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Our daughter is 5 1/2 years old and we brought her home from the hospital at birth. Her birthmother is extreamly bright, graduating highest in her class and full law scholarship. We don't know a lot about her birthfather other than he is autistic, asperger's. Although our daughter shows some signs of a learning disability we do not believe she is on the autisum spectrum, nor does her ped. I have an appointment next week but wanted to see what you all thought and what questions I should ask. Our daughter has a VERY bright imagination, plays well alone but prefers to play with others, any age, male or female. She draws faces and stick people socializes well. Our concerns are that she does not know her ABC's, after working with her daily for several months she is recognizing 14 letters in and out of order, can't count past 3 and recognized 0 numbers, is just now starting to be able to catch a ball when thrown towards her without "reacting" and does have some speech issues although they have/are developing. My biggest concern is that she can not sing ANY song, she sings stuff she makes up but it makes no sense. We did hold her out of kindergarten this year because she just wasn't ready to go so she is home with me daily--I keep 3 infants in our home. She did however attend Mother's Day Out for two years, from 3-5 years so above and beyond what we do at home she was exposed to learning there and didn't master much of anything. We have two older bio son's, 19 and 15 and have never had this problem before. I am hoping someone will have some insite on this and will be able to offer some questions I might need to ask our ped next week. A friend suggested that maybe she has some fluid on her ears that is causing the problems and that we should get that checked to rule out needing tubes, she did have a lot of ear infections as a baby/toddler.
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do i remember she got a leapster for christmas? what games does she have....does she have letters on the loose or letter factory? what about the letter factory leap frog video? honestly...this is how all 3 of my littles learned their letters. other than that, if you have a feeling that she even MIGHT have a learning issue of some sort, call the school district, tell them you held her out a year and why, and that you are worried about there being an issue. you should be able to ask to have her tested to see if she qualifies for services through the school that may improve the areas she is struggling in. i am a licensed teacher, even though i now stay at home and homeschool my first grader. but back in my days as a teacher, my favorite thing to do was sit in on iep meetings. :) so between my experiences there, teaching, and now homeschooling, i have a few tricks up my sleeves. so PLEASE feel free to pm me if you need ideas, suggestions, or just to chat. :)
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I know you mentioned tubes/fluid, but has she had her hearing thoroughly checked by an audiologist? Just wondering if there's a hearing issue at all. Auditory Processing Disorder also leaps out at me, but obviously testing is needed.I second Mommy's suggestion of having her tested by the district you are in. I also want to confirm that she is a HUGE help with all this stuff!!!:)
Like MommytoEli and Crick suggested, I would have her hearing checked by an a audiologist and I would also get a full check done by an opthomologist. Just to rule out hearing or sight issues. And then definetly follow through with the school district after that. Ours has an amazing array of services. We have been going through some of this with my son. Trying to figure out what exactly is going on after holding him back from kindergarten as well. It is hard. Good luck!
She did get a Leapster 2 for Christmas and it has done a lot of good already that I can tell as far as holding a pencil and tracing the different shapes and lines and listening to directions--not always following :) them. She has Pet Pals, Princess and the Frog, Disney Worlds of Enchantment and Letters on the Loose. We also have the Leapfrog letter and number videos. I have honestly done nothing different with her than we did with our boys, other than work with her MORE if that is possible so I am sure there is some sort of problem. She has done EVERYTHING 4-6 months late from the very beginning so I was sure holding her back this year would help her be ready to start next year, now I'm worried she isn't and if she should not be able to make it she will be too old to hold back, I hope I didn't do wrong. We did have her hearing checked when she was about 18months so that we could get speach services to come to our house until she turned 3 and it was fine then but she also had many ear infections after that time so I am going to have them check it again to be sure, she seems to hear fine but as I said before, it could be tone. Thank you so much for your input, I is so nice to have others who understand and can help put my mind at ease. Mommy, I very well may be contacting you!!!
You didn't do wrong holding her back!:) Now's the time to do it and just get the services in for her right when she starts school. If I had known that my youngest had dyslexia at age 5, I would have held him back. They don't test for it before age 7 here though and I just didn't know enough about LD's to know he wasn't just going to "catch up". (My older boys both got slow starts on reading, but by the end of 1st grade, their lightbulbs turned on so I thought my youngest would be the same)
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Just a thought too, sometime LD doen't show up (according to testing) due to the age of the child. What 5 and 6 year olds need to know on those test to score well is very little. I'm not trying to discourage testing, just something to keep in mind. If she doesn't test out LD at this age, it's still a possibility.
I know in my heart I didn't do wrong by holding her back, besides, I got an extra year with her LOL. I'm just wondering if home schooling might be right for her, we've talked about it for years with our boys and I did home school 6th grade with our oldest but he wanted to go back the next year. I'm going to talk more with my husband about this and see what he thinks, even if it's just for kindergarten. Lazshay, I understand what you are saying, at 5 1/2 she will not have to do much to pass I'm sure. We'll just have to stay on top of it all through the years and retest often as needed.
Even if you feel homeschooling will be in her best interest, you may still want to pursue testing through the school or privately. Sometimes it helps to have all the information you can get from testing about strengths and weaknesses, or learning styles. Also, should you move her into school later, she would not go without support then. It is difficult to assess LD in children her age, but a lot of times there are language processing issues, etc. that do show up (which in my experience tell you a lot about future reading challenges). Good luck to you and your family!
Well, here we are almost two years later and still struggling. Castle went to Kindergarten last year and although she did well she came away without having learned all the basics needed to succeed in first grade. She's still in speech class for articulation issues and we have started the process of testing though the school to see what problems she does have. She will be 8 in May, still can't count to 100, hasn't been able to master any addition and subtraction facts--although the class is marching right along without her :mad:. The beginning of the year she was doing well with spelling words but since Christmas she has failed ever single test, since the words have gotten harder, she does great with her reading words and is beginning to read now.
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I'm sorry things are not yet on par and hope the tests show a specific learning issue so that they can address it. Sounds like she has a processing disorder of some type - seems like she sees the whole picture but not all the bits and pieces based on what you posted.It will be good to know so you are able to advocate for her!:) When will the tests be completed/
I am thinking processing problem. I only have experieince with Auditory processing. My son has such trouble with auditory processing. He has compensated in many areas with visual processing. His visual processing speeds are outstanding. Auditory processing is impaired. Although he has better than average hearing, the processing is impaired. It can be so confusing to people that don't understand the processing brain. "But he hears fine" Should could have a problem processing both auditory and visual. I wouldn't necesarrily count on school testing. Look at private testing as well. I scheduled a CAP eval myself because school told me he WAS NOT a CAP kid. They were wrong. They also laughed at me when I told him he has Aspergers. "WE ARE PROFESSIONALS, HE DOES NOT HAVE ASPERGERS AND I DON'T KNOW WHO WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU SUCH A THING" Well, it is 4 years later and docs are still saying he has Aspergers.
Not sure if a visual exam was done by a doc not the school --- two of my kids tested with such severe astigmatism that it was affecting not only their behaviors, learning but also how they viewed the world. The doc said that they had just overcompensated and thought that was how everyone saw the world. It took 2 years for my son to realize that his glasses were an important part of his daily life..... he always has to have them on now and they are rarely broken. My daughter has only had hers for 6 months and still struggles in alot of areas. She has come along way and is not real far behind but behind none the less. I am hoping by first grade things will improve somewhat. Oddly, enough when the school tested my son last year they said that he needed glasses (he had them and was wearing them during the test) and needed to see an eye doc --- he just had a few months earlier. Needless to say I don't trust the schools hearing and eye screens....
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