10-25-12

Donut with Dads day for Adam!



















Adam asked if we'd tie his shoe and Jacob said, "I'll tie it for you Adam."


Adam and Daddy left earlier this morning for Donuts with Dads. We took Jacob to school and then headed to Vikki's house. Around 11:30 I left to meet Jared at school. Eli stayed with Aunt "Bippi". We had requested that Jacob be tested for a learning disability. At his parent/teacher conferences last year we mentioned having him tested but they didn't think he needed to be. We meet with Josh, the school psychologist, almost 2 months ago. He said he'd talked with Jacob's 1st and 2nd grade teachers. They didn't seem to think that Jacob was behind enough to qualify for special education and wanted us to wait on testing. But we knew he was struggling and didn't want him falling farther and farther behind. Mrs Daly (Jacob's teacher) said that Jacob is unfocused extremely often and his attention wanders even in a short span of time. After testing they found that Jacob does have a specific learning disability (dyslexia) and is eligible for special education. Today was our first IEPT (Individualized Educational Planning Team) meeting. This team also included the school psychologist, Jacob's teacher, the Special Ed teacher, and the principal. We will meet at least once a year. Josh went over the testing results with us. In basic reading and reading fluency Jacob exceeded the lowest 8% of youth his age. In reading comprehension (WIAT-III) and writing he exceeded 9% of youth his age. Analysis of Jacob's writing deficits indicates his difficulty is closely linked to his spelling and reading difficulties and not his ability to generate thoughts and use age appropriate punctuation and grammar. So at this time they are not recommending eligibility for written expression. Though this may be re-evaluated to determine how progress made in reading and spelling has impacted his writing ability.  Jacob's reading comprehension skills were also assessed on the CIBS-R and he met grade level expectations by comprehending passages with 100% accuracy at the 1st grade level (highest grade completed). Reading comprehension was again assessed using easyCBM that compared Jacob's performance to 2nd grade level peers. Jacob's score on this assessment fell between 1st and 10th percentile.  For math computation and math reasoning (WIAT-III) Jacob's scores placed him in the average range for academic functioning and exceeded 38% of youth his age. For math computation on the CIBS-R Jacob met expectations by achieving 75% accuracy or better at the 1st grade level. For math reasoning on the CIBS-R Jacob met 2nd grade expectations by answering math story problems with 50% accuracy. Thus on these assessment math was an area of strength for Jacob. Jacob was also administered the WISC-IV. The Full Scale IQ is a combination of all WISC-IV subtest scores. Jacob's FSIQ score was 101 which fell in the "average" range (96-106). In relation to Jacob's own performance across the different composites, he scored lower in working memory than in the other composites. So his ability to store new information appears less developed than his processing speed, perceptual reasoning, and verbal comprehension.  Jacob was also observed by Josh for 15 minutes during reading class to measure his on-task behavior. Jacob was on-task 62%, while his male peers were on task 87%. Jacob will be in his regular classes all but 30 minutes a day. During that half an hour he will be meeting with the special ed teacher in a small group. Also he will have his tests read to him so he is tested on knowledge rather than reading ability. Jacob doesn't feel like he has any friends in his class. He says some of the boys call him names or pound his fingers on his desk. He does enjoys his time playing with Nik at recess. Jacob says, "God says in the Bible to love your enemies and I'm trying really hard." He knows that his brain is unique and wired differently, like an engineer, scientist, or an artist (things he enjoys or is interested in).  Jacob was excited to see us while we were waiting for our meeting with the group and talking with Josh. I let him know that we are working with his teachers to help him do well in school.


Jacob and his class walked around school and made a lists of things they counted. Here is Jacobs list.