Ben is having his psychologists assessment for the school districts preschool tomorrow. He's already qualified under the language and speech categories so he's definitely in but they saw "flags" so they wanted a team psy to look at him again. After being told no pdd only lang disorder by a dev ped I don't know how much stock to even put in another assessment. Anyway, I was just curious if anyone has any questions I should ask so I can make sure they are on my list.
Thanks
Pammer,
All kids are met at the car and have a person who walks with them following their lead to the classroom. There is also an escort to each car at pick upBensmommy,
Just curious, how many hours of intervention a week are they proposing? I
am going through the same process right now.
By the way, our sons were born on the same day.
Pammer,
I had pretty much decided that for now they can label him however they want as long as they max him out on interventions. He is already qualified for 5 days a week preschool in which his class has 8 kids, a teacher, two aides and a speech therapist at all times. From what I have seen it is all play based but everything is structured to be a learn by play intervention including outdoor play. All teachers at this school have to be certified in special education as well as early childhood. He will have NT kids in his class (at least 3 of the 8 kids in the class) for modeling and peer interaction. From day one the children are taught about personal responsibility for their things, are dropped off and picked up in carpool to teach independence and so many other things that I was shocked they can have a 3 year old do especially with many of the moderate/severe ASD kids at the school.
I don't know if he is PDD or not, dev ped said no, childbrain says no/mild pdd based on how I answer one question. The label doesn't matter right now as long as he's getting all the services available and if they say yes and they are wrong it will be corrected because they by law have to reeval him before he starts kindergarten here. I hear all the time how many parents are desperately trying to get services and the system here is coming to us so easily so I'm wondering if I'm missing something or if I'm not asking enough questions etc.
Bensmommy39028.5684837963
At his age, if you see "red flags" I'd go with whatever
you can get. We got no PDD from so many people, but when we went to the
Autism Specialist he caught it easily. I'm not a big fan of
psycologists or even psychiatrists diagnosing ASD unless the Autism
Society recommends them because, they are neurological disorders,
elusive, and often missed (I know they missed it with my son). We had
one Dev. Ped. say she didn't think so. It's hard to get the ASD dx.
until the kids are older, unless they are very severe. I'd just get
what I could, get all the interventions you can (and push for ASD
interventions, with or without the label) so that he can turn out as
high functioning as possible. Even if he just has "PDD tendancies of
red flags" (this is what we were told) he's going to have a tougher
time than NT's. If he only has a lauguage problem then he should be
capable in all other areas, including using sign language or his own
form of sign language to try very hard to communicate and socialize.
When he plays there should be give and take play. His eye contact
should be normal. In general, if you see red flags for ASD, the short
answer is, who cares about the label? Get the interventions. When these
kids get older THAT is when you really see the difference in them vs.
other kids and you'll be upset with yourself if you didn't do all the
interventions you can. They make a huge difference. If you met my son
and hung out with him for a while, you would realize he DOES have ASD,
even though at least 10 "professionals" told us he didn't. Sadly, you
just can't trust them unless they are THE ASD Specialist in the area
and even they make errors, but much less. They know how to test, and
test more and for longer periods of time. Two hours, for example, is
not long enough. Good luck.
pammer39028.5565509259
Hey you're getting all the interventions *I* got for
Lucas. He had no PDD dx. either. He had Speech Delay, SID, DD and ADHD.
In the end, his interventions helped him. He is definitely on the
spectrum--we can see the differences the older he gets. But he's high
functioning, which makes him able to experience more things in life!
You're doing a great job. There is nothing you can do about a label. If
he has it, and you pursue it, eventually it will come. As they reach
middle school, I think the label becomes VERY important because then
they have to focus on social skills, life skills, and adulthood. I
think I break the record on this site for how late my son was diagnosed
at age 11. Just don't let anyone give you a WRONG label, such as ADHD
or bipolar. We had both of those, my son was drugged up, and he didn't
need the meds. I kick myself daily for agreeing to the bipolar and
ADHD. I felt, in my gut, that both were wrong. Hey, have a good evening. Your son sounds
like he's in a good placement. My only concern would be making sure
somebody greets him at the door. I don't like ANY kid who is two or
three going inside without an escort, including those who are NT. I
always took all my kids inside to preschool and went inside to get
them.
pammer39028.5741319444DANIEL HAS NO ASD DX BUT i KNOW IT'S SO. HE HAS HAD THE THERAPIES THEY HAVE HAD. i WAS TOLD BP/ADHD TOGETHER CAN REALLY BE HF ASD. He will be receiving 15 hours a week of intervention from his program! Same b-days!
Copyright Autism-PDD.net