Twice exceptional kids?

[muppetinma]

Does anybody have any experience?  DS is almost 2.5 and has ASD.  He's also very advanced in his literacy and math skills.  At 2.5 in the state of Georgia, you start the process of entering the public school system so that everything will be in place to start school on your third birthday.  I'm just worried about him getting the help he needs when he's clearly advanced in other areas.  I'm scared that when they see that he is reading like a first grader, they'll try to cut the help that he needs for other things.  Has anybody gone through this process before?  Any advice?  I've been trying to research online, but there's not too much that I'm finding.

[litebright]

My DD1 is 6 and has ASD. She spent her kindergarten year getting pull-outs for both social skills, where she's delayed, and a reading group where she went across the hall to the first grade classroom. She was in the highest-level reading group there, she has crazy good decoding skills. Comprehension is more normal-to-a bit behind. She was hyperlexic as a toddler (knew all her letters and could read them aloud by 20 months) and she could read a significant amount going into kindergarten.

I don't know if that helps, but our experience thus far has been that it's definitely possible to get both delays and advancement addressed. DD1's school just did all the kids' assessments for the year last week, so I expect to hear from her teachers soon on whether she will be okay in their class or if we need to get her into a second grade group for reading. It helps that this year for first grade, her regular class is the one that she was in last year for reading group -- so she knows the teachers and they know her skills.

It was, however, definitely a bit unusual in terms of IEP. Last spring was her triannual review for keeping her IEP for the next three years, and they wanted to ditch it because she's at or above grade level in all academic areas -- in the case of reading, way above. We argued that the disparity between her decoding and comprehension, which is a pretty well-known ASD quirk, was in fact a reason to keep her IEP along with social skills needs -- that it wasn't just about meeting the minimum academic standards, but whether she was struggling for where *she* was at, whether or not it was where the school thought she should be. We also pointed out that as the reading was getting more challenging toward the end of the year, her comprehension started to lag a bit; and noted that it's very common in ASD to start seeing struggles when there is the switch from learn-to-read to read-to-learn, and rather than wait for her to struggle we wanted to be proactive about supporting her comprehension skills.

We're lucky in that she's at the district's school with an ASD lab, so they're all very familiar with ASD and that phenomenon, and didn't fight us hard on it because we have a medical dx to back up keeping at least minimal support since she's at risk.

[imojoebunny]

I think this depends of the school system, some are more proactive (Cobb, Decatur) and others are woefully behind. Someone just posted on my facebook about a child raising money to get a tablet and software for herself and her teachers because her Georgia school system (Mableton is where she lives) didn't recognize Dyslexia" as a disability and wouldn't provide services for it (she had some other pretty serious challenges too). Is is, of course, a violation of iDEA, but it is not uncommon. I know a person recently who have had to threaten to sue after years of trying to work with the school, and get a lawyer to the IEP meetings, to get appropriate services for their 4th grader in the city of Atlanta for ASD.

If you don't get what you need, I highly recommend hiring an advocate or getting an attorney. If I had done that right off the bat, I may have had a different experience. I regret not doing it.

[marissa]

I have one in the gifted range and two high average IQs. All three have IEPs.

[auntie]

Sept 14, 2014 13:29:22 GMT -5 muppetinma said:

Does anybody have any experience?


My son wasn't identified as twice exceptional, though he probably is. He's a junior honor student in college.


DS is almost 2.5 and has ASD.  He's also very advanced in his literacy and math skills.


I moderate a couple ASD and SN forums.  At 2 1/2 it's almost impossible to get a handle on IQ. Kids on spectrum can be very bright, but often they can seem brighter than they actually are based on their strong rote memories, precise vocabularies and precocious interest in academics. Once higher order thinking and literature based language arts start cloer to 4th grade, you'll have a better idea of what his actual skill set is. Time will also reveal things like NVLD, ADHD, Specific LD and other behavioral health issues that could imapct his ability to perform well in school

I know kids who appeared very bright in preschool who went onto real success in school- PhDs, JDs, etc. And I know others who failed to get through high school. 


At 2.5 in the state of Georgia, you start the process of entering the public school system so that everything will be in place to start school on your third birthday.  I'm just worried about him getting the help he needs when he's clearly advanced in other areas.  


Unless you live in a very crappy school district, I would expect your child would get preschool services of some kind to prepare him for his transition to kindie. Some kids attend a public ASD/ABA,  integrated or inclusion preschoo. Some attend private preschools or DCC with services pushed in or pulled out on site. Some districts offer only services at the local school to which their parents deliver them to get speech, OT or social skills. Sometimes parents have a choice of options, sometimes not.


lI'm scared that when they see that he is reading like a first grader, they'll try to cut the help that he needs for other things.


They shouldn't. Reading isn't even a preschool skill- more important are his abilities to take direction from the teacher, take turns, interact with peers in unstructured times of the day. TBH, DS wasn't dxd until he was almost 7, so he attended a traditional play-based preschool without interventions and did really well there.


 Has anybody gone through this process before?  Any advice?  I've been trying to research online, but there's not too much that I'm finding.

One piece of advice is to write up your own list of educational, not academic, concerns for the CST.