In this compelling episode of Stress-Free IEP®, host Frances Shefter engages in an enlightening conversation with Deborah Brown Hill, owner of Hill Country Dyslexia Services. As a certified academic language therapist (C-A-L-T), Deborah is on a mission to empower children facing dyslexia, dysgraphia, and related learning hurdles. Through her business, Hill Country Dyslexia Services, Deborah leads a dedicated team committed to early detection and tailored interventions for students grappling with literacy and math obstacles. Tune in as we delve into Deborah’s inspiring journey, gain invaluable insights, and explore effective strategies for advocating for and supporting children’s educational journeys.
Tune in to the episode to hear about:
Discover Deborah Brown’s inspiring journey as she shares her personal experiences and passion for assisting children with dyslexia and related learning challenges.
Gain insights into the importance of early detection and specialized intervention for students struggling with literacy and math skills.
Explore the comprehensive services provided by Hill Country Dyslexia Services and how they cater to the unique needs of each student.
Learn practical strategies for parents navigating the educational system and advocating effectively for their child’s educational needs.
Uncover empowering tips and resources for supporting children with dyslexia and dysgraphia, fostering their academic success and confidence.
Frances Shefter is an Education Attorney and Advocate who is committed to helping her clients have a Stress-Free IEP® experience. In each podcast, Frances interviews inspiring people to share information, educate you, empower you and help you get the knowledge you need.
[00:40:53] Voiceover: Welcome to Stress-Free IEP®. You do not need to do it all alone. With [00:41:00] your host, Frances Shefter, Principal of Shefter Law. You can get more details and catch prior episodes at www. Shefterlaw. com. The Stress-Free IEP® video podcast is also posted on YouTube and LinkedIn, and you can listen to episodes through Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher, and more.
[00:41:22] Voiceover: Now, here’s the host of Stress-Free IEP®, Frances Shefter.
[00:41:30] Frances Shefter, Esq: Hello everyone, and welcome to the show.
[00:41:33] Frances Shefter, Esq: Today is a special, our guest today, let me put it this way, our guest today is has a personal interest for me. Um, her name is Deborah Brown and she is the owner of Hill Country Dyslexia Services in Texas. And the reason why I say it’s personal, as all of you know, both of my children have IEPs.
[00:41:53] Frances Shefter, Esq: Both were recently diagnosed with dyslexia. So, it’s definitely a passion of mine because [00:42:00] um, I mean, we’ll go into this a lot more, but with the testing and everything, the schools didn’t pick it up, and I don’t expect the schools well We expect the schools to, but they don’t always pick it up, and so I pay for private testing, and I know, Debbie, that’s something that we’ve talked about briefly that, um, let’s just jump, well, tell us a little bit about you and about your services, and then we’ll go into all of that.
[00:42:20] Debbie Brown, CALT: Okay, wonderful. Well, thank you for having me on. Uh, I am very passionate about seeing children with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and related, uh, difficulties. And I started out alone, and now I have several, I have actually nine people working for me in various positions, whether it’s other dyslexia therapists like me.
[00:42:41] Debbie Brown, CALT: I am a certified academic language therapist. That’s what those initials stand for. C A L T. And, uh, I have, uh, other people that do math intervention because sometimes dyslexia falls into the math realm where it’s dyscalculia and, uh, children have. Problems with [00:43:00] word problems or other difficulties. And then I have a whole team of educational DIACs who can test students for dyslexia, for dyscalculia, for dysgraphia.
[00:43:13] Debbie Brown, CALT: And I really want to have as many students tested as possible because why wait? Why have a student wait?
[00:43:23] Frances Shefter, Esq: Right. And dysgraphia, for those that might not know, that’s the writing portion of dyslexia. Dyslexia is the reading. Dysgraphia is the writing. Um, and exactly why wait, wait. I mean, my, my children are first grade and fourth grade now and just got diagnosed with dyslexia.
[00:43:38] Frances Shefter, Esq: And so it’s more challenging for my fourth grader because she’s She’s reading, she’s reading well, but she still has to catch up with some stuff.
[00:43:47] Debbie Brown, CALT: Exactly. And in my fourth grade, a child is not being taught how to read. They’re, they’re learning. They’re learning instead of being taught those individual.
[00:43:57] Debbie Brown, CALT: phonics, phonemic awareness, [00:44:00] unless they go to a dyslexia therapist or they have it in the public schools and where I live, we have it in the public schools, but I know all states don’t do that. So you do have to go outside and get a specialist to help them, right? And
[00:44:13] Frances Shefter, Esq: yeah, I know that’s, that’s where Texas is leading the country and a lot and having that.
[00:44:18] Frances Shefter, Esq: Because I know, I mean, we’re in Montgomery County, I’m in Montgomery County, Maryland, and they, They don’t have the extensive of dyslexia services. I mean, they do have the pull out program, and my younger one is doing phenomenal with the pull out now, um, and really going, but with my older one, I don’t want to have her pull out for dysgraphia, because, I mean, for the dyslexia, because then she’s missing the content, and it causes a whole nother anxiety level.
[00:44:44] Debbie Brown, CALT: Exactly. And so you want to make sure you have your child identified early and early can be the last part of first grade. I mean, they’re doing research now where they’re showing infants have it. They, I mean, that’s, that’s how, how early they can detect it. [00:45:00] But of course, schools. Really want to see it, look at it, but often by the end of the first grade and, but it can be earlier.
[00:45:08] Debbie Brown, CALT: Uh, so if you start seeing your child that cannot rhyme, that maybe even has delayed speech, uh, that, uh, Maybe he or she likes to listen to you read, but, and you’ve tried to help them with, uh, maybe even spelling their name, uh, you need to, maybe, you know, kind of, those are kind of some, a little red flags, or, uh, maybe they have high vocabulary, but you’re showing them simple little sentences if they’re in first or second grade, and they can’t read easy words like a and and, and want, or they might say want or what.
[00:45:44] Debbie Brown, CALT: and and and on the next page when it’s really want. So it’s really good to get, um, the kids die.
[00:45:51] Debbie Brown, CALT: Uh, go ahead and get the the Children tested as early as possible.
[00:45:57] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah. And with my younger one, it was the end of [00:46:00] kindergarten and I love the kindergarten teacher. My older one had her as well who said like she’s behind in reading.
[00:46:05] Frances Shefter, Esq: Um, the interesting thing is the, the dyslexia indicators didn’t show up on the reading standardized tests, of course, at the end of kindergarten, which is why I say schools miss it a lot. Um, but with what I know and my background and everything, I of course went and paid for private testing over the summer because school systems don’t always do the, well, they have.
[00:46:28] Frances Shefter, Esq: Well, whatever schools do the best they can, but knowing what I know, unfortunately, with dyslexia, you have to go to private testing because the schools don’t go deep
[00:46:38] Debbie Brown, CALT: enough. Yes. When one in five students have dyslexia, that’s a, that’s, that’s critical. And so that’s why I’m also very, very diags who can test remotely so we can test in any state and it’s done with fidelity.
[00:46:55] Debbie Brown, CALT: Uh, and we give the parent or the guardian all the [00:47:00] information, we get all set up, we do the testing, we get, we write the report, and then we get the report back to the parent, uh, electronically and of course paper if they choose to do that. And then the parent can take that to the school and say, this is what, this is what it’s showing.
[00:47:18] Debbie Brown, CALT: We need to have services for our child. And more parents, you know, you as a parent, like you with your two children, you had that gut feeling, you saw the evidence and you had to take action and you had to pay for the extra. It, it does fall on the schools, but like you said, in some states, the schools just don’t follow through as much.
[00:47:38] Debbie Brown, CALT: So being a parent, if I had a child, if I was in your place, I sure would get a child tested outside and, and get it done. Why wait? So that’s, that’s the key thing. Don’t wait.
[00:47:52] Frances Shefter, Esq: And so your testing, is it just the academic part
[00:47:55] or?
[00:47:57] Debbie Brown, CALT: It’s going to be, it’s going to be [00:48:00] academic, um, possibly intellectual, uh, the IQ, uh, and then it could fall into the realm of dysgraphia and dyscalculia.
[00:48:09] Debbie Brown, CALT: It will not have a DSM. Uh. On it, uh, in the report because, uh, the educational diags are not psychologists. Really, the main difference between an educational diag and a psychologist is psychologists have PhDs. Educational diags have masters, like the, the psychologist. But the thing that they have that most psychologists, so far that I’ve found, they have real classroom experience.
[00:48:40] Debbie Brown, CALT: They can see, they know the difference of a child that has dyslexia or a child that does not. They have experienced because they’ve been in the classrooms for years themselves. They can see it and they had the evidence of it. And so they’re going to be writing reports and telling, um, the detailed information of the symptoms of a child who has [00:49:00] those characteristics of dyslexia.
[00:49:04] Debbie Brown, CALT: So I think that’s really important, you know, when you have experience.
[00:49:08] Frances Shefter, Esq: Because it’s something that can go deeper, and I know, like, I know for us, a lot of times in Maryland and D. C. even, um, a lot of times outside evaluations, they’ll be like, oh, well, it’s not enough, we need more. Which is fine, they’re going to do the behavior, because they, the educational impact is what everybody likes to say.
[00:49:24] Frances Shefter, Esq: Oh, yes, your child is dyslexic, but there’s no educational impact.
[00:49:28] Debbie Brown, CALT: There is so much educational impact. There’s, and there’s a lot of secondary things that some people don’t want to recognize. Does your child go to the nurse a lot? Does your child have headaches a lot? Not want to go to school? Those are all signs that your child maybe can’t communicate it.
[00:49:47] Debbie Brown, CALT: Maybe he or she’s in first grade and they, they, they don’t know, but they know that something’s happening. Most of the time they’re very cognizant of why they, What’s going on? [00:50:00] And they’re concerned and they have anxiety. I have several students that have had anxiety, but once they come to somebody like me, it’s like they’re, they blossom and they bloom.
