CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE OF ARTS & SCIENCES
ESE/LEARNING DISABILITIES & GIFTED
TESTING & EVALUATION
We seek to provide the least restrictive environment possible for each CIAS student's education. In order for various accommodations and/or modifications to be made to a student's academic and testing program, testing needs to be completed by a certified and qualified pediatric or school psychologist or by a neuro-psychologist. CIAS has a referral procedure in place for such testing and evaluation; please contact the school office for more details.
If your pediatrician recommends that your child be tested, often your insurance plan will cover the cost of the testing and evaluation. We recommend several doctors in the area and have worked extensively over the years with two in particular: Dr. Karen Hagerott and Dr. Joseph A. Cox.
If your insurance plan does not include one of these doctors, we have others that we can recommend, but we may or may not have previously worked in conjunction with them in the diagnosis and treatment of our students: Dr. Ali Kizilbash.
IEP & 504 Plan Policy
Both Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and 504 plans can offer formal help for public school K–12 students with learning and attention issues. An IEP is a plan for a child’s special education experience at school, while a 504 Plan is a plan for how a child will have access to learning at school.
If your student has already been tested and evaluated, and you have participated in the creation of a public school IEP or 504 at any time during their schooling (no matter how far back it was created), then CIAS asks that you bring a copy of it to your initial interview consultation. CIAS policy is to honor the accommodations and modifications delineated in these plans in an effort to provide the least restrictive environment possible for each CIAS student and if we are able to offer the services that they need. In some cases, an IEP or 504 has expired and needs to be updated; this can be done through FDLRS. In other cases, the accommodations outlined in an IEP or 504 are no longer needed or needs to modified or re-evaluated for further diagnosis.
GIFTED
After a student has been tested and has been labeled as gifted by a psychologist, appropriate accommodations may/can be made for their gifted abilities. This is accomplished during consultations with students and their parents after diagnostic and/or placement testing has taken place at CIAS.
For example, a 7th grade student who has tested (by an ACT) into the Duke TIP program or a gifted student in 8th grade may begin working on high school credit courses, etc.
LEARNING DISABILITIES
The staff at CIAS strives to provide the educational services that all of our students need. In some cases, this means providing accommodations and modifications to an academic program, specifically suited to the academic and cognitive needs of a student.
We work with students who have specific learning disabilities (reading and writing), dysgraphia, dyscalcula, dyslexia, ADD, ADHD, Level 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), social disorders, functioning disorders, and more.
Our services include, but are not limited to, the following services:
Julie Jones, CIAS Administrator, is an licensed National Institute for Learning Development (NILD) educational therapist.
The goal of NILD Educational Therapy is to help students develop tools for independent learning in the classroom and in life.
The focus of one-on-one individualized interventions is to strengthen the underlying causes of learning difficulties, rather than simply treating the symptoms as tutoring does.
NILD educational therapy is a true therapy in that it aims the intervention just above the student’s current level of functioning and raises expectations for performance, which creates the framework to foster that growth.
NILD therapy students become competent, confident learners. They gain mastery over their cognitive vulnerabilities and hone their cognitive strengths for success in the classroom and in life.
Most of our teachers are trained in at least one level of the Barton Reading & Spelling System. The Barton Reading & Spelling System is influenced by Orton-Gillingham, a structured language approach that is different in both what is taught (reading and spelling are taught as related subjects) and how it is taught (the methodology).
Our system is a multi-sensory, direct, explicit, structured and sequential program designed for intense intervention.
After a student has been diagnosed, we are often able to provide one-on-one tutoring that helps a student to learn, absorb, or motivate through their schoolwork. We have teams of teachers (lead/assistant) that help a student manage their learning environment in order to facilitate the best learning environment for academic progress and success.
We are not able to provide educational services to students with pervasive developmental disorders, Levels 2-3 ASD, etc. at the CIAS campus school at this time.
Helpful Information Links
NILD:
http://nild.org/nild-educational-therapy/basics-faq/
Article to read: "Parenting Children with LD: From One Parent to Another"
http://nild.org/parents/parenting-children-with-ld-part-1/
Barton:
Dyslexia, Dysgraphia & Dyscalculia:
Executive Functioning Disorder:
inability to stay on task, differing from ADHD
https://www.additudemag.com/executive-function-disorder-adhd-explained/
Read Write:
An educational clinic and diagnostic center serving students and adults with language-based learning disabilities/dyslexia in Alabama and Northwest Florida
https://www.readwritelearningcenter.com/