MR Label used to get problem kids out of the classroom?

[Beth]

My sister is an aide in an MR (mentally retarded) classroom for kindergartners. We were talking this weekend and she's concerned that a couple of kids in her room shouldn't actually be there and are going to be mislabeled as MR because they are very difficult to deal with, not because they are actually MR.

In one case, the child is non-English speaking and she thinks his low IQ score on previous tests is related to that. In another case, she thinks the kid just froze up on his test and didn't perform as well as he could have.

She's worried because the teacher in her room is a brand new teacher without experience. Apparently, the kids are supposed to be identified and assigned such an label by the time they turn 6. An inappropriate MR label will affect them for the rest of their lives. She's working with these kids on a daily basis, but she's not an expert in evaluating IQ.

Apparently, these kids are very disruptive and hard to deal with. They might not be the brightest kids in the class, but she thinks they are at least as intelligent and capable as her own son if not more so. He's a bit slow, probably because he was a premie, but he's not MR. However, he did fail such a test the first time it was given to him. She had to fight to get him re-evaluated and properly assessed. In the case where the parents don't speak English, she doesn't think they'll be able to fight such a label for their son.

I don't know how the system works. I wish I had more faith that such assessments were always accurate and that things like not being able to understand English, or being nervous about being tested by a stranger wouldn't affect the outcome, but realistically I know they can.

What, if anything, should I advise my sister to do about the situation. She doesn't want to see them mislabeled, but she thinks they'll be classified as MR because the original teachers don't want them back in their classrooms. Is there anything she can do to prevent this from happening?

[Garrette]

No system is always accurate, so if you need assurance of 100% accuracy you are doomed to an uncomfortable life.

The parents need to take the reins here. If they do not, there is little your sister can do besides arranging for the re-assessments. If she thinks there is something besides mislabeling going on, such as abuse, then notification of Child Protective Services is in order.

Finally, it is also possible your sister is wrong.

[fuelair]

No system is always accurate, so if you need assurance of 100% accuracy you are doomed to an uncomfortable life.

The parents need to take the reins here. If they do not, there is little your sister can do besides arranging for the re-assessments. If she thinks there is something besides mislabeling going on, such as abuse, then notification of Child Protective Services is in order.

Finally, it is also possible your sister is wrong.

As usual, no one is considering the point that the kids in danger of being listed as MR are DISRUPTIVE AND DIFFICULT TO DEAL WITH. If so, why are they allowed to be in the class. Do the non-disruptive, easy to deal with not have some vague rights somewhere (this becomes even more fun when the D& D becomes assaulting other kids and they still can't be removed) This is the kind of rot that burns a lot of us about the ADA and why we want some big changes in it (note, I did not say get rid of it - I agree with many of it's parts BUT......).

[Garrette]

As usual, no one is considering the point that the kids in danger of being listed as MR are DISRUPTIVE AND DIFFICULT TO DEAL WITH. If so, why are they allowed to be in the class. Do the non-disruptive, easy to deal with not have some vague rights somewhere (this becomes even more fun when the D& D becomes assaulting other kids and they still can't be removed) This is the kind of rot that burns a lot of us about the ADA and why we want some big changes in it (note, I did not say get rid of it - I agree with many of it's parts BUT......).That's a lot to take from two relative short posts.

[Beth]

No system is always accurate, so if you need assurance of 100% accuracy you are doomed to an uncomfortable life.
Of course no system is 100% accurate. How accurate does it need to be? Well, that depends on how the results will be used and the consequences of a bad decision either way.

The parents need to take the reins here. If they do not, there is little your sister can do besides arranging for the re-assessments. If she thinks there is something besides mislabeling going on, such as abuse, then notification of Child Protective Services is in order.

Finally, it is also possible your sister is wrong.


Yes, it's possible she's wrong. She's not an expert at classifying children. On the other hand, she's very familiar with these children and also with what is expected of normal children that age, learning disabled children that age, and finally the abilities of truly MR children that age, so I can give her judgement as being a reasonable assessment - not perfect, but not bad either.

It's also possible that the kids will not be classified as MR - if not, no problem. She did not mention potential abuse, so I don't think that's an issue. She isn't allowed to request a re-assessement. That has to come from the parents. The problem is, she doesn't see the parents as being able to take the reins here. In one case because they don't speak English. I'm not sure about the parents in the other situation.

Thanks for the response. My advice so far has been to wait and see if they actual get classified as MR. Her concern is that once the label has been attached, it's very difficult to get a re-assessment and apparently she doesn't have any way to formally document her observations and concerns before the assessment.

