Re: evaluation info

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/19/2006 3:57:38 P.M. Central Standard Time,

alicia.taylor@... writes:

Another person recommended we do the full evaluation at Texas Children's (we

live in Houston). He would be seen by an OT, Speech, psychologist,

developmental ped, and neuro-something?.

My son had a comprehensive evaluation done at TCH in the Meyer Center for

Developmental Pediatrics. I think it took at least 3 to 4 different visits to

be seen by all the different evaluators; developmental pedi, PT, OT, ENT,

psychologist, we didn't see a speech path because my son had already seen

several. If you want to know about weaknesses versus strengths you may just want

to

get a referral to see a neuropath. Tell them what you want to test for and

why. I had Aetna at the time and insurance paid for everything, we just had to

pay our co-pay at each visit but that was about $25.00 each time. If you want

to go the neuropath route, ask for an appointment with Penelope " Penny "

Pivalizza. Her secretary's name is Diane, call . R.

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/19/2006 7:10:47 P.M. Central Standard Time,

lisa@... writes:

The report was an inch thick on each boy. This information gave us a good

basis for setting their goals for the next year, it gave us entrance into the

autism program at school, and gave us a standard and starting point from

which we can measure progress over the years to come. I think it will be done

every 3 years, though I could request it more often. Isn't this type of

evaluation typical in the public schools?

Yes, I think that this type of evaluation is typical in public schools, but

school districts administer programs and services differently. Unfortunately,

not all school districts are created equal, my son received speech therapy

at a public elementary school for 17 months between 3 and 4 1/2 years old and

no one ever addressed his condition. He was compliant, followed directions,

was speech delayed and had very immature pronunciation quirks (he was hearing

impaired before the age of 17 months) and sometimes he might have a temper

tantrum if he didn't get his way about something but not once did anyone

suspect autism or at least no one was saying anything to me. As a first time

parent

I was thinking he might be a little ADD but I wasn't thinking autism.

Anyway, it wasn't until my son's diagnosis from the Meyer Center that the

elementary school finally agreed to an assessment by the speech path, OT,

diagnostician consultant and in-home-trainer consultant. The special ed

director at

another school in the same district invited me to come observe the PPCD

classroom

at another campus and I found it to be too crowded and it was the wrong mix

of students for my son's abilities-there was no such thing as an autism

program that I had been told of. My son never enrolled in public school and has

been attending a private school where comprehensive testing/assessment of

skills

is done 3 times during the school year by his teacher, SPT, and OT.

R.

[Guest guest]

This may be a dumb question but....our school did a full blown evaluation while

the boys were in PPCD and suspected to be on the spectrum. They were evaluated

by a PT, OT, ST, psychologist, behavior therapist, PPCD teacher, and, of course,

tons of questionnaires for us, the parents. The whole evaluation took over a

month, with each evaluator looking at and testing the boys multiple times. The

report was an inch thick on each boy. This information gave us a good basis for

setting their goals for the next year, it gave us entrance into the autism

program at school, and gave us a standard and starting point from which we can

measure progress over the years to come. I think it will be done every 3 years,

though I could request it more often. Isn't this type of evaluation typical in

the public schools? After we got the results, we took them to a pediatric

neurologist and he gave them a medical diagnosis confirming the school's

findings.

in Cedar Park

Re: evaluation info

In a message dated 4/19/2006 3:57:38 P.M. Central Standard Time,

alicia.taylor@... writes:

Another person recommended we do the full evaluation at Texas Children's (we

live in Houston). He would be seen by an OT, Speech, psychologist,

developmental ped, and neuro-something?.

My son had a comprehensive evaluation done at TCH in the Meyer Center for

Developmental Pediatrics. I think it took at least 3 to 4 different visits to

be seen by all the different evaluators; developmental pedi, PT, OT, ENT,

psychologist, we didn't see a speech path because my son had already seen

several. If you want to know about weaknesses versus strengths you may just

want to

get a referral to see a neuropath. Tell them what you want to test for and

why. I had Aetna at the time and insurance paid for everything, we just had

to

pay our co-pay at each visit but that was about $25.00 each time. If you want

to go the neuropath route, ask for an appointment with Penelope " Penny "

Pivalizza. Her secretary's name is Diane, call . R.

