Thriving in the Midst of Chaos: Parenting With Special Needs Kids

Episode 60: Injustices Of Special Education For Dyslexia In The Time Of COVID With Guest Micki Boas

In this episode, we discuss dyslexia in the school system and distance learning for children with learning disabilities. Guest Micki Boas has two children with dyslexia. She was able to get her oldest son services through early intervention but Micki started noticing a larger problem once he started 1st grade in a charter school. They had him assessed and he was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, but the school only provided 30 minutes of reading support a week. It took 4 years of fighting, 4 lawyers, and 4 different school formats to get her older son the services he needed.

Due to the injustice she found, she wrote a book called One In Five to help educate parents on the USA school systems and to provide actionable and useful ways to help support their child’s education. There were three main tenants as to why the USA is in the education crisis that it is in:

1) Special education in the USA has been severely underfunded for 47 years.

2) There is a lack of early intervention. Most children are diagnosed with dyslexia years later than they should have been, putting them significantly behind in reading and education.

3) There is inadequate teacher training and not enough educators to work with students with dyslexia. They don’t have to choose the system that is a best fit for your child, as long as they use a structured system.

Now, with COVID, teachers are being trained on virtual tools and not on reading programs or special education. IEPs are still required to be fully followed. However, the treatments or education may not 100% translate via tele formats. With Zoom, reading has been more challenging for children with dyslexia. A lot of parents have purchased homeschooling reading programs to use as an adjunct to what the child learns in school. A lot of schools are also doing small group reading, small breakout rooms, using listen-to-read stories, and drilling sight words to teach reading. Although people are not conducting screenings or assessments in person, Micki recommends that you still have your child screened now, if needed, rather than waiting for COVID to end, as waiting could push services off for a long time.

Links:

Website

One In Five

Linkedin

Simon & Schuster Author Page

Invisible Red Tape

Instagram

Email

Decoding Dyslexia

Baby Noggin

Dr. Nadine Gaab

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Show Music:

Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2020 Jessica and Lewis Temple