my sisters has a learning disability but no1 will help her! - Learning Disorders Message Board

FiChna · 12-07-2003, 11:33 AM

maybe someone here could give advice what my family can do.

my sister is 6 years old and has somesort of learning disability but the school system will not help or do anything yet because she is 6. they told my mother they don't usually act until a child is 8 years old. by then it will be too late. she already stayed back in kindergarden once and still does not know her ABCs or numbers. because she doesn't know them it will be impossible for her to begin reading or anything else. my mom sits down with her everynight, reads with her and so forth but nothing is clicking. if anything my sister ends up getting frustrated and doesn't even want to do the work.

my mom has called all sorts of doctors to get her anaylized and as it turns out my sister's IQ is slightly below normal but other than that they said nothing else can be done for now. and like i said by the time someone acts it will be too late. she can't stay in kindergarden forever. currently the only help my sister has gotten was from the private school she attends which is giving her after school tutoring-the local public schools refused to even offer that although a doctor tried to convince my mom to take my sister out of private school to get her help. which clearly is not what would have happened.

my mom has done some research on my sisters symptoms and belives that she is dyslexic but isn't sure since no one else will help out.

we live in NY. can someone give me advice on what to do next? thanks

12-08-2003, 03:05 PM

She needs to have a full evaluation if she has not had one already. If they are telling your mother they don't *usually* act until a child is eight I would press the issue with them to intervene and consider your sisters case now because of the obvious trouble she is having. Tax dollars go into programs. You are right-on to not delay. Why do they say- nothing can be done for now? There are specialists who test for learning disabilities and you should not have to wait for her to get help/therapy now. I was taken to Hofstra when I was 9. They evaluated and administered many tests. I went to a private elementary school. There was more available in public school. Check that avenue again and make sure she is not losing out on assistance. Talk to that doctor and discuss your concerns with him. Ask him why he thinks she should change schools.

ps: How is her hearing?

FiChna · 12-08-2003, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gemi

She needs to have a full evaluation if she has not had one already. If they are telling your mother they don't *usually* act until a child is eight I would press the issue with them to intervene and consider your sisters case now because of the obvious trouble she is having. Tax dollars go into programs. You are right-on to not delay. Why do they say- nothing can be done for now? There are specialists who test for learning disabilities and you should not have to wait for her to get help/therapy now. I was taken to Hofstra when I was 9. They evaluated and administered many tests. I went to a private elementary school. There was more available in public school. Check that avenue again and make sure she is not losing out on assistance. Talk to that doctor and discuss your concerns with him. Ask him why he thinks she should change schools.

ps: How is her hearing?

hi thanks for answering
no her hearing and vocabulary is excellent and so is her vision. she just doesn't regonized letters or numbers and my mom has called NUMEROUS places seeking out help. she got 1 evaluation already which told us she had below normal intelligence and the person administering the test said that alothough she is below normal she is not low enough to be considered a immediate problem. the person then went on to tell my mom that she should keep working with her which is what my mom has been doing since the child was 4 years old.

the reason why my sister is in private school is because they were the only ones offering to give her tutoring and extra help. my mom was ready to send her to public school but the teachers said that they do not send children to special programs or give after school help until they are 8. so its clear that we cannot wait till she is 8 for her to learn her letters or numbers. so it is clear in this case that public schools are NOT offering more to help her.

then i should also say that a few places my mother called didn't even take her concerns seriously cause my sister is so young. i remember my mom took my sister to one place and had to tell the worker to stop playing with my sister and do the evulation thoroughly. apparently my sisters being gorgeous means that there is nothing wrong with her in some people's eyes. after that my mom got a second opinion-which is where we learned that she has below average iq.

otherthan that we will continue to follow up on this issue but its really frustrating that no one will even take this seriously because she is only 6. i also have a 4 yr old brother and he knows more ABC and letters than my sister-which is causing the situation to become even more embarassing.

i should also say that my sister has no problems writing her name her siblings name, repeating her address, or copying letters. but when you ask her to write down the letters she gets confused and when you show her a letter she doesn't know what it is.

Bob2 · 12-28-2003, 10:20 AM

FineChyna

I don't know if the experience we had with my daughter will help you or not. My daughter was in kindergarten, when we discovered she had a problem. She was in a parochial school, which had very little to offer her, so I went to the local public school to get help. The LD program at the school was very good and they agreed to evaluate her. The type of testing they did was inconclusive. I did not accept this and looked for another way to test her. I live in northern Virginia and the Children's Hospital of the District of Columbia had a satellite office near Fairfax Hospital that did testing of children for learning disabilities. They did a far more thorough set of tests and my daughter tested as having a severe problem known as a speech processing delay. I got the test results and took them to the local school and they agreed to accept her into the LD program. As a result, she went through the Fairfax County Public System for her primary education. This all happened more than about 16 years ago. My daughter is now in college and doing well.

It does not seem to me that your sister has been fully evaluated. I would not accept that she has a low IQ based on partial testing. I believe my daughter has an above average IQ, but if I had accepted partial testing, she would have been known as a person with a low IQ all of her life. My belief is supported by the fact that she does well in school, even though she has to compensate for her learning disability. A child with a learning disability can not be tested for intelligence in the same manner as a child that does not have a learning disability. The biggest thing that my daughter had going for her is she worked very hard at her studies. Even when she got headaches from it, she keep on working.

Self esteem is the most important thing to give a child with learning disabilities. I praised what ever my daughter did correctly, from the smallest thing to the biggest thing. I constantly encouraged her that she could do the thing she was working on. I also tried to instill in her the feeling that every person should have about the fact that they are a unique person, who deserves to be listened to and loved because of that uniqueness.

The most important thing is to get your sister properly tested. If the test results show severe learning disabilities, the school system must accept her into a LD program. It is Federal Law that they must. Your mother can force the issue.

I know this is long winded, but I feel very strongly that every child who needs help should get it.

MichyChris · 12-29-2003, 07:16 PM

your right do not wait to get help for your sister. My mom had to fight and fight to get me the help i needed. it wasn't until i reached the second grade that they said yes well she dose have more delays then we thought and put me into special education. my mom knew since i was in kindergarden that i needed help for i was not even able to reconize my own name. I have what is now called mild intectual delay which means my iq is only slighlty below the norm. I now can read and write at a grade 6 level but it gets me by. don't let them wait as long as they did with me. my mom was told that if i got the help earlier i would proble be reading and writting a bit higher and i wouldn't had the problems i hade with my self esteem.

michelle