[Guest guest]

I'm new, but what is a neuropathologist??? What do they do??

________________________________

From: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

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

kgreeceman@...

Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 6:47 PM

To: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

Subject: Re: evaluation info

In a message dated 4/19/2006 3:57:38 P.M. Central Standard Time,

alicia.taylor@... writes:

Another person recommended we do the full evaluation at Texas

Children's (we

live in Houston). He would be seen by an OT, Speech, psychologist,

developmental ped, and neuro-something?.

My son had a comprehensive evaluation done at TCH in the Meyer Center

for

Developmental Pediatrics. I think it took at least 3 to 4 different

visits to

be seen by all the different evaluators; developmental pedi, PT, OT,

ENT,

psychologist, we didn't see a speech path because my son had already

seen

several. If you want to know about weaknesses versus strengths you may

just want to

get a referral to see a neuropath. Tell them what you want to test for

and

why. I had Aetna at the time and insurance paid for everything, we just

had to

pay our co-pay at each visit but that was about $25.00 each time. If you

want

to go the neuropath route, ask for an appointment with Penelope " Penny "

Pivalizza. Her secretary's name is Diane, call . R.

[Guest guest]

You're lucky. Our schools in the greater Houston and surrounding areas don't

come close to doing as thorough a job as what you described. In my opinion,

they fight the " spectrum " diagnosis because the kids can acquire a great deal

more services with the label. For one of my boys we had a PDD-NOS label by a

Developmental Pediatrician and the school refused to accept it. My other son

they agreed is severly autistic, yet would not give him a place in our

district's autism program. Anyway, consider yourself lucky!!

Re: evaluation info

In a message dated 4/19/2006 3:57:38 P.M. Central Standard Time,

alicia.taylor@... writes:

Another person recommended we do the full evaluation at Texas Children's

(we

live in Houston). He would be seen by an OT, Speech, psychologist,

developmental ped, and neuro-something?.

My son had a comprehensive evaluation done at TCH in the Meyer Center for

Developmental Pediatrics. I think it took at least 3 to 4 different visits

to

be seen by all the different evaluators; developmental pedi, PT, OT, ENT,

psychologist, we didn't see a speech path because my son had already seen

several. If you want to know about weaknesses versus strengths you may just

want to

get a referral to see a neuropath. Tell them what you want to test for and

why. I had Aetna at the time and insurance paid for everything, we just had

to

pay our co-pay at each visit but that was about $25.00 each time. If you

want

to go the neuropath route, ask for an appointment with Penelope " Penny "

Pivalizza. Her secretary's name is Diane, call . R.

[Guest guest]

Thank you so much to all of you for all the EVAL feedback. I just

joined this group and I have already benefited greatly!! I love the

honesty as well as the wisdom of each of you!! Keep it coming!!!

________________________________

From: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

[mailto:Texas-Autism-Advocacy ] On Behalf Of Dr.

Graham-Garza

Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 8:25 PM

To: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

Subject: Re: evaluation info

You're lucky. Our schools in the greater Houston and surrounding areas

don't come close to doing as thorough a job as what you described. In

my opinion, they fight the " spectrum " diagnosis because the kids can

acquire a great deal more services with the label. For one of my boys

we had a PDD-NOS label by a Developmental Pediatrician and the school

refused to accept it. My other son they agreed is severly autistic, yet

would not give him a place in our district's autism program. Anyway,

consider yourself lucky!!

Re: evaluation info

In a message dated 4/19/2006 3:57:38 P.M. Central Standard Time,

alicia.taylor@... writes:

Another person recommended we do the full evaluation at Texas

Children's (we

live in Houston). He would be seen by an OT, Speech, psychologist,

developmental ped, and neuro-something?.

My son had a comprehensive evaluation done at TCH in the Meyer

Center for

Developmental Pediatrics. I think it took at least 3 to 4 different

visits to

be seen by all the different evaluators; developmental pedi, PT, OT,

ENT,

psychologist, we didn't see a speech path because my son had already

seen

several. If you want to know about weaknesses versus strengths you

may just want to

get a referral to see a neuropath. Tell them what you want to test

for and

why. I had Aetna at the time and insurance paid for everything, we

just had to

pay our co-pay at each visit but that was about $25.00 each time. If

you want

to go the neuropath route, ask for an appointment with Penelope

" Penny "

Pivalizza. Her secretary's name is Diane, call .

