Zack is our first born (gee, maybe we should play "count the labels in this post.") He was the first grand child for my Mom and his first five years (or so) were everything that we could have asked for. He had a natural schedule that allowed us to sleep, initiated potty training at 16 months, and entertained all that he met with those blue eyes and that big smile.
He has always been a fiercely independent, self-sufficient child. Even at the age of 2, when he had the flu and I wanted to sleep in his bed, instead of coming and going all night, Zack would say "You go your bed now, Momma." He just didn't want me in his space. During his play time, he relished in creating and building new things out of every day, household items and was always SO proud to show us what he'd done. We visited the library every week and sang our ABC's, checking out age appropriate books, working to learn the basics of letter-sound correlation. As a teacher, I just knew that I would have Zack reading in no time. Learning the letters wasn't so difficult for him, but when it came to understanding/remembering the sounds that the letters made, it was a chore.
Since Zack was our first child, I thought that this was just normal; that his Kindergarten teacher would use a magic formula to teach him what I could not. By end of first grade, we realized that Zack was not learning at the same rate as other children. His teachers chalked it up to "immaturity," so we waited. By the middle of second grade, we were spending hours on homework and Zack was in tears, out of frustration. I began to talk with his school about testing him for a learning disability and they suggested waiting a little longer to see if he might catch up. At the end of second grade, I requested the testing and was told that he really didn't seem to have a disability, and he wasn't tested. By mid- third grade, I put my foot down and demanded testing. I insisted that Zack was far brighter than his reading and writing were showing.
The initial testing showed an IQ of 126 and a reading level 2 grades below where he should have been. The school told us that Zack would now be classified as having a "learning disability" and placed in a "mainstreamed" classroom with some "regular" kids and some special education children. We quickly realized that this would not be sufficient for his needs. The classes moved more slowly, so he was bored. He was given reading support, but it dealt more with comprehension than decoding words. Zack continued to struggle to decode and we requested further testing. At that point, the district informed us that they don't do prescriptive diagnostics and that if we wanted that, they would pay to have independent testing done.
So, we took Zack to a reading specialist and he was diagnosed as having phonological dyslexia.
This diagnosis was a huge relief to us. Now that we knew WHAT it was (a-hem, we had a LABEL), we thought it would be easier to work around or through it. We worked with our Committee on Special Education (CSE) to formulate a plan, utilizing the Wilson SRA program and, immediately saw some improvement. We were thrilled to see Zack come home less frustrated every day, but homework continued to be a challenge. When Zack went to Middle School, we saw a noticeable drop in his performance. He would do his homework but forget to turn it in or lose it between home and school, and he was as frustrated as ever with reading. He was placed in a computer program called Read-180 which claims to have had great success with students with learning disabilities.
Unfortunately, the program did not work for Zack. He was able to listen to a story and answer comprehension questions (that were read aloud via computer) but could not actually read the text. His writing continued to be a struggle, impacting his written assignments, as well as note taking. His difficulties in reading impacted every area of his education. He was assigned to a "resource room" program, where he went for re-teaching and homework assistance, but continued to struggle. Conferencing with his teachers, administration, and the special education department did not help. The district offered him MORE resource room time and MORE Read-180, so we were looking at MORE of a program that didn't work. All the while, we were watching Zack become more and more defeated. He hated school. He hated his teachers. He hated us for our constant hounding about school. Around the middle of 7th grade, we realized that something had to give, but we had no idea what.
We took Zack back to the reading specialist for further testing and got confirmation that he was falling further behind in his reading skills. When asking for suggestions, the Doctor suggested many things, including smaller class sizes, and use of a laptop with a text to voice program for Zack's textbooks. He also suggested a daily phonics program, such as Orton-Gillingham, and stated that Zack needed to "over learn" the rules of phonics until the rules became second nature, helping him to decode more fluently. When we took the recommendations to our CSE meeting, we were told that Read-180 is one of the best programs available and that it focuses on phonics enough to help Zack. When we grew more adamant about the need to implement an Orton-Gillingham based program, we were told that the district didn't have the funds and that we could not "compel" them to follow the doctor's recommendations. They wanted to continue with more of the same and we were not going to let another year of frustration trudge by.
A friend had mentioned The Gow School, a private (read, expensive) boarding school specializing in Dyslexia. The school is only 30 minutes from our home and would not come cheap. The tuition was more I make teaching in a year. After much debate, we decided to have Zack interview at the school and file for financial aid. Zack was accepted and we were offered slightly less than half in financial aid. Even at that price, the tuition went far beyond anything we would be able to afford. After talking with current students and their parents, as well as many dyslexics who had not gone to Gow we felt that it would be worth the price to send him there. So, we reluctantly asked my parents if we could use the money that they'd set aside for Zack's college education. WITH the financial aid, it was just enough for a year at The Gow School. Our hope was that one year would give him enough basic skills to get him through public high school. We have maxed out every credit card and are in the hole every single month in order to keep him in school there.
Four days into the school year, we knew that we had made the right decision. In addition to assistive technology on his own laptop (like electronic textbooks with text to voice, etc.) he was in small classes with teachers who were trained in Orton Gillingham- many of whom were former students at The Gow School, and dyslexic just like Zack. There was no more shame or fear of participation because all of Zack's classmates were in the same boat. The school has high expectations and Zack earns high grades. He has grown so much in the three months that he has been there. I fear for what will happen to him if he returns to public school, so I am on a mission to keep him at Gow. How? I guess that's why I'm here. Got any suggestions???
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