[00:50:10] Debbie Brown, CALT: I have parents that say to me, oh gosh, so and so, now we’ve got, she’s got the glimmer in her eye now because she’s got the confidence because we, I as a dyslexia therapist can give them the skills to use for their lifetime, to make them confident, to show them the skills. Spelling concepts. And so it’s, it makes a difference.
[00:50:29] Debbie Brown, CALT: And so you really, again, I keep going back, but get your child that testing as soon as, but don’t wait. You know, you and your, you as a parent, you know that, you know, if your child needs it, you need to get it done. And yes, it does cost, but it’s so you’re investing in your child’s future. And that’s really what you want because you want them in early and you want them to be released as soon as you, as they’re on grade level.
[00:50:57] Debbie Brown, CALT: So that’s the key. And then they don’t need [00:51:00] dyslexia therapy for all their life. Yes, they do have it all their life. It does not go away, but they know more how to cope with it. And that’s, that’s the key. Giving them the skills. And showing them what to do when they’re floundering to decode a word and they’re going, I don’t know what that means.
[00:51:17] Debbie Brown, CALT: We don’t guess they have to sound out that letters or the phonemes or the, or the blended sounds and then blend the word and then really look at what they’re reading.
[00:51:29] Frances Shefter, Esq: Right. And that’s when it comes out, especially with older kids. I know because a lot, and this is where the school systems, the school’s tests test each thing individually.
[00:51:41] Frances Shefter, Esq: And a child with dyslexia, they can sound out the words, they can read fluently, and they can comprehend when they’re done separately. But when they have to sound out the word, read fluently, and comprehend everything all together, that’s when it really comes out, which is fourth grade, third, fourth grade when the curriculum starts getting [00:52:00] more difficult.
[00:52:00] Debbie Brown, CALT: And then if they mispronounce or they mis think words in their head, then they, when, uh, a question is asked, they don’t understand it. They’re not gonna get the questions right. Therefore, they’re not gonna do as well on tests. And then that kind of goes into, you can even go into math with the word problems.
[00:52:18] Debbie Brown, CALT: They don’t, they don’t understand the different math concepts or they don’t understand the sequencing. And again, that can be another. Weakness that they have. But of course these dyslexic kids have strengths. I don’t know about your kids, but I have lots of kids in that I see that have, that are great sports.
[00:52:37] Debbie Brown, CALT: People, they excel in that area. They might excel in just, uh, uh, acting and being creative. So, uh, I even have one that I exited that wrote me an email and her email was longer than any emails I write. It just kept going on and on and on and on. And I don’t write emails. emails like that. And when I first saw her, she was [00:53:00] barely able to write one or two sentences.
[00:53:02] Debbie Brown, CALT: So it’s again, getting them that help and then making them be able to use it and apply those skills.
[00:53:09] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah. My older one is artistic and it has been. Yeah. My younger one’s artistic also, but her, uh, her big thing is she loves her. Her Barbies and she just has, she has whole conversations with like all of them and doesn’t want anybody else to play with her when she’s with her Barbies.
[00:53:25] Debbie Brown, CALT: Oh, maybe she’ll be a fashion designer or something like that.
[00:53:28] Frances Shefter, Esq: She might be. She puts together outfits and comes down. Mommy, do you like my outfit? It’s really cute.
[00:53:35] Debbie Brown, CALT: And so, you know, dyslexic, uh, that’s why you see so many dyslexic actors who, um, they can memorize very well, but they cannot really read as fluently and, but once they’ve got it in their brain, they can just spit it out.
[00:53:50] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah. I mean, it makes sense. It makes, you know, it’s so like, I hate the whole special needs and neurodiverse and all that other stuff because it’s just, [00:54:00] our brains work differently. Yes.
[00:54:03] Debbie Brown, CALT: And, and that’s what parents need to understand that it’s, they’re born with it. And it’s a neuro, it’s a neuro, um, thing in their brain.
[00:54:13] Debbie Brown, CALT: And so they, um, that’s why they need the systematic, the explicit, the repetitive instruction. And also cursive does help with that. And in Texas, uh, now there’s a law that by second grade, you’re supposed to start, uh, teachers are supposed to start teaching students how to write in cursive. But again, some of those teachers have not even been taught how to explicitly.
[00:54:39] Debbie Brown, CALT: teach handwriting. So if a teacher gives a child a packet, that’s not teaching a child how to write in cursive. That’s why, again, special people like me can that have been taught the correct way how to how to write a letter, how to write letters in cursive. Do you help? That
[00:54:59] Frances Shefter, Esq: makes sense. Yeah, [00:55:00] they took, I think it might be back in again, but they took it out of the curriculum in Montgomery County.
[00:55:04] Frances Shefter, Esq: We’re like, huh? Like, you can’t read documents if you don’t have, you know, like all of our old documents, the constitution, like, you know, everything’s cursive.
[00:55:13] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yes. And what about writing a check? That’s a life skill that you need to do when you, when you get your first apartment. And I think it’s so empowering to give a child the knowledge.
[00:55:27] Debbie Brown, CALT: And so that’s really one of the first things I try to teach them is their, at least their first name in cursive. If they have a long last name, we might wait till we’re getting to more of the vowels and the consonants. But, uh, it, then they go, Oh, look, I’m, I can write my name in cursive, but maybe they can’t over there.
[00:55:45] Debbie Brown, CALT: So it empowers them. And
[00:55:47] Frances Shefter, Esq: that’s the thing that I, that I, you know, especially with, with, um, dyslexia and with ADHD and autism and all of that, it’s just, you know, the kids are great at one thing and not [00:56:00] great at the other. And it’s, it’s hard because the way society and the public school systems teach to the masses and this is what society expects you to be able to do.
[00:56:10] Frances Shefter, Esq: And this is what it means to be smart. And this is what it means to be, to be able to get an A. And if you’re not in this area, then you’re different and
[00:56:20] Debbie Brown, CALT: that’s not okay. And that’s true. And especially for, um, I have several students that are gifted and talented and dyslexic. And that is, I think, even more harder to define because they, these GT kids think out of the box and they, uh, they’re compensating more.
[00:56:39] Debbie Brown, CALT: And again. A lot of the students are already compensating. They might get help from their friends. They might say, teacher, can you help me? Some of them don’t do that, but, uh, they are already trying to just fit in and just be like everybody else. And so I think. Knowledge is powerful. [00:57:00] And after a student is identified, I think that’s when you need to talk to your child and say, this is the way you think.
[00:57:07] Debbie Brown, CALT: And that’s not wrong. Everybody has strengths. Everybody has weaknesses and we’re going to work on those, um, areas where you’re not as strong, but look how, look at these weaknesses and, and lay out those weaknesses for your child, because you do want to, to make sure your child knows what their, their, uh, strengths are,
[00:57:28] Frances Shefter, Esq: right?
[00:57:29] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah. And that’s, you know, it’s funny. That’s one of the things, like I told my kids when we were going to the psychologists for the testing is that, you know, we’re just learning how your brain works differently. Yes.
[00:57:38] Debbie Brown, CALT: I describe it sometimes to parents and really younger kids. I say, okay, have you ever been a road and you’re detouring?
[00:57:45] Debbie Brown, CALT: You see a sign, you’ve got a detour, but eventually you get there. You can eventually get there, but after you’re diagnosed with dyslexia, we want to give you the skills so that you can go straight there and not take those [00:58:00] detours.
[00:58:01] Frances Shefter, Esq: Right. And that’s the thing, you know, you said that most of our dyslexia kids, I, a lot of our dyslexic kids are bright.
[00:58:08] Frances Shefter, Esq: I mean, most of our kids are bright, you know, their brains work differently. And that’s the thing. And they mask and they’re, they’re able to compensate. And that’s why a lot of times. You don’t see the dyslexia come out until third or fourth grade because they’re overcompensating and you can’t tell and you can’t see it as early, but take a look
[00:58:29] Debbie Brown, CALT: at it.
[00:58:29] Debbie Brown, CALT: I mean, think about, uh, even directionality. So think about things like this days of the week. Do they ever get that confused months of the year? Do they ever get that confused when they were little? Or did they confuse when they were first starting writing their left hand to the right hand? Or do they confuse directionality?
[00:58:47] Debbie Brown, CALT: I’m going left. But when they’re really going right, uh, those kind of things or being resistant to you as a parent to learn to read. Uh, so or, um, they [00:59:00] want you to read, but they don’t want to read the story. Rhyming is a big thing. Uh, can they rhyme? And, of course, the Dr Seuss books are wonderful for that.
[00:59:09] Debbie Brown, CALT: And that that is what a lot of parents do is they, you know, they read to their and it is important, but it’s, it’s You as a parent have to fight for your child because you’re the main advocate and you need to make sure the schools will do what you need to do. You have the power, really, because you are the parent.
[00:59:30] Debbie Brown, CALT: I think that’s what a lot of parents don’t understand. They don’t understand about the education system. So they’re going to go, okay, we’re just going to leave it up to the school. And I guess the school is always right. And the school is not. Always right. I’ve seen kids where they’ve already had one diagnosis and it said they weren’t dyslexic, but then I started seeing them and I started seeing red signs.
[00:59:49] Debbie Brown, CALT: I went, I don’t, I think this child is dyslexic. And so you can always get your child retested too. So if you’ve already been through it once, that doesn’t mean [01:00:00] that’s a forever, uh, ending result. So, yes, make sure.
[01:00:07] Frances Shefter, Esq: I was just going to say federal law is as long as your child hasn’t been tested within the 12 months, school has to evaluate again.
[01:00:14] Frances Shefter, Esq: And if you as a parent, I, I’m a strong believer in parent gut, guardian gut, whatever, you know, like whoever it is that with that child, like trust your gut. If you think something’s just not 100 percent there, like there’s something different. Go. I hate saying something wrong with your child. It’s not wrong, but if you think there’s a struggle going on with your child, push for it.