[Beth]

As usual, no one is considering the point that the kids in danger of being listed as MR are DISRUPTIVE AND DIFFICULT TO DEAL WITH. If so, why are they allowed to be in the class.

Good question and good point. Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to that. Apparently, one easy way for the regular classroom teacher to get rid of the kids, at least for a good portion of the day, is to request they be tested. In the meantime, until the assessment is finalized, the kids spend 1/2 to 3/4 of the day in the MR classroom.

[Garrette]

Yes, it's possible she's wrong. She's not an expert at classifying children. On the other hand, she's very familiar with these children and also with what is expected of normal children that age, learning disabled children that age, and finally the abilities of truly MR children that age, so I can give her judgement as being a reasonable assessment - not perfect, but not bad either.I am also not an expert, but my wife ran childcare centers for 17 years before getting her Masters in Early Childhood Education and now working on her dissertation for her Ph.D. Which makes my experience and judgmente, like yours, second hand.

She did not mention potential abuse, so I don't think that's an issue.Looking back over the OP, I can't find what prompted me to even mention the possibility. Must be something I ate. My apologies.

She isn't allowed to request a re-assessement. That has to come from the parents. The problem is, she doesn't see the parents as being able to take the reins here. In one case because they don't speak English. I'm not sure about the parents in the other situation. I understand the barriers to it, but can she take a step in educating the parents? I would think she needs to be careful in advocating a particular action by the parents, but apprising them of options and resources might be okay. To help do this in light of the language barrier, you/she might check for pro bono translater help. Perhaps from a local university.

Thanks for the response. My advice so far has been to wait and see if they actual get classified as MR. That would be mine as well.

Her concern is that once the label has been attached, it's very difficult to get a re-assessment and apparently she doesn't have any way to formally document her observations and concerns before the assessment.I don't know the answer to this. Sorry.

[rjh01]

Just been given this from another thread. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_Effect
In their study, they showed that if teachers were led to expect enhanced performance from some children, then the children did indeed show that enhancement.

If these children are labelled as MR then they could become MR even if they are not. Scary stuff. I suggest the MR class should not exist.

[Beth]

Just been given this from another thread. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_Effect


If these children are labelled as MR then they could become MR even if they are not. Scary stuff. I suggest the MR class should not exist.

This is a class for children with IQ's less than 50. Kids who really do have that low of an IQ are not able to participate in the regular classroom. Some of them aren't even potty trained. I think it's reasonable to have a class specifically for them.

While I don't think that being mislabeled and placed in the class could result in their becoming MR - IQ is supposed to be stable - but it will result in their receiving an inadequate and inappropriate education. Hence, my sister's concern about them.

[tkingdoll]

IQ tests are usually designed so that non-English speakers can do them as well as English speakers - unless it's the instructions which are the point of concern? In which case that would presumably have come up during the testing process?

[Deus Ex Machina]

My sister is an aide in an MR (mentally retarded) classroom for kindergartners. We were talking this weekend and she's concerned that a couple of kids in her room shouldn't actually be there and are going to be mislabeled as MR because they are very difficult to deal with, not because they are actually MR.

In one case, the child is non-English speaking and she thinks his low IQ score on previous tests is related to that. In another case, she thinks the kid just froze up on his test and didn't perform as well as he could have.

While I can understand the non-English speaking child would have difficulty with an IQ test in English (duh...) in the second case she may be right but she may well be wrong. If this child in question was disruptive and did score low on the test it would seem that the labelling is more likely to be correct than not but without full professional investigating it is impossible to tell.

mind you any system which is administering an IQ test in a language that the child does not speak is definitely going to be prone to errors!


She's worried because the teacher in her room is a brand new teacher without experience. Apparently, the kids are supposed to be identified and assigned such an label by the time they turn 6. An inappropriate MR label will affect them for the rest of their lives. She's working with these kids on a daily basis, but she's not an expert in evaluating IQ.


Where the act of labelling determines what services a child will receive then ANY mislabelling is going to have a bad effect.

I do not know the UK system but AFAIK any label is supposed to be reviewed at least annually.


Apparently, these kids are very disruptive and hard to deal with. They might not be the brightest kids in the class, but she thinks they are at least as intelligent and capable as her own son if not more so.


May be they are and maybe they ain't - that's why the tests.


He's a bit slow, probably because he was a premie, but he's not MR.


Not to be funny but what does "he's a bit slow" mean? And whatever the cause of the "slowness" it doesn't then exclude mental retardation - even if it is only mild. Your sentence does not make much logical sense - if he is "a bit slow" then that would, in general useage imply that he does have mild mental retardation.


