Multiple Exceptionalities?

Post Reply New Topic

My son has ADHD (medicated with Biphentin), Aspergers and Learning Disabilities.

He gets really good marks but some areas he has to work but other areas come so easily.

Like Spelling, he can spell words adults can spell. He learned phoenics really young and repetition with him is key. But the teacher's say its Rote Memory.

But rote memory doesn't help with Multiplication Tables, that's why they invented calculators. He can do long division and each step but usually requires a calculator to break it down.

He's psychoed indicated that his learning disabilities relates to Processing Speed, Reading Fluency and Written Expression Skills. He needs more time to process verbal and written information (He's totally a Visual Learner). The causes of his LD are Weaker Auditory Memory, Auditory Working Memory and Visual Processing Speed Abilities.

Somethings I found weird is that they found his word reading and reading comp skils above average to superior. But yet the school just did a Brigance Test and he comprehension dropped to almost half.

The thing that pissed me off is they knew this last year and this year and they did nothing to help. They didn't get the laptop, they didn't implement the use of any graphic organizers and it took me the whole year to figure out how to help him with writing. Seems they don't teach the basics about sentences anymore (subject/verb/predicate, etc) and he needs to pre-learn vocabulary which they did the year before but fell by the waste side this year. They didn't continue is Social Skills training half way through which I never knew. Is it June 29th yet?

Next year school has already got the IEP ready, the application for assistive technologies and ready to put him with a teacher who is highly organized (mind you that's one good thing they said about him, he's very organized for CLASS) and uses an online homework calendar, etc. On top of that he does really well in French (he receives 70 minutes) and will be taking Late Immersion which he wants and will be ahead of the kids coming from 40 minutes of language arts, where he gets social studies as well. He gets A's in French and whether he has an LD in English it will be the same in French.

Any suggestions for helping him with his disabilities?

We used audio cds at home for reading which helps wth retention. Vocabulary we read a couple of days ahead of "creating" great sentences as they call them.

Any other ideas would be great.

Schools don't usually spend the big bucks for the better more accurate tests. They rarely can afford it. It sounds like yours is doing a lot and is really working with you on this. That's great.

My suggestion would be to get him to a well qualified psychologist who can do more. If you have insurance that can pay for it, or can afford it, you can get him into some behavioral therapy as well. This would be in addition to what he's doing at school and should be a pleasant thing for him.

Some of what you're talking about is related to the Asperger's. The school isn't as concerned with diagnoses and explaining why your son is as he is, but with how to get him to do as well in school as he can. The areas of weakness are important to them so they can select the most suitable accomodations for him. It's not their job to educate you or him about Asperger's so they put their resources where they can do the most good. A psychologist can take more time to fill in some of that stuff for you so you get more of a whole picture.

According to our team of professionals Aspies typically have areas of strength vs weakness in their IQ subset, so they can have tremendous point spreads. Non-Aspies are usually clustered with all IQ subsets fairly similar. The pattern of IQ subsets is one diagnostic tool that can be used to determine AS. Savants are people who have tremendous impairment across the board exept for one or two areas of amazing ability, and are different from Aspies but sometimes confused with them. Aspies overall intelligence is not affected, it's more like some points are moved from one area to another, but they are still in the same range their relatives and background would normally put them in.

Eldest son has tremendous strength in the Visual Spatial IQ subset, and tremendous impairment in the Cognitive Processing Speed. His other IQ subsets are quite strong but not in the genious range, more avg/above avg/very above avg. He has bi-polar disorder, and severe impairment in social perception. He has ADHD but can not take meds for it because they cause him to have bi-polar mood cycles. He is an extrovert and a friendly kid with great talent for computer programming and robotics. He likes people but has a terrible time figuring them out. He's an Aspie. He gets lots of services at school and extra time for things. He has a portable word processor because he can't write legibly. He hates reading but does well at it. He could not understand phonetics until he was 8, it just didn't make sense to him. He's not keen on math but is quite good at it. He loves science and robotics. That Visual Spatial IQ gives him a lot of insight into engineering issues, and he can pinpoint structural issues at a glance that might take hours of calculations to figure out.