[01:00:36] Frances Shefter, Esq: And if you think, like, the school does a testing, and the testing doesn’t come out with anything, and they’re like, nope, there’s no issue, ask for an independent educational evaluation. Tell them you want, you want deeper testing, um, because that’s where it comes out.
[01:00:50] Debbie Brown, CALT: Exactly. And the school district has to pay for that too.
[01:00:54] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yep. So, uh, you as a parent have that Right. And I’m sure that you have [01:01:00] parents come to you saying, I’m just so frustrated. And they don’t need to be frustrated. They need to have their child tested. Early. So yeah, don’t give up as a parent. Exactly.
[01:01:10] Frances Shefter, Esq: Well, and it’s interesting. You said that for the independent educational evaluation, the school system has to pay for it, which is true.
[01:01:16] Frances Shefter, Esq: The school system. And this is what parents don’t know. And I’ve done lots of videos on this is that when you, when a parent asks for the school system for an independent educational evaluation paid for by the school system, the school system only has two options. They can either grant it and say, okay, here’s the authorization for the testing or They can file a due process case against the parent to say, no, we’ve done the testing and our testing is appropriate.
[01:01:44] Frances Shefter, Esq: And so more often than not, I know at least here, school systems grant the IEEs because it’s cheaper for them to pay three, 4, 000 for an outside test than for them to litigate it. Exactly.
[01:01:58] Debbie Brown, CALT: Exactly. Because that’s when the [01:02:00] litigation gets into thousands and thousands of dollars and the school district can’t afford that.
[01:02:04] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yeah. So, yes.
[01:02:06] Debbie Brown, CALT: And that’s why I really feel strongly if, if we do, like my company does, the Educational Dyacs at my company do those kind of evaluations, the school district should take them because, uh, the Educational Dyacs do have so much background training and it, it eliminates the time that the The school has to even test the child and it’s not like we’re trying to, uh, invalidate the scores.
[01:02:30] Debbie Brown, CALT: The scores are the scores. The child, uh, answers the questions, uh, and there’s, uh, basic charts that the educational diet has to look at. And then it’s, it’s a, it’s a really valid score.
[01:02:45] Frances Shefter, Esq: And you just go deeper than the school systems go. Oh,
[01:02:47] Debbie Brown, CALT: definitely. Yes, we want to we want to go deeper. And then, of course, with our evaluations, we’re going to state accommodations that the child needs to have.
[01:02:56] Debbie Brown, CALT: We’re going to say resources for the parent. We’re going to say resources [01:03:00] of what the classroom teacher could do, because maybe the classroom teacher doesn’t know. I’ve worked with classroom teachers that never really understood what dyslexia was. And then there’s others that can just pick it up just like that.
[01:03:12] Debbie Brown, CALT: So, Uh, teach more and more teachers are getting trained, at least here in my state. And, uh, but they, uh, I don’t think that’s happening in all the
[01:03:23] Frances Shefter, Esq: states now.
[01:03:24] Frances Shefter, Esq: And the problem is, is that a lot of times it’s the special education teachers that are getting trained, not the general education teachers. And I remember when I went and did my master’s in special education, because my undergrad was in early childhood.
[01:03:36] Frances Shefter, Esq: And I remember doing these classes in special ed. I’m like, why didn’t I learn this stuff? In my early childhood education classes, you know, like, okay, there’s special education, but this is for all the students You know, like everybody learns differently and it’s stuff that we should do that. It just it was frustrating because it was like why?
[01:03:57] Frances Shefter, Esq: Teaching techniques are teaching techniques and if [01:04:00] they work for special education kids, they’re going to work for general education kids however, the general education techniques might not always work with our special ed kids exactly kind of get in there and And, you know, work it out and get it all in there.
[01:04:14] Frances Shefter, Esq: Get those, get those techniques in there to the general education.
[01:04:18] Debbie Brown, CALT: So really, it does start with when teach, when a, when a person goes to college and they want to get an education, they do need to have uh, good professors that can give them the, the expertise to identify children with different needs. No matter, I mean, even if it isn’t dyslexia, what if it’s apraxia, or what if it’s, you know, another, um, a speech difficulty.
[01:04:42] Debbie Brown, CALT: So it can be, it can be, um, all different things. So a classroom teacher does need to know those signs from, for different learning difference, differences. And, uh, and really a lot of this could be prevented if the teachers had good phonics background, because [01:05:00] that’s where it starts. It starts with good phonics instruction.
[01:05:04] Debbie Brown, CALT: And the teachers are so pressured by, okay, I’ve got my curriculum. The state’s telling me what to do. My school district’s telling me what to do. I’ve got to hurry through this when it’s really hurting our kids. And they’re just moving too quickly. So, they really need to have, beginning at the college level, to teach teachers how to teach a variety of different students.
[01:05:29] Debbie Brown, CALT: And maybe look more closely at those students with learning differences.
[01:05:35] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah, it’s true. Because it’s recognizing. And then it’s, the other thing is that teachers I don’t know. I found, I don’t know if you’ve seen this also with teachers, is that they don’t want to admit that the child’s not learning because they’re afraid that it makes them look bad.
[01:05:50] Debbie Brown, CALT: That’s true. I’ve seen it time and time again. Yes. And it’s really not, they’re proud and it’s like their little kingdom, their classroom with all their kids. And [01:06:00] really, um, that’s sad if that does happen because, uh, you’re Impeding really a child’s education, and that’s a valuable commodity. We don’t want to do that.
[01:06:10] Debbie Brown, CALT: We want to make sure our kids get what they need. I sometimes call it just teach you if if a teacher goes, Oh, I can fix that kid. You don’t need to. You know, you don’t need to get outside resources. I’ve seen. I’ve seen teachers with one or two years experience say that, and here I am, I’ve got 20 years of experience with all my extra classroom and, uh, becoming a Calc was a really big thing with 700 documented hours of being in front of dyslexia students, videotapes, books read, tests and all that, uh, that was not the best place for that student, but the mom kind of relied on the classroom teacher.
[01:06:49] Debbie Brown, CALT: And yes, appearance, Have to do that, but the parents need to do their homework. They need to investigate. They need to understand why their child is behind, because we don’t [01:07:00] want those child children behind because it’s like you said with your fourth grader, it’s harder and harder and harder. To get caught up.
[01:07:10] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah. And that’s I mean, I had, I had a potential client, I should say, um, that did a strategy session with me that the child was in, I want to say sixth grade and they just had, um, you know, they were middle school, just got the dyslexia diagnosis. And I said, flat out, I said, look, yes, you could hire me. I could get the perfect IEP and great services in place.
[01:07:33] Frances Shefter, Esq: But here’s the problem. Yeah. The school system is not equipped to teach your child the way your child needs to be taught in middle school. So take your money, it’s better spent, hire a good dyslexia tutor that has the training and the knowledge to tutor your child outside of, because that’s what your child needs.
[01:07:52] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yes. And speaking to that, especially with the older kiddos. It needs to be [01:08:00] done intensively. It needs to be not just on the instruction, by the way, that’s what I’m describing needs to be done, not just once or twice a week. It really needs to be, I call it front end loaded, where it’s a lot at the beginning, four to five times a week.
[01:08:16] Debbie Brown, CALT: 45 minutes to an hour. And it depends on the dyslexia tutors or therapist. Tutoring to me is only once or twice a week. Therapy is four or five times a week. You need to get your child in front of somebody that knows what they’re doing more. And, but yes, it’s an investment, but think about putting that money there and then letting them, um, go to college, but be able to go to college, you know, so, uh, so, and even in the summer, even when you’re on vacation, you can get some therapists will do things, see students virtually, I’m currently seeing a student in Uganda four days a week.
[01:08:55] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yeah, because the dad is working for an oil company and this little girl [01:09:00] is, um, very dyslexic and she’s a second grader, but I’ve only been seeing her since October and she is starting to thrive. She also has a speech difficulty. Her A’s are very hard. She, uh, and so, uh, I’m not a speech person, but she has seen a speech therapist as well.
[01:09:16] Debbie Brown, CALT: So you can do it remotely as well.
[01:09:20] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah, no, and that’s, I mean, that’s a great thing. Like, I think. I always hate saying that the good thing that came out of COVID, but, but the reality, but that, but it did because, because people got comfortable with doing virtual. Yes. And people got comfortable and saying that it’s okay.
[01:09:36] Frances Shefter, Esq: And it just opened. The doors so much. I know for me as a parent, a lot of times doing virtual stuff is so helpful because I don’t have to, okay, I got to get out of work and pick up the kids at three o’clock and then I have to drive the kids to here and then I have to drive the kids home and who’s going to make dinner and you know, it’s nuts.
[01:09:54] Frances Shefter, Esq: Where’s virtual? It’s like, okay, we get home at four o’clock, sit them there. They’re doing their thing. I can cook dinner while they’re doing, you
[01:09:59] Debbie Brown, CALT: know, [01:10:00] Exactly. And so it’s really again, back to the parent. They need to do their homework to find somebody that they really think will blend with their child.
[01:10:08] Debbie Brown, CALT: If it is remote and and even in person, they also need to do the same. If it’s a good fit, you’ll know again, kind of like what you were saying in the very beginning, follow your gut. And if it is a good fit, then do it. Uh, and then you should get progress monitoring from whoever You’re, you’re getting your child tutored or in therapy with, they should tell you the progress or, um, or maybe they’re still working on this concept.
[01:10:36] Debbie Brown, CALT: This is a hard concept for them or that sort of thing. So, really, the communication is very important with your outside therapist, uh, as well, no matter if it’s remote or in person.
[01:10:49] Frances Shefter, Esq: Right. And then connecting your outside therapist to the school is a way. Yes.
[01:10:53] Debbie Brown, CALT: And I have done that. I’ve worked as it’s because I really feel like we’re all a community.
[01:10:57] Debbie Brown, CALT: And, and then I can share the [01:11:00] things that I’ve learned about the child and, and reinforce those kinds of things. I have children still coming in with spelling lists and I go, Oh my gosh, that’s, that really gets me going because I see them all over the place with all different concepts and dyslexic kiddos cannot.
