Family: 10 Ways You Can Advocate For Your Child With A Learning Disability

10 Ways You Can Advocate For Your Child With A Learning Disability

Written by Sandy Gauvin

Did you know that you are repparttar

most important person in your child’s life? Of course you did.

But did you know that parents of children with learning disabilities can also be their child’s most effective advocate.

What exactly is an advocate? An advocate is someone who speaks up for someone else, or who acts on behalf of another person. As a parent, you know your child better than anyone else, and you are in repparttar 110967 best position to speak for him and act on his behalf.

Here are 10 ways you can do that:

1. Realize from repparttar 110968 beginning that advocating for your child takes a lot of time. Advocating involves a great deal of research, meeting time, and communication. That’s a given. But repparttar 110969 end result will be a successful,responsible, happy young adult who will be able to survive repparttar 110970 pitfalls of repparttar 110971 real world.

2. Be informed. The more you know about what is going on with your child, repparttar 110972 more comfortable you will be in helping others understand him. Here are some ways you can become informed: a.Read all you can about learning disabilities (especially your child’s learning disability). b.Attend conferences. That’s a great way to learn and make contact with other people faced with similar issues. c.Ask questions - seek answers. d.Join a support group if there is one available. You can learn a lot from a support group.

3. Become familiar with repparttar 110973 rules and regulations that apply to your child’s special education program. You request copies of repparttar 110974 regulations from your local school district office (the special education office, if your district has one) or from your state Department of Education. If you have difficulty understanding these rules and regulations, don’t be afraid to ask repparttar 110975 special education director or your child’s special education teacher to explain them to you.

4. Work together closely with repparttar 110976 professionals who work with your child. This should be done in a positive, cohesive way in order for repparttar 110977 child to gain repparttar 110978 maximum benefit. Get to know these people - talk with them on a regular basis. Volunteer in repparttar 110979 classroom. Don’t be afraid to ask for a meeting with repparttar 110980 teacher(s) if you see something going on at home that can be helped at school, or vice versa.

5. Keep track of repparttar 110981 paperwork that is given to you at repparttar 110982 team meetings. This is valuable information that should be kept in an organized place so that you can refer to it easily. If you aren’t sure how to do this, talk with repparttar 110983 special education director or special education teacher. They have a system to keep repparttar 110984 records organized in repparttar 110985 office. Perhaps they would share that with you.

So, My Child Has Been Recommended for Testing - What Do I Do Now?

Written by Sandy Gauvin

You’ve just received a call from your child's teacher. As your blood pounds in your ears, you hear her explain how she has noticed your child having difficulty with some academic subject in school. Your child is not understanding math or reading repparttar

way

other children do. So she would like your permission to proceed with testing to find out what exactly is causing repparttar 110967

problem.

So what do you do next?

The first thing is, Don't panic. This referral for testing simply means that she's asking for your permission to find out whether a learning disability is evident, or, if not, how she can help your child. She wants to know 1) how your child learns best, 2) where repparttar 110968 child's learning strengths are, and 3) where his learning weakeness lie. This does NOT mean she thinks your child is stupid or that you are a bad parent. She sees that your child does very well in many areas of learning, but there are one or two areas that are really just not "clicking". When your child is referred, it’s always a good idea to meet with repparttar 110969 teacher in person. Arrange to sit down and talk with repparttar 110970 teacher to discover specifically why she has recommended an evaluation. What is she seeing that causes concern? Can she show you some samples of your child's work that illustrate repparttar 110971 problem? It's a good idea to include repparttar 110972 special education teacher in repparttar 110973 meeting as well. She will be able to further clarify why these indicators are cause for concern. She can also explain repparttar 110974 referral and evaluation process to you. One indication that there is a problem might be that repparttar 110975 child gets very good grades in math, but his reading achievement is below average for his age or grade. He is not reading at repparttar 110976 same level that most of repparttar 110977 other students of his age are reading at. There is a big difference between his learning in math and his learning in reading. If he is old enough, there may be standardized test scores that also show a huge difference. Ask repparttar 110978 teacher to show you that information. You may have noticed other indications at home, but thought they were just "kid things". If you ask your child to do 2 or 3 things in a row, does he forget much of your instruction? When you ask him a question, does he have difficulty expressing repparttar 110979 answer? Are his room, his book bag, or his locker always disorganized, making it difficult for him to find things? Does he lose his assignment book or his homework frequently? Does he have trouble socially? Does he have trouble paying attention? What does repparttar 110980 teacher see at school? Ask her.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>