Middle Son is also an Aspie with ADHD that makes it very difficult for him to focus. He responds extremely well to Adderall. He has social anxiety but not the horrible mood issues that his brother has. He tends to lean toward depression, but it's not a roller coaster ride. He has an extremely high IQ but also has a relative weakness in Cognitive Processing Speed. It's in the low average range which is normal so he gets no accomodations for it (or for anything else really), but it is much lower than his other scores which are in the Very Superior/Superior range. His achievement scores are excellent, but when we used the higher quality tests at the psychologist it was very apparent he is working nowhere near his ability. He's still so far ahead of his classmates that the school isn't concerned, but I am. I fear he'll not get into the kind of work he is most suited for and will make him most happy if he doesn't step it up.

Little Guy is an enigma. He didn't speak until he was 5, but seemed to have an idiolect. Then one day he began to talk at about the time he started a good speech program and he just flew through it. He has issues aquiring words, but because he is so exceptionally bright they only appear as weaknesses at this point when compared to his other skills. When he was younger it was a severe impairment and contributed to a diagnosis of PDD-NOS. He also has ADHD. His IQ is fairly ordinary, above average, even well above average, but it does not reflect his demonstrated ability. On the WIAT-II, a very high quality achievement test that measures what children are doing and able to do as opposed to the IQ that just makes vague predictions of how they migth do in the future, he comes out in the profoundly gifted range. He is in the high 99 percentiles hitting 99.9, 99.8, and down a few fractions of a point here and there. In the word reading/vocabulary section he scored only in the 87th percentile, which isn't shabby but is an obvious deficit compared to his other scores. He basically came out about 5 grade levels ahead, in odd contrast to Middle son who has an IQ indicating that level of ability but only achieves one or two grade levels ahead (which is really great, just odd with those IQ numbers).

So, yeah. Multiple Exceptionalities, we have them. My husband has ADHD and Dyslexia and who knows what else. I've got plenty of Aspie tendancies but I'm not in the spectrum. I do have ADHD, big time, but the meds really work so yay!

I have the Clinical Psychologist report which was funded through an organization for us ($1700) cause we unfortunately don't have health insurance (I pay meds out of pocket for both kids). Thankfully I have a Disability Tax Credit and I'm not sure if therapy is a covered cost.

His therapy comes from me and his father (well the best dads can be, lol, my husband is a do what you think is best kinda guy and I'll support it).

His psychoed breakdown is as follow:

Verbal Comp: 55th %ile
Abstract Verbal Reasoning and associative thinking abilities: 63rd
Expressive Vocab: 50th
Understanding Social Customs (Easter, Christmas, etc): 50th

Perceptual Reasoning: 77th %ile
1st task of reproducing blocks designs based on a model: 77th
Matrix Reasoning: 75th
Picture Concepts: 63rd

Working Memory: 18th %ile (much associated ADHD)
Retain and recall digits, fwd/bwd: 5th
Sequences in short-term memory with recall numbers/letters: 50th

Processing Speed: 21st %ile
Copying abstract shapes, visual-motor and accuracy: 6th
Symbol search, visual motor coordination: 50th

WM and Processing Speed weaker than visual hands on and visual spatial skills.
Auditory WM problems

Second Test of Memory

Verbal Memory: 6th %ile
Verbal Recall after delay: 25th

Recall of Designs and Copying: 84th
Altered/Added/Moved with similar pictures: 63rd
Recognize Visual Materials after delay: 50th

Word Reading: 99th
Reading Comp: 79th
Reading Speed: 1st

Written Expression: Spelling: 92nd
Produced 3 simple sentences that were gramatically correct but little detail.

Arithmetic: Numerical Operations: 37th

I think that's lots of detail Kiley lol. I hope not to much.

The painful part of writing is writing "grade appropriate" sentences and we've been working on that. And for math, he used to meltdown but this year he doesn't care how long it takes him to get it done. He just does it.

Kiley I would have to disagree with you. From what I read, it sounds to me like the school is doing very little to accommodate this child properly, and is failing miserably in assessing his needs and strengths. This parent sounds lost and confused about what her son's school is doing/why it is/is not doing certain things and how to get her son's situation improved. My experience is that parents who have a great school, and a great working relationship, do not come to boards like this sounding lost.

