Jul 26 2008
Learning Disabilities, Differences and Decisions
It’s good to have choices. But it can be crazy-making as well.
We “ended” our homeschool year the end of June. Since then I’ve immersed myself into researching different cyber schools offered by Pennsylvania and learning disabilities.
I have always suspected dyslexia, at least some sort of mild version of it, but I was never really sure and very reluctant to just hand her over to “the system” to find out. But I’ve done more research on it, both the condition of dyslexia and the process through the public school system and private evaluators.
For starters, I wrote up a synopsis of three years of daily log observations. I didn’t just notate whether she completed a subject or not, but how she did it, the range of difficulty and whether or not she retained the information the next day or days afterwards.
I, also, notated the conditions under which she learned, how often she was with me as opposed to her father, whether she did her work while she was there, how helpful he was or wasn’t and the work she completed, and how it was completed while she was there.
This has been a major source of contention and frustration for me.
There has been no doubt, the difference in level of commitment to her education and providing space, time and opportunity for her to learn between the two households has negatively impacted her. But there was, also, something else going on with her, and it was difficult for me to ascertain how much of which variable was affecting her progress.
As I wrote this synopsis from my notes, some patterns began to emerge, but I didn’t know how they related to one another. I needed help in connecting all the dots. One site that came highly recommended and turned out to be the most informative was www.brightsolutions.us.
Suddenly, her behavior in other areas, how she could excel in doing one thing and yet be stumped or painfully awkward in another, that you would think would be easier, made sense to me. Virtually everything that had to do with directionality or sequence was a challenge to her. Didn’t really have to do with the category as much as the operations.
If you have concerns about dyslexia or are just stumped by some “quirks” in learning, I highly recommend this site as a good starter point. The seminar video is over 3 hours long, but it’s divided into segments. I watched it one evening with breaks and took notes. It was a real eye opener!
I learned that dyslexia is not a learning disability, that nine out of ten children who have dyslexia do not have it severe enough to be identified as learning disabled (which they aren’t, they just have a different way of learning - plenty are incredibly bright to the point of brilliant). But that means they don’t get the help that they do need and, often, fall through the cracks.
In comparing my detailed notes and synopsis with what I have learned from the website, I am now 99.9% certain she is dyslexic. In one sense it’s a wonderful validation. I have been correct in what I was feeling and observing.
I didn’t know if her situation was workable at home. I had hoped that with extra effort on my part, we could overcome the handicap of her living situation, that our efforts would be enough. But though she has made improvement, it’s not. It’s too much of a struggle to get her when I need…no, when she needs.
I know she needs more, and I know she needs consistency. I’ve been saying it for years. I need the leverage to insure her education is not sacrificed to grown ups’ personal needs or issues. And now that she’s older, perhaps we can work with a cyberschool.
So now I have decisions to make.
I know she needs something more than what she’s been getting, but it’s not as simple as simply choosing x, y or z.
I am exploring different avenues and will be sharing them over the next week.
