Identifying Students with LDs

Lesson Objectives: Learn the process we follow to identify students with

LDs.

Chapter 1: Introduction
As mentioned in the first lesson, one of the most integral parts of teaching students
with learning disabilities is that the teacher must be able to identify the problems
his/her students are facing during the academic phase. The teacher should know what
type of learning disability does each of the students suffer from and what are the
various intervention strategies that need to be implemented in order to help the
students deal with their shortcomings. Along with identifying the disability in the
students, teachers must also know which will be the right IEP that will work for each
of the students.

The teachers can utilize the schools’ pre-referral teams and special education referral
that will guide along with the interventions for the students with LD. Parents should
also be involved to keep them interested in the process so they can carry out the
efforts with their kids at their home.

Chapter 2: Something is Not Right Here

Let us consider Bobas one of your favorite students in the class because he is always
eager to participate and has a great attitude. While reading to your students, his hand
shoots up as soon as you throw questions to the group. However, in small reading
groups, Bob has trouble following the story and knows very few sight words like ‘cat’
or ‘can’.
As a teacher you are running out of strategies for Bob to improve, including giving his
mother some ideas to try at home. But nothing seems to work. When you call Bob’s
parents in for a conference about his reading, they report that he is growing
increasingly frustrated with himself and is afraid to come to school.

When teachers have students who continue to struggle with LDs; their help and
assistance at home does not benefit, it is time to start the pre-referral intervention
process.

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 PRE-REFERRAL INTERVENTION PROCESS

Remain in
OR
Regular Class

Conferencing with the Parents

When a student shows signs of LDs and the teacher alone fails to help him or her, the
first step is to contact the child’s parents and request a conference about the
situation. This is when the parents are made aware of their child’s problem and is
involved in the intervention process before going to the next steps.
While presenting the picture of the child’s learning problem during the conference, it
is important to keep a positive and dedicated attitude in order to inspire the parents.
It is crucial to let them know that their child’s problem has a solution and they are
going to find it together and thus will shape the child’s journey toward with more
appropriate instruction. If the teacher is perplexed during the identification process
in front of the parents, the latter will also be the same. The teacher must have a
positive attitude that will make the parents hopeful about their child’s improvement.
Perhaps the greatest anxiety of the parents in these conferences is the fear that the
problem cannot be fixed. The teacher’s responsibility is to get the parents on board
and make them realize that there will be a solution. This is important before going to
the next step, i.e. contacting the pre-referral team.

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What is the Pre-referral Team?
Many schools have a pre-referral team in order to help the teachers solve the
problems that they have with their students’ learning. The pre-referral team includes
the teacher, a few other teachers from other grade levels or areas of expertise, the
guidance counselor, and any other necessary school personnel like the special
education teacher, or school psychologist, or a social worker. The team members can
change according to the child’s needs.

PRE-REFERRAL TEAM

Depending on the place where the student lives, this team can take up different
names as well such as the child study team or the student assistance team or the
teacher assistance team.

However, regardless of its name, the key responsibilities of the team remain the
same. It works together to identify student’s learning strengths and needs, implement
strategies, and evaluate their impact so that the child can succeed in the general
education classroom. The team works to prevent unnecessary referrals to special
education by screening children properly and working with the teacher to determine
appropriate instructional strategies.

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Five Functions of a Pre-referral Team
The pre-referral team has five important functions to serve.
The ultimate goal of the team members working together is to
provide support and guidance to the classroom teacher who
faces a lot of pressure to make sure every student in the class
is performing at an optimal level. The team recommends about
instructional modifications and ways to deal with such
behavior.

1. Provides classroom suggestions- One of the teachers from the team might suggest,
for example, one-on-one instruction for the concerning student while rest of the class
can continue with guided reading in small groups. The teacher may also advise to
group the classroom spelling lists in order to provide more convenient words for the
particular student and other struggling students.

2. Coordinates school services- The team can also coordinate school services on
behalf of the teacher. If a student needs to visit a guidance counselor or a social
worker, the team takes the responsibility to set up appointments with them.
Moreover, if a student needs to relearn the basics, the team will coordinate with a
first-grade teacher who will provide with the first-grade reading materials.

3. Facilitates brainstorming among team-One of the neatest functions of the pre-

referral team is that it facilitates brainstorming among the team members. An
experienced teacher, for example, might be able to suggest remedial instruction
strategies that the class teacher could try or the student’s teacher from last year
might provide some much-needed insight into the student’s background. When
everyone gets together to talk about the child’s situation, more ideas come out to
help them succeed.

4. Coordinates community services-Following the brainstorming session, the team

can help coordinate community service referrals. Suppose a student has ADHD; as the
child’s parents report that to the team, the latter advises the parents to engage their
kid in some physical activity that might help him release all the excess energy. The
team might look into karate or swim classes at the local YMCA and help the student’s
parents enroll him or her.

5. Avoid special education referral whenever possible- The last important function
of the team is to avoid special education referral whenever possible which includes an
IEP and modified instruction. The goal of the team is to help the child succeed in
regular classroom, even if it requires instructional modifications. The pre-referral

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team acts as a gateway between the regular classroom and the special education
classroom, letting in only those students who need the support that an IEP can
provide.

FUNCTIONS OF PRE-REFERRAL TEAM

Chapter 3: Meet and Greet

Many teachers attend the pre-referral team meetings for the first time with a sense of
frustration or failure that they have not done their job properly or as if no strategy is

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working well for their students. However, it has to be understood that they are not to
be blamed for a student with learning disability. Rather, they have taken right steps
to identify a student who needs help.

