The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

proven that late bloomers are rare, that they usually wilt, and that skill deficits consistently prevent them from blooming as readers (Juel, 1988; Francis et al., 1996, Shaywitz et al., 1999). In fact, the research showed that there is about a 90 percent chance that a poor reader in first grade will remain a poor reader.

Specifically, the probability that a child who was a poor reader in first grade would remain a poor reader in fourth grade was . 88 and the probability that an average reader in first grade would become a poor reader in fourth grade was . 12. The probability also showed that an average first-grade reader would remain an average fourth-grade reader was . 87 and the average poor first-grade reader would become an average fourth-grade reader was . 13 (Juel, 1988).

TIP 3: Don’t fall for the “late bloomer, feel good” theory. The research clearly proves that struggling students do not catch up and actually wilt.

If the public school
agrees that your child
may have a disability,
they must evaluate your
child at no cost to you.

TIP 4: Gather information regarding your child’s performance on standardized test scores, report cards, and classroom performance. Identify the strengths and weaknesses and discrepancies in your child’s scores and performance.

language, listening comprehension, and oral expression.

The child’s academic discrepancies must also be related to one or more of the following processing disorders:

Q. What is a learning disability?
According to Education Code Section
56337 (a), a Specific Learning Dis-
ability, as defined in paragraph ( 30) of
Section 1401 of Title 20 of the United
States Code, is a disorder in one or
more of the basic psychological pro-
cesses involved in understanding or
in using language, spoken or written,
which may manifest itself in the im-
perfect ability to listen, think, speak,
read, write, spell or perform math cal-
culations. A student is recognized as
having a Specific Learning Disability
(SLD) when he or she exhibits a signif-
icant discrepancy ( 18 points or more)
between his or her Intellectual Quo-
tient (IQ) score and academic standard
scores in reading, reading comprehen-
sion, math, math reasoning, written
• Attention—the ability to focus and
maintain attention
• Auditory Processing—the perception
and use of auditory stimuli
•;Visual;Processing—use;of;visual;stim-
uli in learning or using feedback from
the eyes to coordinate the movement
of the body, i.e., copying from the
board or book in a timely manner
•;Association—long-term;memory;skills
• Conceptualization—using informa-
tion logically, such as in conclusions,
judgment, inferences, and academic
reasoning skills

Q. Where do I go to determine if
my child has a learning disability?

If the public school agrees that your child may have a disability, they must evaluate your child at no cost to you. The public school may disagree with your analysis, however, and refuse to evaluate your child. If so, the school must notify you of this refusal-to-test decision in writing.

If the school district refuses to evaluate your child, you should do two things immediately:

1. Ask the school district for information about their special education policies and about parents’ rights to disagree with the decision made by the school district.

2. Get in touch with the Parent Training and Information (PTI) Center by contacting the National Information Center for Handicapped Children and Youth (NICHCY) at nichcy@ fhi360.org.

Look at your child’s test scores that you charted above. A common scenario for a learning disabled child is high standard scores in one subject area such as math (average are 85–115 or better) but low scores in other core subject areas such as reading or language arts (lower than 85). Students usually perform in one or more subject areas commensurate with their IQ but much lower in the subject in which they have a learning disability.

TIP 5: Testing to determine if your child has a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) is free. Parents need only request in writing that they suspect their child has a Specific Learning Disability. The school district must then conduct an evaluation to determine if the child has a learning disability.

Dr. Chris Davidson is a licensed educational psychologist, educator, lecturer, author, parent and student advocate. Her approach is based upon a solid foundation in child development, educational assessment and consultation, learning differences, special education laws, and teamwork. Dr. Davidson received her B.S. in elementary education from Rutgers University, her master’s degree in counseling from California State University Long Beach, and her Ed.D. from the University of LaVerne in educational management. www.Drdavidson.com