More Questions (Re: Tutoring Post)

How would I go about getting my son tested for learning disabilities?  Someone posted its expensive (just because I am currently doing budgeting for this year .. what is the avg. expense?)

I am a little overwhelmed by this whole thing and my husband is not a lot of help since he believes we should just wait for the Dore program to work (mind you if may not or it may be more than a year from now!)

Thanks, Melissa

I would ask you the same questions Lillian did.

My boyfriend's son was just tested through his school district - no charge - and found to have a learning disability. I can tell you the way he did it, but know, this isn't my son, he doesn't live with me, and so I can only offer bits and pieces from one side. None of my kids have LD's - so I'm not 100% familiar.

My boyfriend went into the school with a request he wrote up, asking for a full and complete evaluation on his son. At 9, his child has significant speech delays. The teacher has tested him on reading and in 3rd grade he isn't at an end of 1st grade level yet.

The school psychologist issued the Weschler IQ test on this child, and did some other testing, and came up with an IQ. They also tested him not only in reading, but in math. He is at a 4th grade level in math, so because he is so great in one area and so severely lax in another, that qualifies him as having a LD. What KIND of LD, I don't know, and I guess my boyfriend would have to have THAT testing done elsewhere. BUT, at least it gets his son some help and an IEP in school.

I also think his son is on the Autism spectrum, but nobody would ever admit to that one

You can request the eval through the school and it's no charge. But, there has to be a reason to request it.

Janna

I went through all of this with the school for my son.  They originally tested him and messed the tests up big time.  So we had to go outside of the school system and have him privately tested.  It cost us about $1000 or so and that was more than five years ago so it would probably be more now.  If your child is having consistent problems in a certain subject or in school altogether and is scoring low on standardized tests you should contact his guidance counselor to find out what your options are. They should not have any problems testing him if his performance is low.  However, the school system (at least here) took over a year to test my son for ld after the paperwork and referral was submitted.  If I had known they were going to botch it up so bad I would have just taken him to a private psychologist in the first place.  Would have saved us a lot of time.

The way they determine whether your child has a ld is to test his IQ (as janna said) and then they give a wide range of academic tests.  If there is a 10-15 point difference (depending on the laws in your area/state) between your child's IQ and how they performed in a certain subject then they do have a ld.  In my son's case, his IQ was 20 points higher than his visual processing skills and 9 points higher than his short term memory skills (which meant he didnt' qualify for help in that area).

If you are thinking about going the private route make sure that you clear the Dr. you choose with the school board first.  We were told that private test results would be accepted only by psychologists approved by the school board.

You can request testing through the school district in most cases. You will need to have valid reasons for your request however. Has the teacher mentioned anything? Why do you suspect a learning disability??  Anyhoo... determining eligibility for LD is different from state to state and may differ even from district to district. Our district used to have the IQ discrepancy as one of the main determinants, however, we are now using a new system of intervention. Having an outside consultant perform tests may or may not be accepted by the school... you would have to ask. I would suggest that you speak with the classroom teacher to find out what the procedure is for initiating testing. You could also speak with someone in the SpEd department. After that, in knowing the protocol, you can proceed in requesting testing and having it conducted in a timely manner.

Often the testing is not the issue in so far as much as the expense... it is the time. In our district, our SPED teachers have to act as consultant to teachers with struggling students, service/manage those students on 504s and IEPs, and conduct testing. If they take time out of their day for testing, that means that those other (IEP/504) students are not getting "their time".

Iluvmydal,

A diagnostician, school psychologist, PT, speech/language path, and OT should be doing the testing, not a teacher.  As far as the private evaluation being accepted by the school district, a school district is required by federal law to test in all areas of a suspected disability.  If your child is struggling in school, you should always have your child privately evaluated to determine the area of suspected disability so that the school will be required to test in that area.  A school does not have to accept a private dx, but having a private dx insures that the school will test in that area and will address the issues found.  The school can disagree with the private findings, but a parent also can disagree with the school's findings, as well.   

Lillian... our SPED teachers including our school psych would conduct the testing, not I as the classroom teacher. I am in total agreement with what you said about testing in "all suspected areas of disability"; however, my response was not as coherent as it could have been. (It was close to midnight when I was posting... should have been in bed.)

I totally agree with private evaluations because I have found that those evals are much more conclusive than what we do at the district level. The frustrating part is not getting those results shared from parent to teacher. (I have a current situation where a child was evaluated by a neuro-psych but the parents are not signing a medical release of information. I am frustrated with that because there might be something in that report that our SPED team might see that helps unlock this little girl.)