RE: [SPAM] Am I doing enough?

[Guest guest]

IQ is not really a great measure for kids with Asperger’s.

You need to push the school to do a pragmatic speech assessment and a

Vineland scale of adaptive behavior. The pragmatic assessment should be

something like the Test of Problem Solving (hey you education experts, help

me out here) or there is one. . .CCC, Childhood. . . .something something.

AND you could e-mail Bellini and request a copy of his draft of his

Autism Social Skills assessment and have the people administer that.

And you need to kick up a fuss with the words “the evaluations done do not

adequately or accurately give a picture of your son’s strengths and

weaknesses” of which IQ is just a small part. Check out HYPERLINK

" http://www.socialthinking.com/about.asp " http://www.socialthinking.com/about

..asp and scroll down. There are a link of articles including a link to a

social thinking assessment. Read through some of these articles as that

will give you the research and vocabulary that you will need to speak to the

school people with a vocabulary that will translate into the appropriate

evaluations for your son.

Remember: good evaluations make accurate determination of strengths and

weaknesses (present level of performance [or whatever it’s called now])

which are the foundation for appropriate IEPs that will give the teachers a

plan to provide the appropriate services and teach your son what he needs to

make progress.

S.

" Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist.

They are wrong: it is character. "

Albert Einstein

From: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

[mailto:Texas-Autism-Advocacy ] On Behalf Of patricia Orozco

Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 12:16 PM

To: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

Subject: [sPAM] Am I doing enough?

Hello all.

My son was diagnosed with PDD NOS in December 2007 at the age of 13. If you

are asking why we did not get a diagnosis until then - well a quick

overview. We were in the NEISD of San . I had my son in PPCD for

speech delay. In 3rd grade dx with ADHD, in 4th something still not quite

right and had him evaluated for Aspergers. Diagnostician determined that he

was Aspie but the school pychologist disagreed. Her words were - you need to

be careful how these labels are put on the kids because it is something that

will follow them around for the rest of their lives. Your son does not have

enough indicators of Aspergers, his IQ is far above average and his other

tests indicate that he actually has an anxiety disorder and ADHD. And like a

fool - I listened to her (one reason was that the diagnostician did some

really strange things and I did not feel she did a very good job). Anyway -

we are no longer in San but are now in a very small

school district. They school admin., teachers, counselors, etc. ARE GREAT.

But here is my question to you all...

is mainstreamed. He has one period every day of Content Mastery and

one period every other day of " office aid " (which means he goes for one on

one assistance with his work). He has 30 minutes per week of counseling with

the school counselor and meets twice a week with a PhD candidate from the

nearby university that works with him on social skills training. He also

meets every other week with a PhD from the same university for additional

counseling and monitoring.

has an IQ of 112. By outward appearance just seems a little

immature and a little quirky. His meltdowns have diminished greatly since we

got the dx and his meds were adjusted/changed. He still has significant

difficulty with his social interactions.

In the last ARD - the school said that he was not eligible for speech

therapy or OT, but that they were going to continue with the social skills

training and counseling.

So here is my dilema. What should I be pushing the school to do? I have read

about ABA and the other programs, but is my son too old to benefit from

that? Do I start down the road of due process and face the potential of

having the school refuse to accommodate at all? I do not believe the

district has had an autistic child yet, so they are learning too. I would

like to educate the district on what is entitled to have without

getting their lawyers involved.

Again, the school has been very kind and understanding to us and appears to

be receptive to suggestions on how to educate and equip him with the

necessary social skills.

Any help from you all is appreciated.

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