thanks everyone for your responses, there where very helpfull. I will look into getting the book ASAP.
Ihave a question for Tzoya,I liveein Brooklyn by the way. I have been to the first board of ed introduction meeting.they discussed the transition with the whole room filled with parents of various sp ed. kids and allowed us to ask questions. but of course i senced it was exactly as u said, they want to evaluate these kids and give them as little therapy as possible. SO I want know how i could get his pre school to say he has autism instead of PDD-NOS, when the evaluation time comes.Which GOd knows it is probable obvious,but i feel the school will let the evaluators think he is not that bad or something, they sure do try to convence me he is not that bad but i always ask my self if he acts differently there or something anyway who knows. KWIM
Thanks for any more info!
I am going to assume that CSE is childhood special ed? We call it ECSE here - Early Childhood Special Ed and our special ed is just that - special ed.
My son is in ECSE currently. Although I prefer his Head Start program, I like the balance between the two. He gets more NT peer interaction at Head Start, but at ECSE, his peer interactions are more monitored and supervised. Thus, they do a lot more prompting and facilitating communication between peers and my son. Also, he gets indirect OT (used to get direct, but tested above the cut-off last year) which helps with fine motor skills. The classes are smaller, are more one-on-one - which ds doesn't like as much, but he is getting better about it.
In my opinion, it is all about the teacher. Ds lucked out and got a wonderful teacher who is fresh out of grad school (masters in early childhood special ed) and has lots of energy and ideas. Plus determination. Ds really likes her and she is exceptional in communicating with me. There are two paras in the class, an OT and a Speech pathologist. Ds does not require articulation speech, but the Speech pathologist often uses him as a role model for articulation for the other kids - which lets ds be in a more leadership role (which helps build his self-esteem). Both years he has been in, we have been fortunate to not have had ds imitate any negative behaviors from ECSE. He has, however, imitated negative behaviors from his other pre-schools! So, you can get that anywhere, I'm afraid... Ds is not in an EBD class - they don't do that in this district. He is in a developmental delay class - so there are a few kids who are relatively non-verbal, but most of the kids (I believe) have some form of autism. I don't know for sure due to confidentiality issues, but I can pretty much tell. And most of them are pretty high-functioning. So, we have lucked out.
So, hope this helps! But, it depends on your school district, the teacher, etc. And it also depends on you. You have to be very involved and constantly checking up. I think that my ds probably gets extra attention just because the teachers know I'm going to be asking about his day and very specific things. Just my two cents...
CSE is the term used in NY for the IEP Team meeting for kids kindergarten age thru 21. CPSE is the NY term for the IEP Team meeting for kids 3 thru 5. There ought to be a "transition to kindergarten meeting." Usually, my district combines the last CPSE with the first CSE. That way the preschool people and the kindergarten people are in the same room at the same time and can all contribute.
I would strongly recommend getting a book that will help you through all the CSE's in your son's future. From Emotions to Advocacy. It's at www.wrightslaw.com and also at www.amazon.com. You can sometimes get it used on eBay. It is worth every cent. Since you live in N.Y., I would do one thing without fail. Now that your son is CSE age, you'll have to choose a label for him. Choose Autism. Some districts try to steer parents toward Multiply Disabled or Other Health Impaired. They sometimes talk about the "stigma" of autism. This is BULL. First of all, NO ONE is allowed to SEE your son's IEP except the school and teachers who need to know. So who is even going to KNOW he has a label of autism? The reason some NY school districts steer parents away from the autism label is that, in N.Y., kids with that label have special educational guarantees, like DAILY speech therapy no matter WHAT the tests say. Also Parent Training for you and getting an expert consultant teacher who specializes in autism to go into your son's classroom to advise the adults working with him. So get the Autism label -- it gives your son more rights than any other label here in N.Y.
Right now, call the school district (or ask at your son's preschool) and get an appointment to SEE the possible kindergarten placements. I've found over the years (my PDD-NOS son is nearly 16) that actually SEEING a placement makes ALL the difference. See these classes BEFORE the first CSE.
Where do you live in N.Y.? I live on L.I. and there are lots of services available here. If you live near here, I can let you know what.
I agree with Tzoya. The book "From Emotions to Advocacy" is worth every cent, and I changed my son's diagnosis from DD to Autism and this helped me get him into our regional public school autism program. He has improved dramatically since Thanksgiving!
You wanted a positive. My son started early interventions at birth (he was a foster child "at risk.") By three he was in both early childhood for half the day and Headstart half the day. I can't even start to gush about what a difference all the interventions made for him now that he is 13. He went from a largely non-verbal, quiet, frustrated, raging child of three to a calm, happy, outgoing, friendly 13 year old, who the teachers have to tell to "be quiet." This is the first year he has initiated conversations with others, but he's doing it in a big time way. He still needs his space, to be alone AFTER school (tired from all the interacting), and is still obviously different, but he is SO MUCH BETTER. You could never have told me he would be at this level when he was a toddler. Even his school work is more at grade level and we are starting to believe he can actually complete a tech school course when he graduates, if he has the right support people. Would he have come this far without CSE? I have no idea, but I dont' think so. From Day One we pushed as hard as we could for interventions that would help his functioning, and we never second guessed our decision to go full force. I would get whatever I could specific to autism for the child--OT, PT, social skills, life skills, speech (even if he is verbal, he may not converse well). It worked for our son. I lay everything at the door of his special education help. Now that he is 13, rather than starting to stagger in school, like some ASD kids, he is actually doing so much better than he rarely utilizes his aide and only goes to his special ed classroom for two periods. He is a big success story, and the school just loves him. He is taking middle school in stride, and we're so proud of him that I have tears in my eyes just typing this.
my son is going to be 5yrs this month and of course he has to go to cse. It is so depressing I cant imagine what it will be like and dont have anyone to compare anything or make decisions about the school with.i dont want to take the school or the boards decision,but my research has not been so sucessful i guess i really have to get into it.
well i hope he makes alot of possitive change in public school cause this year in cpse is has not been progressive, he picked up other kids obvios behaviors that he nerver did before and there r hard for me to deal with, also when i visit his school and talk to his teacher i get the feeling they just allow the kids to do what ever run , screem,)
also my son does not have much spontaneous language skill but is brillient other wise,he answer most questions and has very good cognitiveskills.i just really wish he could communicate better or really use his words to talk.
please share any experiences or chages that took place after your child became 5yrs old.
Can you tell me what CSE is?IF you are not happy with the placement that has been set forth by the "team" which includes you also then you need to say something to them, and have reason's why you don't think the placement is proper for your child. What exactly are you not happy with as far as the decision that was made?
Karrie