Ok I have heard all the horror stories about the schools. I had our meeting at the school and they wanted to classify her as dev. delayed which would stay with her untill she is 9. I called the parent information center and they told me all kinds of helpful info. they said that pdd-nos isn;t one of the 16 listed disabalities. ANd because she is so high functiong she wouldn't fall under the autisum label. So she is still entled to summer school and school in the fall. They did tell me that her iep should accuratly describe dd, and I could hve them put pdd-nos in parenthesis with her dx. I guess I am wondering about academic performance or an iq test. I had a hard time really hearing their response at the meeting because dd was wild and tearing apart their toys. Not in a bad way just an overexcited way... Can they do an iq test or something if I ask for it or is it too early?
You got the wrong information about PDD-NOS. The classification of Autism, educationally, has NOTHING to do with functioning level. It, technically, has nothing to do with the actual medical diagnosis, either. It has to do with two things. ONE: Does your child fit the EDUCATIONAL definition of Autism:
(1)(i) Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences. The term does not apply if a child's educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance, as defined in paragraph (b)(4) of this section.
TWO: Does your child's disability affect his or her EDUCATION (and education is more than academics -- it's academics, development and functional skills)
If your child meets these criteria, your child can be classified into the 5 thru 21 special education services. Except in New York State, it really doesn't matter what the classification is. And, yes, a child can remain under Developmental Disability until age 9 now. This is new. It came in Oct. 2006 with the reauthorization of IDEA. The information about not qualifying under Autism that you got was wrong. However, if they are willing to classify your child under Developmentally Delayed, take it. Your child's deficits drive the services, not the classification (unless you are in NY).
I'm not sure what you would get from an IQ test. My girl was tested at 3 or 4 and as you mention above she was so hyper and distracted that she was basically non-testable. But, they had to provide some number which if I recall was something like 80 or less. Which is ridiculous. I'm convinced she's smarter than I am and I've got be be above that. Nobody took those numbers seriously. But if you get this test, and get the same result we got, what will you get from the school that you are not getting now? It is supposed to be possible to qualify using a PDD/NOS diagnosis (as in the DSM) since the educational diagnosis of autism (as in the IDEA) does not break down autism behaviors into those catagories. My guess is that the school does not want you to have an autism classification for some reason. Maybe your state offers additional protections if you have one? It is easier to subsequently find a student to no longer qualify if delays are used since it is easier to test and show that the delays no longer exist.