My kid's not "messed up" enough for special educat

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My 5 year old had his assessment with the school yesterday and the county's special education coordinator. He will be in kindergarten next year. We are sure his has Aspergers (he was dx with sensory issues years ago) and between preschool and other professionals observations there is a general feeling he is an Aspie.

So yesterday he was assessed one on one with a special ed test and the lady just looked up at me after 2 hours and said, "I am not quite sure why you are here, your son is brilliant." I had really mixed feelings about it. Of course I was thrilled that he was scored as a 7 or 8 year old on many issues, but frustrated that she didn't see his motor, social, transition, stimulation or sensory issues. She told me he would not likely qualify for special ed services. In our county that means that he won't qualify for OT, speech, socialization, special accomodations, etc.

We have an appt. wit a pediatric neurologist on April 30th (who specializes in ASD). If she comes back with an official Aspie dx will that help us?

Any thoughts from you all on what to do now or how to fight for him?

It might help. Children who are diagnosed with an ASD typically get more services than children simply diagnosed with sensory issues.

You have to remember that "special ed" services vary depending on the school. Depending on the school administration's and teacher's attitudes towards special needs children.

If your particular school considers "special ed" to be remedial academics only, then I would take their advice. There have been a lot of stories of parents who really pushed for special ed, despite being warned otherwise by school staff. And then they come back later saying that their children are being seriously under-challenged and ostracized by the teachers and other children. There are several teens on the boards who are currently in special ed, and feel that they aren't being taken seriously due to their label and are receiving age-inappropriate work.

You said that your son is great with academics, but is weak in social, motor and transitional skills. Maybe after kindergarten, they'll consider giving him an IEP, but social, motor and transitional skills aren't graded subjects. If they only admit children who are "slow" at one or more academic areas, then your son might be out of luck.

An ASD diagnosis from the neurologist will help, but it will not be dispositive of the issue of whether your son is eligible for special education, due to the fact that a medical diagnosis is different from an educational diagnosis of autism (all ASD's fall under the educational category of autism). The evaluator you saw was like many who don't "get it," when it comes to children who are bright and "disabled." There are many of them. If your neurologist can put in your report that your son will need speech, socialization, OT, and/or whatever s/he recommends in order to access his education it will help your case. If he makes it sound like a medical or therapeutic need, it will not be as useful.

If the neurologist's report is not enough, ask the school for an OT evaluation, and a speech evaluation by someone who is skilled in issues of pragmatics. It is essential that the person be skilled in this area - otherwise they will just look at his articulation. If the school won't do it, have it done privately and bring the results to the school (if it supports your son's need for services).

A great source of legal information is Wrightslaw. It can be a bit overwhelming because it has so much information, but it has lots of strategies for dealing with schools, as well as the legal information you need. In addition, it has a "yellow pages for kids" section, by state, so you can look for professionals if you need to find resources.

Ugh, my computer just did a lovely macro that I still haven't figured out and I've lost my entire post!

Well, it's going to have to be a shortened version.

The term that kept coming back to me in my son's most recent IEP was "access to the curriculum." Basically, anything that impairs that, they will work on. Anything that does not, they won't. And it isn't about access at the "best" level for your child, it's about access at the basic levels.

So, what does impair access to the curriculum?

Pragmatic language. The inability to communicate effectively and succiently, to respond to a question in an appropriate manner. Difficulties in this area can be disruptive in the classroom, and frustrating both to the teacher and the child, not to mention all the other kids.

Sensory issues. In a one on one test she could hardly see this, but many kids get into the classroom and the sensory issues are so difficult that they can no longer focus in any manner. They may stop paying attention, they may get agitated to the point of being disruptive, and so on. Does this impair access to the curriculum? Obviously, yes. No matter how bright your child is, if he can't function in the classroom environment, he won't learn.

Motor skills. This was the issue that drove us to get an IEP. By early first grade it was evident that my son had extreme difficulty writing. By this time journaling and more were expected; he couldn't produce it. The gap between apparent intelligence and the ability to perform in the classroom, largely due to the expectation that such performance be primarily in writing, was huge. Could he access the curriculum while not being able to write? No, he couldn't.

Each school is unique in how they approach all this and what they offer in the way of special education. My son, now in middle school, is taking advanced classes and also attending resource daily. The later is something of an experiment for us and the school, which really didn't know what to do with my AS child when he started (our elementary school, in contrast, was wonderful). He needs advanced material and he needs to be challanged but he is still having a lot of trouble getting everything into a written product, so resource is going to be focused on his typing and editing skills. He is the only child in that group who takes advanced classes, which is fine when we're talking 1 out of 8 periods in a day. The resource teacher absolutely loves having him because he is also helping tutor other kids in math, and most of those kids have never personally known any "advanced" student, so he is providing a positive role model for them ... all of which helps HIM with his social skills, in a way. And just getting respite from the stress of the rest of his day. No, he has nothing in common with those other kids, but so far it seems to be working for him and for them - but, again, we're talking 1 of 8 periods, not all day, every day.

So ... sorry for rambling.

Think of what environment your child is likely to do best in. Then ask how you get him that. I've taken a very results oriented approach to date with my son, and it's worked for us. He wouldn't have an IEP or an AS diagnosis if I hadn't so desperately wanted to solve the written work issue.

You may want to consider a section 504 plan if the school is resistant to an IEP. Although section 504 does not have as many protections as IDEA, it is designed for students who do not have educational issues but has physical issues that prevent access to a proper education. This originally was designed for children who are blind or in wheelchairs but would probably work for a student with sensory and motor issues too.

