Showing posts with label IEP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IEP. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
IEPaloooza
So after having 10 people sit around in a circle to discuss one little four year old, we have an IEP for half a year. And the school district is threatening to force us to go to a different school if we want summer school. Because taking an autistic boy and putting him in a strange environment with new teachers for three weeks in the middle of the summer is productive. Yeah.
Anyway, they're thinking he's going to outgrow his AAC and need something more advanced soon. It's clearly appropriate for him. He navigates it like a pro. However, he's also created new problems by having a voice. Just as with spoken words, sometimes he's communicating wants and needs, and sometimes he's just making noises for internal reasons not relevant to the discussion.
The preschool directer thinks they pretty much have this one under control, and I tend to agree. Rather than saying something like, "No talker!" or "Talker down!" like the school district suggested, the teacher just says, "But we're not talking about X right now. Let's talk about Y." Just like any other kid babbling about something unrelated to the lesson. Sometimes when the lesson is over a skill he's already mastered, they just turn down the volume on his AAC and let him explore as much as he wants. This? This is why I am not taking him to a school district preschool.
Our next IEP will be for transitioning to kindergarten. I have to admit I'm concerned about this. I have faith in the school he'll be attending, but I can't control all the variables there either. What if he gets a horrible teacher? How much are they going to underestimate his abilities? How bad is it going to get next year when he's stuck in this new routine?
I'm glad he's doing so well with reading, because I feel like that's something that shows proof that he's educable. And it saddens me that he needs that. I feel like when it comes to special ed, some kids are taught, and some kids are warehoused.
Anyway, they're thinking he's going to outgrow his AAC and need something more advanced soon. It's clearly appropriate for him. He navigates it like a pro. However, he's also created new problems by having a voice. Just as with spoken words, sometimes he's communicating wants and needs, and sometimes he's just making noises for internal reasons not relevant to the discussion.
The preschool directer thinks they pretty much have this one under control, and I tend to agree. Rather than saying something like, "No talker!" or "Talker down!" like the school district suggested, the teacher just says, "But we're not talking about X right now. Let's talk about Y." Just like any other kid babbling about something unrelated to the lesson. Sometimes when the lesson is over a skill he's already mastered, they just turn down the volume on his AAC and let him explore as much as he wants. This? This is why I am not taking him to a school district preschool.
Our next IEP will be for transitioning to kindergarten. I have to admit I'm concerned about this. I have faith in the school he'll be attending, but I can't control all the variables there either. What if he gets a horrible teacher? How much are they going to underestimate his abilities? How bad is it going to get next year when he's stuck in this new routine?
I'm glad he's doing so well with reading, because I feel like that's something that shows proof that he's educable. And it saddens me that he needs that. I feel like when it comes to special ed, some kids are taught, and some kids are warehoused.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Busy in Thought
So, for those wanting to know about the girl's IEP. They told us that further evaluation was probably warranted, since there were quite a few things we all agreed on that tended to make them think we might be looking at autism with her, too.
Yeah, not thrilled to hear it, but I do think they have a few points. They made it clear that her school services would not change. They are already integrating some social therapies into her speech therapy (teaching her to recognize nonverbal cues.) And since she's high functioning, she wouldn't be eligible for any outside funding for therapies, either.
Because of all that, it makes little sense to get her evaluated right now. Perhaps we'll tackle that when the insurance company won't charge us several hundred dollars for a "covered" service. Or perhaps we'll tackle that if it ever comes to the point where she isn't coping well in school in spite of supports.
Monday, December 1, 2008
IEPs IEPs
It was good, it was bad, it was frustrating, and it was mostly good.
Last week was King's IEP meeting. It lasted a lot longer than I think any of us had anticipated and it went better than I'd hoped for bits.
We have a setup where we take the boy to the university for their language school. He gets his speech therapy there, but other services have to come from the school district. Last year we requested that he get evaluated for OT. We got those results this year. Yeah, that's more than a bit out of compliance for a response. And I'm still a bit pissed about it.
But the results say that he does qualify for OT. We knew this. He can't even dress himself for Pete's sake. Anyway, she also said he's very ready to learn and will incorporate what she demonstrates back into the classroom. Yay. This is a really good sign. Also, she's going to take him out for one on one sessions to avoid distractions in the classroom. I think that's brilliant. She also said he's got the skill level of a 24 month old according to her tests. FTR, he's almost four. ;-/
They actually read his autism evaluation and suggestions for the first time. We gave them a copy much earlier. Did I mention my frustration with the school district? Yeah. Anyway, they read the recommendations and asked about getting an autism specialist on his team. Ya think? His preschool director also wants to involve the university to see if he qualifies for any studies (since those usually involve funding and more therapy than we would otherwise receive.) I'm all over that plan.
We went over his strengths - letters and numbers, increasing receptive skills, better focus, etc. Yay. And then the bad part, his weaknesses. I had to admit that his functional communication skills really hadn't improved. He says the words he says more clearly, but he's still not saying that many words to do anything other than label objects. He does have his moments, so here's to hoping that those moments increase.
His preschool director said she'd left an AAC device in the class and given him some opportunity to play with it to see if it would help at all. He used it to ask for a snack, which is good, but then when other kids started playing with it, he started hitting the "no" button repeatedly. Even better.
