her or not. This is my first contact w/ the ps system. She has always been hsed and we only send in neccessary paperwork.

 

The reason I'm taking her is that her ped wanted her evaluated for LD's. This will not be covered by our ins. It costs about $600.

 

I know that she still needs VT for convergence and tracking. She has been noncompliant w/ this and former doc said don't bring her back. We've moved now and I want to try a different doc.

 

As far as LD's I'm fairly certain she could be dx dyslexic, dysgraphic, dyscalculia and social issues problems.

 

So what to expect? What to take w/ me? Should I bring her?

 

Any advice appreciated!

 

Lisa

[EKS]

I would bring a list of your concerns so that you won't forget anything and I would not bring your daughter as you want to be able to speak frankly about your concerns.

 

Just so you know, at least in our district, when a child is evaluated by the school they will not tell you about any problems that they find that can't be remediated/treated by them. So even if some condition is screaming to be diagnosed, if it is not on the list of "approved" conditions then you won't hear anything about it. (Somehow ADHD doesn't fall into this catagory, that is, they will mention the possibility but won't officially diagnose.) Also, they will tell you your child is "just fine" if she falls into the average range, which for them is anything within two standard deviations of the mean. So a child can be really struggling and not be identified because she is not in the bottom 2%. Hopefully, your experience will be better than ours.

[farmgirlinwv]

Kai, that's what I'm afraid of. When I spoke w/ one of the women she bascially said all they will do is give me some ideas of how to help her. I believe in VA it is a long process to get any kind of dx. Maybe I would be better off getting a job and paying for an evaluation. It's just that we pay taxes! This is a lot of money for us. I have a sinking feeling it won't be worth it. That they won't really DO anything to help. Especially since she's hsed.

 

I am not helping her. She needs someone who knows what they're doing and is more patient than I am. I just get so tired of going round and round the same stuff. We just finished the first part of the CAT grade 5 test and I looked over it. She missed half of them and guessed at several. She's also very isolated and her social skills are very poor even though she wants to get along w/ others. She's not easy going and that doesn't help her. I feel badly for her. I want to send her to a small private school for LD kids, but it's around $10,000 a year. She would be around other kids like her and see she's not the only one. The teachers actually know what they're doing. It seems like I don't. I read and read. I try new things. I'm tired of it. She's tired of it. It's hurting our mother/daughter relationship. I just don't know anymore. It's just not right.

 

Anyway, thanks for the input kai. I don't know if I'll even go now. I'd talk to dh about it, but he's stressed at work and doesn't want to hear it. He gets mad that we have to spend all this money we don't have on our dd while other people have it so easy. He has a point.

[Dobela]

Kids in puiblic schools don't often have complete diagnosis after testing. The schools will test to give you an IQ and then compare her IQ to her achievement to determine if she would qualify for their program. It won't tell you why she does some things, it won't give you a name unless it is a Learning Disability or Severe Cognitive Delay or some generic name like that. Schools won't give a specific diagnosis for several reasons. One is because ADHD and other labels also have a medical component that have to be addressed as well. Another is that if they make a specific diagnosis like dyslexia or recommend special therapies outside of the school, they must provide their money doing that. They don't want to spend any money extra that way.

 

The advantage of going thru the school is that this first part is often the most expensive part of testing. Once you have these results you can take them somewhere else and ask for specific evaluations in the direction you think you need to go. You can show them to your pediatrician and ask for help in those areas of weakness or use it as proof for additional referrals for things like OT. You will also find out lots about your child in terms of thinking processes, strengths and weaknesses, and so on. If a child is in public school, their parents would have to do the same thing.

 

Unless the school is giving you a hard time, I think you only gain valuable information about your child by doing this.

[EKS]

First of all: (((farmgirlinwv))).

 

If you got a job could you afford the private school? If that's what you think would be best, maybe you could work it out some way? Do they have scholarships?

 

The school evaluation will give you some information, and since it's free it might be worth the time. But I would just view their interpretation of the results with skepticism. You could always have a private psychologist look over the results afterwards, which would be less expensive than having him/her do the whole evaluation.

[Laurie4b]

[quote name=Dobela;989641

The advantage of going thru the school is that this first part is often the most expensive part of testing. Once you have these results you can take them somewhere else and ask for specific evaluations in the direction you think you need to go. You can show them to your pediatrician and ask for help in those areas of weakness or use it as proof for additional referrals for things like OT. You will also find out lots about your child in terms of thinking processes' date=' strengths and weaknesses, and so on. If a child is in public school, their parents would have to do the same thing.

 

Unless the school is giving you a hard time, I think you only gain valuable information about your child by doing this.

 

I agree with this. The WISC-IV is one of the very most helpful tests in terms of information being in there. It is also very expensive. It often costs $1000 itself. So if you get a WISC and you get an individualized achievement test such as the Woodcock Johnson or the Weschler, then you're well ahead of the game. The school has a responsibility to give you all the scores. Ask for a report that includes the subtest scores as well as the overall scores. Make sure that you get actual numbers. You can easily google the WISC online to find a list of the subtests--that way you know what you are getting.

 

Even if you don't get the *interpretation* of the scores that you need from the school, you can always take the scores to someone private for the interpretation and any more testing they deem helpful. You will have saved a lot of $$ that way.

[farmgirlinwv]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to go. It can't hurt. At worst I may waste an hour of my time. What I read about VA schools though is that they set up things for you to try for several months. THEN, if there is NO improvement they move on to more interventions. So, I don't know if they'll do the tests right off or not.

 

Kai, we are leaning towards my going back to work FT and putting dd into the private school right now. If I can make $1000/month I think we will. It will be more difficult, of course. I'll have to work all night. Come home and pick her up. Drive her to school, and then be back at 2:30 to pick her up again. I haven't worked full time in over 12 years. I haven't worked at all in almost 8. I hope it works out for her.

 

Anyway thanks. My appt. is at 2:00 today. I'm going to make a list to take w/ me and bring some samples of her work.