A tad overwhelmed...

OK, so may it's more like totally, totally overwhelmed.

Last night we had a meeting with the Developmental Clinic Team, Ash's teachers, the school principal and Junior and I. I went in with low expectations, and wasn't disappointed. The "team" gave their information from all of the testing that Ash received and the teachers sat and listened. They gave some answers when asked, but basically didn't say anything. The resource teacher spent her time being defensive. I have this feeling from her that she thinks I'm a little stupid for pushing for the testing since Ash is "so young" and can't be officially diagnosed until next year. And Ash's teacher, Mrs. O, spent her time looking confused. Anyhow, the team gave thieir information and then gave their recommendations. And the bulk of what they recommended the school is already doing, other than providing Ash with a computer to learn to type ("they don't learn that until grade 3!"), which the team also said would be difficult for Ash to learn anyhow, but once learned is a good thing to know with her difficulties with writing. But the school doesn't have the resources to do that so it's kind of a moot point, or something we have to teach at home. Great.

Here's a summary of what Ash's results were:

- Ash presents with a complex developmental and behavioral profile. Although she is not at a grade level where she can be formally diagnosed with a Learning Disability, she is at significant risk for a Learning Disability in Reading.
- continues to show high average ability to process and reason with verbally presented information (82nd percentile)
- Has low average ability to process and reason with visually-presented information (16th percentile)
- performed below average on all tasks that assessed the visual-spatial and/or visual organization abilities
- Her auditory working memory appears to be low average for her age and short-term memory for visual information (when no reasoning required) appears to be low average to average.
- In Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy testing gives Ash a percentil rank of 12 in Gross Motor testing when combined with Fine motor subtests. In the Gross motor subtests she received a percentile rank of 21 on Body Co-ordination and a 14 on Strength and Agility subtests. On a movement test she scored a 6th percentile.
- Efficient gross motor functioning requires a balance between stability and mobility. Ash is starting from a foundation of hypermobile joints (very loose and hyper-extended) and low tone. A frequently observed compensatory strategy that Ash uses is to over-stabilize herself. Hence, Ash has solid static balance skills, however her dynamic balance is less secure. This means that when she must balance while moving, she has greater difficulty...When confronted with complex movements, even symmetrical ones such as jumping jacks, she quickly lost synchronization of her limbs. She became overwhelmed and confused and her limbs moved randomly.
- Notes from the Educational Consultant: Ash was observed in her Grade 2 class during a Language Arts lesson involving letter writing. Ash copied the notes down slowly. She responded correctly, albeit slowly, to a question posed by her teacher. Ash did not appear to be hyperactive, rather she was more inattentive. She was off task more than she was on-task. The written language task did seem hard for Ash. The teacher cued Ash to follow a direction to clear her desk. Ash did not have shoes on her feet and has difficulty tying shoelaces, according to her teacher. Mrs. O commented that without direct support, Ash produces a miminal amount of work.

So with all of this we have a Developmental Coordination Disorder and a "possibility" of a reading learning disability. The possibility thing really pisses me off, because it's not like things are going to change in the next year. But with all of this testing done, next year when she CAN be diagnosed it shouldn't take much to get the school psychologist to diagnose. I say that now, but I'm sure it won't be an easy task, nothing with the school seems to be easy.

I'm happy to have the notes in my hand because now I have something to work with. But on the other hand, I don't really know where to go from here. Apparently if I have any questions I can call any of the therapists and chat with them, but I just don't know where to start. I've looked up some general Learning Disability web sites, but don't really know where to go from there. I'm starting to feel like school isn't going to work, maybe we need to hold-back this year? I mean, if she is at a early grade 1 level, then by next year at this time wouldn't she be at a grade 2 level, so grade 2 would be a good place for her? But I just don't know. I have this feeling of not knowing where to start. And the usual, not knowing how to help. I guess there isn't an easy help at this stage. But I just hate seeing her fail over and over again.

It goes with the swimming failure. A sport that is supposed to be great for her, with her over-flexible limbs and all, but with her coordination and endurance difficulties it is posing great difficulty. We have enrolled in level 3 for the 4th time, and she is getting quite defeated. Ugh. And when the swimming instructors are all teenagers it's hard to chat with them and have them understand something like a developmental disorder. If they could make balancing on one foot and not moving a sport, then Ash would get the Gold I tell ya.