<p>Her latest book is “Blessings of a B-”…read it people</p>
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<p>I would like to think that, but that hasn’t been my experience. I am not disabled in a way that is physically obvious and I have still endured SO much stigma, and I have been very lucky to have endured a lot less than most because I am able to hide most of my problems. ADHD has largely become more socially “acceptable” but other common LDs are still facing major stigma. I didn’t mean for my comment to offend, I was simply repeating some of the hurtful words that have been said to me… it frustrates me when I think about how much hurt I have been subjected to that people would think it’s a good idea to WANT to have disabled status. That status, at times, comes with a very, very high price. When I hear of someone wishing they had an LD so they could get accommodations like me, I just think, “well, good luck with THAT!” They have no idea what they’re getting themselves into. I had people, in school and on CC, trying to tell me that I didn’t deserve to get into (or graduate from) the university I attended, which was my greatest accomplishment, because I “/obviously/” only got in because of my LDs. To have your every accomplishment cut out from under you isn’t any fun. People think today that LDs are “trendy” and maybe that’s true in certain isolated groups, but most of us don’t feel very trendy and the people who are treating us like crap clearly don’t think we are either.</p>
<p>@padahaha, there is a great deal of blatant ignorance regarding ADHD. People should educate themselves.</p>
<p>I am addressing the parents who have “B” students and want them to be “A” students with meds…is this artificial intelligence? My B student s works very hard…he struggles with his papers and would love to have an A…does this mean that he has an LD ? I want him to reach his potential too…</p>
<p>That is why, to me anyway, that it is so morally reprehensible to misrepresent an LD solely to get extra time on a test. Of COURSE extra time is going to help, for almost any kid, LD or not. But there are pressures among the elite, where their child hangs their hat for four years is like another car or boat or guest house. So any perceived advantage to them is worth indirectly teaching their child to be morally bankrupt.</p>
<p>If your child has trouble focusing (even on things he/she is extremely interested in for example) have him/her tested by a trained Psychiatrist.</p>
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<p>I have an ADHD HS freshmen son who is currently NOT on medication. He struggles to be B+/A- students at his HS (all honors, plus 1 AP, plus 1 college class above full load at HS). </p>
<p>He was taking medication last year (only one year) in middle school and he was an A student when he was taking his medications and no struggles to get those As. The way he described it is that it was like everything would calm down in his head. It did not make him smarter, it made him concentrate more. So, to answer your question if you son does not have LD or ADHD, there is no way the medication would make your son get As. In most cases, at some point it becomes apparent that the issue is LD or ADHD. If you saw my son, you would know right away that something is wrong - he always moves, he cannot stand or sit still. </p>
<p>As a side note, our family decided to discontinue use of medication, because we did not see it as a long term solution. My son also never received any accommodations from school or during tests (our choice, it was offered), because I don’t believe he will continue receiving them when he enters the adult world. However, because of all the pain I had to go through watching him struggle (and receiving nasty comments from school administration), I understand why parents make different decisions from mine.</p>
<p>JNM123…agree with you…just want those LD tests to be flagged so the colleges know and that might make a parent think again about getting a Dr to diagnose a child as LD to purposely get extra time on ACT/SAT tests</p>
<p>They should just allow everyone to take as much time as they want on the exams. Most kids could not score 2200+ SAT or 34+ ACT no matter how much time they are given. I think the score increase due to extra time is minimal. Parents who think trying to get a false diagnosis will substantially raise scores are fooling themselves and would be better off pursuing some form of enrichment for their child. All these parents need to look at their kid’s untimed home practice tests and see what those scores are before going to all that trouble.</p>
<p>Both my kids learn “differently”, both are very intelligent, but an educational psychologist is able to break down their response & understanding to see exactly where they perform much above the norm & where they struggle.</p>
<p>For example my oldest who tested w a 160+ iq, really struggled with basic computation. Don’t ask her for change. She has completed organic chemistry and calculus at one of the country’s most rigorous colleges & will receive her grad degree next month, but her learning style will always be a part of her.</p>
<p>When she took the SATs, she didn’t have any trouble getting accommodations. They were also flagged as receiving extra time.