As far as the rest, you may be forced to get private services for OT, speech, and social education. Schools really do not want to provide these services (you should see the run around I go through regarding socialization and home schooling).

The district may also change their minds once Kindergarten is done too. I would suggest letting it go and having the teacher as well as yourself put down concerns during the school year, then once the year is done, go back to the district.

I am in same boat except my son is almost 14 now and was tested 1 1/2 years ago. My son had extreme motor problem skills too.
I almost broke my back teaching him to ride a bike. We spend hours on the tennis court and in general throwing ball, but my effort did pay of. Once they figure out how to do things and get good at it they usually get "repetitive" and even excel at it. My son is an excellent squash and tennis player. Shoelaces was a big hurtle until almost 1 year ago and he still looks awkward tying his shoes, but most of the time he just slips into skate shoes. Academically wise in Grade 1 the teacher said he is just sitting there doing nothing. So I taught him 10 -15 Min. every day at home Math (at the same time teaching myself math all over again ,I hated it as a child) and he became so good at it that he was always way ahead of his class (they called him the brain).He is in High School now and has a 100 % in math and is mainly a straight a student.
Can not socialise though. A blind mole can see he has AS, but he did not get diagnosis.

A teacher in Elementary School (Grade 6)told me he might have As or Tourettes so we went for testing. It was a year of hell and the attention he got during testing did not help his OCD.
We agreed to put him on Fluvoxamin but I took him off after 2 weeks. He acted like a 'zombie and I am glad I took him off.
He then started middle school with learning assistant because of his OCD and they wanted him to continue learning assistant in High School. They changed our school system to no more "middle Schools" so after one year middle school he started High school.
After summer vacation his Ocd was almost all gone.
We decided to begin High School without learning assistant so he would not have to give up French (it was either Learning Assistance or French). My son all along found he does not need LA. At the first patent teacher conference his math teacher told me the learning assistant teacher phoned him to asks how it is going without her and he replied:" Learning assistance? This kid is the best in his class. He does not need Learning assistance" :O)
He is an excellent student and works really hard, but without diagnosis I do wonder if he will get support if he decides to go to University.
As you see you still have a lot of time for re evaluation and if you are a" stay at home" mom like me, you can help him when it comes to education and motor skills problems more then anyone else.
Although later on no one might believe you that your son has AS.
I always felt that I was doing the teachers job and the dads job when it came to helping him excel in sports. It did not leave me enough time to teach him more self-help skills like cooking etc. I was already burnt out enough.
Now I am being blamed for not teaching him how to be more independent.Those people who do the assessment see only what they want to see and if there are any deficiencies blame it on the mother. I don't think they comprehend how he can be so good at school and sports but at the same time so clumsy at other things. It is along, long road and I wish you all the luck!
Be strong!

I can only comment as to what has been true thus far in California - but in our case, my son has a medical diagnosis for High Functioning Autism, which has held far more water than a diagnosis of Aspergers Syndrome would. The reason being is that Autism is a recognized disability in the state of California, and Aspergers Syndrome is not - and therefore you have to prove that your child's education is being significantly impacted - just as you would need to do if your child had a learning issue such as dyslexia or ADHD.

I don't think our first School Study Team meeting would have gone nearly as well if I hadn't pointed out the medical diagnosis our son had for Autism right away. Once I'd done that, the meeting was all about the district pushing US to have him evaluated in every single area so that they could determine how best to help him - and I live in an area where help is hard to get. That's not to say that he WILL get help in every area (we aren't expecting academic help, just mainly social and possibly occupational therapy for small motor), but it will be good to have a baseline of where he started from.

Rhonda has a good point about terminology, and I forgot to address that question when I posted earlier. You will have to find out how it works in your state, but here in CA you MUST have a diagnosis that is "on the list" to get anything. In our case, what they used was "autistic spectrum disorder." THAT is on the list, but I understand that Aspergers, as a term, is not.

I am so sorry to say this but they may need to see how his dx affects him in the classroom setting.
I would definitely look into getting a 504 plan for the sensory issues.

A lot of professionals will go ahead and write high functioning autism instead of aspergers just to make it easier to get services in the school setting. Some districts will say Autism with a dx of aspergers and others will not.

It could also just that the test they were using is only to measure his learning. If this was through the school, they usually administer tests separately, like the OT does the sensory tests, the speech does the language, you need a PT screening for the motor stuff, etc. You can request all that in writing, including a psychological evaluation.

Very good point. It is really not up to just the special ed teacher but a whole team. Did you have a team meeting discussing areas to be evaluated? After the testing, was there an eligiblity report stating different areas and why your child did not qualify? Did you get information regarding your child's language and speech skills, cognitive (or at least concepts), adaptive (if needed ) and social/emotional (if needed)? If not, than perhaps you just went through a general screening. If you did a screening, I would go ahead and request a more comprehensive evaluation. Put your request in writing.

I got a call from the special ed teacher at school and she apologized for 20 minutes! I LOVE THIS SCHOOL. She said the lady doing our test doesn't have much tact and really shouldn't have made any comments to me.

They don't normally do psych evals on pre-k because it is hard to pick up on pysch isssues, but the whole team agreed (special ed teacher, speech therapist, principal) that it was appropriate for my son and that since they all have observed him at preschool several times they have noticed his social/motor issues.

They have already decided as a team to treat him as if he has Aspergers because they all agreed there is VERY strong indication along these lines. The bigger problem will be OT and after elementary school, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

I felt very good about the conversaton I had with her and she set up an appointment for me and the school psychologist first thing on monday so we can see if she would be willing to set up a diagnosis or IEP plan.

You guys rock! Your input and suggestions have really helped me.

Kat

This is such good news! Phew!