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About Tim Runner
Expertise
Questions concerning special education: IEP, assessments, Due Process, mediation, resolution conference, federal law, CA state law, qualifying for services, residential treatment, special day classes, resource specialists, procedures, having your child assessed, adaptive PE, speech & language, non-public school, FAPE.

Experience
I have been an education advocate representing students and parents for five years. My experience includes: representing my clients in IEPs, SSTs, Due Process, review assessment results for my clients and for other advocates, and mediations. I have represented clients with learning disabilities, autism, Downs Syndrome, cognitively challenged, emotional problems, learning disabilities, ADD/ADHD, and physical disabilities. I have also represented clients to County Mental Health Departments and Regional Centers. My clients range from pre-school to college students in California and various other states.

Education/Credentials
I have a degree in Mathematics from the University of California with minors in Psychology and Physics. I also studied applied statistics in the field of psychology at both the undergraduate and graduate level. I have taught college classes, conducted seminars, written articles for various publications, and testified as an expert witness.

You are here: Experts > Parenting/Family > Parenting Special Needs > Speech Disorders > Dysfluency in a 7 year old

Speech Disorders - Dysfluency in a 7 year old

Expert: Tim Runner - 10/25/2009

Question
We have noticed a pause in our daughter's speech patterns when answering questions and relaying information. It was not very consistent in kindergarten, although the teacher was aware of it. Informally, we began to give her more time to respond and monitored her speech patterns. Now that she is in first grade, I am more aware of her pauses. Her teacher has noticed it as well. She did not test well on a literacy test and was placed in an EIP (Early Intervention Program# for her reading group. Her reading ability exceeded the other students in the group and instead of working with the EIP teacher, she mainly worked independently. She has since been placed in an accelerated reading group that more closely matches her ability. My concern for her performance on the literacy test and now timed test for math has prompted me to request that she be evaluated by the speech and language therapist at the school.

In the past, the parent submits a request and the child is evaluated based on the parents'/teacher's concerns. This year, I was informed that my request must go through a committee and they will determine if she is eligible to be evaluated. The therapist informally asked me what I thought she should be evaluated for. Without the same background, I am a teacher myself, I'm not sure what to ask for. I'm afraid that if I don't ask for the right "type" of test, my request could be deferred due to another student having greater needs at this time. Of course, to me this is most critical because it involves my child. Looking at an overwhelming amount of information on the Internet, I believe that she may have a form of dysfluency and possibly auditory processing. If you can steer me in the right direction as to how best to help my daughter, I would greatly appreciate it!

Answer
You should share in writing all areas of suspected disability: speech patterns and slowness to respond (both of which are getting more pronounced). I suggest that you also point out her low score on the literacy test. You should also mention the math challenges along with any others that you even suspect. It is the school's challenge to select the assessments that are to be used based on the areas of suspected disabilities. You do not need to attempt to diagnose the problems. In fact, you may want to have a private assessment made by an experienced clinical psychologist since your daughter's condition seems to be getting worse. Many medical insurance plans will pay for this.

There is nothing in the law giving the schools the right to decide which students get special education evaluations. The law clearly states that when a parent asks in writing for a special education evaluation, the school must make the assessments in all areas of suspected disability. Under the "Child Find" areas of the law, the teachers were remiss in not seeking assessment of your daughter when they noticed her challenges. There is also no such thing as a committee being able to decide if a student should be evaluated or which student needs are greater (how can you determine this without assessment results?). This illegal approach is being used by more and more school districts because they can get away with it. The only option for the parent is to file for a Due Process Hearing which can be a costly and time consumer process. For the parents that do file, the district's committee suddenly decides to evaluate the student. I call this bullying the parents. Sometimes, just getting an advocate involved will change their decision.

You should put all future correspondence with the district in writing. You should also request the protocols for the Literacy test to determine which areas in which your daughter scored low. I represent students with high reading comprehension scores that can not read out loud.

You might share my answer with them. If you do, I would like for them to provide me their legal citations for doing what they are doing.

I wish you and your daughter the best,
Tim Runner, Advocate
Advocates 4 Kids
Email: timrunner@cox.net
Phone: (949) 582-3601
You can learn more at my web site:
www.special-education-answers.com
www.education-advocates.com (for DSL and phone)

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