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Home > Reading > My Child Has a Learning Disability - How Can I Find a Tutor? |
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"My son has dysgraphia. The school isn't helping him with these issues. How can I find a tutor who can help? How can I educate the educators?"
Get a Comprehensive Evaluation First, if you haven't done so already, you need to get a comprehensive psychoeducational evaluation (diagnostic workup) of your child by an individual in the private sector (child psychologist, educational diagnostician) who has expertise in this area. If this evaluation shows that your child has a disability that adversely affects educational performance, the child is eligible for special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) - this includes a special education program designed to meet his or her unique needs. (See Eligibility and FAPE) Can you be reimbursed for providing your child with the educational services he needs? Maybe, maybe not. Find a Tutor If your child has dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia (a learning disability in math), or another learning disability, our advice is the same - contact the International Dyslexia Association! The IDA maintains lists of tutors, evaluators, and academic therapists and can help you find a trained tutor to work with your child. The Yellow Pages for Kids with Disabilities for your state has listings for psychologists, educational diagnosticians, therapists, health care providers, academic tutors, special education schools, advocates, attorneys, support and study groups, and others who provide services to parents and children. Sue Heath has written several articles on this subject. Although her articles focus on reading problems, the issues for kids with dysgraphia or dyscalculia are the same. In many cases, school personnel don't understand the child's problem, have not been adequately trained to deal with the problem, may try to put a band aid on the problem - or do nothing. If you want to educate the educators (and some won't take kindly to your efforts), print several copies of these articles about dysgraphia - they were originally published in Perspectives, the newsletter published by the International Dyslexia Association.
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