What to do for a mild learning discrepancy in a child?
My 10 year old daughter has always struggled in school, in all subjects. We had her tested by our school district and privately and both test reveal she has what they are calling mild learning discrepancy but does not qualify for services. Since kindergarten she has struggled. Things that other children just absorb with no effort, frustrates her and I can see she just doesn't absorb it. Has anyone had a child in a similar situation? We want to get her help but don't know what kind. Can anyone recommend something that has worked, what kind of support? Is this just something that she is going to have bear till she's done with school. Obviously, her self esteem is low. She has not yet found something she is really good at to offset the negative affects of her academic challenges.
I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thank you
Parent Replies
If you haven't already done so please have a neuropsychologist do testing so that you can move forward in an informed direction. Then you can proceed with intervention. We started working with an educational therapist early on (wish we had started even earlier). It's well worth the investment!
It's not clear what exactly she's struggling with and why from your post, but you could hire an educational therapist, send her to Lindamood-Bell (very expensive), move her to a private school with small class size and more attention, move her to a school specializing in LD. It really depends on what the problem is. Has anyone had a child in a similar situation? Many, many, many kids are like that. Take a look at your kid's test results and see where the problems lie and plot a course from there. If the information isn't specific you may need to do further testing.
I can say from my experience that hoping and worrying don't help at all, and in many ways make it worse. If you're worrying a lot, get help for yourself. Trust me on this.
For my daughter, having her enrolled in things that she did succeed at (art, athletics) helped her self esteem. Tutoring was worth every penny- we decided there was no point in saving for college if she wasn't succeeding now. Counseling helped her with anxiety around testing, I wish we would have done more focused academic counseling, because I think there were some messages about the value of hard work, and the way learning is like a muscle that can be strengthened, a skill that can be developed, that could have been better communicated to her. But, to have someone try to help her identify what strengths she has, and to create strengths when possible, can make all the difference. And, there are a lot of intellectual abilities that can develop over time, with support. Some kids just develop later than others. Don't let her feel like she's less wonderful because she isn't moving at the same speed as anyone else. My daughter is great with little kids, creative, loving, and has many strong friendships. And, she can't remember math facts, or spell worth beans. Schools are set up to work for a remarkably small subset of kids. If you can figure out an alternative, it's worth a try!
The districts almost ALWAYS seem to say your child does not qualify! My son struggled too, was told he did not qualify. I requested an outside assessment which showed he TOTALLY qualified, then he received an IEP with modifications. I hired a great Slingerland tutor for him which made huge improvements and did 'Fastforward' by Gemm leaning with him an hour a day. This helped a lot. Do NOT let the district put you off!!!! The Slingerland and Fastforward were life savers for him.