Help with IEP placement!

March 20, 2007

Hi all,

We are having our IEP meeting on Thursday (3/25) and today we visited

the classes. There are 2 classes in our town. One is for the higher

functioning kids and one is for lower functioning kids. My son, Evan,

is turning 3 years old in April and the school and we (parents) are bit

stumped about which class he should go.

Evan has severe verbal apraxia - he is about 18-20 months expressive

speech, 28-30 months receptive speech, does not do well socially - he

is scared of peers his age, and is a very cautious, anxious child -

takes time to adjust to new situations and people. However, he scored

at the 4 year old level cognitive functioning and reasoning skills. He

knows the alphabet and phonics and has started to read some 3-letter

words. He has never been apart from me (his mom) and never been in

school/daycare.

The higher functioning kids are definitely more advanced in speech and

socially (of course the teacher said that they have all been in the

class for a while so they have gotten used to each other and have

improved socially). The class moves at a faster paced and the teacher

is not all warm and fuzzy. Most of the kids in the lower functioning

classes are not as verbal (still saying single words if any) and they

are definitely not social. They also appeared cognitively slower since

the pace was slower and the teacher was not doing the same activity as

in the other class. The teacher is more warm and fuzzy though.

Our dilemma is that Evan is in between the two classes. If I put him

in the lower functioning, afraid that he won't be challenged enough and

won't have good verbal and social role models. He also is the type of

kid that is laid back and need gentle coaching to do new things. Of

course, will it be too challenging for Evan to go to the higher

functioning class? I don't want to set him up to fail but I want the

class to be challenging enough so he will excel.

Need advice really soon. We have our meeting on Thursday. Would

appreciate any input.

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