However, he did fail such a test the first time it was given to him.


Hmm - methinks you have a problem with the idea of mental retardation in general. You don't "fail" an IQ test any more than you "fail" a height measurement. The idea behind administering such tests is to measure, not to pass or fail.


She had to fight to get him re-evaluated and properly assessed.


Well what does "properly assessed" mean in this case you are referring to? If the IQ test failed to accurately measure the child's IQ because of some factor (and basing everything on an IQ test would truly be a lazy way to do this job) I can understand it - however if it is a case of fearing the label itself then "fighting" may be the worst choice.


In the case where the parents don't speak English, she doesn't think they'll be able to fight such a label for their son.


Not to be funny but if the parents don't speak english how has anyone asked them about their son? I fear, of course, that no-one has asked them about their son and in evaluating a young child parental input is not just desirable it is absolutely vital. They are the people who can fill in the chronology of cognitive development.


I don't know how the system works. I wish I had more faith that such assessments were always accurate and that things like not being able to understand English, or being nervous about being tested by a stranger wouldn't affect the outcome, but realistically I know they can.

What, if anything, should I advise my sister to do about the situation. She doesn't want to see them mislabeled, but she thinks they'll be classified as MR because the original teachers don't want them back in their classrooms. Is there anything she can do to prevent this from happening?

Well she should speak up for professonal evaluation. She should contact the professional organizations to which the teachers and school psychologists belong and point out any shortcomings she sees. She should definitely speak out against any school which cannot even manage to talk to the parents of one of their at-risk children.

I am a parent of a disabled man who has mental retardation as one of his issues. It is not that the system does not work - it is that it must be MADE to work by all people concerned.

[Deus Ex Machina]

Just been given this from another thread. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_Effect


If these children are labelled as MR then they could become MR even if they are not. Scary stuff. I suggest the MR class should not exist.

spoken as only someone who has not had a severly disabled child in a school could speak.

[kittynh]

Sadly this is a problem My daughter has had hell because she really is seriously learning disabled. Her classes were filled with kids that needed to "catch up" as they had been in rehab, or kids the other teachers just didn't want in their mainstream classes. The real LD kids were beat up, treated to seeing their teachers treated poorly, and kids coming to class high as a kite (the rehab didn't usually work). The mainstream teachers were like, "hey, LD has a small class size!" But you throw is 3 or 4 violent kids, and even a class size of 9 (rather than the usual 26-30) is impossible.

The "tests" were easy for the kids to fail, usually they just refused to take them (which means you fail...so you get to go to LD).

[Beth]

Not to be funny but what does "he's a bit slow" mean?

It means he's a bit slower to catch onto to things than other children his age. However, he is capable of learning what the other children do. It also seems to be becoming less and less of a problem as he gets older. While he may be on the low side of average, he doesn't qualify as even mildly MR. The class my sister works in is for severely MR children.

You don't "fail" an IQ test any more than you "fail" a height measurement. The idea behind administering such tests is to measure, not to pass or fail. One can "fail" a height measurement in the sense that if a child fails to grow, it's a problem that needs to be addressed. Inappropriately identifying such a problem means the child may be subjected to unnecessary corrective measures that could actually be harmful in the absense of the problem. I wouldn't want my short child to receive growth hormones to correct their height problem. I would, however, want my child who was failing to grow normally to receive such a treatment.

I am a parent of a disabled man who has mental retardation as one of his issues. It is not that the system does not work - it is that it must be MADE to work by all people concerned.

You probably know far more about the system and what it can/should do than I. But the concern is not about how the MR children are being handled, but about non-MR children being inappropriately designated as such.

At any rate, the designation hasn't happened yet. Perhaps the system will work correctly and they will be removed from her classroom if they don't belong there.

[Cetecea]

As usual, no one is considering the point that the kids in danger of being listed as MR are DISRUPTIVE AND DIFFICULT TO DEAL WITH. If so, why are they allowed to be in the class. Do the non-disruptive, easy to deal with not have some vague rights somewhere (this becomes even more fun when the D& D becomes assaulting other kids and they still can't be removed) This is the kind of rot that burns a lot of us about the ADA and why we want some big changes in it (note, I did not say get rid of it - I agree with many of it's parts BUT......).


The ADA has a relatively small place in public K-12 education. It and section 504 of the rehab act do play major roles in post-secondary education.

Though it will assist with accesibility, the assessment rules and regs stem from local school districts attempting to get in line with IDEA04 and Section 504 of the rehab act.

