Lindsey -- You will know more after they complete their assessment. Request ALL results IN WRITING. Sit down with the evaluators or the teacher and insist that every single result be fully explained to you. Ask them to explain percentiles and standard deviations, etc., to you. No decision can be made about Damian's kindergarten year until those levels of performance are established. Then, ask for their recommendation about placement. Ask to visit that class and also one other option. Parents are required by law to be given the opportunity to participate in decisions made about their child. If you are given only one option, you have not been given the opportunity to participate -- the decision was made FOR you. That violates IDEA. School districts can be required to pay tuition to send your child to a neigboring school district's school. The problem with this is that the receiving school does not have to ACCEPT out-of-district kids. But your school has to create a program that gives your child educational benefit. Now is the time to familiarize yourself FULLY with your state's laws and the IEP process.
wow, that makes me feel better,at least i know what there talking about Thanks Karolysgirl,and all.
God bless,Linda
We're still not sure where Damian is going to be placed they have to do all of their retesting, they are adding behavoiral assesment, and an emotional understanding(?), Ive never heard of the second one. His prek teacher said she is almost positive he will be placed in special ed, but cant say for sure, and if not he will have a one on one aide. My concern is Damian is starting to show more aggression and more stimming. When he goes to k Im afraid it is going to overwhelm him, Our school system doesnt have much for children on the spectrum, but a friend who works in the ese department has told me that they are really starting to crack down on assisting these children in my opion it is actually because the paper ran an article about parents moving to a neighboring county because their system is much better. I know he will get door to door sevice with the bus because he still requires a harness, but from there im not sure.
Well my son was not diagnosed with an ASD when we started school this year. He had been in special education pre school last year for a speech delay primarily and they had worked on a few other things. Looking back at it honestly dh and I threw him to the wolves in a way. I had known or thought for a few years that Corbin was on the spectrum but dh just couldn't buy it so in a way us throwing him to the wolves was a good thing. It made dh wake up and realize oh wow this is really a problem. So he started the year with his speech therapy and the teacher using the reccomendations in his current IEP.
We had our first IEP meeting in September, things weren't going well. At that time we determined that Corbin needed to be pulled out of class to work on educational components i.e. rote counting, identifying letters etc. because his behavior was still not up to par and it was interferring with his learning. This is also when my husband and I went to see the pediatrician and got a referral to the Munroe Meyer Institute. WE couldn't get in until December though.
In mid to late October the kindergarten instructor and I both determined it was time to get the head of the special ed department involved to see if we could learn a bit more on how to help Corbin's behaviors. She came down and observed Corbin multiple times on different days and we had an informal meeting. She basically flat out told me that my son had PDD-NOS, no questions whatsoever. Finally, someone got it. We then determined Corbin would definately need more extensive services and scheduled an IEP meeting for November.
In November we changed the IEP some. Corbin began going to the special education room for up to 3 hours a day, and was scheduled to have a Functional Behavior Assessment performed and also an Occupational Therapy screening done. Corbin was also allowed access to a personal para professional during regular classroom hours in the gen. ed kindergarten.
In December Corbin was diagnosed with PDD-NOS and we were scheduled for an IEP meeting in mid January. Approximately a week and a half before this meeting I wrote to the school and all the IEP members explaining what Jason and I wanted Corbin to recieve for services.
His current IEP still has the para available for his use pretty much at all times aside from recess. He sees OT now, and the OT's reccomendations are implemented into the classroom. He does all of his seated work in the special education room but takes part in calendar, music, library, pe, art stuff, piano with the rest of his class. He also gets lectures for the most part with his regular class. He was given a behavior plan that is now underway and seems to be going ok. The jury is still out and I am watching it closely. His speech therapy was increased so to allow time for the speech therapist to work on social skills with Corbin. He was offered ESY to help him transition to 1st grade. All educational components aside from handwriting were removed from his IEP because acedemically he really has few problems. We also implemented a PECS schedule that is on his desk at all times and a PECS rules sheet that is also visible to him at all times. His rules are the same throughout the school.
Our next step is getting the Autism Resource team involved and they will be coming Monday to observe Corbin throughout the day and then we will meet with them in the afternoon.
What I can tell you is this. There will need to be some sort of meeting wether a formal IEP meeting or an informal meeting of some sort after school starts. I think this realy helped us greatly. No one knows how your son will react until he is in the environment and I have found it is best to do this about a month after the year begins that way he is given ample time to adjust. This will allow everyone time to see what the problems are and what he needs help with. Some of this you will know before hand and get that stuff in place before school but undoubtedly something will probably come up after school starts also. Simple silly things i.e. the beginning of the day was a huge stressor for my son. He had to stand in the front hall wait till the other kids were there then go to his class, have playtime, interrupt playtime, go to breakfast etc. all with 20 other students around. This caused major problems. The problem was alleviated by moving his locker to an area of the school that is not so conjested and hectic in the morning and things have improved tremendously.
