Re: Lymes and Gifted testing

[Guest guest]

Personally, I wouldn't put the pressure of a gifted program on a child with Lyme

that is having trouble with distractions, not wanting to read, etc). The

pressure of being in a gifted program, even if intellectually capable, can

actually work against a child with Lyme as the stress can exacerbate things.

In my opinion it is far better to wait until a child is at a better point in

their illness before going with the gifted or advanced classes. Last school

year my daughter was in Honors English (9th grade), she ended up dropping the

Honors class and going down to 9th grade English because the work they were

doing in Honors was a bit much for her with " Lyme brain " . If we had changed her

schedule to start with, it would have been easier on her.

As it is now, she is in the homebound schooling program because she can not

function through a school day. However, now that the stress and the physical

exertion of school is out of the picture, she actually added a class halfway

through the semester because she didn't have enough work to even keep her busy

for 4 hours a week. As a 10th grader this year, this semester (went on

homebound schooling in March), she is taking Government (11th grade class),

Economics (11th grade class), English 10, World Studies, Entrepreneurship (added

2 weeks ago when the class started at the beginning of Feb and she is now caught

up), and Drawing and Painting (the teacher is modifying assignments for her so

that she could continue to take this class. She had to drop her 2nd semester of

Geo Phys (science) since it is lab based and can't be completed on homebound.

She is doing better physically than when she was in school because she doesn't

have the stress and the long days.

What I would address, in a formal letter to go in the files, is that the school

did the testing without parental permission. I would make it known that you are

not happy about that, and are concerned that since the testing was done at a

time when your child was not doing well physically (or however you wish to word

it), that not only did it have a detrimental effect on his ability to qualify at

this time, you don't want to the results from this testing to affect any future

chances he may have to qualify.

I could say more, however got to run to take my daughter to meet her teacher for

her homebound time.

Charlotte

iamwhimsy@...

http://whimsy.t35.com

[ ] Lymes and Gifted testing

Wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this. My son (age 7) recently tested

postive for Lymes... Before we had the diagnosis he was evaluated for the gifted

program at his school. Even before he was diagnosed I had a feeling something

was up (was unusually distracted not wanting to read, achy) so I had not signed

the permission form for him to be evaluated but they tested him anyways and at

the second meeting with the team he wasn't accepted.

He's only been on on week of amoxicillian. (previsou post.) I don't want to

come across as a pushy parent - wondering if anyone else had suggestions for how

I can positively communicate with the school regarding this situation. I don't

know how much the lymes would have affected him at this point, but I do know he

was acting sick... not fun to take such tests when you aren't feeling well.

Thank you!

[Guest guest]

This same thing happened to my eldest daughter when she was a 4th grader and I

ended up meeting with the head of the TAG program and explaining my daughters

situation to her and they agreed to retest her and she ended up making it into

the program.  For both my Lyme daughters TAG classes have been a great

experience for them but I agree with the Mom who said it may be too much for

your son at this time depending on the school district. 

Our district pulls the elementary kids out one day a week and they go to a

different school and do fun challenging projects so it was a great fit for

them.  I believe other districts are more intense in their TAG programs and it

puts alot of pressure on the kids who end up being stressed out instead of

having a fun learning experience.  And as we all know stress is a killer with

this disease.  If you think it would be a good experience for your son,

schedule an appointment with the TAG administrator and explain your son's

situation and hopefully as I found they are interested in learning more about

Lyme and wish to help your son get into the program.  Barbara

From: katrinkask8 <katherinesk8@...>

Subject: [ ] Lymes and Gifted testing

Date: Thursday, May 6, 2010, 8:10 AM

 

Wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this. My son (age 7) recently

tested postive for Lymes... Before we had the diagnosis he was evaluated for the

gifted program at his school. Even before he was diagnosed I had a feeling

something was up (was unusually distracted not wanting to read, achy) so I had

not signed the permission form for him to be evaluated but they tested him

anyways and at the second meeting with the team he wasn't accepted.

He's only been on on week of amoxicillian. (previsou post.) I don't want to come

across as a pushy parent - wondering if anyone else had suggestions for how I

can positively communicate with the school regarding this situation. I don't

know how much the lymes would have affected him at this point, but I do know he

was acting sick... not fun to take such tests when you aren't feeling well.

Thank you!

[Guest guest]

Hello,

I am a teacher, a mother of two kids with Lyme, have Lyme myself and have been

somewhat involved in TAG testing.  Each state/sch district might have

different policies but here is what I understand.  The school should not have

tested your son without your permission unless it was a screening that was given

to all the other kids as well.  I also think kids can be retested after two

years.

So this is only my opinion... don't worry about it if he is in the program or

not, right now.  If he's not well, he doesn't need any extra pressure.  I've

especially seen this in my younger son.  Any new " project " at school totally

stresses him out.  There are many other ways to provide/gain TAG types of

enrichment without being in the program.  And sometimes the programs aren't all

that great; it's just something that the district has to show that they are

doing.  So for now, you might just want to find out if the test was a screening

for all, then if not, write a note for his file stating he was not well so you

did not give permission to test but that you might consider retesting in the

future.  I don't know if that will help or not-- just a thought.

Hope that helps.

Elaine

 

[Guest guest]

Thank you everyone. They will retest next fall if we decide to.. It was an

individual evaluation (not a group test) so I am a little concerned it was done

without permission forms, but I think it was done with the best of intentions.

This entire Lymes experience is new for us... Thanks for sharing information

and experiences with a newbie.

[Guest guest]

I wish I had news for you on communicating with the school but I dont. With

's work falling so far behind and him not catching up, now I got CPS

harrassing me because of all this. UGH !!!

From: katrinkask8 <katherinesk8@...>

Subject: [ ] Lymes and Gifted testing

Date: Thursday, May 6, 2010, 11:10 AM

Wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this. My son (age 7) recently tested

postive for Lymes... Before we had the diagnosis he was evaluated for the gifted

program at his school. Even before he was diagnosed I had a feeling something

was up (was unusually distracted not wanting to read, achy) so I had not signed

the permission form for him to be evaluated but they tested him anyways and at

the second meeting with the team he wasn't accepted.

He's only been on on week of amoxicillian. (previsou post.) I don't want to come

across as a pushy parent - wondering if anyone else had suggestions for how I

can positively communicate with the school regarding this situation. I don't

know how much the lymes would have affected him at this point, but I do know he

was acting sick... not fun to take such tests when you aren't feeling well.

Thank you!

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