Kind of off-topic but still school related

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I am in need of your opinions. My daughter, , just turned 8 in Dec. She has

been in speech therapy since she was 22 months. She had a minimal vocabulary and

then kind of " lost " her words. But she still managed to get what she wanted

because she was independent enough or didn't ask for much that wasn't already

given her. I'd been through speech therapy with , so I knew enought to try

and not anticipate what she wanted before she wanted it so she'd have to ask. We

had to start signing a few words for her in order for us to communicate. She

started to improve once she turned 3 and started speech at the local school. Her

speech didn't really start to become really conversational until Kindergarten,

in which she was almost 6 because of her birthdate. Then she started to really

" blossom " .

However, she still has major problems like word order and sometimes has the

wrong word for what she is trying to say. Everyone at school just thinks, " Oh,

she's in speech therapy, so she'll have to work on these issues. "

Starting in Kindergaren, she had a hard time hearing beginning sounds. She took

a much longer time mastering that. Then she took longer than the others in

mastering ending sounds. But the teacher didn't see anything wrong-because she

is in speech.

She has struggled to " hear " consonant blends and most vowel blends. I believe

she has an auditory processing disorder. Her word order in sentences are out of

order a lot. When asked to repeat what is said, she sometimes uses a different

word. For example, the other night I was playing with an electronic learning

thing and it says, " B SAYS " buh " . When I had her repeat it back to me, she'd

say, " B IS 'buh'. " I would randomly pick out different letters and for each one,

the electronic thing would use the word says, and she would repeat it back as

" is " . When I got to the " K " , she kept hearing J. I would still randomly pick

out letters, even the J, and when I'd get to the K, she'd hear J.

We are also seeing her have major difficulty with comprehending what we say/ask.

She will, at least, say, " I don't get it. " She has a lot of recall issues as

well. I'm sure they work on the words that they have for spelling each week and

we are to give her a " quiz " on them on Thursday night. Well, this past week's

words included ai blends. Pain was spelled pane. Paint she spelled pant. (She is

" hearing the a in pant as a long vowel and doesn't get that she needed to add

the i in order to get the sound/word she was supposed to spell.)

One week she added the letter o to many of the words that didn't have an o or o

sound in them.

I believe there is a lower IQ issue we are dealing with as well. I know that

eventually she will be " labeled " - " slow " . But for now, the teacher says there

isn't a problem. They are " blaming " all of her issues on her speech. AND the

fact that we have a large family-they think she isn't " hearing " properly because

of the chaos in the house. Okay, then why does she exibit the same issues when

she is one-on-one at my mom's house? There is no one else there, and she does

the same.

Yes, we've had her hearing checked. Several times because of her speech.

What we have been seeing was really bad over the summer. I'd ask her to look for

something in the kitchen and she'd go to the piano and look for it. The other

night she got up at 1am, thinking she'd heard me call her for school. She got

up, got dressed, went downstairs, ate her breakfast, made her snack and packed

her bookbag. She finally came up and knocked on our bedroom door and asked if

I'd called her. I told her I hadn't and to go back to bed. Only when she got

back up at 6:30 did she tell me that she had gotten ready for school. I asked

her if she wondered where I was during the time because I'm usually up when I

get her up. She just had this blank expression on her face and was like, " Ummm.

No. " I asked her if she thought I was in the bathroom. She replied that she

didn't. I asked her if she thought I was in my room getting dressed. She said

she didn't. I asked her if she thought about why I wasn't downstairs with her.

She said she didn't.

She doesn't know how to tell time. But even if she did, she wouldn't know what

it meant. (She is in 2nd grade.) I realize that's not such a big deal for a

2nd-grader, but I know that they've had a " unit " on time.

The problem I am having is that the teacher doesn't feel that there is anything

wrong. When we had our parent-teacher conferences (normal before the first

report cards come home), we talked about the possibility of the CAPD, and she

didn't know what it was. She showed me that had passed all her testing with

at age appropriate scores. She did, however, score VERY poorly on vowel blends.

Even when I had her IEP in Dec., the teacher said that she didn't see anything

wrong.

I have started leaving notes in 's journal for her spelling words to show

the teacher what she is doing. didn't understand a worksheet on greater

than and less than. I explained how the wider side of the symbol " eats " the

larger number. Drew the alligator and everything. She couldn't tell me which was

the larger number. She had no idea. When I mentioned it to the teacher, she

said, " I can't believe that! We went over all that in class!! "

I tried to see about having her tested BEFORE school started this fall. However,

I was told that since she was not showing any signs academically, that there was

no point in having her tested. She is " passing " everything in class.

During the break for Christmas, we have been really wondering, from the behavior

she's exhibited, how on earth they don't see anything at school, unless she has

developed coping skills to deal with things. I'm very annoyed at the school for

not " seeing " what is going on. I know she has to have some comprehension issues

unless she is " spoon-fed " all day long.

I know the speech teacher was out on maternity leave until the Friday before the

break, so she hasn't seen what has been doing. So she hasn't really had

time to evaluate what has been going on.

I was so convinced last week that I was going to demand they test her once they

got back in school, but now I'm not sure what to do....

Any suggestions would be helpful. I know I have the right to request the

testing. I'm just not sure I can trust the teacher to be honest enough to say

that there is a problem. OR I don't even know if she's paying enough attention.

had this teacher back when he was in 2nd grade. I know she's had a lot of

teaching since then, but still...... I went into the year giving her the benefit

of the doubt, but she has yet to show me any reason to not think that she isn't

seeing anything because she isn't paying attention.

Help....???

-Melinda