Assessment & Evaluation

How do I set up an IEP for my child with ADHD?

All parents should start in the school's front office. Ask to speak with an administrator and bring any type of documentation and work samples you may have. In order for an individual to receive any type of accommodations, the individual must provide documentation of a specific disability. For a valid and accurate diagnosis, an individual needs a full psycho-educational evaluation through a licensed or otherwise qualified professional. Ask the school for this type of screening/evaluation.

Note: A diagnosis of ADHD is not enough to qualify a child as learning disabled. In cases where students receive services for an ADHD diagnosis, either through an IEP or a 504 Plan, the coding is usually Other Health Impaired (OHI). The following articles from LD OnLine relate to diagnosis of ADHD and might be useful to you.

• 504 and IEP: Basic Similarities and Differences
• Section 504, the ADA, and Public Schools
• The Educational Implications of ADHD
• Update on Section 504: How Much Will Schools Pay for Compliance?
• Protecting Students With Disabilities

Finally, you may wish to contact any of the following organizations who specialize in advocacy and legal rights of parents:

• Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) COPAA is an independent, nonprofit organization of attorneys, advocates and parents established to improve the quality and quantity of legal assistance for parents of children with disabilities.
• National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) NDRN is the nonprofit membership organization for the federally mandated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Systems and Client Assistance Programs (CAP) for individuals with disabilities.

I think my child may have a learning disability but I'm not sure how to describe to the school exactly what I want assessed. What should I do?

If it is hard to verbally state why you have concerns, bring your child's work samples with you to the school to show what is hard to articulate. A full psycho-educational assessment should give you the answers that you seek.

Before going elsewhere, you might want to find out exactly what services the school system could offer you – and when they could provide them. If the timeframe or suggestions for providing needed services is unacceptable to you, there are independent educational testers that you can go to privately. The following articles will give you an idea of what to expect from the testing process:

• Special Education: Evaluation
• Stages of the Assessment Process
• Basics for Parents
• 10 Steps in the Special Education Process

There are several national organizations that can help you through this process and provide referrals to local professionals. You can contact the International Dyslexia Association or the Learning Disabilities Association. In addition, you can look in your local phone book for “educational testing” or “psycho-educational testing” for someone close to you. LD Online has a Yellow Pages service that might be helpful. There are also educational consultants and educational advocates that can help you through the process locally.

Be a good consumer in this process. Ask potential testers, tutors, and consultants about their experiences and specialization before you choose a provider. You want to make sure that the person you choose will be a good match for your child.

My child's school says that my child is very bright, but they want to hold him back because of his poor reading skills. I want him tested for a reading disability. What should I do?

Because your child is so bright and is still struggling with reading, he may very well be exhibiting some of the characteristics typical of students with a learning disability. It may be helpful to look at the following articles, which describe characteristics that some children with learning disabilities exhibit:

• Early Warning Signs of Learning Disabilities
• Dyslexia: Beyond the Myth
• General Information About Dyslexia

If you see characteristics of your child's reading struggles in these articles, you should state these specific concerns to the professionals at this school and request that your child receive an educational evaluation. This evaluation is free and within your legal rights as a parent to request. This article will give you an overview of the evaluation process:

• Basics for Parents: Your Child's Evaluation

The following article will give you suggestions on how to be the most effective and informed advocate that you can for addressing your child's educational needs:

• Advocacy in Action: You Can Advocate for Your Child!

Whether or not he is found eligible for special services, the evaluation, among other things, will help determine your child's academic strengths and weaknesses and how best he learns. This should make the decision about how to help your child in subsequent years seem clearer.

Because your child is bright, he may be able to compensate, at this point, for any learning difficulties that he might have. But as he gets older and the reading material in school gets more challenging, your child may find it increasingly difficult to compensate and he may fall further behind. This is why the earlier the cause of his reading weaknesses is determined and addressed, the better chance your child has of truly reaching his academic potential.

How can I find a professional who can diagnose a learning disability?

A full psycho-educational assessment would be helpful to give you more information about the way this student learns.

