Berkeley Parents Network: Assessment for Learning Disabilities

Berkeley Parents Network

Assessment for Learning Disabilities

Berkeley Parents Network > Advice > School & Preschool > Assessment for Learning Disabilities

Questions

Need learning disability and ADD assessment for 3rd grader
Where to get 6-year-old evaluated

Recommendations

Kaiser Oakland
Raskob Institute
Scottish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders
UC Berkeley Educational Therapy Clinic
Private Practices
Developmental Pediatricians
Public Schools
Related page: ADHD Evaluation & Diagnosis

Need learning disability and ADD assessment for 3rd grader

Nov 2005

We have been advised to get an assessment for our 3rd grader who may have a learning disability (with writing issues and possibly math) and may be borderline ADD (distraction, focus issues). He is also acting out at home which we think is related. We are trying to figure out who/where is the best place to do this (we do not want to wait for the school district to do it). The information in the archives is somewhat limited and on the older side. I would really appreciate any recommendations and feedback about good people, places to go where there are not long waiting lists (like for Brad Berman), you can get in relatively quickly, and we could get the learning disability/ADD evaluation both done. Is there an advantage/disadvantage of a behavioral pediatrician over a neuropsychologist? Or any disadvantages of going to a place like Ann Martin? Any and all recommendations/feedback is greatly appreciated. anxious mom

The best way to sort this out is to have neuropsychometric testing. Among the best Neuropsychcologists in the area are Cynthia Peterson, Ph.D. and Chi Johnson, Ph.D. phone # 510 843- 2005. They are very thorough and will follow-up with all your questions. They have been extremely helpful with a number of children and adolescents that I work with. anon

Where to get 6-year-old evaluated

2001

I'd like to have my 6.5 year old daughter evaluated by a learning specialist. She's been "just about" reading for almost 2 years, during which time she suffered from mercury exposure. Can someone recommend a therapist to do this kind of academic evaluation?

Your best bet for learning disability testing is through your local public school district If they find something they are actually required to remediate for you. If you decide to have a private agency do the testing, and they recommend remediation, and you want the district to provide it you will have to go through the testing again. That being said, 6.5 is not late for reading, really. Many kids don't develop fluency until mid-second grade or seven.

Others on this list have suggested that you have your child tested by the public schools. But if your child is young and not showing severe learning problems, it may take school district officials some time before they feel that formal testing is warranted. Of course, if there is a problem, the sooner you can address it the better. In our case, I'm ever so grateful that my husband and I didn't wait to have our son privately evaluated for potential reading problems -- and at an early age. I highly recommend the Binocular Vision Clinic at the UCB Optometry School as a place to do this (642-2020), if the professors at the clinic think testing makes sense for your child. When my son was 5 (he's just now turning 6), his wonderful, perceptive teacher at Family Montessori School noticed that he was a little slow in picking up on letters and numbers, and that he seemed discouraged by the phonics materials in the classroom. Based on her hunch, we got him evaluated for "visual perception skills" at the UCB clinic -- as I understand it, these are perceptual skills that are required in order to read and when deficient, form the basis of the various kinds of dyslexia and reading problems. With my son, the signs were very subtle and he was too young to be reading, so I was skeptical that anything would come of the testing. The testing cost only $250., for a very thorough evaluation over 6 weekly sessions, and in my son's case, revealed several delays in his ability to process visual information. His particular deficiencies tend to show up as reading comprehension problems at a later age, but catching the problem so early has allowed us to intervene before he's expected to read, hopefully saving him from some of the struggle that dyslexic kids have in school and with their self esteem. If your child does have a problem, the clinic offers a very helpful series of visual skills training sessions and home exercises designed to help build up the particular skills that are deficient. These exercises and clinic sessions are not only catered to your child's age, but to the exact deficiencies that will interfere with reading. We were all utterly shocked by the enormous progress that my son made soon after we started participating in the clinic, and by his sudden enthusiasm for doing counting and reading "works" at school. As I've worked with him, I've become more appreciative of what a challenge it is for kids who lack these these fundamental skills for reading, and how important it is to have a very fine-tuned intervention. Laura

Kaiser

Another resource, if you are a Kaiser member, is Dr. Joseph Rosenfeld of Oakland Kaiser Pediatrics. He's been doing education assessments for learning disabilities for a long time, and I have heard positive comments about him. Good luck! Sue (4/2001)

