Strattera/Nick's new IEP

[Guest guest]

Nick currently takes Focalin Xr (5mg) plus Lexapro (10mg) in the morning.

Between 3:30 and 5:30 (I'm not real consistent on the time here), he gets

Hydroxyz HCL (20 mg) and Strattera (40mg). At 6:30 (or right before bedtime

(between 7:30-8:00) if we are out and about), he gets Trazodone (50mg).

Nick was taking Adderall Xr (10mg) but we were seeing way too much

irritability in the evening (school never complained but I missed my happy

little

boy). Dr. Capone (from Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore) suggested

trying

the Strattera. He said he had found better results with it when it came to

children with Down Syndrome, he also said an added benefit would be it would

help Nick sleep. (Unfortunately, it didn't help with the sleep issues,

neither did the clonidine and melatonin. Fortunately, the Trazadone seems to

be

working on the sleep issues.

We had Nick's IEP meeting today (the first one since the FBA was done). One

of the things that was decided was Nick will be escorted by an adult from

point A to point B (with hopes of fading it out eventually). Another thing

that was decided was that the special ed teacher, principal and regular ed

teacher would figure out someway of getting an extra set of eyes into the

classroom when Nick was with the regular ed teacher (two or three 40 minute

periods a

week). When he is with her, it is a skills class (study hall type),

computer lab and DARE program. She is having difficulty keeping Nick on task

while

still giving the other 20+ students the supervision and guidance they need.

Nick is quick and hard to redirect. One problem that we felt was

contributing to the difficulty was having Nick do writing sheets in her room

(he hates

to write and after 6 years of OT trying to get his handwriting legible we are

ready to give up and switch to keyboarding). As the Behavioral Specialist

said, " I had to work independently on things I can't stand and that is what you

are expecting him to do. " Since Nick loves the computer and books we

decided we would give him an option of keyboarding or handwriting for 10

minutes

minimum then he could read a book of his choice for 10 minutes (or more) before

switching to the computer programs he enjoys (M & M is the current favorite).

I feel really good about his IEP. We did ask and will be getting " incident

reports " when he does something inappropriate. One reason we asked for this

is we were getting notes in his communication notebook (with sad faces)

saying " Nick was acting inappropriate. " Or as the latest one said, " Nick was

saying inappropriate words to girls. " Now when we asked Nick about the latest

incident he started with a story " new boy in class wearing orange shirt said

get naked not me. " Later it was " I told H I wanted to get her a rose and a

ring and pink underwear so we could be boyfriend and girlfriend. " Turned out

the truth of the matter was he asked H to kiss, kiss and get naked. (Which

unfortunately, is what my husband and I figured as at the beginning of the year

we were having problems with Nick being overly fascinated with kissing and

getting naked with girls. He's 12 so I guess in some ways it is

age/developmentally appropriate, but his comprehension level is way lower than

12 so

dealing with it is difficult.) What we are hoping to do with complete

" incident

reports " is determine if there is a pattern, a communicative intent or if there

might even be instigators. I also want to see if we can then figure out

ways to help Nick respond more appropriately.

We did ask for a social group to help teach Nick age-appropriate (and

socially appropriate) social interactions. What the current goal will be is

the

SLP and special ed will work within their times with Nick, with the goal of

next year starting the group with other 6th graders so that hopefully by the

end

of the year Nick will be better prepared to make and keep friends at his new

school (current school only goes to 6th grade).

Cari