How do you ferret out a diagnosis/root problem and find resources?

[FloridaLisa]

I've homeschool all my children. My youngest is truly struggling and has been for some time. I had testing done 3 years ago (a pyscho-educational battery) and there were no diagnoses. The test administrator labeled her a strugging student. Her biggest weaknesses per that test were/are poor working memory, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, calculation.  I felt like the test results gave me no real direction since there was no diagnoses. She could read, but would fatigue quickly, guess at big words, and had zero love of reading. Interestinly, though a very low working memory, she memorized our scripture passages (whole chapters), her Sunday school verses and musical lines. 

What we've done: 
*Started Barton reading and she's on Level 7. She is thriving with this and I've seen a huge improvement. Now trying to encourage some summer reading to get her fluency up and transition into books. 
*Writing with Ease. She actually scored best on writing, haha! Her spelling was low, but her expressive and writing scores were much higher than other things. I think it's because she loves this writing curriculum and we focused so heavily on it. I'm going to transition to IEW so she can begin to learn the structure for modern essay and report writing. 
*Abeka math with a tutor. I had to outsource this for our sanity. Math felt like ground hog day all over again and she hit a wall with Math U See. 
 

Here's my dilemma: some days I feel like we're making progress and some days I feel like circling a cul-de-sac! I feel like I need to research more, narrow down her specific issues, test more and see if there is an actual diagnosis. Maybe something like verbal or auditory processing? I feel like if I had a diagnosis, I'd know how to move forward and I won't miss getting necessary therapy/help for her.

And this concern: I feel like she'd thrive in a small classroom for another teacher but I haven't found anything local that fits. Part of it is I'm fearful of labels. Ack! 

Can anyone who's navigated help me know if I should do more testing? Where I can look for more resources? How to find outside classrooms/situations that would help? 

As a single mom, these coversations bounce around my own head and I have no sounding board. That's one other piece of info: her father died suddenly when she was 4. She was sleeping in between us when I awoke to his final breaths. My older daugher immediately took her upstairs, but still. I feel like trauma has played a part. But how do I figure that part out,, if any? 

Lisa
 

[PeterPan]

For the auditory processing, you're looking for an audiologist (or SLP) who handles it a lot who has the equipment and specialized testing.

Some kids really are bits of a lot of things and not anything too dramatic for labels. My dd was always sort of that way. She has bits of auditory processing, bits of this and that. So you get these vague unsatisfying labels. And who knows, maybe if you update evals going into high school they'll get to ADHD. I wouldn't be *afraid* of labels. 

As far as the trauma, you could talk with a counselor. Not to be too pointed, but I'd think *you* are the one with the trauma. Start with yourself, kwim? This is the video I used to learn when the counselor wanted me to learn this technique. 

 

34 minutes ago, FloridaLisa said:

I feel like she'd thrive in a small classroom for another teacher but I haven't found anything local that fits.

So what do the labels have to do with it? You're saying if you placed her she'd need a 504? Or you have a SN school in mind? She sound like a dc who mainstreams. Can she continue with your current mix? What needs to change? She's how old? What needs to happen? If you weren't afraid about the labels and jut went for it, what doors would that open?

With what you're describing, it sounds like the evals would say what you're expecting, a 504 with accommodations and a mainstream placement, extra time, some supports, tech, etc. It might not be as bad as you think. 

How is she in background noise or noisy places? Does she have any complaints? What does she think her biggest problems are? Does she have any issues with anxiety, depression, self/emotional awareness or reuglation? 

[FloridaLisa]

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So what do the labels have to do with it? You're saying if you placed her she'd need a 504? Or you have a SN school in mind? She sound like a dc who mainstreams. Can she continue with your current mix? What needs to change? She's how old? What needs to happen? If you weren't afraid about the labels and jut went for it, what doors would that open?

I don't think she could mainstream b/c she's so far behind grade level. The test administrator said she wouldn't have a 504 b/c she didn't have a diagnosis. She does have a great peer group through her dance company and we're plugging into her new youth group. She's 14 and I want to make sure I'm neither holding her back from what she *could* do nor pushing her into a situation that would be bad. 

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How is she in background noise or noisy places? Does she have any complaints? What does she think her biggest problems are? Does she have any issues with anxiety, depression, self/emotional awareness or reuglation? 

Background noise is defiitely distracting. She fatigues easily with hard work (starts yawning right when we start Barton, which is so interesting. I haven't figured that out but it's some physical response to stress? Anxiety? Her brain thinking hard?) She has middle school girl anxiety. We're working through that as well so she's equipped for new situations. 

 

[sweet2ndchance]

1 hour ago, FloridaLisa said:

The test administrator said she wouldn't have a 504 b/c she didn't have a diagnosis.