Scottish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders

I had my 15 year old tested for language related issues at the Scottish Rite language center in Oakland. They are free and were very helpful. Their test results were subsequently confirmed by others. I don't know if they also do math testing, but , if not, they might be able to give a recommendation or some good advice. I worked with someone named Bonnie Barren who was very helpful. Good luck, Suzanne (Sept 2001)

Scottish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders
Scottish Rite Temple
1547 Lakeside Drive
Oakland, CA 94612-4525
Telephone: (510) 839-1513

UC Berkeley Educational Therapy Clinic

April 2001
UC Berkeley Extension has opened an educational therapy clinic this spring to assess and evaluate such common learning disorders as ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, and reading, writing and math problems. The clinic is staffed by Extension's educational therapy program interns under the supervision of professional educational therapists. Services are offered to the community on a sliding scale. For more information see the story at www.unex.berkeley.edu; to schedule assessments call Dr. Rasjidah Franklin at (510) 643-6830. (Note: A feature story about the new clinic also appeared in the April 11-17 edition of the Berkeleyan.) Best of luck - Submitted by Kap Stann, Director Public Relations & Internal Communications

Private Practices

Sept 2001

Regarding the potential learning disability in the 15 year old. I had exactly the same feeling last year and a number of people told me that there is no substitute for the testing. I found out that the public school system is required to provide testing if the parent asks for it in writing. I submitted my request and the secretary was very prompt about getting the forms back to me which stated that the school is required to set a date for testing within 60 days. She said they are running about 30 days behind. I decided that I could not wait that long and went to a private educational psychologist named Carole King in Piedmont. She was really good with my child and the testing was only 2 sessions of about an hour and a half each. My son is not a good test taker, but she made him feel very much at ease and was very honest and open about discussing the testing with him. Then she produced a report of about 15 pages. A friend of mine who is in the field reviewed the report and felt that she had covered all the bases and used the best measurements. The best part was our discussion with her afterwards. We spent about 2 hours going over the report and she was very good at discussing every aspect of it with us. In the end, the tests showed that he had no learning disability and that he is in fact very bright on most of the measurements. But her suggestions and advice on how to deal with our child who doesn't like math were very helpful. Unfortunately, the price tag is steep. Approximately $800, but it certainly has helped us deal with a difficult situation. By the way, I did not cancel my application for testing with Berkeley High and 9 months later I still have not heard from them. (phone number for Carol King: 510-465-7844 updated 9/2006)

from a mom, a credentialed school psychologist and ABD in Ed. Psych at UCB:
If money is not an issue (your health insurance may cover this as well) a truly excellent developmental pediatrician with a private practice in Berkeley is Dr. Ann Parker (528-5580). I interned with her at UCSF. You'll definitely be in the hands of a caring and extremely knowledgeable professional with her. My recommendation would be to consult with her first, get some perspective about how to proceed depending on the particulars of your child, and then go from there. Don't hesitate to post more questions, hope this is helpful. (11/98)

We had our daughter tested at age 7 by Dr Vincent Nunno, a psychologist with a specialty in assessment. His office is on Boulevard Way off Grand Ave in Piedmont. At the time, Kaiser used him as a referral for ADD assessment before they developed their own program. Check with your insurance carrier to see what services, if any, they will pay for. You are also entitled to an assessment from your local school district even if your child attends a private school. It takes a long time to arrange and you have to keep pushing for what you need. Since my daughter has ADD and learning disabilities, we found it useful to use someone outside the "systems' who could view the whole child since Kaiser' program addresses ADD but not learning disabilities, and the school district addresses learning disabilities but not ADD. Depending on what you find as a diagnosis, you may want to follow up with an assessment by a pediatric neurologist. Eleanor (11/98)

Re: Child Testing for Learning Disabilities: A psychologist I know refers Dr. Tracy Artson in San Francisco (I believe she comes to the East Bay, too): (415) 752-6374.

When I decided to have my son tested for learning disabilities, I started by talking to his pediatrician, who referred us to a specialist in pediatric behavioral development, Dr. Gary Landman. This is the procedure required by our insurance plan, HealthNet. If you have confidence in your child's doctor, it is probably best to at least start with his/her referral. (11/98)

We visited Dr. Landman when my son was just 4, on a general recommendation from preschool teachers that his development was uneven and he could use some extra help. Dr. Landman was -- and I believe still is -- the only doctor who is blessed by the ABMG Medical Group of Healthnet.

