My 4 1/2 old was dx with autism and mood disorder (NOS) he is not severe so maybe he doesn't count.
To understand my kids more please read "AM I GOING CRAZY NEED OPOINONS" in the Parents of Autistic Children pg 2
The school did a DD eval. and that is the lable he got. They didn't do an ASD eval. because that would take a long time so this way he could start services. I thought OK that makes sense ( they weren't sure if he would qualify for ASD by the school criteria) So this is what he got 2 days a week in a preschool class for 2 hrs a shot, I believe it was typical kids I know it was NOT a sp ed class. The class had a teacher an aid and a para would come there if his diaper needed to be changed. For an 1/2 hr each time my son was there the sp ed teacher would come there and observe him and give visual scheduals and ideas to the teacher so this equaled 1 hr a week.
To my understanding just putting an ASD kid in a class is NOT going to make them learn play skills and social skills ect. unless it is setup that way and taught not just being there.
Well he didn't qualify for the speech at school but he did by a landslide qualify at our hospital so I started him in that as well as private OT there.
I had a choice the sp ed teacher could come to my home and work 1 on 1 with him or he could go to the preschool as I described above
I choose to have the teacher come here and him to have speech 2 x a week and OT 2 times a week.
Also he goes to kids club sunday school and childrens church at our church weekly so I am getting him social contact with peers it has taken a long time but he is getting more comfortable and doing better there. The classes are smaller now then before so he doesn't just run around the rm, sit in the corner or hide under the table. He sits there! YAY
I hope I am doing OK by my boy. I know if he were worse in the eyes of the school that they may have pushed more to do the ASD eval so he could get more services but that just isn't the case.
It seems like the kids that are not severe kinda fall through the cracks ( at least here) yes they receive sp services for speech and LD but they don't gt all that I feel they really need. My oldest has been doing speech theraphy since he was 9 months old and they would do homevisits. Then when he got older he still received it but at the school articulation and the correct way to say he and she things like that. As he has gotten older and I had him tested for a medial dx of autism I wanted to add more to his speech theraphy. I called and talked to my son's teacher about the suggestions the dr's made for speech services. You could tell this irritated her and she thought I was NUTZ. She said she was surprized that the dr's thought he had autism because has alot of aspberger kids (she was referring to mild autism which I thought was different but I could be wrong) and my son was nothing like them. So I really got nowhere there so he also is in privite sp theraphy. I have not had my oldest tested with the school for ASD because the specialist in the school made a homevisit and told me that she went through all my son's records from school till now almost 7+ yrs worth and that he had been around sp ed people all that time and they would of seen red flags and caught it. She said she didn't want to waste her time and mine. I just left it at that.
If anyone has any thoughts on this please let me know
It is extremely important to get a label early so your child can recieve more intensive services in order to become more successful! It doesnt take that much time! Forget the Red Flag Woman, She doesnt care.
You are doing a great job with your son!Keep up the good work. Sometimes the school road is one of the longest.
Venus
Yes I agree. Request an ASD evaluation in writing. My sons school tried this with me telling me he didnt need the evaluation or the label though the school, well thats just a crock. But it took me nearly 6 months to figure that out :(.
"It seems like the kids that are not severe kinda fall through the cracks" I cant say how much I agree with this statement. My son was labeled autism high functioning then pdd-nos, then back and forth. Its so frustrating because I know he has it. His spec. ed teacher also tells me she doesnt think he has it or "after we disprove autism" ugh. And I am in the fight with the school right now trying to get him an educational diagnosis. I dont know if you read my post :) but they didnt make the 60 day time limit in getting the eval done, meaning they broke the law, sooo now they are being extremely nice to me because they dont want me to report them
So definately write up a letter and request that eval ASAP. What I have learned so far about the "system" is to never just take their word on anything. Research, research, research, and ask advise :)
That is why I said if yr not a severe case you slip through the cracks meaning our kids at least here. Like I said you get sp ed services but not the same ones and or the same number of hrs. thank you for yr comments
I have a hard time thinking your information is valid and have a feeling it is your opinion. If the US stopped providing services to children and adults with disabilities, that would be a return to 1960's and maybe even further back than that. Alot of hard work and fighting the good fight has gone into providing services the way they are providing today. Why would a country like ours do away with that. It concerns me to see a post like this when some people might actually take it as facts and not just one person's opinion.
If this is in fact true, I would like the source so I can see for myself. It would be a civil rights violation for our government to provide one group of people with disabilities with services, but not another group of people. Please give me your souce for this information.
Tonygirl-I do agree that sometimes, some systems do provide more services to some children with certain disabilities.