Question
My son is awaiting his test for APD but the consultant is pretty sure he has APD. The problem we have is that my son has been offered a place at a local independent specialist school with a maximum of 6 children per class. Sadly we cannot afford the fees. We asked our Local Education Authority for help, but they are saying it is best to place him in a mainstream school in a class of 28. Is there any research anywhere into optimum class numbers for children with APD?
Answer
I have selected several websites that have information about the move to reduce class sizes across the country. Since I don't know where this child is, I was not able to focus on the local education authority itself, but did find quite a lot of information on the topic in general. One important caveat is that while most educators acknowledge that reducing class size is helpful for all students and is especially helpful for students who are struggling with learning, simply placing a child in a smaller class will not be the only solution. But everyone seems to agree that smaller is definitely better, especially in the elementary years. I'd say that a class size of 28 is going to be difficult for a boy with APD.
Dr. Deborah Moncrieff is an Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut. She specializes in Pediatric Audiology and Auditory Processing Disorders. Her research is focused on assessment tools for APD, the prevalence of APD in school-age children, and brain mechanisms underlying APD across the lifespan.
Deborah Moncrieff, PhD
Assistant Professor in the Communication Sciences Department at the University of Connecticut
Deborah Moncrieff received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Dallas in 1999 in Cognition and Neuroscience. She is an Assistant Professor in the Communication Sciences Department at the University of Connecticut. She uses several different methodologies to investigate how the brain processes auditory information, including standard clinical behavioral tests of auditory processing, multi-channel electrophysiology, and functional magnetic resonance imaging. She has examined the prevalence of auditory processing disorders in school-age children, especially in those with dyslexia, and is investigating the presence of temporal processing deficits in children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI). Across all ages, she is especially interested in how to provide remedial training and intervention when an auditory processing disorder has been diagnosed. Her long-term goal is to provide deficit-specific training designed to help individuals overcome the processing deficits that interfere with comprehension and communication.
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