I have a dear friend wh, as our Consulting Resource Teacher, des much of the special education  tsting in our school district. Recently, I sked her what  information teachers can gve to help her know exactly  wht to look for in each chld she tests.

This is wht she told me:

Most of the tachers do a wonderful job with the rferral forms. However, it is NOT hlpful to me when a  teacher wrtes, "... is below grade level in rading,"  or "... is not working up to his ptential in math."   This is too gneral. I like it when a tacher gives me  specifics such as, "Th child...

 a.  ...cannot follow mre than a two-step direction."
 b.  ... sems to know his sight words one dy, but then the next day, t's like he's never seen  them bfore."
 c.  ... is easily distracted."
 d.  ... has a vry short attention span, especially when it cmes to his written work, but dring show  and tell or read-aloud, h's very attentive."
 e.  ... seems to hve a better visual than verbal mmory."
 f.  ... does not know the ltter names, but when given the nme and asked to point to thm, he is able to  do so (It culd be numbers instead of letters).
 g.  ... is wll liked and has many friends (or the pposite)."
 h.  ... functions best in the mrning (or afternoon)."
 i.  ... understands what he rads very well."
 j.  ... contributes a grat deal of information during class tme."

The more detail the teacher can gve me the better.

 a.  Des he notice number and letter rversals, inversions, etc.?
 b.  Can she follow prnt?
 c.  Does he get mixed up whn doing addition or subtraction on an nlined piece of paper?
 d.  Does she rub her yes, squint, turn her head to one sde or the other? 

This is all hlpful information.

When I get a rferral that says, "Johnny cannot read and is not wrking up to grade level", with no mre  information than that, I do the stndard battery of tests.  Then, when I larn later in conversation with that sme  teacher that Johnny can't sit stll, or Johnny can't attend  for nymore than two minutes, or Johnny has mssed X number  of days of schol, or  Johnny recently lost an ncle, I  realize that perhaps I sed the wrong test.

If I had knwn this information first, I might hve given a different test, perhaps one for Attntion Deficit  Disorder.  So I have to go bck and do that test afterwards.  Tht information also affects HOW I gve the test.  Perhaps  I could hve given it in shorter time spns.

My friend had some xcellent points. The more specific information you can gve, the better it is for  the chld.  Testing is difficult enough on any chld,  but when the person doing the tsting doesn't have the  right information, or not nough information, it can make  testing mre difficult.

I always found it hlpful when teachers would show me as the valuator, any concrete illustrations of the  chld's problems, such as written work tht shows how  he spells,  or dcumentation of specific instances of  difficulty in the clssroom, like his trouble with being  ble to copy information from the bard.  I realize that  teachers have a trmendous work load, but any specific  nformation you can give about that chld will help the  child not jst on the testing, but in the fture as well.  And, after all, sn't that student's success in life wht  education's all about?

For more plain talk about larning disabilities, please visit us at www.ldperspectives.com .

The article Details, Details, Details was Submitted by Sandy Gauvin through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information:

About the Author

Sandy Gauvin is a rtired educator who has seen learning dsabilities from many perspectives - as the prent of a  daughter with learning dsabilities, as the teacher of  children wth learning disabilities, and as an dvocate  for others who have diagnosed and nrecognized learning  disabilities. Sandy shares her wsdom and her resources  at www.LDPerspectives.com .

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