Posted: November 20 2009 at 1:44pm | IP Logged

It's in a couple weeks.  I have a message into the school district about what services they can provide a HF kid (she has PDDNOS, at least on paper).  She's having problems academically, especially with math, but not so much the funner subjects like art, music, science.  She's lying to her teacher, being flat out defiant, talking back to her teacher.  She has no real friends.  She has, and they have identified, an auditory processing LD.

She's getting some one on one help from an aide now, which is helping.  She's getting some OT from the therapist.  She needs more.

I want to get her into the Waldorf school by next year.  She's going to a parent participation school now, we put her in there knowing the extra adult in the class would be helpful.  They're combining the school next year so they won't be able to meet her needs as well.  With the Waldorf school they are more artsy and have a different approach to academics and I think she'd do better in that learning enviornment.  The issue is the lottery, I'm afraid we won't be picked.  I want them to find a way for us to get her in there.  How do I do this?

I'm guessing that she could do well with some social skills classes and have heard some school provide this.  Is it something I should expect?  Or will I have to fight for it?  What else can I ask for?  I want to get her into some behavioral modification classes as well, but haven't a clue who offers them and the regional center here has denied services because she's not bad enough. 

Posted: November 20 2009 at 4:08pm | IP Logged

I don't know about the academic part of the IEP because so far we don't have those issues, but as far as the social skills there are different ways they can do that. My son has social stories in addition to his speech 3 times a week at school. One day he has a speech partner and they work on social skills, the second day he gets speech alone and they work on things like taking turns, learning to be a "social detective" the third day they work on one of his goals that has to do with responding to familiar people who talk to him, so he walks around the school occasionally with the SLP and they work on greeting people, stuff like that. Sometimes he gets to pick a friend or 2 and they join him for facilitated play. This approach has worked very well so far, but my son is in 1st grade, so maybe that doesn't help, but you could come up with suggestions for your team that are tailored to your daughters specific needs.

I got a private evaluation for both speech and OT. This helped get them to up his speech from 2 to 3 days a week, but so far I haven't been able to get them to budge on the OT. My son has a BIP in place for behavior problems, did they do one for your daughter? You can request the FBA if not.

Good luck, I had to fight for everything my son gets, and its time consuming and stressful. I hope everything works out for you...