[khc]

I'm not sure how active this thread is but what Crick described in the original post describes my daughter (also 1st grade--7 years old) as well. She doesn't get her letters mixed up but she is really struggling in school compared to her other counterparts. Math seems to be no problem for her but the reading/writing/handwriting has been giving us significant problems. It is almost like she has to be coaxed into doing homework and falls apart if she has to do anything independently. Sometimes she breezes through, sometimes she just spaces out and our two page homeworks turn into an epic struggles.

I've spoken with her teacher and the teacher sees significant improvement throughout the year but admits that her reading/writing skills are lacking. I also have my daughter in piano lessons and although she does pretty well on her evaluations (got a gold medal on one exam), it has been an epic struggle getting there. It is almost like she loses her ability to process information like simple instructions and just doesn't catch on very well. If you tell her to raise her right hand, she just sits here with a blank look on her face. Just today her piano teacher asked if we had her evaluated for a learning disability. This is been more or less on my mind so this question didn't come as a surprise. She was adopted at the age of 3 1/2 from Russia.

My son is also adopted and we had some concerns after the owner of the preschool mentioned possible ADHD. We did an IED and he came through with flying colors. We are still holding him back from Kindergarten because of his maturity level and very small stature. Compared to the other kids in his class, he seems to lag behind academically as well.

At this point, I am extremely frustrated. My daughter doesn't seem to be on the extreme end of a disability scale but in my heart, I feel like something is wrong. I've spent so many hours doing homework with her or on her piano studies. Things just don't seem to click in her head like they should at this point. My husband is in denial. Do you think that an IED can really screen her effectively or should I take her to a doctor first for an evaluation? She failed a vision test and has to use glases for distance reading. Her hearing is ok.

After doing this for my son, I almost felt like "chicken little, the sky is falling." The evaluation team was very nice but I couldn't help feeling that I wasted their time. I will probably formally request an evaluation for her as well but I'm not sure if they can adequately access her in an hour. Her problems seem subtle---it is really hard to describe them and when she has to perform (like her piano evaluations), she comes through with flying colors (usually).

Need some advice or moral support. It has really been getting me down lately. I can't help but feel that next year in 2nd grade will be a disaster.