I also disagree that they shouldn't be concerned with the diagnosis, or that it's not their job to be educated about Aspergers as a diagnosis. In fact, I think the diagnosis is the KEY to his education - they cannot possibly understand or implement appropriate accommodations, or supports for his LDs, without understanding his diagnosis.

I would recommend you arrange a meeting with the school - this year's and next year's teachers, any support staff he has, and the principal, to go over your concerns (bring a clear list) and your goals (bring a clear list) and discuss what's in or not in the IEP at this point.

I can see why you disagree and you have a point. It's just that her school is doing so much more than ours ever did, and ours is supposed to be one of the best public schools for this. We moved here for that reason.

In the US it is illegal for a school to diagnose, so it is not their job, by law not by my say so. Outside of the USA that may not be the case. I think it's not a terrible rule because I have known of situations where the diagnosis was what was convenient for the school not was what was best for the child. Haveing an outside professional do it who is paid only to see to the best interests of the child ensures the child gets a more accurate and helpful diagnosis.

I think it's also good to learn about the diagnosis from objective sources, not sources that could be looking at how to do what's easiest for themselves. We've had many excellent teachers who bent over backwards to help our kids, but we've had a few lazy and selfish ones too. If a parent educates themselves about what's best they are better prepared to deal with all sorts of teachers and administrators. I've found ones who have taught me a lot, and some who I've been able to teach, and some who didn't want to be bothered.

If the list she brings to the school at the meeting you recommend, an excellent idea, but I think she's already doing that stuff, is backed up with a report from a legally qualified professional (psychiatrist or psychologist) she's going to have a lot more leverage and will have a lot more success.

I'm surprised the school has run as many tests as they have. Ours didn't do half of what they are doing. My youngest son had some speech testing and recieved speech therapy at school. My eldest got zippo from the school aside from a few helpful teachers who just did what they could without any paperwork sanctioning anything, until I showed up with the legal documents from the psych. Then he got an IEP and into an Aspie program. When he started having trouble they did some testing, and that was about 5 years after I started battling for him in this school system.

From my perspective her school is all over it, but you're right, it isn't enough.

KD I had to laugh a little reading that. I just had that all done on my youngest two, and the results compare amusingly. We have good insurance so more tests were run as well.

My two both had issues with Cognitive Processing Speed and Working Memory Scores. The Middle son's score was fine, just a lot lower than his other scores...maybe his working memory was good too. He's actually doing really well and doesn't need much accomodation. Little guy had outrageously high scores on the WIAT-II, which is the one with the Word Reading section...except in Word Reading where his score was relatively low, and your son got a 99percentile (WOW).

Your son has a lot of strengths there. Those middle level scores are really good. Lots of 50s, 60s and 70s. My eldest is like that. He's got ultra low scores in the cognitive processing speed, lots of average/high averages and then an extremely high score in Visual Spatial Reasoning. If he'd been tested when he was 7 or, even 8 up until about June of that year, he would have also scored in the low single diget percentile range in the same areas as he just could not recognize a connection between the written symbol and what it represents. Then something just clicked for him. In three months he went from nearly no reading ability beyond a few sight words (especially letters, numbers were better) to a 6th grade reading level...but still a bit slow. His cognitive processing speed is severely impaired.

Some of those things could be more developmental and more of a delay that might improve as your child develops. Those percentiles compare him to other kids his age, but that doesn't mean he has or never will develop in that area, he may just be doing it later than his peers. Other areas may be more part of his permanent makeup. For us the cognitive processing speed thing seems to be pretty much permanent. They've learned to cope better with it but it's not really changed much. Stuff like verbal comp, symbol recognition and so on we've seen huge developmental leaps in, just WHAM they could do it really well five years after other kids had started.

That report can be great leverage for the school.

Kiley I agree with all your points about the need for the diagnosis to come from outside the school, but I think you misunderstood me, as I did not say the school should be diagnosing students. I completely agree it should be illegal for all the reasons you mentioned. I said it is the school's job to be concerned with - and pay attention to - the diagnosis (that came from an outside professional) because they cannot accommodate or teach this student without being educated about the diagnosis.

Oh yes, I think we are on the same page. My communication skills may not be quite what they should be. A doctor shot me up with a massive dose of steroids and I'm taking handfulls of steroid pills. It's medically necessary but making me a little wonky in the head. I don't see how an athlete would choose this voluntarily, no game or amount of money seems like it could possibly be worth this. Thankfully I've just got ten more days of this and the dose will taper down gradually.