Even though right now it may seem that they are hesitant at putting anything in writing just remember no one knows how your son will be affected inclluding the school. This is going to be a learning process for everyone and as you can see from our experience it isn't easy at all but it will all get done. The key is to keep communication as open as possible and be up front with them. Tell them what you want as soon as you know what it is. If you see a problem point it out immediately. If you think further testing needs to be done request it right away. Ok this is way too long already I hope it helped some and just keep your chin up. I can imagine kindergarten, going to middle school, high school have to nearly be the worst transition periods. Hopefully next year will be easier!
My son will be starting kinder garden in Sept,and we just had our first meeting with the school board,the will have a trained ASW with him for transition and then a TA ,shared ,He has AS.
What services did your HFA or Aspies have ,when they started school??
The thing that bothers me is that they will observe him in Daycare,preschool testing ect...,what if he does well,then they change there minds, and say he doesnt need this support,and then when he starts school he Has a horrible experience.
It seems that they will wait to put anything in writing,until after observation & one day in a Kinder garden class.I think at the end of the meeting i herd him say to my ASW that he will do PEP testing with Zack,What is this?
Thanks Linda
The PEP-R is an assessment for young children with autism. Basically it is a way for the ASW (?) to identify your son's strengths and needs.
Here is a description:
A description from volume one of the PEP-R:
The PEP-R is an inventory of behaviors and skills designed to identify uneven and idiosyncratic learning patterns. The test is most appropriately used with children functioning at of below the preschool range and within the chronological age range of 6 months to 7 years. If a child is older than 7 but younger than 12 years, the PEP-R can provide useful information when at least some developmental skills are at or below the first-grade level. After 12 years of age, a prevocational evaluation using the Adolescent and Adults Psychoeducational Profile (AAPEP) (Mesihov, Schopler, Shaffer, & Landrus, 1988) is recommended.
Used as an assessment, the PEP-R provides information on developmental functioning in Imitation, Perception, Fine Motor, Gross Motor, Eye-Hand Integration, Cognitive Performance, and Cognitive Verbal areas. The PEP-R also identifies degrees of behavioral abnormality in Relating and Affect (cooperation and human interest), Play and Interest in Materials, Sensory Responses, and Language.
The PEP-R kit consists of a set of toys and learning materials that are presented to a child within structured play activities. The examiner observes, evaluates, and records the child's responses during the test. Then, at the end of the session, the child's scores are distributed among seven Developmental and four Behavioral areas. The resulting profiles depict a child's relative strengths and weaknesses in different areas of development and behavior.
Rather than evaluating a child using only Passing or Failing scores, the PEP-R provides a third and unique score called Emerging. A response scored Emerging is one that indicates some knowledge of what is required to complete a task, but not the full understanding or skill necessary to do so successfully. A child may demonstrate a sense of what a task is about or even partially complete it, but do so in a peculiar way. These kinds of responses are scored as Emerging.
Autism involves not only developmental delays but atypical behaviors. The strength of the PEP-R is that it looks at both of these aspects. The Developmental Scale tells where a child is functioning relative to peers. The items on the Behavioral Scale have the separate but related assessment function of identifying responses and behaviors consistent with a diagnosis of autism. These categories and measures are based on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) (Schopler et al., 1988) designed to screen for and diagnose autism.
The total number of unusual, or dysfunctional behaviors are quantified qualified, indicating the severity of a child's behavioral difficulties. Behaviors are scored as Appropriate, Mild, or Severe. The items on the Behavioral Scale are not norm-referenced like those on the Developmental Scale; these particular behaviors, in their mild or extreme forms, are abnormal for children at any age. Scores from the Behavioral Scale can be useful for tracking behavioral changes over time and making decisions on how to group youngsters in a classroom.
In addition to its unique scoring system, the underlying use of the PEP-R differs from most psychological instruments. This inventory is designed as an educational tool for planning individualized special educational programs. There are three companion volumes to the PEP-R in the series called Individualized Assessment and Treatments for Autistic and Developmentally Disabled Children, Volumes 2 and 3, Teaching Strategies for Parents and Professionals (Schopler, Reichler, & Lansing, 1980) and Teaching Activities for Autistic Children (Schopler, Lansing, & Waters, 1983) are collections of individualized teaching activities, indexed according to the seven PEP-R developmental function areas. Volume 4, Adolescent and Adult Psychoeducational Profile (AAPEP) (Mesibov et al., 1988), extends the PEP-R to meet the needs of adolescents and adults.
Karolysgirl,
That was very informative. I am at a point where I needed to understand that. Thanks.
concernedpa.