The pre-referral team meeting has three tasks to perform- brainstorming and making
suggestions for instructional modifications, offering support, and discussing
screenings. The best pre-referral team meeting will welcome a teacher with open
arms and send him or her back with a bunch of new ideas and a renewed confidence
that it is possible to help the child succeed.

Brainstorming and Suggesting Modifications

Before brainstorming, it is important to know the problem and the parameters
associated with the students with LD. The team needs to know all the information
related to the student’s problem. What is essential is that the
teacher must be specific and concise while telling the whole
story. Once the team is aware of all the facts; it is time to help
the teacher and come up with new ideas which can become
wonderful suggestions for modifications.
Offering Support

The second task is to offer support along the way after the new ideas
for intervention are suggested. Whether the support comes in the form
of encouragement, practical knowledge sharing, referrals, ideas or
actual classroom assistance, any kind of support is good support.
It is true that every teacher teaching students with LDs needs support.
There is nothing wrong with accepting help because teamwork always
proves to be more effective than working single-handedly.
Screenings
Screening is the next step that most pre-referral team opts for a student with LD after
three weeks of instructional modifications. Students who reach that far in the process
usually need to go for further screenings. There will be the random case where the
teacher will be able to modify instruction and get improvement results within a few
weeks. However, this is an exception rather than the rule. At the meeting, the team
prepares the teacher for the types of screenings that needs to be carried out and
informs when it should be done. Screenings are really useful in detecting the presence
of a potential LD.
Vision and hearing difficulties are the first things that are screened for a potential
student with LD. It is natural that if one cannot hear properly, learning becomes a

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challenging task. Likewise, students who have vision problem also face learning
difficulty which can be solved by wearing glasses or be placed near the front so that
he or she can see the blackboard clearly. In this case, no additional intervention is
required.
If the team suspects attention problem, the parents might be advised to report to
their doctor and have the child examined for ADHD. The parents need to address to
the doctor the behavioral checklists that may include cognitive problems and
inattention, hyperactivity, social problems, and conflicting behavior.
Furthermore, the team checks the child’s attendance
records and if shortage of attendance is the cause of
learning problem, they help the parents resolve it.
Students who are not regular to school will obviously
fall behind in their learning.
The team also conducts some short screening tests
that are devised to present a quick picture of the
intellectual quotient (IQ) and academic achievement
of the student.

Once all the prime tasks of pre-referral team are performed,

it is time for the teacher to go back to the classroom and try
the new techniques for which three weeks of time is given.
The teacher should see if the student is responding to the new
strategies. If the new interventions are not helping, he or she
has to meet the team again to report the problems and discuss the screenings that
need to be uncovered. The further test results may confirm the signs of learning
disabilities.

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Chapter 4: Special Education Referral
After the pre-referral meeting and screenings are complete, the teacher may be
hopeful that the new instructional strategies would work in favor of the student
concerned. But if it is not, then it is time that the child needs further intervention.
The parents should be called in for another meeting and the team gets written
permission to conduct further testing that might reveal the presence of a learning
disability. The screening and tried out learning methods are re-assessed as well.This
meeting can also go by several different names according to places they live such as
the multi-disciplinary team, the IEP team or the school-based committee. Once
parental permission for further testing is obtained, the school conducts a formal
evaluation that needs to be completed within 30 to 90 days (varies according to state
guidelines).

The team includes a special educator, the classroom

teacher, an administrator, and the parents. Sometimes
the school psychologist, a speech-language pathologist,
or other school-related personnel are also involved to
address the concerns the pre-referral team investigated.

The first thing is to go through all the information the

pre-referral team got and decide to do further testing to
make sure if the child indeed have a learning disability.
If the multi-disciplinary team finally decides that further
assessment is necessary, then the school willconduct a
formal evaluation in order to determine if the child has
a learning disability and requires special education.

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 Formal Evaluation
Items covered in the evaluation include:
 Is it a learning problem or behavioral problem?
 What is the severity of the problem?
 What is the child’s intellectual potential?
 What is the child’s performance in the class?

The evaluation finds out if the problem is a learning problem or behavioral, tries to
determine the severity of the problem and to what degree the child’s scores lag
behind compared to his or her grade level. Besides, the child’s intellectual potential
and academic achievement (reading, writing, and solving math problems compared to
other students of same age) are assessed. Hearing and vision are also checked if not
done in the pre-referral stage.

Additionally, it is also important to scan through classroom performances, grades,

work samples, and interviews with the child or parents. At times emotional and social
functioning is examined as well; however this depends on the nature of the referral.

A formal evaluation is always framed keeping in mind the needs and concerns of the
child, parents, and school staff. The evaluations are usually done by a school
psychologist in a one-on-one setting over a period of several days. Sometimes a social
worker may also participate to make a home visit or interview the parents regarding
the child’s behavior at home. Sometimes a speech and language pathologist examines
the child’s language skills. A physician is also necessary if the child has ADHD which
has not been addressed earlier.

The special education referral is not prescribed to kids just like that. Only thorough
evaluation will determine the need of it. It is important to see the students’ present
competence compared to grade level expectations and how much they need to
progress. Moreover, if the child requires special education, the teacher will be
assisted by a team of professionals; and if not, the teacher and the parents will have
some powerful tools to plan instruction.

Estimation says that around 75% of children who start pre-referral process end up
needing an IEP. It is not an easy task to undergo such a lengthy process, be it for the
first time or any time, but it will surely help and make the difficult job a lot easier.

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Chapter 5: Summary

While going through Bob’s pre-referral process and then his referral to special
education, all the terminology and the process may seem a little daunting, hence it is
important that you should take comfort in knowing that the pre-referral team is
composed of people who want to help both the teacher as well as the students that
they are concerned about.

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