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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

What Does Gifted Plus Delayed Mean Again, Folks? Say It with Me Now:

Took Isaac for another school district assessment today, to see if he would qualify for occupational therapy and physical therapy services through the school district to help with his sensory disorder.

Motor skills score? 24th percentile. Totally qualifies him for services.

Verbal skills score? 98th percentile. Almost certainly totally DISqualifies him for services.

Again.

Because, you see, they average the scores.

And one very high score plus one very low score equals one incredibly non-descriptive average score.

*sigh*

Genius obscures disorder obscures genius.

While he was there he was sitting across from a poster that had different cartoon faces on it that were supposed to represent different emotions. And he asked the woman giving him his test, "Why does that poster say 'Guilty'?"

She looked at me, utterly stunned, and said, "He can read?" And then when I said yes, she gave me a sympathetic look that very clearly meant I'm really sorry, but you guys are totally screwed. What she actually said out loud was, "Looks like he may be another one of those kids who just falls through the cracks."

I say we need to seal these #@&$* #@% cracks.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

averaging the scores, since when? services are supposed to be based on need, not averages. Have you contacted your local P.A.V.E. group? They know ways in and around these school rules and what is legal. It makes no sense that high verbal skills negate poor motor skills.

Kim said...

Oh, honey. I have nothing helpful other than [insert expletive here].

Anonymous said...

Look into 'twice-exceptional' giftedness. Hoagie's has good info: http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/twice_exceptional.htm

Another good article (I know both the author and the subject's mother): http://www.stlouiskidsmagazine.com/twiceexceptional.html

The gifted need advocates. You have to be an advocate, especially if your child is twice-exceptional -- if you are interested, just say so in comments and I would be very happy to give you the name of a very good psychologist who specializes in these matters. Good luck.

Signed,
An Advocate

Jaelithe said...

Anonymous Advocate,

I am always interested on information about children with special needs. However, part of the reason I am currently trying to get services through the school district is that our health insurance company is exceedingly restrictive when it comes to covering the services my son needs. I doubt they would cover psychiatric care; we already struggle to get them to pay for the occupational therapy that is covered under their own guidelines, and they have tried all sorts of sly tricks to overcharge us or deny payment to the OT's office.

We are already paying hundreds of dollars a month out-of-pocket for the therapy my son receives, on top of our insurance premiums, and that's WHEN services are actually covered. We can't afford much more.

Still, I like to speak with anyone who is interested in advocating for children with special needs. I'd be happy to feature an interview with the psychologist on my blog if he or she is interested in having a platform to talk about helping children with developmental disorders.

Jeannette E. Spaghetti said...

Gulp / Sigh

Anonymous said...

I've got one of those too. She's not dumb enough for special ed so we pay privately to get her the help she needs. We can afford it but most cannot. So what happens to those kids?

LisaS said...

what school district was this? I've never heard of such a thing ....

But I do know that getting services for gifted kids is tough. my youngest has symptoms of dyslexia/dysgraphia, but the district won't address it until 2nd grade. I'll obviously have to before that.

sorry it's such a struggle ...