When her sister requested extended time, even though she had an IEP in elementary & middle school, & a 504 in high school, she was refused, so she first took the SAT without accommodations. We appealed, and she was able to take SAT with accommodations the next time, however too late to use her scores for NMS.</p>
<p>When she decided to take the ACT, we bombarded them with documentation and they allowed her to have accommodations.</p>
<p>Incidentally, accommodations are required in workplace if necessary.</p>
<p>As the parent of a 2e child I can tell you it can be very difficult to get a child to use accommodations for fear of the comments by students and teachers. I really got into it with a teacher who refused to allow ds to use a larger scantron, or just circle the answer on the test. The act of taking a test should not be a measure of anything.<br>
Dyslexic kids have usually learned a lot of coping mechanisms. Personally s disclosed his lds on his apps as we didn’t want him accepted anywhere that viewed it as a problem. But reading slower, using a keyboard and using larger print is truly no hardship on anyone else. I dare say you could give me ten times the amount of time and I still wouldn’t be able solve some math problems.
Getting the keyboard accommodation required very specific testing and results, I can’t imagine how you’d fake that one.</p>
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<p>I am not sure about this, especially regarding ACTs, since it is designed to test knowledge recall. I suspect there will be many more 34+ ACT test scores if unlimited time is allowed.</p>
<p>The results of very unscientific experiment at home suggest the same. My son, who is still freshman at HS, can score 32-36 on Reading and Science portions of the test with unlimited time, however his real score from this year ACT on these sections is 27 and 25 respectively. He says there is simply no time to carefully read passages prior to answering question. The math portion is not affected as much by time limit, but only because he already completed HS math curriculum and Math is his strong suit. Yet, he easily gets 36 with unlimited time at home, but 34 when he took ACT for real and his time was limited.</p>
<p>I just think it’s ridiculous for parents of kids without a LD to complain about accommodations given to LD kids.</p>
<p>Give everyone extra time.</p>
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<p>I agree with you about this. Having ADHD child, I can attest first hand, that how many obstacles a child with this kind of handicap faces.</p>
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<p>By “everyone”, do you mean “everyone with LD” or “everyone”? The reason why I am asking is because my point above was that extending extra time to everyone will defeat the purpose of the test at least in ACT case.</p>
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<p>Yes, but if the following is true, what kid wouldn’t qualify for special accommodations?</p>
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<p>We all learn differently and we all have strengths and weaknesses. And we’d all perform better on standardized tests if adjustments could be made to accommodate those weaknesses. The problem is that most families cannot afford an educational psychologist . . . or, for that matter, even know that such a thing exists! So, in the end, two types of kids get accommodations: (1) kids with diagnosed LD’s who really, really need them and have parents assertive enough to go to bat for them and (2) kids whose parents can afford the fancy testing.</p>
<p>And, I apologize, emeraldkity4, if it looks like I’m criticizing the choices you made. I give you credit for recognizing a situation that your oldest daughter’s teachers probably did not recognize or understand. (My son actually sounds a lot like your daughter - can do advanced calculus, but can’t figure out how to add “3” to a number to know what time it is when he calls me from the other side of the country!) The problem is that most kids taking these tests don’t have the advantages your daughter did.</p>
<p>I’d have to agree with the posters above: allowing unlimited time would level the playing field.</p>
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<p>I think it depends on the school district. Ever since my son started Kindergarten, the school administration was begging me to obtain official ADHD diagnosis for him so that they could “help by providing him with special accommodations”.</p>
<p>While I had no idea that ADHD existed, the school district certainly made sure that I do now. </p>
<p>By the way, we did eventually obtained official diagnosis (but not provided that information to his school) and it was mostly covered by health insurance.</p>
<p>Where my problem lies is with my short term memory.
I only can hold so much information in my “active” memory at a time.
In a testing situation, I won’t necessarily be able to pull out information, without some sort of " hook", depending on how the test is written, to find what file drawer in my head holds the information. Also, after three or four hours, my brain is exhausted and it wouldn’t matter how much time I was given.