First, find out from a school administrator exactly what services the school system can offer and when they could provide them. Express your concerns and find out the procedures involved in going through a screening process for your child. If the timeframe or suggestions are unacceptable, there are independent educational testers that you can go to privately. The following articles might be helpful to you:

• Stages of the Assessment Process
• Basics for Parents
• 10 Steps in the Special Education Process
• Who Can Diagnose LD and/or ADHD?

There are several national organizations that can help families through this process and give local professional referrals. They might also have information about financial assistance for testing. You might want to contact:

• International Dyslexia Association
• Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA)

In addition, you can look in your local phone book for “educational testing” or “psycho-educational testing” for someone in your area. LD OnLine also has a Yellow Pages service that might be helpful.

Be sure to ask potential testers, tutors, and consultants about their experiences and specializations before choosing a provider.

My child was tested in kindergarten for dyslexia but they didn't find anything. What should I do now that he is in 3rd grade and still struggling with reading and writing?

It is sometimes challenging to detect learning difficulties in very young children. When your child was tested in kindergarten, he may have been able to compensate for his learning challenges to the point where there was little discrepancy between his ability and achievement. In order to be diagnosed with a learning disability, and therefore receive special education services, a child must exhibit both a processing deficit and a discrepancy between what he is capable of doing and what he is actually achieving in school.

As your child gets older, it may be increasingly difficult for him to compensate, so the gap between his ability and achievement may be widening. If your child does have a learning disability, it will be easier to detect now than when he was in kindergarten. The following articles describe characteristics common to children with dyslexia and other learning disabilities. You may want to look through them to see if you recognize some of your child’s challenges in these descriptions:

• General Information About Dyslexia
• Dyslexia: Beyond the Myth
• How Do You Know If Your Child Might Have a Learning Disability?
• LD Basics

If you see some of these characteristics in your child, you may want to request that his school give him an educational evaluation. It is within your rights as a parent to request this free evaluation and to have a vote throughout the evaluation process.

The educational evaluation will help you and the school better understand your child’s academic strengths and weaknesses and how best he learns. The following articles will give you a clearer idea about the evaluation process:

• Basics for Parents: Your Child’s Evaluation

Please be sure to share any of the interventions that you have been trying at home and the concerns you have. The following articles may give you some ideas of how you can make the most of the local screening meeting and subsequent meetings throughout this process:

• How Parents Can Be Advocates for Their Children
• What Is an Effective Advocate?
• Advocacy in Action: You Can Advocate for Your Child!
• Some Common Sense Steps to Resolving Disagreements Between Parents and Schools

Your willingness to help your child at home will go a long way in giving him additional academic and emotional support, as well as the comfort in knowing that he is not alone in his struggles. This next group of articles suggest ways in which you and your child can work together at home:

• Figuring Out Written Words: Practical Ideas for Parents
• Tutoring Strategies for the Primary Grades
• Managing Your Child's Education: Creative and Smart Ideas
• By Car, Train, or Bus! The Sounds of Language On the Go
• Learning to Read, Reading to Learn

Remember that you can be the strongest and most knowledgeable advocate for your son, so trust your instincts and don’t give up! The sooner your son receives the assistance he needs and the quicker you and his teachers can work together to develop a plan for helping him at home and school, the better his outcome for truly reaching his academic potential.

My son is far behind in school both academically and developmentally. Should he stay back a grade?

Your question about retention at grade level is a challenging one. Most of the research done on the subject points to damaging social effects as well as a lack of long term academic improvement for most children. That said, given the way most schools are currently structured, moving students on to higher grades who are lacking skills and knowledge is also unlikely to ensure academic success. The following article may help you understand the challenges involved in that decision process and proposed strategies to overcome the issue.

• Beyond Social Promotion and Retention – Five Strategies to Help Students Succeed

If your school is one in which 1) at-risk students are given intensified learning experiences; 2) differentiated instruction is provided; 3) teachers are continually improving their skills; 4) lessons are geared to ongoing performance assessments; and 5) very young students receive the help they need early and often – you can safely support promotion for your child. If you are not convinced that your child will get the support he needs to succeed in the next grade, you may want to strongly support his retention. In addition to academic factors, it is important to weigh the child's age, size, emotional maturity and physical development when considering retention. Also examine the program that will be offered – it should be a new, challenging experience not a repeat of the same lessons and texts.