The end goal is still going to be spoken communication, but if an AAC device bridges the gap, I'm all over that.
I requested cognitive testing if it were possible, but we decided that maybe waiting another year would be better to really get a good picture. I wanted a baseline, but I didn't want a test that relied on his communication ability to see what's going on in his head, and I know that's going to be hard to find.
They also initially had him listed as being dairy free for the treatment of autism. We corrected them that he was dairy free for the treatment of foul smelling farts from hell, but if it improved his behavior, yay for us. They all seemed to think he was much more focused since we'd eliminated dairy from his diet, but it's hard to tell if that's just confirmation bias. The stinky farts are not imaginary, so yay to be rid of those.
Last week was King's IEP meeting. It lasted a lot longer than I think any of us had anticipated and it went better than I'd hoped for bits.
We have a setup where we take the boy to the university for their language school. He gets his speech therapy there, but other services have to come from the school district. Last year we requested that he get evaluated for OT. We got those results this year. Yeah, that's more than a bit out of compliance for a response. And I'm still a bit pissed about it.
But the results say that he does qualify for OT. We knew this. He can't even dress himself for Pete's sake. Anyway, she also said he's very ready to learn and will incorporate what she demonstrates back into the classroom. Yay. This is a really good sign. Also, she's going to take him out for one on one sessions to avoid distractions in the classroom. I think that's brilliant. She also said he's got the skill level of a 24 month old according to her tests. FTR, he's almost four. ;-/
They actually read his autism evaluation and suggestions for the first time. We gave them a copy much earlier. Did I mention my frustration with the school district? Yeah. Anyway, they read the recommendations and asked about getting an autism specialist on his team. Ya think? His preschool director also wants to involve the university to see if he qualifies for any studies (since those usually involve funding and more therapy than we would otherwise receive.) I'm all over that plan.
We went over his strengths - letters and numbers, increasing receptive skills, better focus, etc. Yay. And then the bad part, his weaknesses. I had to admit that his functional communication skills really hadn't improved. He says the words he says more clearly, but he's still not saying that many words to do anything other than label objects. He does have his moments, so here's to hoping that those moments increase.
His preschool director said she'd left an AAC device in the class and given him some opportunity to play with it to see if it would help at all. He used it to ask for a snack, which is good, but then when other kids started playing with it, he started hitting the "no" button repeatedly. Even better.
The end goal is still going to be spoken communication, but if an AAC device bridges the gap, I'm all over that.
I requested cognitive testing if it were possible, but we decided that maybe waiting another year would be better to really get a good picture. I wanted a baseline, but I didn't want a test that relied on his communication ability to see what's going on in his head, and I know that's going to be hard to find.
They also initially had him listed as being dairy free for the treatment of autism. We corrected them that he was dairy free for the treatment of foul smelling farts from hell, but if it improved his behavior, yay for us. They all seemed to think he was much more focused since we'd eliminated dairy from his diet, but it's hard to tell if that's just confirmation bias. The stinky farts are not imaginary, so yay to be rid of those.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
IEP Meeting for the Girl
Princess had her IEP meeting today, and they're increasing services. I always get paranoid that they're going to take them away. They said that actually they'd already increased services and now the IEP was going to officially reflect what they were doing.
They said she's going interesting gaps where she does higher level skills well but misses basic skills completely. Her functional speech is still a big issue. She scored at 47% on receptive speech, which gives her a huge gap between expressive and receptive skills.
She can't identify double digit numbers at all, which puts her math skills behind, but I've heard her add and subtract, so there's that gap in a basic skill again.
She's now getting four 30 minute reading sessions, four 30 minute math sessions, and one hour of speech therapy per week. They're also evaluating her for music therapy, and they said they'd add that on if she qualified. They're also giving her extra cues and prompts and extra time.
She's got good coping skills, and she uses all the resources available, and she's making excellent progress. She just has a ways to go.They're very pleased with her fine motor skills, which used to be a concern in preschool, so yay. That's one of the reasons they wanted to see if she qualifies for music therapy. They figured she was so artsy that it might play to her strengths.
And sometimes Google isn't your friend. After reading this article, I'm even more concerned about dyslexia. She does all of those things. I guess the good news is that because she's receiving services, they're more likely to catch it if it is dyslexia.
They said she's going interesting gaps where she does higher level skills well but misses basic skills completely. Her functional speech is still a big issue. She scored at 47% on receptive speech, which gives her a huge gap between expressive and receptive skills.
She can't identify double digit numbers at all, which puts her math skills behind, but I've heard her add and subtract, so there's that gap in a basic skill again.
She's now getting four 30 minute reading sessions, four 30 minute math sessions, and one hour of speech therapy per week. They're also evaluating her for music therapy, and they said they'd add that on if she qualified. They're also giving her extra cues and prompts and extra time.
She's got good coping skills, and she uses all the resources available, and she's making excellent progress. She just has a ways to go.They're very pleased with her fine motor skills, which used to be a concern in preschool, so yay. That's one of the reasons they wanted to see if she qualifies for music therapy. They figured she was so artsy that it might play to her strengths.
And sometimes Google isn't your friend. After reading this article, I'm even more concerned about dyslexia. She does all of those things. I guess the good news is that because she's receiving services, they're more likely to catch it if it is dyslexia.
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