IEP coming up

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Kayli's first IEP meeting is this Friday. She had an autism consultant visit with her at school yesterday. I'm not really sure how that went yet. So far, the adults at her school who are not her teachers, ie the school nurse and librarian, are convinced she's gifted. Yep, for sure, never mind the IQ test. Her case manager is going to request an aide for her, but we'll see how that goes. I know they want to do what's best for her, but I don't know if it's going to be possible.

What I'd like is that they find out if she actually has a learning disability that makes it difficult for her to read, or just what. It may just be a case of needing to explain to her why the tedium is necessary. She needs a quiet place to go to if she's overwhelmed without having to misbehave first. If she's going to hang out in the back of the room anyway maybe she could listen to an audiobook or play educational computer games. She definitely needs one on one instruction with someone who likes her, and who realizes that she is very bright even if she's having trouble reading.

How do you teach a gifted kid with reading difficulties to read without boring them to death in the process?

She probably needs 1-to-1 instruction. My son has had reading difficulties, but learning disability was ruled out by the public school.

When I pulled him out to homeschool and he got 1-to-1 instruction at home, I realized why he wasn't reading. He was trying to memorize every instance of a word. If he saw the word "and" in one story, he wouldn't necessarily read it as "and" in another story. He was trying to memorize everything he read. So, at school, they thought he was progressing because they kept showing him things he had already memorized. He zipped through worksheets if it was the second time he had seen the same work sheet.

It hasn't been easy, but through lots of drills and practice, I got him up to grade level with reading.

Interesting. Kayli does memorize her favorite books, but doesn't recognize words in other contexts. If I show her the word "in" and then ask her to point it out on a page of text, she can't do it. If I show her a particular sentence she might get it.

My son was slow learning to read due to visual tracking issues, and the simple fact that his ability to read wasn't up to his interest level. Until kids cross the line into "fluency" (where reading is at the pace of a live story) reading is a chore, not fun. Sometime in 3rd grade my son crossed that barrier, and no one really knows how or why, he just did.

I would suggest patience and continued exposure to a variety of techniques and literary forms. She will find her road.

If you get a good aid, that can work out well. But the level of training among aids varies a lot. Some can really help your child move forward; others are a buffer, and not much more.

Definitely mention the memorizing observation to the resource teacher and other experts your child works with.

Thanks. I suspect that Kayli hasn't figured out why she should go through the tedium yet. I have a feeling she'll catch on soon enough. I didn't really catch on until just after second grade, then was reading way above grade level by third grade.

My son also has an eye tracking problem. It's minor, but he loses his place on the page. Placing a ruler under the sentence has helped with that and I also have him follow the words along with his finger when he gets off track.

Maqique, spending a day in school playing educational computer games! That sounds like a dream to me!

I heard tale that Nintendo has made educational video games for public schools, so kids in Special Ed can learn by playing video games. When I heard about it, I'm not sure if it's true or not, I was so jelous! I was like, if I only grew up now..video games in school, I mean..that's just freaking awesome!