[01:11:16] Debbie Brown, CALT: Do a spelling list that has a vowel pair here and vowel consonant E here and sight words. So it’s, it’s, uh, it’s good to modify those kind of things for younger students if they do have spelling lists. Because all, all your child is going to be doing is it’s going to be in one ear and out one ear.
[01:11:36] Debbie Brown, CALT: They’re going to be memorizing it and what good does that do? They’re going to forget it instead of really understanding why the word is the way it is, why the a is long versus why is the a short? So, uh, it’s,
[01:11:48] Frances Shefter, Esq: yeah. Yeah, no, it’s so true.
[01:11:51] Frances Shefter, Esq: So I want to go, I want to touch base a little bit on for like first time, I don’t want to say first time parents, but yeah, first time parents that they know [01:12:00] something’s going on and they go to the school and they say, Hey, something’s up.
[01:12:04] Frances Shefter, Esq: I want to start the special education process. And I know, I think in Texas, they have, they call it the ARD. Here, they call it the analysis of, uh, existing data. Some people call it the multidisciplinary team. But that first meeting, that child find meeting of, of the, of the parents saying to the school, something’s not right.
[01:12:23] Frances Shefter, Esq: Something, my child is struggling. Where do we start? Do you have any pointers of like what the parents should be looking for and asking for at those meetings?
[01:12:33] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yes, but the very first thing I do want to say is I really think the parent needs to write a short letter. It doesn’t have to be intricate or anything.
[01:12:43] Debbie Brown, CALT: They need to date it because this is the date of their initial first conversation with the school because there are rules and laws that, that are in place for this kind of thing. So they need to say, I as a parent, I, I’m seeing my child, I feel like. [01:13:00] She is behind in her reading. She mixes up letters. She mixes up the internal letters in a word.
[01:13:07] Debbie Brown, CALT: And she might say, instead of calm, she says clam. Uh, she, she knows a lot of higher level words. Give those details, whatever they might be. Uh, in writing, in writing, and that’s important to that starts. Yeah,
[01:13:23] Frances Shefter, Esq: that
[01:13:24] Debbie Brown, CALT: starts the timeline that starts the timeline. But then let’s go past that. Let’s go to the first meeting.
[01:13:29] Debbie Brown, CALT: So now we’re in, we’re in the first meeting. The parent has given the school. And so now they’re saying, okay, tell us a little bit more. And then you can reiterate what you’ve already written. And then, uh, And you might have people in there that could be an interventionist. You might have somebody from admin.
[01:13:48] Debbie Brown, CALT: If you’re lucky, you might have, you might have the classroom teacher in there. So, uh, they’re listening to your reasons and then you can say those reasons. And [01:14:00] then they, as a committee, you all as a committee, you need to decide, should we go forth and test this child?
[01:14:09] Frances Shefter, Esq: I’ve had clients come to me after the fact and they said, well, the school won’t test and that the parent don’t take. No, that’s what I always say. You know, no is not an acceptable answer because I would just say, then you ask for the I. E. Okay, you don’t want to test that. I want an independent educational evaluation.
[01:14:28] Frances Shefter, Esq: And
[01:14:28] Debbie Brown, CALT: the other thing this sounds odd, but I really think it’s important. I really think you need to dress up for this meeting because you’re serious. This child is your you. Jewel and you want the best for your child. So it’s, you’re serious about this. You’re coming in and you want some results with, with the school.
[01:14:50] Debbie Brown, CALT: And so it’s not a time to be overly nice either. It’s time to get things done. And so you want to, uh, make sure that you say that. And in some [01:15:00] meetings that I’ve been in, you have the, you have the option to sign off saying you agree with whatever they say, or you don’t agree. So, uh, if you don’t agree, don’t sign it.
[01:15:12] Frances Shefter, Esq: Well, so a lot of, I know around here, the signing is just saying you participated, but then it’s the prior written notice, which is after the meeting, where they put, and this is a very important document that people don’t pay attention to. But the prior written notice is supposed to say everything like that.
[01:15:27] Frances Shefter, Esq: The parents requested testing. The school system said no, but they have to put why they said no, and they have to justify it. And if that’s not in the prior written notice, you tell them, where’s my prior written notice? It’s supposed to be to you five days after the meeting. And wait a minute, this wasn’t, this wasn’t in the prior written notice, please fix it.
[01:15:47] Frances Shefter, Esq: And if they don’t, then you can write a letter. To put in your child’s file so that you then have the documentation you need for if it does get to the point where, you know, of litigation, you have it. [01:16:00] And the other thing that does is that puts the school on notice that you, you understand the laws and what’s supposed to be happening.
[01:16:05] Debbie Brown, CALT: Exactly. And that’s the thing. They, they’re thinking, okay, this, this parent doesn’t know the laws. They’re not, they’re going to do whatever we say. And the other thing that we didn’t talk about is, sometimes I’ve, I hear that they send you notice, but they say, Oh, you don’t have to come. You, you need to take time.
[01:16:22] Debbie Brown, CALT: Even if you work, you need to take time to come to that meeting because that’s your child. It might, it might, um, delay things in your work, but I mean, your child is. It’s really important, so I would highly recommend always going to every meeting, or at least asking for a Zoom meeting if you can’t physically go there.
[01:16:41] Frances Shefter, Esq: Right. And just to touch on the law a little bit, is that it’s, they have to give you 10 day notice, and if you can’t attend at that meeting, then they need to reschedule it. They can’t just say, nope, we’re doing it that date, and if you can’t come, oh well, we’ll do it without you and send you the note.
[01:16:55] Debbie Brown, CALT: Right. Because they give you plenty of time to say, yes, you’re coming or no, you don’t. So everybody can [01:17:00] organize their schedule. And of course, granted life happens, something comes up, but typically you really, really do need to come to that meeting. Yes. That’s right. Right.
[01:17:10] Frances Shefter, Esq: And so once they get. Um, found eligible and now we’re working at looking at the IEP.
[01:17:17] Frances Shefter, Esq: Is there anything like the IEP goals? Do you have any pointers for parents for like specific goals for kids with dyslexia?
[01:17:24] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yes. Well, you really need to make sure you, you hone in on that. The goals need to be specific for your child and of course every child should be different. Now they have kind of a checklist where they can go through and they can decide what goals they want to achieve.
[01:17:39] Debbie Brown, CALT: Every child should have. So for example, I’m going to read this one and this is, um, a goal would be, um, so and so should be able to produce three out of the five sounds on CVC words. It can be that specific because maybe your child’s at the consonant vowel, [01:18:00] consonant level. Or, Oh, it could be another one of, um, my child will reach 8 out of 10 multi syllabic words by the end of the third 9 weeks.
[01:18:11] Debbie Brown, CALT: Do y’all do 9 weeks? I guess different schools do 9 weeks. So, so you, you need to have your goals that are relative that works for your child. The other thing is maybe fluency. Maybe your child, uh, maybe your child’s in 4th grade and on 4th grade, At a 50 percentile level, children should be reading, right now, this time of the year, they should be reading 120 to 133 words a minute.
[01:18:37] Debbie Brown, CALT: Dyslexic kiddos are nowhere close to that. So, what if your child is reading 50 words? And here your goal is 100, the 50 percent at winter is 120. Well, you don’t want to make the goal out of range either. You want to make the goal realistic for your child. So let’s say your child is reading 50 words a minute.
[01:18:58] Debbie Brown, CALT: Well, what’s a good goal for your [01:19:00] child? It could be 65 by the end of the school year. It’s, it’s going to be a smaller percentage because it’s going to take them time to get that fluency because they’re decoding the words, they’re, they’re reading the words and they need to read them correctly. So it’s a realistic goal for your child, wherever he or she is.
[01:19:21] Frances Shefter, Esq: But not too simple, not too
[01:19:24] Debbie Brown, CALT: simple, detailed, detailed.
[01:19:27] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yes. No, that’s, that’s definitely true. This has been so awesome and I love it. And as I said, that’s the personal as well because of my children and it’s, you know, it’s there, it’s out there and it’s people, the, the good thing is that people are recognizing it more.
[01:19:43] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yes. And just remember, there’s nothing wrong with your child. Your child’s brain works differently and the earlier you get, you catch it, the better because like, I know for my daughter that my younger one hated school. Because it was hard. And now that she’s getting the services, [01:20:00] she’s like, she actually likes going to school.
[01:20:02] Frances Shefter, Esq: Not every day, but she still likes going to school. She’s, it’s not as much of a struggle, but that’s what it’s all about. These are our babies and these are our kids and the investment, financial time, and everything we do now is going to impact them for the rest of their lives.
[01:20:17] Debbie Brown, CALT: And that’s, that’s a really good point.
[01:20:20] Debbie Brown, CALT: The earlier the intervention, the early identification, the better. That’s. That’s the bottom line. So I know we’re going
[01:20:27] Frances Shefter, Esq: to put it in the show notes, but I know you said you do virtual. How should people get in touch with you? Like, what’s your process if they want to call you about evaluations or tutoring?
[01:20:37] Frances Shefter, Esq: Or sorry, therapy, academic therapy.
[01:20:39] Debbie Brown, CALT: Sure. And we do tutor too. So they can contact me at Hill Country Dyslexia Services and, uh, dot com. And they can contact me, uh, uh, through that. And they can just sign up on my website. And then I will definitely give them a call and see what they need. Whether they need tutoring, whether they need testing.
[01:20:59] Debbie Brown, CALT: Uh, [01:21:00] whatever the, uh, difficulty is, you know, I, I’m here to help. Awesome. Thank you so much. Well, you’re welcome.
[01:21:24] Voiceover: You’ve been listening to Stress-Free IEP® with your host, Frances Shefter. Remember, you do not need to do it all alone. You can reach Frances through ShefterLaw. com, where prior episodes are also posted. Thank you for your positive reviews, comments, and sharing the show with others through YouTube, LinkedIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.
