School Psychologist total B*** | Autism PDD

Can anyone give a few great tips to get this woman fired? The school psychologist at my son's school has been giving a mom a RIDICULOUS time. Her son has been diagnosed in past as PDD NOS, has failure to thrive as well. He is in an Integrated Kindergarten class with my son. Mom feels he has autism and took him to an independant psychologist which sure enough gave dx of autism. The school psychologist rejects the dx. She basically said the doctor mom went to is the next "Dr. Malmead" which alludes that perhaps he over diagnosis? She wanted mom and dad's personal information (mom is OCD) dad is (ADHD) to submit with child's information to a different specialist the school brought in. Mom blacked out her dx and husb dx as she felt it was none of their business. The psychologist still gave it to the new evaluator. She also grabbed mom's purse and seemed to look inside. ????? Isn't this a violation of HIPPA?

That psychologist sounds awful! I wonder if they live in Minnesota where in order to qualify for services, the educators need to decide if they child meets the criteria and doesn't have to go on an outside diagnosis (unless the parents request an IEE).

Which I would have them do by the way - request and Independent Educational Evaluation IN WRITING to the school district.

She may have been looking for a tape recorder inside her purse. That
would have been my guess.

Get this, when I call my sons school psyche her voice mail states that she
is a psyche intern. What does that mean? Is she a full psyche?

I have a neropsyche who I go to with the PHD and other training who the
SD questions. So the psyche intern is more qualified in assessing my
son, according to the SD.

It is about the money. Good services cost SD's money and they are not
going to give it to anyone so easily.

Thank god I got my DX from a Pediatric Neurologist. Both the EI and SD
didnt have a problem with that one.

The problem with your friend is its her word against another's word. I bet
you that the school Psyche will lie about it.
I have to say I have yet to meet the woman but it is only a matter of time because my son is in the same class and my son has autism. I am DEFINATELY bringing a tape recorder! I think I will just put it on the desk and press play, to keep her on her best behavior! My friend has been really thankful for all the IEP advice everyone gives on this board. She is planning to have her Dr. Next Malmead as she called him, call her and send a follow up letter to her and the superintendent. They are also telling my friend that they have 3 aides in the class but that they don't want to assign any particular one bc he will get too dependent. Her son has failure to thrive and several other issues as well. He is medically fragile, has come home with bruises on his wrists where 'someone' grabbed him to take him to time out, etc. She is really worried about her son obviously. Our plan is for her to say that she doesn't mind any of the 3 aides bc they are all quite warm and seem to care for the kids. She is going to ask for them to be trained in ABA so that they can take data, prompt, fade, etc. We will see. Another mom I know did a medical presentation with poster boards and all to convince the IEP team her son needed services! She said she got the deer in the headlight look. I am trying to start a parent support group (on line bc I have no other time) of special education students for our school district. It seems that I keep meeting moms who are in tears at their level of frustration and fear with dealing with the SD. It is too bad it has to be so adversarial. That psych...arrrggggg....Public schools are not out to help if they have to spend more money. I was told here when I complained that since he made progress in Se all day last year. That is where he should go then. This is the super that is suppose to have our son. Thank god he isn't here at all. I called Tea no help at all. They just say look up your rights here! Sadly many in Se will not get in the future. They wnat kids all mainstreamed except the Severe ones that is. They need to change for the kids not vise versa.

That same thing happened to me with both my children.

Can you get another diagnoses from a neurologist or developmental pedi or psychologist?

I know it's a pain to have to yet another doc. They gave me such a run around here, it was crazy. I started off with a develpmental pedi which tooks months to get into, then to a neuro which took another couple of months and then to a pysch which took another couple of months. But Finally they excepted the diagnoses and here I am 9 years later, home schooling, because they still don't provide what they should.

Good Luck, Don't back down, and remember to choose your battles wisely.

It could help if you write a nice letter of complaint to the Superindentent of your state and the Board of ed. The school in New Jersey where my son attends has been writing lots of incident noptes without telling me anything. I barely got 2 calls and they state that he had as many as 3 incidents a day. On an IEP meeting we had 2 weeks ago. I was bombarded with negative information about my kid. As per the principal THEY HAD NO RESOURCES TO HANDLE MY KID. She states that it was sometimes difficult to calm him down. My son is 6 years old. He has a terrible temper but I believe that it is just his untreated PDD-NOS. I have had problems getting a proper diagnosis and the school does not want to hear it. I am taking him to a Neurologist tomorrow. The last Psch eval I demanded states that he suffern from Anger/Explosive Disorder!!! Could you believe that?? After the letter I sent to the Superintendent, an investigation has started. Now of a sudden the principal convocated a meeting to figure out the way to del with my son instead opf dumping him into a behavioral class. I am reading a lot and getting ready to fight. If things work out he would be getting ABA treatment again. I am very optimistic thatthings will get better. Our psychologist that came to school says Daniel issue is just adhd. I say bull to both our son's current dx. Daniel's issue started at 4 months and some things get worse as he get's older. Loss of speech is why I believe our son has asd. His current dx is bp1/adhd/dyslexia/70's iq. daniel's mom39370.5574768518

Just had to chime in about a tape recorder. I bring one every time now to every meeting that we have! It's amazing how much more they will do when you tape it. Now, they are also taping when I do. I guess to be sure that if we ever did use the tape, that what they have is the same? ....

Anyway, from my experience, it shows the school that you mean business.

oops,,sorry forgot to add,

The school pschologist continues to code our son's IEP as "emotionally disturbed". Even though we had over 7 independant psychologists and psyciatrists state in written eval's that he was PDD-NOS/Aspergers...(and ADHD)...it's even stated on his IEP that the "parents disagree with the school psychologists coding..."

but, at that point we didn't care what she called him, just as long as he got the services he needed..

kelly