Fr example, I was in massage school about halfway through an 18 month program. Quite intensive. ( with a cadaver anatomy class) in order to progress,everyone had to take an extensive test on anatomy. Basically we were given many blank sheets of paper and had to fill out th muscles, ligaments, tendons, arteries, nerves, and bones. ( or what we could remember)
We also had to fill our the origin, action and insertion of muscles.</p>
<p>I worked for easily three- four hours, there wasn’t a time limit, and each of my kids have spent as long or longer on tests, but I was worn out and knew that unless I had a nice nap or at least many cups of coffee, I wouldn’t be able to finish.
I had to drop out of the school, which was very disappointing. I had gotten mostly A’s on shorter tests, I did well in clinic, and it was really something I loved doing. Other schools had more accommodating evaluations, but I wanted to go to this one.
I didn’t need to have that level of information in my short term memory to be able to be a competent massage therapist. My physical therapist I think is excellent, but she forgets things all the time, that’s why we take notes!</p>
<p>My style of learning wouldn’t make me successful in jobs where I have to work quickly under pressure, especially if I needed to rattle off long wordy explanations. But I retain much more knowledge than I can access without a hook.The trick has been finding lots of hooks to attach to the info, so if I can’t find one to draw it out, I can find another.</p>
<p>Regarding intelligence testing.
I agree it is expensive. Both my children were in the NICU after birth ( oldest for eight weeks, youngest for just a few days). This qualified them to participate in a special study for high risk infants which they did until they were eight. Part of the study was regular intelligence testing
( which our insurance paid for. I did also pay for them to be reassessed before they took the SATs). </p>
<p>[Tips</a> for Parents: Meeting the Needs of Twice-Exceptional Children](<a href=“http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10140.aspx]Tips”>Resources for Gifted Children & their Families | Davidson Institute)
During one test, it may have been the Stanford Binet, my daughter had equivalent performance on some of the subtexts to someone that was 31 yrs old. Other subtexts found her performance to be equivalent to someone who was 4yrs old. The disparity is indication of a functional disability.</p>
<p>Our local school district does not use intelligence testing for evaluation for gifted programs. They used group administered achievement tests and a student had to score at least two grades above grade level in all area to qualify. So my daughter who scored in the .03% of the population, by an eminent educational psychologist, didnt qualify for a gifted program or any support services from the district, although in some areas she was well above two grade levels, in others she was well below. It was all or nothing in Seattle. ( we chose not to appeal the decision or submit the testing from the UW, since she was receiving aid to attend a private school for gifted children)
Her sister wasn’t as cooperative with being tested, so she qualified for " help" such as it was.</p>
<p>While older daughter taught herself to read when she was three, youngest was still struggling when she was 8. She had “lack of phonemic awareness” ( couldn’t sound out words). It was puzzling to me. Reading was extremely stressful to her from the beginning, yet she had a large vocabulary. For instance she would be reading out loud, but would substitute much more complex words in the sentence, for the ones she didn’t know, but retain the meaning of the sentence. </p>
<p>While the youngest has worked to cope with her dyslexia, even writing for the university magazine & newspaper, oldest probably has the edge in that area, but my youngest has more big picture intelligence. She is still in college, and has struggled at times, but I am confident that once she finds her place she will be enormously successful, because she has a mind that makes connections between things that others can’t see.</p>
<p>Dr John Ratey @ Harvard explained that the brains of students say with ADHD work differently on the same task. Harvard compared functional MRI tests and found on the same tasks, students with learning differences ( in this case ADHD), used different ( & less efficient) parts of their brain than other students without ADHD. Hence the documented need for more time.</p>
<p>Emeraldkity,</p>
<p>You would have loved the school district my D is in. In addition to Gifted program, to which kids are accepted based on standardized testing, they also have exceptionally gifted program, to which kids are accepted based on IQ test performed by licensed psychologist.</p>
<p>The test is free, but parents need to apply their kids for that program. To qualify for that program, the kids have to score in 2% or above.</p>
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<p>Can you provide link to that explanation? I would be interested to read it. Thanks.</p>