Oh I'm ready for next year as I pointed out the new school is already started getting everything ready for him but it's sad that he went from a good start at this school to almost falling between the cracks. And who said Catholic education is the best, we are switching to the public.

edit: we meet the week before school and then with the teachers the second week for the IEP completion. This seems like a very good school.

Last edited by kdeering75 on 01 Jun 2010, 5:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Maybe I`m confused lol. It`s possible I`ve only had 6 hours sleep. But he was diagnosed for the ADHD/Aspergers by a Pedaetrician who specializes in this area and the LD by a psychologist.

Like Caitlyn noted he's school did nothing this year where last year and the year before we received so much more. My personal theory is next year he won't be their problem. Just my theory.

Also please note, I've had to do all the leg work myself like and OT and this Psychoed because my son kept getting pushed back at the bottom of the priority list.

The school had to do a Brigance test because he's a special need student.

The stuff I listed was from the Psycho Ed that was paid for.

Pff.. they seen it and just added to the list of strengths and needs and this year not done anything. New school even asked at a meeting for the transfer if they tried things and the teacher basically said she doesn't do that. Its one way. Her way. But she did not phrase it that way but everyone could tell.

I can't memorise the times tables to save my life. I am quite good at algebra because I am homeschooled and allowed to use a calculator to solve the multiplication problems in the question but if they don't let me use on for my college exams and MCAT, I am doomed. Dysclacula wasn't around when I was in school but I probably would have been diagnosed with it if it was. I would have been diagnosed with dysgraphia hands down because if I tried to write by hand super fast my writing would look like chicken stratch and my arms would hurt up to my elbows. I was told I was lazy and my papers were always labled, "sloppy" and I spent countless recess rewriting asignments.

He sounds a lot like me.

I picked up reading very easily, was very visual, was good at long division, horrible at the arithmetic needed to do it without a calculator, good with languages, and had/have slow processing speed.

What this slow processing speed means is, I don't take longer to sort my thoughts out, I take longer to actually subconsciously take in information and pass it to my consciousness. When time constraints are removed I rise to the top 99th percentile on most tests, meaning if everyone were stuck in a room and given this test with no time limits, I'd do better than 99% of the people who took the test.

One of the BIGGEST mistakes the school ever made in terms of my education was keeping me back in mathematics and insisting I improve my speed on timed multiplication tests, when I understood higher mathematical concepts fine and just needed a calculator to compensate for my slow number processing speed.

There is a misconception that math is arithmetic, and to be good at math means you must be good at mental arithmetic. In reality, most mathematics involves little, if any arithmetic, and most mathematical applications that use numbers, in all practicality require the use of a calculator. Holding me back in mathematics was the biggest disservice the school ever did for me and greatly delayed my upper education.

Don't let them hold him back in anything that can easily be compensated for when he shows promise or potential to grow in the field.

It doesn't matter whether he can do something the way they think he should be able to do it or not. What matters is there is a way he can do it that works for him.

Thank you I really enjoyed reading that. And I will never let them hold him back, if I did then he wouldn't be taking Late Immersion.

His grade 6 teacher (teaches most subjects EXCEPT FRENCH) currently had the audacity to say and exact words "Shouldn't he learn his own language first before having him learn a second?" I know she was referring to his writing skills cause like I said he can be painful but actually working on the definitions b4 hand really helps when it comes time to write the sentences.

His french teacher on the other hand says he's very motivated to learn a second language but doesn't know how the Late Immersion works.

The new school resource teacher said first, other kids coming in receive less than french than he does, he currently receives another subject in French on top the language arts (which he has mastered for this level, spelling/grammar in both english and french comes easy for him). Second, the first term of the year is a lot of oral, words, definitions, understanding etc. So he's going to be seeing lots of it and that's what he does well with. Repetition. Repetition. And she said they receive lots of this. I also thought and will buy him a Visual French/English dictionary to connect the image with the word. Which I think will help.

I don't discuss his future education with his current Grade 6 teachers because she's been little to no help this year. I mean he wrote a report last year for science on the brain and with my help (lots of talking and discussing and now I know I need visuals and videos, he did Ok.