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Labels Can Mobilize Q: The principal at my son's school made what was meant as a thoughtful suggestion at one of the meetings about my son's academic difficulties. "I suggest that we consider a diagnosis of Other Health Impaired for your son, to avoid stigmatizing him as Learning Disabled," she said. I later learned that such a nondescript diagnosis can deprive a child of intensive, specific services that a more precise diagnosis commands. What are your thoughts about this? A: School district professionals recognize the potential for personal embarrassment and peer group rudeness toward children in special education. Many children who receive special education services report cruel remarks from other students. Suggesting a "soft" diagnosis is one way to provide essential services while walking the fine line between stereotyping and support. I don't believe that such suggestions mask an effort to deny any child those essential services. Sometimes, parents insist on a specific diagnosis, even an incorrect one, if it means more intensive services for their child. For example, I worked with a family whose son was appropriately diagnosed as Mentally Retarded. But the parents pushed the school district into mediation and won a diagnosis of Autism, because they wanted more specialized and intensive services for their child. There are no easy answers to questions about the impact of a diagnosis on a child, on his or her family or on the school community serving the child and family. My bias is to treat every child as an individual, to take extreme care in the process of evaluating a child's strengths and weaknesses as a learner and to develop an intervention plan tailored to each child's unique needs. The diagnosis doesn't dictate the plan; the child's needs dictate the plan. One parent wrote to me about circumstances in which her child received appropriate but inadequate support services at school. Special educators resisted increasing those services until findings from an independent evaluation convinced them otherwise. Parental advocacy, in this situation, played an essential role in leading to the development of a strong and successful support program for this boy, who had been floundering academically for a long time. At first his learning difficulties led to a diagnosis of Other Health Impaired; then as Learning Disabled; and finally as Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). Highly specialized intervention techniques led to dramatic academic gains for this boy. Everyone involved, even those who had been resistant and skeptical, were impressed with his progress. Another parent wrote the following: "My son has learning disabilities, which he copes with through great effort. He is to be applauded for those efforts, because that is what is allowing him to succeed. I had to go outside the school system to prove he had the difficulties. School officials insisted for two years that my son did not have these disabilities, but university specialists convinced them otherwise. Since working for three years with the specialist the university recommended, my son has made tremendous strides. "Parents of learning disabled children," this parent continued, "need to understand that a learning disability is not something to be ashamed of, any more than needing glasses or medication is. Moreover, if a school official characterizes a child's difficulties as something that will stigmatize the child, that school official might be attempting to head off an expense. If anybody questions whether school officials would do such a thing, they should read about the recent court decision in favor of Pamella Settlegoode." A reference to that decision can be found here. Parents are the most influential people in their child's lives. Parents who make it a priority at infancy to know their child's teachers, to assess the school curriculum, to learn about the available academic support services and through experience find how their child learns most effectively, make excellent advocates for their children, if and when academic difficulty occurs. If questions arise about educational rights, parents can discuss their child's situation with teachers, special educators, the principal, the school psychologist or an advocacy group such as:
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