Entering Kindergarten and need pointers...

March 19, 2010

My daughter is now mild Asperger's (via dev pediatrician) and I'm struggling to

get her current teacher and speech therapist at her special preschool to give

her services for the summer. I had to fight to get them to agree to ask for ESY

and speech 2x in a group per week for social skills. She has bahavioral issues

(their own observations) but I had to fight to get one social work push-in per

week for the summer. They say that no way will the district add ANYTHING new

over the summer but my view is that Autism doesn't take a summer vacation and

that THEY haven't been informing me of the extent of her behavioral issues in

class until NOW so now I need to work on that with the social worker.

The school district speech therapists came and 'observed' my daughter in her

classroom... I don't know how long I guess 10 or so minutes? I know it's not

long. I need to still get their 'draft IEP' for kindergarten to see what they

came up with (I can't wait ugh).

I think I have a point in here somewhere... If I'm already having problems from

her PRESCHOOL staff and getting tones of " typical behavior " out of them and how

" smart " she is despite her standardized testing which shows horrible social

skills plus their observations. .. Which they've sugarcoated I've noticed in the

IEP Update we just got through...

I need an independent professional to go into my daughter's class and give me

the truth. Ideally it would be a couple of times since one day isn't like the

other behaviorally anyway... WHO would this be and how would I do this???

Next week we start the process of an independent psychoeducational profile (for

ASD kids) by a very professional private group but I don't like that they do

presentations at her preschool to teach the staff... conflict of interest? I

dont' think they do work for the school district...

I'm trying to find a SLP to evaluate my daughter independently but I'm calling

some random ones from pro web sites and I'm not getting calls back. How do I DO

this???

I need to fight these people who are using my daughter's intelligence and very

sociable (albeit often inappropriate) behavior and using it to deny that there

is anything amiss. They are cutting costs and they are cutting across the top

meaning the highest functioning are getting the boot.. I'm not the only Mom to

notice this at her preschool either!!

Thanks for info,

March 19, 2010

I wonder if a specialist from the developmental pediatrician team would be

willing to observe her. Is she in a preschool through your school district? If

they are off for the summer, can they recommend some kind of day camp or program

for kids who need speech/social/autism work? My son (mild Aspergers) got to go

to a program the first summer, but didn't qualify for the following summer. It

didn't set him back though.

I think it's good that your private provider would educate the teachers. I

don't think it's a conflict of interest, there is a lot to know and not every

teacher has a special ed background. It should be a partnership between you,

your child, her medical providers and her educators. Anything that helps that

collaboration would be beneficial. Having a dx from the dev ped is pretty much

ironclad evidence that your child needs to keep services come the school year.

Summer is hard, all the teachers aren't there to provide services, so you may

have to just go private. (Why do we still have a 3 month vacation? That's a

whole other discussion!)

Good luck, I know it's hard to get services but it is the child's right to have

the same educational opportunities as everyone else, and if modifications/extra

services have to be made, so be it.

Laurel

>

> My daughter is now mild Asperger's (via dev pediatrician) and I'm struggling

to get her current teacher and speech therapist at her special preschool to give

her services for the summer. I had to fight to get them to agree to ask for ESY

and speech 2x in a group per week for social skills. She has bahavioral issues

(their own observations) but I had to fight to get one social work push-in per

week for the summer. They say that no way will the district add ANYTHING new

over the summer but my view is that Autism doesn't take a summer vacation and

that THEY haven't been informing me of the extent of her behavioral issues in

class until NOW so now I need to work on that with the social worker.

>

> The school district speech therapists came and 'observed' my daughter in her

classroom... I don't know how long I guess 10 or so minutes? I know it's not

long. I need to still get their 'draft IEP' for kindergarten to see what they

came up with (I can't wait ugh).

>

> I think I have a point in here somewhere... If I'm already having problems

from her PRESCHOOL staff and getting tones of " typical behavior " out of them and

how " smart " she is despite her standardized testing which shows horrible social

skills plus their observations. .. Which they've sugarcoated I've noticed in the

IEP Update we just got through...

>

> I need an independent professional to go into my daughter's class and give me

the truth. Ideally it would be a couple of times since one day isn't like the

other behaviorally anyway... WHO would this be and how would I do this???

>

> Next week we start the process of an independent psychoeducational profile

(for ASD kids) by a very professional private group but I don't like that they

do presentations at her preschool to teach the staff... conflict of interest? I

dont' think they do work for the school district...

>

> I'm trying to find a SLP to evaluate my daughter independently but I'm calling

some random ones from pro web sites and I'm not getting calls back. How do I DO

this???

>

> I need to fight these people who are using my daughter's intelligence and very

sociable (albeit often inappropriate) behavior and using it to deny that there

is anything amiss. They are cutting costs and they are cutting across the top

meaning the highest functioning are getting the boot.. I'm not the only Mom to

notice this at her preschool either!!

>

> Thanks for info,

>

March 19, 2010

A couple of random thoughts. I felt compelled to write because our stories are

similar. I'm pretty new at this though...

A dev ped dx may help but it didn't help me. Even with my PDDNOS diagnosis, my

daughter is too high functioning to qualify for anything through the district (I

am giving her 2x a week speech for pragmatic speech disorder and 3-4 OT a week

for Major sensory dysfunction)

Make sure the speech evals consider conversational speech and not the vocabulary

(my daughter scored in 60% because of excellent vocabulary but could barely

answer yes or no to a question)

THe district also said that they observed her in her mainstream class and that

she thrived there because of the structure and the good social role models which

she wouldn't get at the special ed preschool

As for someone to help you to assess her in the preschool, what about a

behaviorist? Someone who specialized in floor time maybe? Just a thought..

Good luck with everything. I know how frustrating it is. My daughter has so

many problem areas (Big gaps in conceptual thinking, trouble with transitions,

pragmatic speech etc...) but every place honed in on the smart piece...so other

than insurance covering one session a week of OT, everything is out of pocket.

If you don't get what you want over the summer, consider mainstream activities

that might work for her. Music ( & vestibular movement) is my daughters passion

so she is in 4 music classes a week & gymnastics.

> >

> > My daughter is now mild Asperger's (via dev pediatrician) and I'm struggling