Using the Public School System-
When James was in third grade his teacher wondered why he had trouble with reading and yet he could always win when he played Chess with the children. She recommended testing for him.
He was tested at the Learning Disabilities Center. He indeed had audio-visual perception problems. Bottomline it appeared he needed more eye/hand coordination training and he could not learn from hearing alone. Could his not crawling enough because he was constantly being carried have made the difference? His IQ was found to be 133 so no problem there.
After an unpleasant experience of paying $300 a month for help (which I determined was not really good help) I quit the therapy treatment. If he had an audio perception problem why was he assigned a teacher with an accent he could not understand? What about the unprofessional homework on yellow tablets? Besides the fact we did not have the money for it, I had been a teacher and could see it was not a successful program. I used to sit outside the door and wait for him and knew what was going on inside that room. At the beginning in the psychological testing they were trying to determine that there was some problem between him and his Dad. There was not.
I was told by another professional that the school system was responsible for the problem and I should not have to pay for it. I complained to the City Schools Education Personnel and they told me they had had other complaints about the Clinic.
He was then assigned a special reading teacher and was chosen in 4th grade to go to a special program up at the Education Center for the whole year. Children were bussed back and forth by a SD city school bus and there was only 12 from the 4th grade in the program. It lasted all year. All had high IQs and all had reading problems. They began with eye/hand coordination training and had other special techniques for learning. His friend Roger helped him when he reentered into 5th grade with making sure he got his assignments and didn't miss what the teacher told them. He was easily distracted by a room full of students. The special class helped him a lot but he would always have to work on the learning and reading situation and learn how to focus.
In his first year of high school Spanish he was failing because he had to learn mostly from audio and the teacher mostly spoke Spanish. He could not learn that way alone. We put him in a special after school class where he learned by touch, seeing and hearing all at the same time (with the help of a computer that speaks) and in a short time he was up with the class. The teacher could not believe he hadn't somehow cheated in the test to reenter the class but he did not. He needed that special way of learning of being able to see, hear, and touch. It was great.
Anyway I found it pays to complain and demand what services the City Schools has. It was actually a man doing our brick work at our house who told me what to do. He was a Counselor in the Chula Vista school system and knew what you should expect and could demand.