R.

[Guest guest]

I saw the comment about schools wanting to avoid

austism spectrum diagnoses because it carries with it

entitlement to more services. I can see that to some

extent in the MHMR system (to the extent a diagnosis

of autism is an exception to an MR diagnosis) to

qualify for some services. However, there is nothing

in the autism supplement that schools don't have to

and shouldn't be doing for all handicapped kids. The

only difference is that it makes them specifically

discuss them in an ARD meeting. The child's needs for

those services, autistic or not, should drive whether

they are provided regardless of diagnosis. And while

I think an accurate diagnosis is essential to an

appropriate education, some diagnoses are more

educationally significant than others. I think the

autism diagnosis is far more helpful on social,

behavioral, and communication issues than academic

ones.

SOOOOO--I wish schools would realize that their

efforts to weed out autistic kids serves no purpose

and that we could just focus on getting an appropriate

evaluation and let the diagnosis be driven by the

child's characteristics, not administrative wishes.

[Guest guest]

My daughter is only 3 ½, so my experience with the school district here in

Conroe is limited, but so far we have been extremely pleased. Is it typical

to get pretty good services in the early years, and then experience more

problems in later years? Or, am I lucky enough to be in a good district?

I’m just wondering how naïve I am being at the moment. We are supplementing

with out-of-district ABA therapy, but the PPCD teacher we have is wonderful.

Also, for the school district evaluation we were sent to Dr.

Wood, whose evaluation was more thorough and recommendations were more

helpful than Dr. on’s. The free eval from the district was better

than the one we paid for! Although, what I do have to say in Dr.

on’s favor, is that we got the diagnosis and referrals we needed

with only a two month wait, which got us on the road to helping my daughter

a lot faster than if we had waited for one of the other places.

So, should I brace myself for more school district problems in the future,

or am I in a pretty good one?

Thanks,

_____

From: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

[mailto:Texas-Autism-Advocacy ] On Behalf Of Dr.

Graham-Garza

Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 10:25 PM

To: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

Subject: Re: evaluation info

You're lucky. Our schools in the greater Houston and surrounding areas

don't come close to doing as thorough a job as what you described. In my

opinion, they fight the " spectrum " diagnosis because the kids can acquire a

great deal more services with the label. For one of my boys we had a

PDD-NOS label by a Developmental Pediatrician and the school refused to

accept it. My other son they agreed is severly autistic, yet would not give

him a place in our district's autism program. Anyway, consider yourself

lucky!!

Re: evaluation info

In a message dated 4/19/2006 3:57:38 P.M. Central Standard Time,

alicia.taylor@... writes:

Another person recommended we do the full evaluation at Texas

Children's (we

live in Houston). He would be seen by an OT, Speech, psychologist,

developmental ped, and neuro-something?.

My son had a comprehensive evaluation done at TCH in the Meyer Center

for

Developmental Pediatrics. I think it took at least 3 to 4 different

visits to

be seen by all the different evaluators; developmental pedi, PT, OT,

ENT,

psychologist, we didn't see a speech path because my son had already

seen

several. If you want to know about weaknesses versus strengths you may

just want to

get a referral to see a neuropath. Tell them what you want to test for

and

why. I had Aetna at the time and insurance paid for everything, we just

had to

pay our co-pay at each visit but that was about $25.00 each time. If you

want

to go the neuropath route, ask for an appointment with Penelope " Penny "

Pivalizza. Her secretary's name is Diane, call . R.

[Guest guest]

>

> 2nd 's opinion here. I've set in on many that make fun of the

> parents, not just pass out info, which isn't always complete! Take

> yesterday's audio conference out of Walsh, , etc. They were

> going over the Autism Supplement and no mention was made that there

will

> be new recommendations coming!!

>

> Tonya

This is a bit off the topic of the post, but I am wondering how I can

get access to a copy of the supplement and the new recommendations.

My husband is already working in Texas but my son (Aspergers) and I

will not be moving down until after the school year is over. Thanks.