Re: Getting more speech therapy and OT at public school

[Guest guest]

A lot of what she needs, you may just have to get on your own through private OT's/SLT's. We went through this, too, and the school was really great. Sadly, there just wasnt' enough time in the day to see my son as much as he needed. Social skills classes went like this, too. 1 time per week for 30 min's. WHAT???? So,,,,,,,,,,I've heard of people that say to the school, "If you can't provide this and that, then you need to pay for her/him to get it". I've heard that it has worked,,,,,,I've also heard that it hasn't. Maybe you can just bring it up and hope they give a little more? It's hard when there is tension - it's supposed to be a "team",,,,,,,,and yet you go in there "ready to fight"...........It's more like you're a planning committee going in and asking a Board for permission to do things. Ick. Good Luck Robinhambonemcgee

<hambonemcgee@...> wrote: I have a 5 yr old daughter with HFA. She is in the public pre-school now and is going to kindergarten in the fall. She is receiving 30 minutes a week speech and 30 minutes a week OT. This is not enough do really help her the way I want her helped. IEP meeting is coming soon and I am not sure how to tell them she needs more time. Dealing with the school and all the people at the meetings before when I am not happy with something has not gone well. What can I do to get what she

needs without fighting with the team?ThanksHeidi

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[Guest guest]

Have you had any private assessments done? Take those with you, if they

show the issues your child faces. Also take a list of things that your

child shows as needing help with -- not being able to sit still,

fidgeting, sound sensitivity, etc., and it's best if the list focuses

on things during the school day. Schools can/will argue that if it's

not educationally-related, they don't have to address it.

This doesn't mean you'll get it, but it's a start. You may have to ask

that they do a special assessment, or that you have one done outside of

the school, and ask them to pay for it. Again, that doesn't guarantee

anything but you have to start somewhere. In the end, legal help and

cooperation on the school's part, along with proof that the child needs

it during the school day, is sometimes what it takes.

hambonemcgee wrote:

I have a 5 yr old daughter with HFA. She is in the public

pre-school

now and is going to kindergarten in the fall. She is receiving 30

minutes a week speech and 30 minutes a week OT. This is not enough do

really help her the way I want her helped. IEP meeting is coming soon

and I am not sure how to tell them she needs more time. Dealing with

the school and all the people at the meetings before when I am not

happy with something has not gone well. What can I do to get what she

needs without fighting with the team?

Thanks

Heidi

[Guest guest]

Schools don't always want to offer what the child needs -- it can be

their test against your test, and theirs of course will be in their

favor, if they don't want to offer something. If your child is having

behavior issues that can respond to some O.T., use that to your favor,

but you may in the end still have to use your insurance. Most of us do.

The schools only have so much equipment available, and the more time in

O.T., the less time in the classroom. Our insurance-paid O.T. is/was

awesome, and well worth the $15 co-pay each time. Some insurances are

easier to deal with than others, but find out what your limitations

are. You may need a doctor's prescription, but most doctors that treat

autistic kids will write that up easily.

and/or Robin Lemke wrote:

A lot of what she needs, you may just have to get on your own

through private OT's/SLT's.

We went through this, too, and the school was really great.

Sadly, there just wasnt' enough time in the day to see my son as much

as he needed.

Social skills classes went like this, too. 1 time per week for

30 min's. WHAT????

So,,,,,,,,,,I've heard of people that say to the school,

"If you can't provide this and that, then you need to pay for her/him

to get it". I've heard that it has worked,,,,,,I've also heard

that it hasn't.

Maybe you can just bring it up and hope they give a little more?

It's hard when there is tension - it's supposed to be a

"team",,,,,,,,and yet you go in there "ready to fight"...........It's

more like you're a planning committee going in and asking a Board for

permission to do things. Ick.

Good Luck

Robin

hambonemcgee <hambonemcgee > wrote:

I have a 5 yr old daughter with HFA. She is in the public

pre-school

now and is going to kindergarten in the fall. She is receiving 30

minutes a week speech and 30 minutes a week OT. This is not enough do

really help her the way I want her helped. IEP meeting is coming soon

and I am not sure how to tell them she needs more time. Dealing with

the school and all the people at the meetings before when I am not

happy with something has not gone well. What can I do to get what she

needs without fighting with the team?

Thanks

Heidi

[Guest guest]

Heidi,

Sounds very similar to what my 3.5 yo is getting and you are right..it is not enough to help them! When is the IEP...ours in on the 22cnd...

Looking for help also,

- C.A.E.P.Mom to Cassie 16 PCOS, Austin 14 ADHD and a 3.5 HFA/AS & SPD/SID

( ) Getting more speech therapy and OT at public school

I have a 5 yr old daughter with HFA. She is in the public pre-school now and is going to kindergarten in the fall. She is receiving 30 minutes a week speech and 30 minutes a week OT. This is not enough do really help her the way I want her helped. IEP meeting is coming soon and I am not sure how to tell them she needs more time. Dealing with the school and all the people at the meetings before when I am not happy with something has not gone well. What can I do to get what she needs without fighting with the team?ThanksHeidi

[Guest guest]

