Special Education Resources For Teachers
Need help with special ed. decision.?
I am a teacher and mother. My daughter is in first grade and we believe she has an auditory processing disorder. She has been tested by the school psychologist and has had the whole battery of tests. The areas of memory (short term) and reading were low. They will test her for auditrory processing when she is in second grade. My question is what is the Special Education teacher/speech teacher really going to do to help my daughter? She has an IEP for speech. I have had to fight my district for the testing and have had problems with principals also. Will she go to resource or will the speech teacher work with her? Once a week doesn’t seem to me to be enough to help my daughter. I feel helpless to help my daughter and disgusted that as a teacher I have to play nice nice just to get her the help she needs. I did have a child advocate go with me to an IEP meeting and principals have made my life very difficult since. I just want to cry and don’t know what to do. Please help!
An audiological evaluation is necessary to diagnose an auditory processing disorder. If your school won’t pay for it, take her to an audiologist yourself. An audiologist can be a good advocate for your daughter and can give the school recommendations as part of the child study team. While the speech therapist can help with language or articulation issues, your daughter will need someone to help with her auditory skills. A teacher of the deaf that has been trained to use auditory training, or an AV (auditory verbal) therapist can do this. Please check out this website for more information on auditory processing disorder, and how it can be treated. Good luck!
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/auditory.asp