LD Assistance Advice

[katalyst]

We recently had our son tested to see if he had a learning disability. The test results came in and were a little crazy. He scored off the charts in Oral Expression and Verbal Compression but was low average to below average in short-term memory and written expression. The diagnosis was that he has a learning disability effecting written expression. The recommendation was that we get an LD Tutor and an Occupational Therapist. The counselor suggested we contact the Board of Education and see what services they are willing to provide. I talked to my father-in-law, who is a retired social worker, and he concurred that we were entitled to services from the county because we pay school taxes and that we shouldn’t take no for an answer. I agree that we are entitled to the services but I’m afraid to get them involved. Our homeschooling experience has been completely unhampered by bureaucratic nonsense and I don’t want to start now. We live in KentonCounty, Kentucky. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with LD teachers for your own children. If I can get an LD tutor on my own that would be my preference. Of course expense will be a major factor if we are doing this on our own. But I figure if we only need their services 1 to 2 hours per week we should be able to absorb the cost easily. I’m also wondering if LD teachers can perform the function of an occupational therapist. Our son needs help developing his hand writing but this help goes beyond what I’m capable of doing on my own. I need guidance on what are the appropriate techniques to help him past these problems that he’s having getting what’s in his head onto paper.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Lori

[Kathy in MD]

It would be unusual to have a tutor that is also skilled as an OT. I wouldn't be surprised that the tutor can help with minor handwriting problems, but I wouldn't expect them to be experienced in dealing with severe problems. handwriting is the ONLY fine and gross motor control problem, you could call the author of Handwritting without Tears. She's an OT and could advise you on the correct product and any additional excercises.

I have had 3 LD tutors, with varying luck. Some LD teachers specialize in certain areas and others are generalists. Find one that is good in the areas your ds needs help in AND is a good personality match.

I know you'd rather skip the schools, but a school OT generally has lots of experience in handwritting and could save you money. However many health insurance policies will cover OT.

[Laurie4b]

I agree with Kathy. Occupational therapy and teaching are two different professions and it would be very unusual to find someone who could do both. If your child's handwriting needs are beyond your ability to help, they are almost certainly beyond an LD tutor's ability to help.

What is your son's age? What have you tried so far to remediate the written expression? Have you taught him keyboarding skills yet?

[katalyst]

My son is 11 almost 12. He writes like a beginning kindergardner. He does really well with keyboarding and uses it for most written exercises. But he does not write in cursive yet and as a result, can't read it.

There has not been too much that I've tried with handwriting. He is so resistant to it that I've avoided it. We weren't completely sure what his issues were (we knew what we were seeing) until after we did this testing. Nowthat we have the problems pinpointed we can target them.

[Mandamom]

schools in the area that are geared toward children with learning disabilities? If so they may have some ideas or even a list of tutors.

Also, contact your local learning disability or dyslexia support group, if you have one, and see if they have any suggestions or recommendations for tutors.

I work for a school that teaches learning disabled students and for written expression we use the Institute for Excellence in Writing. It might be worth checking it out if you haven't already done so. We obviously have to modify it somewhat due to the learning issues we're working with but the overall program is good for students who struggle with written expression.

I agree with the others...get a separate OT.

[Laurie4b]

We have found that IEW works well for my son with written language difficulties. It is very step-by-step, with each goal attainable. If you follow the instructions on the DVD's for teaching, you will be focusing on success as well--a very powerful teaching tool.

Where is your son as far as his written expression goes, if he's using a keyboard? Can he write a complete sentence? What are spelling and capitalization like?

Have you done dictation and narration with him?

How many words can he type per minute?

Handwriting without Tears has a cursive program. It would probably be what an OT would pick to use. It would be really nice for you if the OT did a lot of the teaching so that you could concentrate on other things, and just do what she assigns at home.