I have Austin who is 3 about to be 4 seeing a speech therapist at school they wouldn't give him OT in school they said he's not bad enough which he is and sees an OT and Speech Therapist After school. So to get the help your asking for. It depends on your insurance and playing their system. We have Tri-Care prime. However, getting your pediatrician to reffer your child to a neurologist for a diagnosis is first. My neurologist wrote up Austin's condition as Autism not Aspergers so we could get more Speech and OT which is the Insurance logistics and a must to get them to pay for what we need. Your pediatrician can then reffer you out to Speech and OT and this is separate from the schools and do not include them because then other problems arise. Just keep it separate and get as much help as you need. They don't even have to be working on the same things. The outside Speech and OT can know about school but don't tell the school

about the outside simply because problems arise. If your insurance will pay for most or all of it that's what I would do. It's a silly insurance and pediatrician game but I play it because I don't want my child to go without. Hope this helps. Ada M. TickleDonna B <donnabzy@...> wrote: Have you had any private assessments done? Take those with you, if they show the issues your child faces. Also take a list of things that your child shows as needing help

with -- not being able to sit still, fidgeting, sound sensitivity, etc., and it's best if the list focuses on things during the school day. Schools can/will argue that if it's not educationally-related, they don't have to address it.This doesn't mean you'll get it, but it's a start. You may have to ask that they do a special assessment, or that you have one done outside of the school, and ask them to pay for it. Again, that doesn't guarantee anything but you have to start somewhere. In the end, legal help and cooperation on the school's part, along with proof that the child needs it during the school day, is sometimes what it takes.hambonemcgee wrote: I have a 5 yr old daughter with HFA. She is in the public pre-school now and is going to kindergarten in the fall. She is receiving 30 minutes a week speech and 30 minutes a week OT. This

is not enough do really help her the way I want her helped. IEP meeting is coming soon and I am not sure how to tell them she needs more time. Dealing with the school and all the people at the meetings before when I am not happy with something has not gone well. What can I do to get what she needs without fighting with the team?ThanksHeidi

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[Guest guest]

One of the best ways to get "more" is to show the need. You can do this via data. For instance, has she met her goals for the year? If not, then this could be a great piece of data showing that the services are not sufficient to meet her needs. What if she met her goals but her goals are lame anyway? Sometimes if they walk in the door breathing, they've met their goal for the year. lol. In this case I would argue that these goals are not sufficient to give her an appropriate education. If she meets her goals but falls farther behind, this would be a situation in which you could show the goals are not sufficient to meet her needs. Sometimes a child makes progress but he is farther behind his peers than when he started. This is because his peers have gained a whole year on him (and he has aged a year!) while he may have gained less than that while being behind already. So you have to consider that as well.

I had a local friend in this very situation. She never thought it out and he always had reports showing he was making progress. It didn't occur to her that he was getting farther behind the whole time. So we had a meeting to increase services. The school balked at doing this. An administrator was brought in. It was then decided that he would make X amount of progress that school year and each quarter had objectives he had to reach. If he failed to reach those objectives, then he would get his services increased. This was a good deal and the mom took it.

Gathering data can also be done by the parents at home as well. Save worksheets that show samples of work on a regular basis. Then if you disagree with the school position, you have plenty of material/papers that help show what you mean. You can also take data on social goals - does she generalize what she is learning to the "regular life environment?" When you do homework with your child, jot down problems that continually pop up - take data and use it at your meeting. If she has articulation problems, you can tally how often she has the problem in her daily life at home and use that at your meeting as data showing she needs more help. If they say she doesn't need more OT and that she never chews her shirt at school - take in a bag of shirts with the chewed collars. Data speaks for you really.

Get outside eval's done to back up your request. This is probably the best idea of all. Then if they poo-poo your outside evaluation, request an Independent educational evaluation at school expense. In this situation, you get a neutral third party opinion to sort of "settle" the disagreement by giving their opinion. There is always the chance that the IEE will not agree with what you want. But if you have good data supporting the need prior to, then you should push forward on this. As far as I remember, you get to pick the evaluator for an IEE. Is that right Pam? I can't remember at the moment for sure.

RoxannaAutism Happens

( ) Getting more speech therapy and OT at public school

I have a 5 yr old daughter with HFA. She is in the public pre-school now and is going to kindergarten in the fall. She is receiving 30 minutes a week speech and 30 minutes a week OT. This is not enough do really help her the way I want her helped. IEP meeting is coming soon and I am not sure how to tell them she needs more time. Dealing with the school and all the people at the meetings before when I am not happy with something has not gone well. What can I do to get what she needs without fighting with the team?ThanksHeidi

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 5/10/2007 11:44:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time, madideas@... writes:

As far as I remember, you get to pick the evaluator for an IEE. Is that right Pam? I can't remember at the moment for sure.

Roxanna, I believe the school can "suggest" impartial evaluators, but in my experience if a parent has one in mind they can suggest them and usually the school agrees. Pam :)See what's free at AOL.com.

[Guest guest]

That is what I thought! The school always sent me a list of people but I picked my own and they didn't give me too much grief. Once they brought up cost as an issue and I called all the psychologists on their list and got their fees for comparison. So they agreed to use my choice as she was comparable.

RoxannaAutism Happens

Re: ( ) Getting more speech therapy and OT at public school

In a message dated 5/10/2007 11:44:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time, madideaszoominternet (DOT) net writes:

As far as I remember, you get to pick the evaluator for an IEE. Is that right Pam? I can't remember at the moment for sure.

Roxanna, I believe the school can "suggest" impartial evaluators, but in my experience if a parent has one in mind they can suggest them and usually the school agrees. Pam

See what's free at AOL.com.

[Guest guest]

Things may have changed, but when we did our IEE, the school system gave us a list of acceptable providers and we could choose from that list.LizOn May 10, 2007, at 11:43 PM, Roxanna wrote:. Get outside eval's done to back up your request.  This is probably the best idea of all.  Then if they poo-poo your outside evaluation, request an Independent educational evaluation at school expense.  In this situation, you get a neutral third party opinion to sort of "settle" the disagreement by giving their opinion.  There is always the chance that the IEE will not agree with what you want.  But if you have good data supporting the need prior to, then you should push forward on this.  As far as I remember, you get to pick the evaluator for an IEE.  Is that right Pam?  I can't remember at the moment for sure.    RoxannaAutism Happens