[01:21:39]
Decoding Dyslexia: A Parent’s Journey with Deborah Brown Hill
Stress-Free IEP® with Frances Shefter, Ep 46
In this compelling episode of Stress-Free IEP®, host Frances Shefter engages in an enlightening conversation with Deborah Brown Hill, owner of Hill Country Dyslexia Services. As a certified academic language therapist (C-A-L-T), Deborah is on a mission to empower children facing dyslexia, dysgraphia, and related learning hurdles. Through her business, Hill Country Dyslexia Services, Deborah leads a dedicated team committed to early detection and tailored interventions for students grappling with literacy and math obstacles. Tune in as we delve into Deborah’s inspiring journey, gain invaluable insights, and explore effective strategies for advocating for and supporting children’s educational journeys.
Tune in to the episode to hear about:
Learn more about Deborah Brown:
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Stress-Free IEP®:
Frances Shefter is an Education Attorney and Advocate who is committed to helping her clients have a Stress-Free IEP® experience. In each podcast, Frances interviews inspiring people to share information, educate you, empower you and help you get the knowledge you need.
Watch more episodes of Stress-Free IEP®:
Connect and learn more from your host, Frances Shefter:
Read the whole transcript here:
[00:40:53] Voiceover: Welcome to Stress-Free IEP®. You do not need to do it all alone. With [00:41:00] your host, Frances Shefter, Principal of Shefter Law. You can get more details and catch prior episodes at www. Shefterlaw. com. The Stress-Free IEP® video podcast is also posted on YouTube and LinkedIn, and you can listen to episodes through Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher, and more.
[00:41:22] Voiceover: Now, here’s the host of Stress-Free IEP®, Frances Shefter.
[00:41:30] Frances Shefter, Esq: Hello everyone, and welcome to the show.
[00:41:33] Frances Shefter, Esq: Today is a special, our guest today, let me put it this way, our guest today is has a personal interest for me. Um, her name is Deborah Brown and she is the owner of Hill Country Dyslexia Services in Texas. And the reason why I say it’s personal, as all of you know, both of my children have IEPs.
[00:41:53] Frances Shefter, Esq: Both were recently diagnosed with dyslexia. So, it’s definitely a passion of mine because [00:42:00] um, I mean, we’ll go into this a lot more, but with the testing and everything, the schools didn’t pick it up, and I don’t expect the schools well We expect the schools to, but they don’t always pick it up, and so I pay for private testing, and I know, Debbie, that’s something that we’ve talked about briefly that, um, let’s just jump, well, tell us a little bit about you and about your services, and then we’ll go into all of that.
[00:42:20] Debbie Brown, CALT: Okay, wonderful. Well, thank you for having me on. Uh, I am very passionate about seeing children with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and related, uh, difficulties. And I started out alone, and now I have several, I have actually nine people working for me in various positions, whether it’s other dyslexia therapists like me.
[00:42:41] Debbie Brown, CALT: I am a certified academic language therapist. That’s what those initials stand for. C A L T. And, uh, I have, uh, other people that do math intervention because sometimes dyslexia falls into the math realm where it’s dyscalculia and, uh, children have. Problems with [00:43:00] word problems or other difficulties. And then I have a whole team of educational DIACs who can test students for dyslexia, for dyscalculia, for dysgraphia.
[00:43:13] Debbie Brown, CALT: And I really want to have as many students tested as possible because why wait? Why have a student wait?
[00:43:23] Frances Shefter, Esq: Right. And dysgraphia, for those that might not know, that’s the writing portion of dyslexia. Dyslexia is the reading. Dysgraphia is the writing. Um, and exactly why wait, wait. I mean, my, my children are first grade and fourth grade now and just got diagnosed with dyslexia.
[00:43:38] Frances Shefter, Esq: And so it’s more challenging for my fourth grader because she’s She’s reading, she’s reading well, but she still has to catch up with some stuff.
[00:43:47] Debbie Brown, CALT: Exactly. And in my fourth grade, a child is not being taught how to read. They’re, they’re learning. They’re learning instead of being taught those individual.
[00:43:57] Debbie Brown, CALT: phonics, phonemic awareness, [00:44:00] unless they go to a dyslexia therapist or they have it in the public schools and where I live, we have it in the public schools, but I know all states don’t do that. So you do have to go outside and get a specialist to help them, right? And
[00:44:13] Frances Shefter, Esq: yeah, I know that’s, that’s where Texas is leading the country and a lot and having that.
[00:44:18] Frances Shefter, Esq: Because I know, I mean, we’re in Montgomery County, I’m in Montgomery County, Maryland, and they, They don’t have the extensive of dyslexia services. I mean, they do have the pull out program, and my younger one is doing phenomenal with the pull out now, um, and really going, but with my older one, I don’t want to have her pull out for dysgraphia, because, I mean, for the dyslexia, because then she’s missing the content, and it causes a whole nother anxiety level.
[00:44:44] Debbie Brown, CALT: Exactly. And so you want to make sure you have your child identified early and early can be the last part of first grade. I mean, they’re doing research now where they’re showing infants have it. They, I mean, that’s, that’s how, how early they can detect it. [00:45:00] But of course, schools. Really want to see it, look at it, but often by the end of the first grade and, but it can be earlier.
[00:45:08] Debbie Brown, CALT: Uh, so if you start seeing your child that cannot rhyme, that maybe even has delayed speech, uh, that, uh, Maybe he or she likes to listen to you read, but, and you’ve tried to help them with, uh, maybe even spelling their name, uh, you need to, maybe, you know, kind of, those are kind of some, a little red flags, or, uh, maybe they have high vocabulary, but you’re showing them simple little sentences if they’re in first or second grade, and they can’t read easy words like a and and, and want, or they might say want or what.
[00:45:44] Debbie Brown, CALT: and and and on the next page when it’s really want. So it’s really good to get, um, the kids die.
[00:45:51] Debbie Brown, CALT: Uh, go ahead and get the the Children tested as early as possible.
[00:45:57] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah. And with my younger one, it was the end of [00:46:00] kindergarten and I love the kindergarten teacher. My older one had her as well who said like she’s behind in reading.
[00:46:05] Frances Shefter, Esq: Um, the interesting thing is the, the dyslexia indicators didn’t show up on the reading standardized tests, of course, at the end of kindergarten, which is why I say schools miss it a lot. Um, but with what I know and my background and everything, I of course went and paid for private testing over the summer because school systems don’t always do the, well, they have.
[00:46:28] Frances Shefter, Esq: Well, whatever schools do the best they can, but knowing what I know, unfortunately, with dyslexia, you have to go to private testing because the schools don’t go deep
[00:46:38] Debbie Brown, CALT: enough. Yes. When one in five students have dyslexia, that’s a, that’s, that’s critical. And so that’s why I’m also very, very diags who can test remotely so we can test in any state and it’s done with fidelity.
[00:46:55] Debbie Brown, CALT: Uh, and we give the parent or the guardian all the [00:47:00] information, we get all set up, we do the testing, we get, we write the report, and then we get the report back to the parent, uh, electronically and of course paper if they choose to do that. And then the parent can take that to the school and say, this is what, this is what it’s showing.
[00:47:18] Debbie Brown, CALT: We need to have services for our child. And more parents, you know, you as a parent, like you with your two children, you had that gut feeling, you saw the evidence and you had to take action and you had to pay for the extra. It, it does fall on the schools, but like you said, in some states, the schools just don’t follow through as much.
[00:47:38] Debbie Brown, CALT: So being a parent, if I had a child, if I was in your place, I sure would get a child tested outside and, and get it done. Why wait? So that’s, that’s the key thing. Don’t wait.
[00:47:52] Frances Shefter, Esq: And so your testing, is it just the academic part
[00:47:55] or?
[00:47:57] Debbie Brown, CALT: It’s going to be, it’s going to be [00:48:00] academic, um, possibly intellectual, uh, the IQ, uh, and then it could fall into the realm of dysgraphia and dyscalculia.
[00:48:09] Debbie Brown, CALT: It will not have a DSM. Uh. On it, uh, in the report because, uh, the educational diags are not psychologists. Really, the main difference between an educational diag and a psychologist is psychologists have PhDs. Educational diags have masters, like the, the psychologist. But the thing that they have that most psychologists, so far that I’ve found, they have real classroom experience.
[00:48:40] Debbie Brown, CALT: They can see, they know the difference of a child that has dyslexia or a child that does not. They have experienced because they’ve been in the classrooms for years themselves. They can see it and they had the evidence of it. And so they’re going to be writing reports and telling, um, the detailed information of the symptoms of a child who has [00:49:00] those characteristics of dyslexia.
[00:49:04] Debbie Brown, CALT: So I think that’s really important, you know, when you have experience.
[00:49:08] Frances Shefter, Esq: Because it’s something that can go deeper, and I know, like, I know for us, a lot of times in Maryland and D. C. even, um, a lot of times outside evaluations, they’ll be like, oh, well, it’s not enough, we need more. Which is fine, they’re going to do the behavior, because they, the educational impact is what everybody likes to say.
[00:49:24] Frances Shefter, Esq: Oh, yes, your child is dyslexic, but there’s no educational impact.
[00:49:28] Debbie Brown, CALT: There is so much educational impact. There’s, and there’s a lot of secondary things that some people don’t want to recognize. Does your child go to the nurse a lot? Does your child have headaches a lot? Not want to go to school? Those are all signs that your child maybe can’t communicate it.
[00:49:47] Debbie Brown, CALT: Maybe he or she’s in first grade and they, they, they don’t know, but they know that something’s happening. Most of the time they’re very cognizant of why they, What’s going on? [00:50:00] And they’re concerned and they have anxiety. I have several students that have had anxiety, but once they come to somebody like me, it’s like they’re, they blossom and they bloom.