True, it is sometimes easier to get a 504 with a diagnosis of some kind in some states/districts but it is not legally required. Two of my kids had 504 plans and neither had a true diagnosis of anything at the time but one did go on to get an IEP for dyslexia/dysgraphia. On their 504s however, it was just listed as "learning disability, unspecified". It will depend on your particular district and sometimes even the particular school.

More testing couldn't hurt. PeterPan had some excellent suggestions of where to start. Both of my kids with 504s/IEP got some accommodations and help with the 504s and that was plenty for the one child but the other needed even more concessions and help so he was given an IEP the following year. Both were in mainstream classrooms, both very smart and very specific strengths and weaknesses. Some of the concessions given were extra time on tests, teacher written notes, a scribe for written portions of tests, and more. Your daughter does sound like a good candidate for mainstreaming even if she is behind right now. She doesn't sound far off from my child that ended up with the IEP.

[Ivey]

With reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and general learning issues, I would start with a thorough SLP evaluation. Find out whether her receptive and expressive language skills are age-appropriate and go from there. Once a language disorder has been confirmed or ruled out, I think you'll be in a better position to decide whether another psychoeducational assessment will be helpful. It sounds like her scores were slightly too high to qualify for a learning disorder diagnosis at 11? She may now qualify for a specific learning disorder if her scores have dropped slightly or the psychologist determines that she is achieving only due to "extraordinarily high levels of effort or support". 

[PeterPan]

On 5/17/2021 at 5:21 PM, FloridaLisa said:

I don't think she could mainstream b/c she's so far behind grade level.

No they are going to use the least restrictive environment possible. So unless there are behavioral or significant reasons, the dc mainstreams. My ds (ASD2 with significant SLDs) would be a mainstream placement and spend a percentage of his day in the resource room. At this point, they think he could even receive his specialized instruction in the classroom. You would have to go through the evaluation process at your school to see what they would do. 

On 5/17/2021 at 5:21 PM, FloridaLisa said:

The test administrator said she wouldn't have a 504 b/c she didn't have a diagnosis.

That's why the school does evals, to get the data that drives the IEP/504. Fresh evals, fresh data, then they know what they're working with.

21 hours ago, Ivey said:

With reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and general learning issues, I would start with a thorough SLP evaluation. Find out whether her receptive and expressive language skills are age-appropriate and go from there. Once a language disorder has been confirmed or ruled out, I think you'll be in a better position to decide whether another psychoeducational assessment will be helpful. It sounds like her scores were slightly too high to qualify for a learning disorder diagnosis at 11? She may now qualify for a specific learning disorder if her scores have dropped slightly or the psychologist determines that she is achieving only due to "extraordinarily high levels of effort or support". 

This is very good advice. Start somewhere, maybe with an audiologist and the SLP, get some private data, then go to the school. There are SLPs who specialize in literacy, so if you've been doing Barton (yes?), then she clearly has enough language issues going on to warrant thorough evals by an SLP who specializes in expressive language or literacy. They could tease out all kinds of stuff with their specialized testing that a psych doesn't typically have. Psych evals, as you found, are sometimes less than helpful. SLPs cost less and the right one may own the tests that would tell you more. Look for the SLP specializing in literacy or expressive language. It would be worth a drive.

On 5/17/2021 at 5:21 PM, FloridaLisa said:

She has middle school girl anxiety. We're working through that as well so she's equipped for new situations. 

Do you think that's how a psych or the school would describe it? I get your good intentions, but it doesn't seem very helpful to call it middle school girl anxiety if you want to get to the bottom of it. Anxiety + ADHD only gets worse going through school and relegating it to try harder doesn't help. Personally, I have (at least) two components to my anxiety. I have one that eats at me all the time that is due to a genetic defect with my B6 (NBPF3 is the gene) and another that is more situational where my heart rate goes up, I become agitated, I pace. Both are anxiety and both are significant and neither are personal/spiritual problems. And frankly, neither respond really well to strategies, especially not that everyday, low level, eats at you anxiety. So I've been trained in all these good things (mindfulness, Zones of Regulation, Interoception, blah blah) and reality is chemistry problems are chemistry problems. 

You said you want answers, and I'm suggesting that putting your own labels on might slow you down on getting deeper answers. If you go to the school and fess up and say the anxiety, that gets you farther. If you go to the MD and say anxiety, that's a way to get help. If you want help, it has to come out of the closet, kwim? And I'm all for all of the above in treatment. Like i'm not saying it has to be (only) Prozac or whatever. But you said this was a thread about sorting things out and I'm saying don't undercut that. Let it come out, ask for help, ask for the tools, all the tools.