To the OP:

Depending what state your sister lives in there are organizations that can help with educational/legal issues and persons with a disability. In my state it is the Disability Rights Center. In my experience, labels themselves create much of the problem. Somebody says: "They are autistic" and the audience seachers their own pool of experience and conjures up the notion of what it means to be autistic- from as silly a source as say, a Dustin Hoffman movie, and then believe they know who this person is. Even with the label, a student and their family do not have to accept any pre-defined "plan" (IEP). They have the ability to refuse to sign it if they don't think it will assist their own child...

good luck...

[Cetecea]

~snip I understand the barriers to it, but can she take a step in educating the parents? I would think she needs to be careful in advocating a particular action by the parents, but apprising them of options and resources might be okay. To help do this in light of the language barrier, you/she might check for pro bono translater help. Perhaps from a local university.snip~

Not only is it OK to take a step in the educationg the parents, someone is actually responsible to educate them. IDEA04 requires that schools enlist parents in the process, and having a translator so they understand the law is necassary. The school dropping the ball on this one. Scary that an aide (no offense to your sister Beth) is the only one that appears to be concerned with the issue.

Good luck!

I may be mistaken after reading another post... Beth, is your sister in the states or UK?

[jskowron]

This is actually my area of expertise. Having consulted to a number of special education classrooms, been clinical and program director at private schools for children and adolescents with special education needs, I can concur that there are many children who are misdiagnosed and placed in less than ideal educational settings. The information provided regarding Beth sister's situation certainly does not allow for determination of the appropriateness of the classroom. However, my experience and training suggests that there are several factors to consider:

1) Children may be misdiagnosed with MR. As to the reliability/validity of the tests for non-english speakers, it would take a poorly trained and/or highly unethical psychometrician to make a diagnosis of MR from a low score on a test on which the student didn't comprehend the questions or test taking requirements due to no english proficiency. This would be ethically equivalent to giving a person with no use of their arms a low score because they couldn't write the answers. Usually, any question as to the validity of the results due to language proficiency, physical disability, etc. is noted in the testing report.

2) There are a lot more diagnoses than there are types of classrooms (particularly in small or rural school districts). It is possible that these children are placed in this classroom because it is the most appropriate the district has to offer. Unfortunately, sometimes children are placed in a classroom because it is the least innappropriate. (I am not defending these policies, just pointing out that what your sister observes a being an intentional slight may be people acting to the best of their abilities/knowledge). There are also situations where the district may not have an appropriate classroom, has offered the family an "out of district" placement in a specialized program, and the family has refused.

3) Please advise your sister to be cautious with making any recommendations to or otherwise stirring up trouble with the parents. I would advise her to check all her facts on the students, the criteria for the classroom, what the parents know about the reasons for placement, etc. She should ask to attend an Individualized Education Plan (if in the USA, these IEP meetings are an annual requirement) meeting or other team meeting for the students in questions. If she still has concerns about the appropriateness of the placement, she should discuss these with the classroom teacher. If she still thinks there are problems, she should talk to the school principal or district special education coordinator. Bringing her concerns directly to the family outside the context of a team meeting is problematic. The students and parents are just beginning their special education experience. To have a classroom aide tell them that their child is misplaced/misdiagnosed may lead to unnecessary confusion and mistrust of the people who, barring moving out of the district, they may have to work with for the next 15-18 years. It could also get her in serious trouble. She needs to be sure of the facts and follow procedures before violating what I'm sure is policy and telling the parents of her concerns.

4) It's probably a stretch of Rosenthal et al.'s results to say that labeling someone as MR who is not could lead to him.her becoming MR. This would be a very extreme case of the effect.

5) It has been my experience (references anyone?) a diagnosis of MR usually lasts a longtime. (I find this is true for any psych diagnosis). The less than scrupulous school districts that I've worked with would be very wary of using MR as a means of getting a student into a special ed class and "out of the mainstream." As the MR diagnosis is hard to get rid of, the school district would likely be fiscally responsible for special education services until the child "aged out" of educational responsibilty (age 22 in my state). School districts tend to not want their students to receive diagnosis that support the need for special education services. In addition to the increase educational costs, it also limits the schools ability to use more traditional disciplinary measures with the student.

In summary, your sister is in a difficult situation. She should make sure she has educated herself on all matters pertaining to the case before she educates (or miseducates) the parents. Best of luck to her.

[Beth]

An update - my sister says the evaluation process went okay. She's happy with the results. Thanks for all the input.

[TobiasTheViking]

that's just great :D

[Deus Ex Machina]

An update - my sister says the evaluation process went okay. She's happy with the results. Thanks for all the input.

good news ideed, Beth. Thanks for the feedback.