[00:50:10] Debbie Brown, CALT: I have parents that say to me, oh gosh, so and so, now we’ve got, she’s got the glimmer in her eye now because she’s got the confidence because we, I as a dyslexia therapist can give them the skills to use for their lifetime, to make them confident, to show them the skills. Spelling concepts. And so it’s, it makes a difference.
[00:50:29] Debbie Brown, CALT: And so you really, again, I keep going back, but get your child that testing as soon as, but don’t wait. You know, you and your, you as a parent, you know that, you know, if your child needs it, you need to get it done. And yes, it does cost, but it’s so you’re investing in your child’s future. And that’s really what you want because you want them in early and you want them to be released as soon as you, as they’re on grade level.
[00:50:57] Debbie Brown, CALT: So that’s the key. And then they don’t need [00:51:00] dyslexia therapy for all their life. Yes, they do have it all their life. It does not go away, but they know more how to cope with it. And that’s, that’s the key. Giving them the skills. And showing them what to do when they’re floundering to decode a word and they’re going, I don’t know what that means.
[00:51:17] Debbie Brown, CALT: We don’t guess they have to sound out that letters or the phonemes or the, or the blended sounds and then blend the word and then really look at what they’re reading.
[00:51:29] Frances Shefter, Esq: Right. And that’s when it comes out, especially with older kids. I know because a lot, and this is where the school systems, the school’s tests test each thing individually.
[00:51:41] Frances Shefter, Esq: And a child with dyslexia, they can sound out the words, they can read fluently, and they can comprehend when they’re done separately. But when they have to sound out the word, read fluently, and comprehend everything all together, that’s when it really comes out, which is fourth grade, third, fourth grade when the curriculum starts getting [00:52:00] more difficult.
[00:52:00] Debbie Brown, CALT: And then if they mispronounce or they mis think words in their head, then they, when, uh, a question is asked, they don’t understand it. They’re not gonna get the questions right. Therefore, they’re not gonna do as well on tests. And then that kind of goes into, you can even go into math with the word problems.
[00:52:18] Debbie Brown, CALT: They don’t, they don’t understand the different math concepts or they don’t understand the sequencing. And again, that can be another. Weakness that they have. But of course these dyslexic kids have strengths. I don’t know about your kids, but I have lots of kids in that I see that have, that are great sports.
[00:52:37] Debbie Brown, CALT: People, they excel in that area. They might excel in just, uh, uh, acting and being creative. So, uh, I even have one that I exited that wrote me an email and her email was longer than any emails I write. It just kept going on and on and on and on. And I don’t write emails. emails like that. And when I first saw her, she was [00:53:00] barely able to write one or two sentences.
[00:53:02] Debbie Brown, CALT: So it’s again, getting them that help and then making them be able to use it and apply those skills.
[00:53:09] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah. My older one is artistic and it has been. Yeah. My younger one’s artistic also, but her, uh, her big thing is she loves her. Her Barbies and she just has, she has whole conversations with like all of them and doesn’t want anybody else to play with her when she’s with her Barbies.
[00:53:25] Debbie Brown, CALT: Oh, maybe she’ll be a fashion designer or something like that.
[00:53:28] Frances Shefter, Esq: She might be. She puts together outfits and comes down. Mommy, do you like my outfit? It’s really cute.
[00:53:35] Debbie Brown, CALT: And so, you know, dyslexic, uh, that’s why you see so many dyslexic actors who, um, they can memorize very well, but they cannot really read as fluently and, but once they’ve got it in their brain, they can just spit it out.
[00:53:50] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah. I mean, it makes sense. It makes, you know, it’s so like, I hate the whole special needs and neurodiverse and all that other stuff because it’s just, [00:54:00] our brains work differently. Yes.
[00:54:03] Debbie Brown, CALT: And, and that’s what parents need to understand that it’s, they’re born with it. And it’s a neuro, it’s a neuro, um, thing in their brain.
[00:54:13] Debbie Brown, CALT: And so they, um, that’s why they need the systematic, the explicit, the repetitive instruction. And also cursive does help with that. And in Texas, uh, now there’s a law that by second grade, you’re supposed to start, uh, teachers are supposed to start teaching students how to write in cursive. But again, some of those teachers have not even been taught how to explicitly.
[00:54:39] Debbie Brown, CALT: teach handwriting. So if a teacher gives a child a packet, that’s not teaching a child how to write in cursive. That’s why, again, special people like me can that have been taught the correct way how to how to write a letter, how to write letters in cursive. Do you help? That
[00:54:59] Frances Shefter, Esq: makes sense. Yeah, [00:55:00] they took, I think it might be back in again, but they took it out of the curriculum in Montgomery County.
[00:55:04] Frances Shefter, Esq: We’re like, huh? Like, you can’t read documents if you don’t have, you know, like all of our old documents, the constitution, like, you know, everything’s cursive.
[00:55:13] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yes. And what about writing a check? That’s a life skill that you need to do when you, when you get your first apartment. And I think it’s so empowering to give a child the knowledge.
[00:55:27] Debbie Brown, CALT: And so that’s really one of the first things I try to teach them is their, at least their first name in cursive. If they have a long last name, we might wait till we’re getting to more of the vowels and the consonants. But, uh, it, then they go, Oh, look, I’m, I can write my name in cursive, but maybe they can’t over there.
[00:55:45] Debbie Brown, CALT: So it empowers them. And
[00:55:47] Frances Shefter, Esq: that’s the thing that I, that I, you know, especially with, with, um, dyslexia and with ADHD and autism and all of that, it’s just, you know, the kids are great at one thing and not [00:56:00] great at the other. And it’s, it’s hard because the way society and the public school systems teach to the masses and this is what society expects you to be able to do.
[00:56:10] Frances Shefter, Esq: And this is what it means to be smart. And this is what it means to be, to be able to get an A. And if you’re not in this area, then you’re different and
[00:56:20] Debbie Brown, CALT: that’s not okay. And that’s true. And especially for, um, I have several students that are gifted and talented and dyslexic. And that is, I think, even more harder to define because they, these GT kids think out of the box and they, uh, they’re compensating more.
[00:56:39] Debbie Brown, CALT: And again. A lot of the students are already compensating. They might get help from their friends. They might say, teacher, can you help me? Some of them don’t do that, but, uh, they are already trying to just fit in and just be like everybody else. And so I think. Knowledge is powerful. [00:57:00] And after a student is identified, I think that’s when you need to talk to your child and say, this is the way you think.
[00:57:07] Debbie Brown, CALT: And that’s not wrong. Everybody has strengths. Everybody has weaknesses and we’re going to work on those, um, areas where you’re not as strong, but look how, look at these weaknesses and, and lay out those weaknesses for your child, because you do want to, to make sure your child knows what their, their, uh, strengths are,
[00:57:28] Frances Shefter, Esq: right?
[00:57:29] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah. And that’s, you know, it’s funny. That’s one of the things, like I told my kids when we were going to the psychologists for the testing is that, you know, we’re just learning how your brain works differently. Yes.
[00:57:38] Debbie Brown, CALT: I describe it sometimes to parents and really younger kids. I say, okay, have you ever been a road and you’re detouring?
[00:57:45] Debbie Brown, CALT: You see a sign, you’ve got a detour, but eventually you get there. You can eventually get there, but after you’re diagnosed with dyslexia, we want to give you the skills so that you can go straight there and not take those [00:58:00] detours.
[00:58:01] Frances Shefter, Esq: Right. And that’s the thing, you know, you said that most of our dyslexia kids, I, a lot of our dyslexic kids are bright.
[00:58:08] Frances Shefter, Esq: I mean, most of our kids are bright, you know, their brains work differently. And that’s the thing. And they mask and they’re, they’re able to compensate. And that’s why a lot of times. You don’t see the dyslexia come out until third or fourth grade because they’re overcompensating and you can’t tell and you can’t see it as early, but take a look
[00:58:29] Debbie Brown, CALT: at it.
[00:58:29] Debbie Brown, CALT: I mean, think about, uh, even directionality. So think about things like this days of the week. Do they ever get that confused months of the year? Do they ever get that confused when they were little? Or did they confuse when they were first starting writing their left hand to the right hand? Or do they confuse directionality?
[00:58:47] Debbie Brown, CALT: I’m going left. But when they’re really going right, uh, those kind of things or being resistant to you as a parent to learn to read. Uh, so or, um, they [00:59:00] want you to read, but they don’t want to read the story. Rhyming is a big thing. Uh, can they rhyme? And, of course, the Dr Seuss books are wonderful for that.
[00:59:09] Debbie Brown, CALT: And that that is what a lot of parents do is they, you know, they read to their and it is important, but it’s, it’s You as a parent have to fight for your child because you’re the main advocate and you need to make sure the schools will do what you need to do. You have the power, really, because you are the parent.
[00:59:30] Debbie Brown, CALT: I think that’s what a lot of parents don’t understand. They don’t understand about the education system. So they’re going to go, okay, we’re just going to leave it up to the school. And I guess the school is always right. And the school is not. Always right. I’ve seen kids where they’ve already had one diagnosis and it said they weren’t dyslexic, but then I started seeing them and I started seeing red signs.
[00:59:49] Debbie Brown, CALT: I went, I don’t, I think this child is dyslexic. And so you can always get your child retested too. So if you’ve already been through it once, that doesn’t mean [01:00:00] that’s a forever, uh, ending result. So, yes, make sure.
[01:00:07] Frances Shefter, Esq: I was just going to say federal law is as long as your child hasn’t been tested within the 12 months, school has to evaluate again.
[01:00:14] Frances Shefter, Esq: And if you as a parent, I, I’m a strong believer in parent gut, guardian gut, whatever, you know, like whoever it is that with that child, like trust your gut. If you think something’s just not 100 percent there, like there’s something different. Go. I hate saying something wrong with your child. It’s not wrong, but if you think there’s a struggle going on with your child, push for it.
[01:00:36] Frances Shefter, Esq: And if you think, like, the school does a testing, and the testing doesn’t come out with anything, and they’re like, nope, there’s no issue, ask for an independent educational evaluation. Tell them you want, you want deeper testing, um, because that’s where it comes out.
