My daughter was recently diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia....but has struggled in private school for the past two years....This year she is in Public school with special education services and an IEP.....I am scheduled to meet with the TEAM on Monday. My goal is to get an Aide in the classroom for her five days a week throughtout this year. She is in second grade and I believe that the foundation built in the primary grades is the essential to her overall learning ability. Does anyone have any suggestions that would help me to achieve this goal? I know I will be told that there is no money in the schools budget for her to have one, since proposition two and a half did not pass. There must be more grants that either I or the school could apply for? Any and all suggestions, or comments are welcomed.

Welcome to the forums Merlybee
Wow I had no idea there was a possiblity that each child could have an aide in each classroom, is this available in private schools?

I've no idea what to ask for my 10 yr old son. He's dx'd with tourettes this year showing no prior symptoms ever in his life.

The way this is affecting his schooling is he has to concentrate so very hard just to write that it takes him three times as long to complete any work.

He's hoping to get an ok to use a laptop. The teacher, on her own has been writing many of his math problems down and giving him a lot of multiple choice classwork.

Let us know how your meeting goes and what suggestions you are given!

My daughter is in Public school now, since the private school would not do anything for her. I doubt that your Private school would bring in and aide for you, unless you were paying the aide's salary. The private school my daughter went to would have let me bring in help for her if I paid for it and if the other students in the class would benefit from that aide also. They said that my daughter had a behavioral problem and was lazy, not a learning problem. The public school had promised me the moon, if I moved her to public school, she would get all kinds of stuff. I was told she would have a scribe, a word processor, and that I would see a difference immediately regarding her frustration level. I haven't seen any of that yet, and her frustration level has esculated. I know that there is at least one child in Kindergarten has an aide with him all the time every day! I know my daughters disability is not as servere as this child with Autism, but that doesn't mean her learning disbility is less important. I believe that the class she is in could benefit tremendously as well as my daughter. Her outburst, inabilty to sit still for any perior of time, missunderstanding of all instructions, lack of interest, lack of effort, and constant animation is disruptive to all the others in her class. They would rather take her out of the classroom more than they already do and I don't think this is the way to go. I think that if she had someone there to see the signs, before the disruptive behave occurs, everyone would benefit. She has just started medication for the ADHD, but that is not going to change the way her mind processes things with the Dyslexia. I feel that if there was an aide there they could see when and where she is having the difficulty and redirect her as well and colaborate with the teacher another way to get something through to her. Once again, I am open to all suggestions you or anyone else may have. The more ammunition I have going into this meeting the better I will feel....Good luck with your son...and I will let everyone know what the outcome is.

Well the meeting with the TEAM went well. I feel much more like I am working with my daughters educators now.

Since my daughter has quite a bit of difficulty with her attention and excessive animation in the afternoon, she will be recieving one on one help with mostly reading and writing outside of the classroom every day. This will keep the distractions in the classroom.

The teacher has restructored her classroom to better accomendate her and establish peer helpers for her. She will also be introduced to the in classroom computer to be used for writing when needed. They will also be working to improve her keyboarding skills daily.

We have also established and "Communication Log" for myself and teachers. This way I am keep more up to date as to what my daughter is doing or not doing. This will allow us all to express our comments, concerns or difficulties.

We have also established another log book for "Assignments" since my daughter seems to forget what she needs to do for homework. She also has some work that she doesn't complete or that she just can't find. This will help her to know what she needs to find and do as well as keeping me updated.

Since my daughter has delayed motor skills, Occupational and Physical Therapy will each occur twice a week....meaning she has either OT or PT every day except Friday.

So, I guess all you have to do is ask and express your what you think your needs are and be persistant. I think I have the road established for my daughters success....Wish you all the same!

Congratulations on your success! We have found over the years that educating the educators is vital. Some are open to it and some aren't. Step-by-step we are making progress, though.

I wish you further success in her educational career!

Kim