First IEP for Lucas

[Guest guest]

Hello everybody, well today is our first IEP meeting for Lucas. I am

going with my daughter to the school to meet. Meanwhile I have been

reading through " the report " the school psychologist put together on

him, quite a few pages of the tests and observations about five

different people did on him at school and it is so frustrating as they

do have some things terribly wrong on there. Kind of erodes their

credibility and my daughter is now very untrusting of them and I don't

blame her..

For example they insist he is not emotionally sensitive to others and

yet he is very sensitive to others. Like for example I have an older boy

who is has severe autism and learning disabilities. Lately when I take

him to the bathroom my grandson Lucas is here he goes in and observes us

and asked me why I sit on the side of the tub with my arm around my

son's shoulders. I told him it is because Marty is scared in the

bathroom. He always get jerky in there and I think is afraid he'll have

a seizure which he's had many times. Lucas was amazed he was afraid of

bathrooms just like he is, and he suggested he turn on the light, he

always turns on two lights, but then he decided not to because the light

might scare him. You can see the compassion on Lucas's face.

Another thing the report says is Lucas is not imaginative.. Huh! Also

says he daydreams in class. Well what they missed was he is imagining

great scenereos in his head, usually complicated movie scenes he's seen,

then he draws detailed pictures of them, he is always drawing, he is

about the best artist I've ever seen at that age and his teacher even

said so and said she was going to save the paper with all the telephones

poles he drew in great detail because she said she is quite convinced he

will be famous someday.

Oh yes and he does not like personal interaction. Huh! This kid is dying

for personal interaction, you should see him with his older brother, any

little friendly gesture from him and Lucas will do anything for him. The

other day when he was upset fishing this is how his brother calmed him

down, just put his arm around him, told him he was his best friend and

told him to sit down and stop yelling and Lucas did. Lucas will do

anything if you will be his friend, he craves affection, is a very

loving and sweet child...

And as to reading and writing and math he does all of them perfectly

when I ask him questions. He doesn't always work with a large class

though, like when the teacher says take out your spelling book, open it

up to page 27, write the word down. He doesn't usually do that but he is

getting better at following directions in class. He certainly does

understand that he is supposed to and the teacher is not happy with him

if he does not do the work, and he wants to please her.

He does understand what he does wrong and can repeat back to you what it

is and then work on changing his behavior..

Oh yes and the psychologist had down on one report that Lucas's doctor

" suspects autism " and the truth of the matter is his doctor was amazed

and perplexed the schools wanted him tested as he has never seen a clue

of it in the office visits he's had. Not that that is so unusual as he's

only been there when sick or to get shots, but she put in the report

that he was the one who alerted them.Not true!

So with this kind of monkey business they have lost their credibility

with us and we wonder how they are going to be able to help Lucas, seems

they asked a lot of questions and made a lot of observations trying to

pigeon hole him into the autism spectrum and they are missing out on a

whole lot of information and getting a lot wrong.

Sorry for the ramble but I am a little worked up about it, today it is

supposed to be about occupational therapy...not sure what that even is.

Will let you know,

Carolyn