[01:00:50] Debbie Brown, CALT: Exactly. And the school district has to pay for that too.
[01:00:54] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yep. So, uh, you as a parent have that Right. And I’m sure that you have [01:01:00] parents come to you saying, I’m just so frustrated. And they don’t need to be frustrated. They need to have their child tested. Early. So yeah, don’t give up as a parent. Exactly.
[01:01:10] Frances Shefter, Esq: Well, and it’s interesting. You said that for the independent educational evaluation, the school system has to pay for it, which is true.
[01:01:16] Frances Shefter, Esq: The school system. And this is what parents don’t know. And I’ve done lots of videos on this is that when you, when a parent asks for the school system for an independent educational evaluation paid for by the school system, the school system only has two options. They can either grant it and say, okay, here’s the authorization for the testing or They can file a due process case against the parent to say, no, we’ve done the testing and our testing is appropriate.
[01:01:44] Frances Shefter, Esq: And so more often than not, I know at least here, school systems grant the IEEs because it’s cheaper for them to pay three, 4, 000 for an outside test than for them to litigate it. Exactly.
[01:01:58] Debbie Brown, CALT: Exactly. Because that’s when the [01:02:00] litigation gets into thousands and thousands of dollars and the school district can’t afford that.
[01:02:04] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yeah. So, yes.
[01:02:06] Debbie Brown, CALT: And that’s why I really feel strongly if, if we do, like my company does, the Educational Dyacs at my company do those kind of evaluations, the school district should take them because, uh, the Educational Dyacs do have so much background training and it, it eliminates the time that the The school has to even test the child and it’s not like we’re trying to, uh, invalidate the scores.
[01:02:30] Debbie Brown, CALT: The scores are the scores. The child, uh, answers the questions, uh, and there’s, uh, basic charts that the educational diet has to look at. And then it’s, it’s a, it’s a really valid score.
[01:02:45] Frances Shefter, Esq: And you just go deeper than the school systems go. Oh,
[01:02:47] Debbie Brown, CALT: definitely. Yes, we want to we want to go deeper. And then, of course, with our evaluations, we’re going to state accommodations that the child needs to have.
[01:02:56] Debbie Brown, CALT: We’re going to say resources for the parent. We’re going to say resources [01:03:00] of what the classroom teacher could do, because maybe the classroom teacher doesn’t know. I’ve worked with classroom teachers that never really understood what dyslexia was. And then there’s others that can just pick it up just like that.
[01:03:12] Debbie Brown, CALT: So, Uh, teach more and more teachers are getting trained, at least here in my state. And, uh, but they, uh, I don’t think that’s happening in all the
[01:03:23] Frances Shefter, Esq: states now.
[01:03:24] Frances Shefter, Esq: And the problem is, is that a lot of times it’s the special education teachers that are getting trained, not the general education teachers. And I remember when I went and did my master’s in special education, because my undergrad was in early childhood.
[01:03:36] Frances Shefter, Esq: And I remember doing these classes in special ed. I’m like, why didn’t I learn this stuff? In my early childhood education classes, you know, like, okay, there’s special education, but this is for all the students You know, like everybody learns differently and it’s stuff that we should do that. It just it was frustrating because it was like why?
[01:03:57] Frances Shefter, Esq: Teaching techniques are teaching techniques and if [01:04:00] they work for special education kids, they’re going to work for general education kids however, the general education techniques might not always work with our special ed kids exactly kind of get in there and And, you know, work it out and get it all in there.
[01:04:14] Frances Shefter, Esq: Get those, get those techniques in there to the general education.
[01:04:18] Debbie Brown, CALT: So really, it does start with when teach, when a, when a person goes to college and they want to get an education, they do need to have uh, good professors that can give them the, the expertise to identify children with different needs. No matter, I mean, even if it isn’t dyslexia, what if it’s apraxia, or what if it’s, you know, another, um, a speech difficulty.
[01:04:42] Debbie Brown, CALT: So it can be, it can be, um, all different things. So a classroom teacher does need to know those signs from, for different learning difference, differences. And, uh, and really a lot of this could be prevented if the teachers had good phonics background, because [01:05:00] that’s where it starts. It starts with good phonics instruction.
[01:05:04] Debbie Brown, CALT: And the teachers are so pressured by, okay, I’ve got my curriculum. The state’s telling me what to do. My school district’s telling me what to do. I’ve got to hurry through this when it’s really hurting our kids. And they’re just moving too quickly. So, they really need to have, beginning at the college level, to teach teachers how to teach a variety of different students.
[01:05:29] Debbie Brown, CALT: And maybe look more closely at those students with learning differences.
[01:05:35] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah, it’s true. Because it’s recognizing. And then it’s, the other thing is that teachers I don’t know. I found, I don’t know if you’ve seen this also with teachers, is that they don’t want to admit that the child’s not learning because they’re afraid that it makes them look bad.
[01:05:50] Debbie Brown, CALT: That’s true. I’ve seen it time and time again. Yes. And it’s really not, they’re proud and it’s like their little kingdom, their classroom with all their kids. And [01:06:00] really, um, that’s sad if that does happen because, uh, you’re Impeding really a child’s education, and that’s a valuable commodity. We don’t want to do that.
[01:06:10] Debbie Brown, CALT: We want to make sure our kids get what they need. I sometimes call it just teach you if if a teacher goes, Oh, I can fix that kid. You don’t need to. You know, you don’t need to get outside resources. I’ve seen. I’ve seen teachers with one or two years experience say that, and here I am, I’ve got 20 years of experience with all my extra classroom and, uh, becoming a Calc was a really big thing with 700 documented hours of being in front of dyslexia students, videotapes, books read, tests and all that, uh, that was not the best place for that student, but the mom kind of relied on the classroom teacher.
[01:06:49] Debbie Brown, CALT: And yes, appearance, Have to do that, but the parents need to do their homework. They need to investigate. They need to understand why their child is behind, because we don’t [01:07:00] want those child children behind because it’s like you said with your fourth grader, it’s harder and harder and harder. To get caught up.
[01:07:10] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah. And that’s I mean, I had, I had a potential client, I should say, um, that did a strategy session with me that the child was in, I want to say sixth grade and they just had, um, you know, they were middle school, just got the dyslexia diagnosis. And I said, flat out, I said, look, yes, you could hire me. I could get the perfect IEP and great services in place.
[01:07:33] Frances Shefter, Esq: But here’s the problem. Yeah. The school system is not equipped to teach your child the way your child needs to be taught in middle school. So take your money, it’s better spent, hire a good dyslexia tutor that has the training and the knowledge to tutor your child outside of, because that’s what your child needs.
[01:07:52] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yes. And speaking to that, especially with the older kiddos. It needs to be [01:08:00] done intensively. It needs to be not just on the instruction, by the way, that’s what I’m describing needs to be done, not just once or twice a week. It really needs to be, I call it front end loaded, where it’s a lot at the beginning, four to five times a week.
[01:08:16] Debbie Brown, CALT: 45 minutes to an hour. And it depends on the dyslexia tutors or therapist. Tutoring to me is only once or twice a week. Therapy is four or five times a week. You need to get your child in front of somebody that knows what they’re doing more. And, but yes, it’s an investment, but think about putting that money there and then letting them, um, go to college, but be able to go to college, you know, so, uh, so, and even in the summer, even when you’re on vacation, you can get some therapists will do things, see students virtually, I’m currently seeing a student in Uganda four days a week.
[01:08:55] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yeah, because the dad is working for an oil company and this little girl [01:09:00] is, um, very dyslexic and she’s a second grader, but I’ve only been seeing her since October and she is starting to thrive. She also has a speech difficulty. Her A’s are very hard. She, uh, and so, uh, I’m not a speech person, but she has seen a speech therapist as well.
[01:09:16] Debbie Brown, CALT: So you can do it remotely as well.
[01:09:20] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yeah, no, and that’s, I mean, that’s a great thing. Like, I think. I always hate saying that the good thing that came out of COVID, but, but the reality, but that, but it did because, because people got comfortable with doing virtual. Yes. And people got comfortable and saying that it’s okay.
[01:09:36] Frances Shefter, Esq: And it just opened. The doors so much. I know for me as a parent, a lot of times doing virtual stuff is so helpful because I don’t have to, okay, I got to get out of work and pick up the kids at three o’clock and then I have to drive the kids to here and then I have to drive the kids home and who’s going to make dinner and you know, it’s nuts.
[01:09:54] Frances Shefter, Esq: Where’s virtual? It’s like, okay, we get home at four o’clock, sit them there. They’re doing their thing. I can cook dinner while they’re doing, you
[01:09:59] Debbie Brown, CALT: know, [01:10:00] Exactly. And so it’s really again, back to the parent. They need to do their homework to find somebody that they really think will blend with their child.
[01:10:08] Debbie Brown, CALT: If it is remote and and even in person, they also need to do the same. If it’s a good fit, you’ll know again, kind of like what you were saying in the very beginning, follow your gut. And if it is a good fit, then do it. Uh, and then you should get progress monitoring from whoever You’re, you’re getting your child tutored or in therapy with, they should tell you the progress or, um, or maybe they’re still working on this concept.
[01:10:36] Debbie Brown, CALT: This is a hard concept for them or that sort of thing. So, really, the communication is very important with your outside therapist, uh, as well, no matter if it’s remote or in person.
[01:10:49] Frances Shefter, Esq: Right. And then connecting your outside therapist to the school is a way. Yes.
[01:10:53] Debbie Brown, CALT: And I have done that. I’ve worked as it’s because I really feel like we’re all a community.
[01:10:57] Debbie Brown, CALT: And, and then I can share the [01:11:00] things that I’ve learned about the child and, and reinforce those kinds of things. I have children still coming in with spelling lists and I go, Oh my gosh, that’s, that really gets me going because I see them all over the place with all different concepts and dyslexic kiddos cannot.