Before the visit, Dr. Landman sent an extensive questionnaire to us and to the teachers (via us) about our son's behavior and abilities. At the visit, he performed two types of tests: a fine-motor test of stacking 1-inch cubes, and several cognitive/language dev. tests. These tests confirmed what we and the teachers already know about my son's fine motor skills (slow) and congnitive/language development (fast). (He did not test for gross-motor development.) He told us that our son was too young to be tested for ADHD, which I agreed with. He also told us that our son has a "typical only-child personality."

Because we had no doubt that ADHD is not an issue, the end result was that while we were assured at a certain level that our son is "just fine," we also didn't learn anything new or anything that could help us to help him catch up in his areas of slower development.

I've subsequently heard that Dr. Landman tends to hand out ADHD diagnoses rather freely; but I would say that this is more of a rumor than any actual knowledge on my part.

In the ensuing months, my son has become very frustrated about the ways that he still lags behind his classmates. Therefore, I'm pursuing further testing so that we can find ways to help him -- physical therapy, "occupational" therapy (that means fine-motor for kids). etc. I wrote a rather scathing letter to ABMG because they will not authorize a visit with the Children's Hospital team; then I switched my son's coverage to the Hill Physicians group.

In sum, I didn't find Dr. Landman offensive or unhelpful, but I did feel that he was looking for issues that are not our issues, and didn't seem very attentive to the help we really do need. I think that the real fault lies with ABMG for not allowing us a choice -- or more specifically, not allowing us access to the broader facilities that Children's Hospital has to offer. In other words, it all comes down to the insurance companies and "managed care" -- AGAIN!!! (6/99)

Public Schools

If money is an issue, you should realize that your local school district can test your child at no charge. Call your district office to learn how to proceed. HOWEVER, this route may take quite a long time and may be difficult depending on a number of factors, the quality of the assessment may be dubious, and the extent of the recommendations may be limited... But it may be worth checking out depending on your circumstances, and if you feel your case is being handled properly.

This is for the parent who is looking for an educational specialist to assess and possibly tutor her son, who she suspects has processing problems: If it has been a number of years since you last had him assessed, you can request an assessment from your local school district, even if your son is presently attending a private school or being homeschooled. All you need to do is write a letter to the director of special education in your district, or the principal of your neighborhood school, requesting an assessment for learning disabilities. By federal law the assessment must be made and the results reported to you within fifty calendar days of the school year, unless you agree in writing to a delay. You may not have had in mind an assessment by someone in the public schools, but it is a good place to start and it's free. Your tax dollars at work! Sue (Apr 2001)

A good place to start for testing is the public school system in your district. Even if your child is in private school, they are required to provide testing. They are also required to provide any recommended services, although we found in our case that this would mean bringing the child to the public school during school hours, so private tutoring might be more reasonable. If you want to look at private testing, I took my son to Robert Kaufman in Oakland (after we decided we needed more information than the public school required). He did a good job of academic testing and also of pinpointing some related neurological problems as well. You might also check with your pediatrician if they think some neurological problem may be involved. Some of the testing for those problems (ADHD and the like, for example) are covered by health plans, even if the treatment may not be. It's worth checking into the public school and health plan options, as the cost of testing is not trivial. (11/98)

I don't have a specific Dr. to recommend for testing, but I would like to relate an experience which my sister had with her son. She wanted to get testing for him, but her public school was dragging its feet. So she spent a lot of money to have him tested at the West Coast Childrens Center. The testing/analysis of results took several months, and finally she received their recommendation that the child get special services. Unfortunately, she learned at that time that public schools will not accept outside evaluations, and so the child had to once again go through testing at the public school and wait months for results. That academic year passed with no special resource. Only this year is he getting anything, and the help he is getting isn't sufficient to make up for lost time. I guess I'm relating this to you to advise you to act aggressively as an advocate for you child. The public schools can be over-whelmed with children in need, and they therefore drag their feet when it comes to testing. Parents have to push hard for the testing and evaluation, and harder for the resource help. Good luck Karen (11/98)

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