[01:11:16] Debbie Brown, CALT: Do a spelling list that has a vowel pair here and vowel consonant E here and sight words. So it’s, it’s, uh, it’s good to modify those kind of things for younger students if they do have spelling lists. Because all, all your child is going to be doing is it’s going to be in one ear and out one ear.
[01:11:36] Debbie Brown, CALT: They’re going to be memorizing it and what good does that do? They’re going to forget it instead of really understanding why the word is the way it is, why the a is long versus why is the a short? So, uh, it’s,
[01:11:48] Frances Shefter, Esq: yeah. Yeah, no, it’s so true.
[01:11:51] Frances Shefter, Esq: So I want to go, I want to touch base a little bit on for like first time, I don’t want to say first time parents, but yeah, first time parents that they know [01:12:00] something’s going on and they go to the school and they say, Hey, something’s up.
[01:12:04] Frances Shefter, Esq: I want to start the special education process. And I know, I think in Texas, they have, they call it the ARD. Here, they call it the analysis of, uh, existing data. Some people call it the multidisciplinary team. But that first meeting, that child find meeting of, of the, of the parents saying to the school, something’s not right.
[01:12:23] Frances Shefter, Esq: Something, my child is struggling. Where do we start? Do you have any pointers of like what the parents should be looking for and asking for at those meetings?
[01:12:33] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yes, but the very first thing I do want to say is I really think the parent needs to write a short letter. It doesn’t have to be intricate or anything.
[01:12:43] Debbie Brown, CALT: They need to date it because this is the date of their initial first conversation with the school because there are rules and laws that, that are in place for this kind of thing. So they need to say, I as a parent, I, I’m seeing my child, I feel like. [01:13:00] She is behind in her reading. She mixes up letters. She mixes up the internal letters in a word.
[01:13:07] Debbie Brown, CALT: And she might say, instead of calm, she says clam. Uh, she, she knows a lot of higher level words. Give those details, whatever they might be. Uh, in writing, in writing, and that’s important to that starts. Yeah,
[01:13:23] Frances Shefter, Esq: that
[01:13:24] Debbie Brown, CALT: starts the timeline that starts the timeline. But then let’s go past that. Let’s go to the first meeting.
[01:13:29] Debbie Brown, CALT: So now we’re in, we’re in the first meeting. The parent has given the school. And so now they’re saying, okay, tell us a little bit more. And then you can reiterate what you’ve already written. And then, uh, And you might have people in there that could be an interventionist. You might have somebody from admin.
[01:13:48] Debbie Brown, CALT: If you’re lucky, you might have, you might have the classroom teacher in there. So, uh, they’re listening to your reasons and then you can say those reasons. And [01:14:00] then they, as a committee, you all as a committee, you need to decide, should we go forth and test this child?
[01:14:09] Frances Shefter, Esq: I’ve had clients come to me after the fact and they said, well, the school won’t test and that the parent don’t take. No, that’s what I always say. You know, no is not an acceptable answer because I would just say, then you ask for the I. E. Okay, you don’t want to test that. I want an independent educational evaluation.
[01:14:28] Frances Shefter, Esq: And
[01:14:28] Debbie Brown, CALT: the other thing this sounds odd, but I really think it’s important. I really think you need to dress up for this meeting because you’re serious. This child is your you. Jewel and you want the best for your child. So it’s, you’re serious about this. You’re coming in and you want some results with, with the school.
[01:14:50] Debbie Brown, CALT: And so it’s not a time to be overly nice either. It’s time to get things done. And so you want to, uh, make sure that you say that. And in some [01:15:00] meetings that I’ve been in, you have the, you have the option to sign off saying you agree with whatever they say, or you don’t agree. So, uh, if you don’t agree, don’t sign it.
[01:15:12] Frances Shefter, Esq: Well, so a lot of, I know around here, the signing is just saying you participated, but then it’s the prior written notice, which is after the meeting, where they put, and this is a very important document that people don’t pay attention to. But the prior written notice is supposed to say everything like that.
[01:15:27] Frances Shefter, Esq: The parents requested testing. The school system said no, but they have to put why they said no, and they have to justify it. And if that’s not in the prior written notice, you tell them, where’s my prior written notice? It’s supposed to be to you five days after the meeting. And wait a minute, this wasn’t, this wasn’t in the prior written notice, please fix it.
[01:15:47] Frances Shefter, Esq: And if they don’t, then you can write a letter. To put in your child’s file so that you then have the documentation you need for if it does get to the point where, you know, of litigation, you have it. [01:16:00] And the other thing that does is that puts the school on notice that you, you understand the laws and what’s supposed to be happening.
[01:16:05] Debbie Brown, CALT: Exactly. And that’s the thing. They, they’re thinking, okay, this, this parent doesn’t know the laws. They’re not, they’re going to do whatever we say. And the other thing that we didn’t talk about is, sometimes I’ve, I hear that they send you notice, but they say, Oh, you don’t have to come. You, you need to take time.
[01:16:22] Debbie Brown, CALT: Even if you work, you need to take time to come to that meeting because that’s your child. It might, it might, um, delay things in your work, but I mean, your child is. It’s really important, so I would highly recommend always going to every meeting, or at least asking for a Zoom meeting if you can’t physically go there.
[01:16:41] Frances Shefter, Esq: Right. And just to touch on the law a little bit, is that it’s, they have to give you 10 day notice, and if you can’t attend at that meeting, then they need to reschedule it. They can’t just say, nope, we’re doing it that date, and if you can’t come, oh well, we’ll do it without you and send you the note.
[01:16:55] Debbie Brown, CALT: Right. Because they give you plenty of time to say, yes, you’re coming or no, you don’t. So everybody can [01:17:00] organize their schedule. And of course, granted life happens, something comes up, but typically you really, really do need to come to that meeting. Yes. That’s right. Right.
[01:17:10] Frances Shefter, Esq: And so once they get. Um, found eligible and now we’re working at looking at the IEP.
[01:17:17] Frances Shefter, Esq: Is there anything like the IEP goals? Do you have any pointers for parents for like specific goals for kids with dyslexia?
[01:17:24] Debbie Brown, CALT: Yes. Well, you really need to make sure you, you hone in on that. The goals need to be specific for your child and of course every child should be different. Now they have kind of a checklist where they can go through and they can decide what goals they want to achieve.
[01:17:39] Debbie Brown, CALT: Every child should have. So for example, I’m going to read this one and this is, um, a goal would be, um, so and so should be able to produce three out of the five sounds on CVC words. It can be that specific because maybe your child’s at the consonant vowel, [01:18:00] consonant level. Or, Oh, it could be another one of, um, my child will reach 8 out of 10 multi syllabic words by the end of the third 9 weeks.
[01:18:11] Debbie Brown, CALT: Do y’all do 9 weeks? I guess different schools do 9 weeks. So, so you, you need to have your goals that are relative that works for your child. The other thing is maybe fluency. Maybe your child, uh, maybe your child’s in 4th grade and on 4th grade, At a 50 percentile level, children should be reading, right now, this time of the year, they should be reading 120 to 133 words a minute.
[01:18:37] Debbie Brown, CALT: Dyslexic kiddos are nowhere close to that. So, what if your child is reading 50 words? And here your goal is 100, the 50 percent at winter is 120. Well, you don’t want to make the goal out of range either. You want to make the goal realistic for your child. So let’s say your child is reading 50 words a minute.
[01:18:58] Debbie Brown, CALT: Well, what’s a good goal for your [01:19:00] child? It could be 65 by the end of the school year. It’s, it’s going to be a smaller percentage because it’s going to take them time to get that fluency because they’re decoding the words, they’re, they’re reading the words and they need to read them correctly. So it’s a realistic goal for your child, wherever he or she is.
[01:19:21] Frances Shefter, Esq: But not too simple, not too
[01:19:24] Debbie Brown, CALT: simple, detailed, detailed.
[01:19:27] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yes. No, that’s, that’s definitely true. This has been so awesome and I love it. And as I said, that’s the personal as well because of my children and it’s, you know, it’s there, it’s out there and it’s people, the, the good thing is that people are recognizing it more.
[01:19:43] Frances Shefter, Esq: Yes. And just remember, there’s nothing wrong with your child. Your child’s brain works differently and the earlier you get, you catch it, the better because like, I know for my daughter that my younger one hated school. Because it was hard. And now that she’s getting the services, [01:20:00] she’s like, she actually likes going to school.
[01:20:02] Frances Shefter, Esq: Not every day, but she still likes going to school. She’s, it’s not as much of a struggle, but that’s what it’s all about. These are our babies and these are our kids and the investment, financial time, and everything we do now is going to impact them for the rest of their lives.
[01:20:17] Debbie Brown, CALT: And that’s, that’s a really good point.
[01:20:20] Debbie Brown, CALT: The earlier the intervention, the early identification, the better. That’s. That’s the bottom line. So I know we’re going
[01:20:27] Frances Shefter, Esq: to put it in the show notes, but I know you said you do virtual. How should people get in touch with you? Like, what’s your process if they want to call you about evaluations or tutoring?
[01:20:37] Frances Shefter, Esq: Or sorry, therapy, academic therapy.
[01:20:39] Debbie Brown, CALT: Sure. And we do tutor too. So they can contact me at Hill Country Dyslexia Services and, uh, dot com. And they can contact me, uh, uh, through that. And they can just sign up on my website. And then I will definitely give them a call and see what they need. Whether they need tutoring, whether they need testing.
[01:20:59] Debbie Brown, CALT: Uh, [01:21:00] whatever the, uh, difficulty is, you know, I, I’m here to help. Awesome. Thank you so much. Well, you’re welcome.
[01:21:24] Voiceover: You’ve been listening to Stress-Free IEP® with your host, Frances Shefter. Remember, you do not need to do it all alone. You can reach Frances through ShefterLaw. com, where prior episodes are also posted. Thank you for your positive reviews, comments, and sharing the show with others through YouTube, LinkedIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.
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